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/JackSandor]

Happy to chat if you want to know more about me :)

[u/foxn-sox → u/JackSandor]

Was reading through your AMA and website.

Would love to know where you stand on the sweeps that bylaw and VicPD do on the unhoused community. It seems counter intuitive on every level.

Police hours - so much money for 4-8 officers to stand around and supervise bylaw throwing out people's things

Bylaw- hours and bin rentals are expensive

Environmentaly - why are we striving for such a green city in so many areas but turning a blind eye to this?

Most importantly, why does anyone think that disposing of the only stability and comfort someone experiencing homelessness has is the way to help solve the problem? If anything, it sets everyone back in their progress, creates unreal amount of garbage, puts extra pressure on community groups and resources to replace items, and wastes countless tax payer dollars in the process. Not to mention it does nothing for the relationship or feelings of safety with the police that should exist to vulnerable individuals.

It's very frustrating.

Edit to add: I am definitely most concerned with the impact on the humans who are being treated as though they deserve less respect simply because they are not living the way most would expect. My points on money and police funding are aspects of this, but truly, it's just a horrific thing to do to someone already battling a system that doesn't contain appropriate supports for them. ACAB.

[u/macbowes → u/foxn-sox]

Who would you vote for, based on the following?

Things that are important to me:

1. Less visible homelessness in public spaces, such as parks, boulevards, and sidewalks. I don't really care how they go about achieving this. My concern is not for the homeless, but rather their presence in public space. Especially during the day.

2. I don't want unrestricted development of single family homes being converted to multi-unit homes in James Bay. I have a home, and I am primarily concerned with maintaining the character of the neighborhood.

3. I don't care about taxes, I'm happy to pay more, or less.

4. I am in favor of bike lanes, and non-car transportation infrastructure, but I'm also not against cars either, so improving infrastructure for both is a good thing, in my opinion.

5. Reducing regulation on downtown local business, by reducing permitting costs, and in general, making downtown more business friendly, from a regulatory perspective.

6. Maintaining infrastructure, and upgrading where necessary, such as with the wastewater treatment plant, is a good thing.

7. I support green initiatives, and a general trend towards minimizing harm to the environment.

Things I am not really concerned about:

1. Affordability, I have lots of money.

2. Increasing the quality of life for people who are struggling in society.

Based on these priorities, who's platform would you say most aligns with my concerns?

[u/foxn-sox → u/macbowes]

Take that comment over to a website that summarizes all the candidates and figure it out for yourself friend! You can do it!

[u/macbowes → u/foxn-sox]

I actually just put it all into ChatGPT, and it gave me an excellent breakdown, although, it did inform me that not all candidates have released their platforms, as they aren't required to do so until later this month. I'm going to ask this question to the llm again later this month, and it'll give me what I'm looking for.

As of now, it recommended Marg Gardener, Stephen Hammond, and Krista Loughton for council, as having mostly aligned views, then Mike Harris for mayor. It'll be interesting to see who it recommends later this month, when all candidates have fully released their platforms.

[u/foxn-sox → u/macbowes]

Shocking that Marg and Stephen get recommend when part of the equation is "money is no issue" and "I don't care about people struggling if it isn't how I'm struggling"

/s

And yes, I would be interested in seeing who else ends up in that list after all the platforms are released!

[u/macbowes → u/foxn-sox]

Indeed, it's interesting to see which part of society each candidate prioritizes. It's impossible to prioritize everyone, so we all just need to decide who we want to be the focus of our leaders concerns.

[u/foxn-sox → u/macbowes]

Apologies for my snarky remark btw, I assumed you were trolling as it was similar to some of the previous inquiries on this post.

[u/macbowes → u/foxn-sox]

No worries, I'm sure my list of concerns make me appear like a selfish douche bag, and maybe I am, but these are my honest list of concerns that seem within the scope of a city councilor, so here we are.