Noteworthy: Passion levels are quite admirable but how do we choose from 30-plus?

By Bruce Penton on September 10, 2025.

Most Hatters want to do their civic duty on Oct. 20 and cast their ballot for mayor, city councillors and school trustees to handle the affairs of Medicine Hat and area. But I see a problem. I don’t know enough about most of the 31 (at last count) city council hopefuls to intelligently make my selections of the best eight.

The mayor’s race is a different story. I know enough about all three current candidates to confidently make my selection, but trying to pick eight out of 30 council candidates is almost unfair. I’m worried justice won’t be served.

Some Hatters will know a majority of the candidates, so the ignorance I’m admitting to won’t be a problem for them. Some will vote for a particular candidate because they are a relative, a neighbour, or knows them from serving together on a volunteer board.

One disturbing point about this municipal election is not a single current councillor has announced intentions to run again, other than mayoralty hopeful Andy McGrogan. What does that say about the degree of difficulty of the past four years? A couple of this year’s candidates have past years’ council experience, but the vast majority are newcomers of whom I know little, other than what the News has printed in its daily candidate profile stories.

Who do we want sitting in council chambers? Eight people who think alike, or do we want divergent views? Can they work together as a team? Are they running because they truly care about the future of the city, or do they have a specific bone to pick? Are some looking at the $45,476 annual councillor’s salary and figuring it would make for a nice second income?

What Hatters need, with so many people running for office, is a public forum where citizens can get a good look at the candidates, ask them some tough questions and get a better idea of their qualifications to make huge financial decisions for the city.

Back in the day, the Chamber of Commerce would organize such a function. This huge slate of candidates might require two, or three, separate events at which candidates show who they are and what they’re all about. The News features have been informative, but the candidates’ warts, if any, don’t show up in a 500-word newspaper article.

The problem I’m having is that all 31 appear to be running for the right reasons, but I can only vote for eight. All 30 care about the city and want to help steer it in the right direction. But who are the best eight? My concern is the eight I vote for may not be the best eight, but we won’t find that out until a few months into their four-year term.

â€¢ A few people still violate one of life’s basic rules: Pick up your pet’s droppings in a public place.

Medicine Hat’s trails are one of our city’s treasures, yet every now and then, a big dump of you know what sits in the middle of the asphalt. The piles are usually easy to walk around, but sometimes a walker isn’t paying attention and – splat!

I’m guessing 99.92 per cent of the world is onside on this matter. The only ones who may be in favour of dog poop on a trail are the dozens of flies buzzing around, and the pet owner, who obviously doesn’t give a (blank) about the mess they failed to pick up.

â€¢ A friend of mine likes to play Sport Select, the legal gambling game run by the Western Canada Lottery Corporation. His favourite play on National Football League weekends is to try to pick four games to finish as a tie (final scores separated by three points or fewer), which, if they came through, would net him a large cash prize for a relatively small wager.

Last weekend though, he accidentally picked one Major League Baseball game to go with three NFL ‘ties’. When I pointed out what he had done, he was crestfallen. “I don’t even know what a tie in baseball is,” he said.

“It’s a one-run game,” I told him, so he was suddenly interested in seeing how the Atlanta-Seattle baseball game went Sunday afternoon.

Unfortunately, the game was one of the most one-sided of the 2,000-plus games that have been played this year – 18-2 for Seattle. What somewhat eased the pain however, was his other ‘ties’ didn’t materialize either. There’s always next week.