I think that Peter has done a great job. Many good things have been accomplished under his leadership. I look forward to the next election - my vote will be with Peter!

You're kidding right?

Maybe he does a great job at in-camera meetings, that's about it.

We need less secrecy, not more.

What ever happened to the Peter Kelly that brought his own chair to council????

HRM's taxes have skyrocketed since he took office.

Water charges have skyrocketed.

Parking meter charges have skyrocketed.

All this and I still can't get my road plowed in the winter!!!

Yes, he's done a great job of taking more of our money!!!!!

Yes Steve he has taken your money because the history of Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford , Sackville and the County has been to deficit finance to the point that the combined HRM is in Debt for 278 million plus in a Province of Nova Scotia that did the same to the tune of 12.5 billion .

I suppose you would like to build the CFL stadium or believe that the Commonwealth Games was a missed opportunity that was going to bring world attention to the city for a mere 2 billion . The Commonwealth Games does not even pay for the costs of television delivery to the rest of the nations and that was a 16 million dollar shortfall.

Great job????? Name a couple things PLEASE!

What we sometimes forget (and Peter Kelly does not) is that all polotics is local. What the grandstander from Bedford does better than anyone else in recent memory is answer the calls about the proverbial cat in the tree crisis. Anybody can phone the Mayor's office with just about any complaint and Mr. Micro Manager himself will stick his nose in (or have paid staff do it for him...just ask city staff on the receiving end of a call from the Mayor's office) and make sure that time, resources and people are diverted from the stated priorities of the city (you know, that budget document they discuss every spring.....) to solve the latest bleet from the masses...

This is not leadership, this is not what the city needs...but it does win elections in the face of limited opposition....Kelly is a good politician but he is not a good leader and he really hasn't accomplished much at all when one really examines the record.

"Take care of the pennies (cats in trees) and the dollars (major city expenditures) will take care of themselves" doesn't apply to running a city.

concert goer wrote:
Yes Steve he has taken your money because the history of Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford , Sackville and the County has been to deficit finance to the point that the combined HRM is in Debt for 278 million plus in a Province of Nova Scotia that did the same to the tune of 12.5 billion .


HRM spends $650 million a year. Debt of $278 million is not unreasonable in that context. The problem si that HRM under Kelly spends way too much on useless activities like cat bylaws, pesticide bylaws, etc etc while not investing in things the city needs like roads, bridges, transit, serviced industrial land, etc. Cut out that useless spending and inbvest in the things we need. Unfortunately Komedy Kouncil cannot do anything other than request staff reports on more bylaws.

B (visitor): R U Peter's sister, brother, father or R U just brain dead?

Voter and Tax Payer wrote:
What we sometimes forget (and Peter Kelly does not) is that all polotics is local. What the grandstander from Bedford does better than anyone else in recent memory is answer the calls about the proverbial cat in the tree crisis. Anybody can phone the Mayor's office with just about any complaint and Mr. Micro Manager himself will stick his nose in (or have paid staff do it for him...just ask city staff on the receiving end of a call from the Mayor's office) and make sure that time, resources and people are diverted from the stated priorities of the city (you know, that budget document they discuss every spring.....) to solve the latest bleet from the masses...

This is not leadership, this is not what the city needs...but it does win elections in the face of limited opposition....Kelly is a good politician but he is not a good leader and he really hasn't accomplished much at all when one really examines the record.

Well said, and a great summary of the legacy of Mayor Doofus. No vision, no plan for the city, but a populist par excellance. Kiss every baby, sip tea at every seniors home, but don't bother trying to get a clue about what the city really needs to do. Every time someone calls with a complaint, pass a bylaw. Forget about leadership. He has no idea what the word even means in this context.

Peter Kelly was a good mayor, keyword "was". He's been in power too long and it's time for change. It's time for Halifax, Dartmouth and the surrounding communities to think BIG. It's time for developing not only the Halifax core but that city across the harbour as well. Way too much time and effort are spent on the city of Halifax while Dartmouth gets a few leftovers. That needs to change.

It's time to get real about concert promotion. Mayors have no business going it on their own trying to secure big band names. Leave it to the professionals. If there are no professionals, create them. Then let them do their job.

It's time to get rid of the old boys & girls club otherwise known as the current city council. And while we're at it, it's beyond time to stomp on the heritage societies who have way too much clout to the point of being restrictive and counterproductive.

Halifax, Dartmouth and the surrounding communities have been stagnant for way too long. It's time to elect a Mayor of Champions!

Sue Uteck isn't the only one calling Kelly a liar. The people of the Millview area of Bedford has a first hand lesson on how easily Kelly can lie to people while looking them straight in the face.

Kelly (and then Bedford Councillor Len 'The Stuffed Shirt' Goucher) told the residents of Millview that water and sewer improvements were coming to them and that Fed dollars were going to keep the cost to the residents down. Turns out, once the residents checked with their MP, Kelly and Goucher had not even put the area on the Municiple priority list....which means no Fed dollars. Millview-ites had quite a dust up with the Peter and Len duo over that lie!!

Improvements are going ahead but at a much higher cost to the area residents. Is it worth noting just how close to an election that lie was told? You be the judge.

A leader must have integrity. Those who know Peter well know he has not a shred of it.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Peter Kelly has no integrity. That's unfair. He's just been in power for too long and when that occurs, complacency sets in.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I've never head out and out lying rationalized as complacency before. Do we expect so little of our elected officials these days that this is what we are prepared to settle for?

If that's the case, then either way, Peter Kelly has taken unmerciful advantage of us and has to go.

I stand by my assertion, having dealt with him on more than one occasion. Peter Kelly has no integrity.

HRM spends $650 million a year. Debt of $278 million is not unreasonable in that context. The problem si that HRM under Kelly spends way too much on useless activities like cat bylaws, pesticide bylaws, etc etc while not investing in things the city needs like roads, bridges, transit, serviced industrial land, etc. Cut out that useless spending and inbvest in the things we need. Unfortunately Komedy Kouncil cannot do anything other than request staff reports on more bylaws.

I had no position on the Commonwealth fiasco simply because no party ever presented any kind of balanced argument surrounding the cost vs investment numbers. This thread touches on that key point...most 'anti-gamers' overreacted to the number of zeros in the numbers, having no sense whatsoever of the province or the city's revenues, deficit or debt.

Many of these same zero-phobic people choose to invest in a home (i.e. infrastructure) with a pricetag many times their annual income (don't we all at some point).
So...given a current HRM budget of $650 million a year and a provincial budget of 7.5 billion (with surpluses lately of 100 million) could we really afford new infrastructure of $1 billion+??? especially with the feds kicking in $350 million? Isn't this the debate we never had?

Post edited by: waverley, at: 2007/09/01 11:40

Post edited by: waverley, at: 2007/09/05 14:13

waverley wrote:
So...given a current HRM budget of $650 million a year and a provincial budget of 7.5 billion (with surpluses lately of 100 million) could we really afford new infrastructure of $1 billion+??? especially with the feds kicking in $350 million? Isn't this the debate we never had?<br><br>Post edited by: waverley, at: 2007/09/01 11:40

Some of us did debate this. The answer is no, we couldn't. The province has nothing to bring to the table since they are essentially broke and have limited capacity to borrow more money given their debt level. You would need over a billion dollars even with the fed contribution and that sum would fall onto the provincial and municipal taxpayers -- for what are essentially frivolous facilities that add little to the economy, unlike roads or other basic infrastructure.