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Cartman
Beyond cuddly
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 8676
Location: OMG! They killed Jason Kenney!
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 Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 10:49 pm Post subject: Calgary Aldermen |
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http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/12/03/alderman-title.ht...
| Quote: | The longest-serving member of Calgary city council is spearheading a motion to change the name of the office from alderman to city councillor — 30 years after it was first debated.
Calgary is the only major Canadian city to still use the term alderman, which goes against the image of Calgary as a progressive urban centre, said Ward 1 Ald. Dale Hodges.
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My understanding is that Alderman means Elder Man. I think it is about time to change this ancient title. |
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Chester
not crazy about trees
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 2529
Location: Saskatoon
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| Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 10:50 pm Post subject: |
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| we have councilors |
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Tehanu
More or less, more or less
Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation
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| Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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Well, they said no to the name change, after discussing it for a whole 20 minutes.
| Quote: | ... Led by the three female members of council, aldermen decided a name change was unnecessary by a vote of eight to six. Mayor Dave Bronconnier left the chambers during the debate, saying it was up to his colleagues what they wanted to be called.
Ald. Druh Farrell said she preferred alderman and the history and honour behind the term. The Ward 7 representative said people were getting too hung up on the term and that changing it would do little to actually promote women's rights.
... Mary Valentich, a retired professor of social work who has been fighting for the change for more than two decades, said the vote to keep the term makes Calgarians look like a "bunch of red necks" to the rest of the country. |
CBC |
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Chester
not crazy about trees
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 2529
Location: Saskatoon
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| Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Tehanu wrote: | Well, they said no to the name change, after discussing it for a whole 20 minutes.
| Quote: | ... Led by the three female members of council, aldermen decided a name change was unnecessary by a vote of eight to six. Mayor Dave Bronconnier left the chambers during the debate, saying it was up to his colleagues what they wanted to be called.
Ald. Druh Farrell said she preferred alderman and the history and honour behind the term. The Ward 7 representative said people were getting too hung up on the term and that changing it would do little to actually promote women's rights.
... Mary Valentich, a retired professor of social work who has been fighting for the change for more than two decades, said the vote to keep the term makes Calgarians look like a "bunch of red necks" to the rest of the country. |
[url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/12/03/alderman-title.html]CBC[/ur] |
Tradition, what a crock. we changed from alderman to councilor in 1994, no discernable deterioration in City business since the trashing of tradition.  |
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Michael Watkins
Fulltime enMasse Member
Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 140
Location: Vancouver
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| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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Someone should replace the signs on all the bathrooms, making all read "Aldermen".
Calgary a red-neck town? Say it isn't so. |
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Rufus Polson
Purple Library Guy
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 3483
Location: SFU and/or the college of Riddlemastery at Caithnard
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| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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I got nothing against tradition, but if they wanna be traditional couldn't they just call them "Alders"?
Sure, it sounds a bit like a tree, but that kind of thing never stopped people from designating a "chair".
. . . The committee's chair is an alder--but he's deadwood.  |
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DSquared
aka Aristotleded24
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 5570
Location: Winnipeg
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| Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:14 am Post subject: |
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Aldermen to be replaced by councillors
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This is pre-eminently the time, to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
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Tehanu
More or less, more or less
Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation
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| Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Welcome to the 21st century. |
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sparqui
Dog tired
Joined: 30 Apr 2006
Posts: 5166
Location: Winnipeg
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| Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 3:24 pm Post subject: |
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_________________
“If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a tractor.”
-- Gilles Duceppe |
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DSquared
aka Aristotleded24
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 5570
Location: Winnipeg
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| Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 3:19 am Post subject: |
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How is this for irony?
| Quote: | Council's other two female members -- Druh Farrell and Diane Colley-Urquhart -- both voted to preserve the long-standing title.
Farrell, in a speech praised both by those who agreed and disagreed with her, derided the change as "window dressing" that won't solve the problems inherent with governing in a male-dominated arena.
"I think we need to change our behaviour, and then our use of our language and understanding of our language will change as a society," Farrell said.
"A lot of people ask me whether working at City Hall it's a moot point, that we're beyond feminism here, that women are treated equally. Not even close. I had a member of council in the last term that refused to call me anything but darling. Darling. And I'd say: 'I'm somebody's darling, but I'm not your darling.' "
She urged gender-equality activists to fight for things such as better representation on city committees, and not get caught up in the terminology. |
"I'm somebody's darling, but I'm not your darling"  I love that one!
_________________
This is pre-eminently the time, to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
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