The Trouble with Municipal Vote Compass

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I love using Vote Compass in federal and provincial elections. But it just doesn’t work for Municipal elections. And here’s why.

In a federal or provincial election, the Party platforms are analyzed and used as a base indicator for matching your answers to the Vote Compass questions. For example, if one party has a strong platform and record of supporting climate change science, and it matches your answers, Vote Compass will indicate that your beliefs line up with their platform.

However, in a Municipal Vote Compass survey, your, the voter’s answers, are compared to the candidate’s answers, not to a large Party platform that has been published and tested. For example, when you take the Vote Compass Survey you may indicate support for protection of greenspace and farmland, and a slowdown to unsustainable housing development.

The candidate, despite their voting record, may have indicated the same support in his answers to Vote Compass. In my particular Ward in Caledon, only one candidate has personally answered the Vote Compass questions in the most populous way of garnering votes despite their Council voting record. There are no answers from the other candidates for Mayor.

So, when the match came up at the end of the survey, it showed that my answers in support of greenspace and farmland protection matched strongly with the only Mayoral candidate that had taken the survey. That candidate was Mario Russo,  a Councillor whose voting record was in direct opposition to everything in which I believe. The candidate I am supporting had not taken the Vote Compass survey and therefore their answers could not be compared,

My reaction to seeing the Vote Compass indication of my agreement with Mario Russo’s actual policies was anger. Vote Compass should NOT be publishing any “alignment with candidate” policies unless every candidate has submitted answers to the Vote Compass survey.

To make it clear, I do not support Mario Russo for Mayor of Caledon. Vote Compass got it very wrong, The way I see it

Skid Crease,
Caledon

Giving Thanks

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The Thanksgiving Weekend, like a Christmas gathering, can be a very stressful time. But this year, at my home, it was truly a giving of thanks. The “children” were home and full of love and laughter and fun. We decided to do the big dinner on Saturday, and relax on Thanksgiving Monday.

The meal preparations of turkey and dressing and mashed potatoes and gravy, and Brussels sprouts roasting, and pumpkin tarts and Yorkshire pudding baking all went off without a hitch. Everything came out warm and wonderful as if the good fairy had touched the evening with her magic wand.

The clean-up was a smooth team effort, we retired downstairs to a fabulous movie night, and sweet dreams! On holiday Monday morning, we  headed up to Caledon Village and spent the afternoon canoeing on C3’s beautiful Quarry Lake. Canada Geese heading south, a beaver lodge at the edge of an island, a loon diving. The whole day gave me such a sense of peace that it is difficult to describe.

I have experienced eight decades of Thanksgiving dinners and holiday weekends with family. This one will hold a special place. At a time of global chaos and geopolitical uncertainties, this one small weekend came together perfectly for this Caledon part of our family, and we give thanks!

Trump and The AI Accord

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This is  going to be a very short entry. President Donald J. Trump announced today his confidence that his AI Accord would take care of all of our concerns about AI’s potential destruction of humanity.

This Accord is approved by Mark Zuckerberg as he, the man who co-developed Facebook as a way to  identify all the hot chicks on campus, downplayed concerns about runaway AI.

So, a conflicted felon, unabashed liar, tax dodger and person convicted of sexual assault, AND a Harvard Alpha Epsilon Pi frat boy approve of the  tech company self policed AI Accord. What could possibly go wrong?

We are living in very dangerous times. The way I see it.

The Letter to The Editor They Didn’t Publish

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Letter to The Editor: Election Sign Pollution 

“The municipal election in Caledon is still a month away, and already the lawns, plaza boulevards and roadsides are being infested with an overabundance of election signs. Of particular discussion in my Ward 5 in the Bolton area, is why a Councillor candidate from Ward 6 has his signs all over every possible high visibility public space he can find in Ward 5, in fact all over Caledon. And why are those signs always in an unholy trinity of signs with a Mayoral candidate and a Councillor candidate for Ward 5?
The answer is twofold. All three share the same over zealous campaign manager, famed for pounding in signs wherever there’s a greenspace or fence or high visibility street corner. Secondly, name recognition. When you go to the polling booth, rushed and uniformed, the name you have seen most often on the streets can sway a tired mind to check off the most easily recognized name. It worked for “The Gang of Five” in the last election. Hopefully, it will not  work for the “Three Amigos” this time around.”
Skid Crease, Caledon”

On the 20th of September 2026, I wrote and sent this letter to the local Editor of our only print newspaper, the Caledon Citizen. I sent it in response to neighbours complaining about the walls of election signs that were beginning to dominate the Bolton landscape and every highway and byway through town and country in Caledon. Three in particular stood out. An interesting trio of signs from candidates: Mario Russo for Mayor of Caledon, Tony Caputo for Councillor, Ward 5, and most unusual was Cosimo Napoli for Ward 6,

People were asking, “Why is a Ward 6 candidate filling up the landscape with election signs in Ward 5? And why are the very large Russo, Caputo and Napoli signs always grouped together?” Note that signs for Tony Rosa would have joined that trio had he not been acclaimed, The answers are simple. First, to paraphrase the satirical “Eat shit, ten million flies can’t be wrong” poster: “Vote for ME! Ten million election signs can’t be wrong.”

Secondly, Bolton is the most populous area in Caledon, and the King and Queen transportation corridors carry thousands of citizens from all over Caledon to our commercial centres. Whoever takes Bolton in the Mayoral race takes Caledon. If we don’t want our beloved Caledon looking like the concrete corridors of Brampton and Mississauga, there is only one Mayoral candidate who truly understands and respects the rural urban complex that is our community. The choice is ours.

Feel free to share – election day is coming soon, and we are sleepwalking into a real nightmare if a pro-development. anti-farmer, rape the greenspaces council is elected. The way I see it.

Skid Crease, Caledon