Saturday, September 22, 2007

Public School Board Trustee - Wards 6 & 7

Drake Hammill is the former head of the custodian's union, and a former candidate for President of the AUPE. School upkeep and infrastructure are his 2 big issues. He made headlines last year when he, as president of AUPE Local 40, invited PC MLA's to tour the public schools that were most in need of repair, including the highly-publicized troubles at Western Canada High School.

George Lane (Incumbent) was acclaimed in the last election, but faces challengers on 2 fronts this time around. George is well-prepared for the election, however, as his policies and platform are on-line here. George is the first Trustee candidate I've examined so far with a campaign website, so we know he's taking the election seriously, and taking nothing for granted. Lane believe strongly in access to early childhood education, including full-time kindergarten and junior kindergarten for parents who want it (we used to call it "play school", back in the day). How exactly he plans to pay for the programs, he hasn't said. E.S. being a softie for bloggers, you can find George's blog here.

Greg Scott is a lawyer who served as the CBE's Head Counsel for a time. He feels his knowledge of the legal issues and legislation related to the running of the schools would be an asset as a trustee. Scott is also a former teacher, although it should be noted that being a teacher doesn't make one any more qualified to run a school board than, say, being a traffic cop makes you qualified to be the Commissioner of the RCMP. They're 2 entirely different animals.

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