Children and the City Questionnaire Results

Results of the Children and the City questionnaire distributed to candidates running in Halifax’s municipal election are now available . An overview of candidate responses and overall results are posted in today’s digital edition of The Chronicle Herald.

Responses from candidates are unedited. There are individual results for each of the 16 electoral districts, results that capture mayoral candidates’ responses, and finally all responses are available in a single document.

Documents are stored on Google Drive. If readers experience difficulties with viewing the documents, the download function offers an alternative. Another option is to access the All Candidates responses on Dropbox for viewing or download.

Questionnaire results offer Halifax residents another lens through which they can consider how to cast their votes on October 17. I’m grateful to the candidates who contributed their thoughts and perspectives on improving children’s well-being in Halifax. Without a critical mass of participants it would not have made sense to continue the project. Always an optimist, I see the 55 per cent participation rate as firmly in glass half-full territory.

 

When talking about the benefits of child-friendly cities it’s important to emphasize that child-friendly cities benefit everyone – Kathryn Morse, Candidate District 10

 

I invite readers to browse through the results, particularly for their own electoral district, and determine how well the responses align, or not, with their own views. It was very heartening to see a significant majority of municipal candidates agreeing that UNICEF’s child-friendly cities approach could benefit the well-being of children in Halifax. Of the 46 respondents, 76 per cent were in agreement. An additional 17 per cent indicated interest but required further study prior to making a decision.

Once the dust has settled and councillors have been elected, I hope there will be opportunities for interested Halifax residents to engage on theses issues and build on the good work that Council is leading to help improve the well-being of our children.

This HRM 4 Kids civic project functioned on a strictly non-partisan basis.

I am always interested in comments from readers particularly if you are aware of similar projects involving candidates in municipal elections.

A final word to Mike Savage, our incumbent Mayor.

Planning a city that is safe and healthy for children is really planning a city that is safe and healthy for all.