Having been involved in a few election campaigns, I am fully aware of the influx of surveys and questionnaires that end up landing in a candidate’s email inbox over the course of the campaign. They can sometimes be annoyingly time consuming to respond to, but they are sometime an easy way to distill where candidate’s stand on specific issues. Sometimes they also reveal some gems. A question asked in the Edmonton Public Library’s questionnaire posed one of these gem questions to candidates standing in Edmonton’s municipal election:
What character from fiction do you most relate to/is most like you?
Jamie Post – Ward 1: Hard to say, at the moment I’d have to go with Dr. Watson.
Scott Robb – Ward 4: I generally don’t read fiction, but I usually relate to the conflicted hero type.
Thomas Roberts – Ward 6: Can not think of any that is close to me– would love being a combination of Captain Jack Sparrow and Sherlock Holmes, and avoid Dorian Grey(what little I know of the charactor)/Falstaff.
Scott McKeen – Ward 7: OK, that’s tough. I’ll pick Frodo from the Lord of the Rings. A reluctant hero who faces his constant fear to reach journey’s end.
Grant Pullishy – Ward 7: Stephen King- I love thrillers.
Lori Jeffery-Heaney – Ward 8: Hmm, hard to answer – I am more of a non-fiction reader.
Hana Razga – Ward 8: Margaret Laurence Stone Angel’s Hagar Shipley – in about 30 years.
Councillor Don Iveson – Ward 10: James T. Kirk
Al Slemko – Ward 10: Marko Ramius – Red October movie
Shane Bergdahl – Ward 11: That is difficult to say. Frodo from the Hobit and Lord of the Rings comes to mind. A normal person (of sorts) tasked with doing great things.
Roberto Maglalang – Ward 11: Tom Sawyer.
Chinwe Okelu – Ward 11: None.
Brent Schaffrick – Ward 11: Some days, Dilbert, most days I seem to walk a different path then characters in books.
Daryl Bonar – Mayor: I think Rocky Balboa. He perservered with brute force and ignorance as well as a never say quit attitude. He didn’t have all the natural talent and had to overcome many obstacles but his work ethic carried him. I try my best to emulate these traits.
Dan Dromarsky – Mayor: My favorite fictional character is James Bond but how we relate or are alike is also fiction.
Dave Dowling – Mayor: Frodo.
Stephen Mandel – Mayor: I don’t know that he’s like me but the Gene Hackman character as the coach in Hoosiers.
You can also read questionnaire responses from the Professional Arts Coalition of Edmonton, the Canadian Cancer Society, Cycle Edmonton, and the Realtors Association of Edmonton. If you have links to any other surveys and questionnaires, feel free to post a link in the comment section below.
6 replies on “edmonton election 2010: surveys say.”
“…Grant Pullishy – Ward 7: Stephen King- I love thrillers.…” I guess he didn’t understand the question. Stephen King isn’t a fictional character, he’s an author of horror and thriller novels. I wonder how this reflects on this candidate’s ability to understand complex municipal planning documents such as a City budget…
Considering that most of these candidates replied with characters from movies or television our libraries could be in trouble. I don’t know whether the library meant all genres when it asked the question about fiction, but I would guess not. We are a visual society. I guess it just takes too long to sit down and read a good book.
So many Frodos…
If all the characters from Lord of the Rings were running for City Council, I’d vote for Gandalf. Or Faramir.
To be fair, Kate, the library also lends movies and music. Library’s are still primarily about books (at least in my opinion), but they are multi-media facilities these days.
Still, I don’t entirely disagree with your comment.
Does it alarm anybody else that Mr. Bonar says he tries to emulate, among other things, Rocky’s ignorance?
Very fun survey – looking at the candidate’s from their perception of themselves – won’t vote based on my new found knowledge – but it was definitely interesting!