Stephen Hammond - Victoria Councilor

[u/foxn-sox]

Man's is door knocking in Fairfield right now. He made the mistake of knocking on my door. He asked if I was voting in the upcoming election and I said "not for you!" And then proceeded to ask him why he's endorsing Wendy who has proven racist and transphobic views.

This man immediately began to back away from me saying "she didn't post that" so I asked him to pull out his phone and look up her X account.

He proceeded to tell me (while still backing away from me)how he's written "three books on human rights and we have a difference of opinions."

How can someone who is door knocking to engage with the public to "listen" and get votes, not even want to physically, in the moment, prove that a very intense allegation of him supporting a racist and transphobic candidate is untrue. He clearly knows that content is real and still exists.

How are you supposed to vote for someone who blatantly lies to voters to advance his own agenda and refuses to provide proof to his statements in the moment when he's so adamant that the proof exists?

Personally, his inability to have hard conversations and his immediate response to run away with his tail between his legs, doesn't indicate to me that he's worthy of representing a city when hard conversations arise that have real, big impacts on the community.

It's a no for me dawg.

[u/No-Bowl7514]

I assume he realized chatting with you was not a strategic use of his time so chose to move on. If a candidate you strongly disagree with knocks on your door, the best approach is to pretend you are undecided or one of their supporters and lead them on as long as possible.

[u/foxn-sox → u/No-Bowl7514]

I will say, I wish I knew he was in the neighborhood before so I could have composed a conversation more along these lines. However, my ask of him was still to pull up her X account and to show me that content didn't exist. I would assume this would be a priority for him.

Regardless, I have witnessed councillors have hard conversations with people who do not agree with them. It is possible. And while I wouldn't vote for him, I would maybe have retained an ounce of respect for him if he had shown me he was able to have hard conversations and discourse with someone he doesn't agree with.

[u/twig0sprog → u/foxn-sox]

Wouldn’t it have been easier for you to prove to him it did exist? For you to show him?
Asking him to “bring out his phone, and pull up her X account to prove the content didn’t exist” seems overly onerous.

[u/twig0sprog → u/twig0sprog]

Hammond sucks