Envision this!

Thank goodness that Envision Edmonton's campaign has amounted to nothing.

What really bugged me about the whole campaign was Charles Allard's ranting and whining about democracy being denied with the denial of their petition.  Last I checked, we live in a representational democracy.  That means that we vote in representatives to make the decisions.  Our democratic voice is heard at election time.  After that, we give the responsibility of decision making to the elected officials.

And it's not like the airport debate has been a silent thing for the last twenty years.  Even in the past two years, council has had enough public hearings, debates and reports to make the right decision.

And don't get me started on Envision deciding to submit their petition a year late.

As for the petition itself.  Envision Edmonton claims 90,000 signatures on their petition.  Let's break those numbers down with my completely scientific method.

1. Take off 25% for people who don't live in Edmonton - leaving 43,861
2. Take off 5% for non-citizens - leaving 41,668
3. Take off 5% for duplicates - leaving 39,585
4. Take off 10% for people who signed fake names (how many Ben Dovers on the list?) - leaving 35,626
5. Take off 10% for people who signed, just to shut up the petitioners - leaving 32,063
6. Take off 30% who signed, just so they could vote to close the airport - leaving 22,444
7. Take off 40% for people who don't actually vote - leaving 13,466
8. Take off 80% for stupid people - leaving 2,869
9. Take off 50% for people who did it because someone cute asked them - leaving 1,344

That seams like a reasonable number to me.

I've been to the Muni twice in my life.  Once, I was a little kid, there to pick somebody up.  My only memory was of a nasty, rundownish looking place that did not make me feel safe.  And that was in the days of regular air service!  The second was to go flying with a friend who's a pilot.  Funny story - turns out you need to keep your pilot's licence up to date, just like a driver's licence.  We spent the morning at Ricky's, which, unfortunately, will have to shut down soon with the lack of airport travelers looking for some tasty breakfast.

Enough about that crappy place.  Time to think of the future which, thankfully, the residents of Edmonton seem to be in favour of.  Check out the Yes! For Edmonton site.  There's an interesting link on there about an airport redevelopment project in Austin.  Watch for my name on the Yes! site, though I don't think I'm high-profile enough to show up there.  Maybe if I told them that Michael Phair stalks me, they'll put my name up.

(Aside:  I really did think Mr. Phair was stalking me - I used to see him all the time downtown.  I think I may have even blogged about it once... Turns out that he's just hard to miss in those colourful shirts).  Yes, just re-read that blog - I said the EXACT SAME THING!  Woops.

And when you're done with that and feeling good about the future of our city, take a look at the websites for the shortlisted companies for the redevelopment contract.  Impressive.

• Perkins Will
• Foster + Partners
• Sweco
• BNIM
• KCAP

And really, the only thing I like to Envision is a grumpy Charles Allard.  I understand the meaning of schadenfreude now.