Darrin Taylor hosts Town Halls

[ScottSA]

https://www.castanet.net/news/Vernon/23 ... nd-running

Taylor off and running
Josh Winquist - Sep 6, 2018 / 8:43 am | Story: 235807

Photo: Contributed
The official nomination period has opened for the upcoming municipal election, and one Vernon mayoral candidate isn't wasting any time on his campaign.

Darrin Taylor has announced he will be hosting two town hall meetings in early September.

Town Hall #1

Where: Schubert Centre, 3505 30th Ave, Vernon, BC

When: 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 13, 2018

Town Hall #2

Where: Schubert Centre, 3505 30th Ave, Vernon, BC

When: 6 p.m. on Monday, September 17, 2018

Taylor, who is best known as the chair of the Activate Safety Task Force, says the town halls will give voters an opportunity to personally meet him and give him an opportunity to solicit input from constituents.

"The political landscape is changing rapidly, and transparency and citizen input are crucial at the municipal level," said Taylor. "The challenges that face us as a city require a new kind of politician who is able to have open, honest conversations with their constituents on an ongoing basis. I think we can do better."

Taylor was recently mired in controversy after the CBC published some controversial social media post he had made.

Taylor has since answered to those posts.

Taylor is one of four people running for Mayor of Vernon: Erik Olesen, Victor Cumming and Art Gourley have all announced their intentions to seek the mayor's chair in the fall.

Current mayor, Akbal Mund has not said whether or not he'll run in the next election but has said he will make his announcement this week.

[RogueTruth]

*removed*

[bob vernon]

Two town halls? Should a "hick town" like Vernon have two? Will any "hard-left Eco-Nazis" show at these events? By announcing that he's hosting two of these meetings, does that help create the image of being the guy in charge?

[RogueTruth]

You have a current City Councillor heavily endorsing an individual who is running for Mayor...somehow, this seems wrong and it is up for debate but why would you delete a comment asking if Scott was being paid for his incessant promotion of Darrin? I am truly wondering if he is the campaign marketer....

[coffeeFreak]

I am confused about this, as I always thought town hall meetings were for all the candidates to have the opportunity to be present. I could see a "Coffee With the Candidate", but this makes no sense, so can someone please clarify this for me?

Thanks in advance.

[Ingevan22]

Google offers this definition of town hall:
"an event at which a politician or public official answers questions from members of the public."

Darrin Taylor is a mayoral candidate and thus, a "politician".

Councillor Scott Anderson is in favour of "town hall type meetings", an initiative that the majority of his fellow City councillors did not support, back in 2015. This was also the term used to describe the first meeting of the Activate Safety Task Force in April 2018 that was chaired by Darrin Taylor - "a town hall meeting about the street-entrenched" - where Councillors Anderson and Quiring were the City of Vernon reps. Here's a link to a Castanet report on that town hall meeting: https://www.castanet.net/news/Vernon/223086/town-hall-created-optimism

I agree coffeeFreak, that this is likely more of a "Meet & Greet" than what most of us may understand as a "Town Hall", but this is simply part of a campaign to market the candidate, as other astute commenters have already noted.

[coffeeFreak]

I really wanted to support Darrin as I really did respect the way he presented the Task Force report at the Council meeting, but his cheer leaders and especially the one who appears to have appointed himself as Darrin's spokesperson is just too negative for me.

Darrin Taylor, if you are reading these comments I would strongly suggest you step away from the obvious bromance that is happening between you and this "spokesperson" and either speak up for yourself, or at least try and get him to put a damper on the never-ending defensiveness he tends to have in this and other social media forums when others make comments he doesn't like.

[ScottSA]

...or at least try and get him to put a damper on the never-ending defensiveness he tends to have in this and other social media forums when others make comments he doesn't like.

By "never-ending defensiveness," do you mean appealing to the people making false claims against candidates to fight this election on ideas rather than using smear tactics?

If someone did to other mayoral candidates what they're doing to Darrin I'd also weigh in on that. What's so hard about keeping an election clean? How is appealing to folks to clean it up a "negative" act?

[Chyren]

Since when is a person who is running for public office that wants to speak to the voters about what concerns them a bad thing?

[RogueTruth]

Smear tactics? On Darrin's Facebook (or wherever the comments were drawn from), his comments were quite brash and were obviously there for the public to view. This was his own doing and yet, you state that there is a "smear" campaign going on? Really? All I see is your shameful promotion of his running for mayor and if that's where you are, then bully for you. But instead of promoting him with such enthusiasm, maybe guide him in how to keep his often insulting opinions to himself. Where is your unending support towards others who have been run through the muck? Ohhh, let's say Juliette Cunningham for example or any of the other new people running for council or the mayors seat?

Again, I just ask, are you Darrin's campaign manager? If so, then it would make sense but I still do not see this as ethical given that you are a current council member yourself and the two of you worked hard to create the Activate Safety Task Force to bolster your positions prior to the election of a new mayor and council....seems a little "convenient" to this reader.

[ScottSA]

I haven't even formally endorsed the guy, so no, I'm not his campaign manager. I certainly respect him, and would be honoured to work with him, but my appeal is to stop the innuendo and out-of-context drive bys of anyone running for office. How about making this election about content and ideas? Why not attend his Town Halls and ask him directly about these things if they bother you? You haven't seen them, or you'd know that the vast majority of these things were taken out of context.

The "Hicktown" reference for example, was in the context of a thread about an artist who wrote a song called "Hicktown," yet it was presented out of context to make it appear that Darrin was calling Vernon a hick town out of the blue. It's this sort of misleading smear that devalues politics, and I really hope it stops.

[coffeeFreak]

...or at least try and get him to put a damper on the never-ending defensiveness he tends to have in this and other social media forums when others make comments he doesn't like.

By "never-ending defensiveness," do you mean appealing to the people making false claims against candidates to fight this election on ideas rather than using smear tactics?

If someone did to other mayoral candidates what they're doing to Darrin I'd also weigh in on that. What's so hard about keeping an election clean? How is appealing to folks to clean it up a "negative" act?

We are talking social media here, so there is no way you will be able to plug all the holes. He said what he said, he explained himself, he apologised for his word choices, but people will draw whatever conclusion they choose to regardless of your lone attempts to "appeal" to those who are still not impressed or accept his explanation. I wish you would spend a fraction of the energy you have spent promoting and defending this man into correcting the MANY uninformed comments about some of our Councillors, Mayor, City function, as well as the misinformation that continues to occur in our local Facebook group on topics related to the City of Vernon, and especially in those conversations you have engaged in.

[bob vernon]

He can say "sorry, sorry,sorry" a thousand times, but he still referred to citizens who are concerned about our environment as "hard left Eco-Nazis". So just what does Darrin want to do to counter these evil environmentalists?

[RogueTruth]

Did anyone else notice that Darrin set his first "Town Hall" during the first Coffee with a Cop which is being held Sept. 13 from 9:30-11 a.m. at Triumph Coffee.

Hmmm....bad timing and not a good way to show your support for the RCMP and their community initiatives.

Is he just not caring? Does he think it is irrelevant? Why would he not attend this himself? Things that I wonder is all....

[Chyren]

....and we wonder why no one wants to run for public office....

Even before you start you're bashed on forums such as this.