Palmerston North held a mayoral candidate debate last night, and based on the Substandard's writeup, I've finally figured out how I'm ranking the candidates.
My first preference goes to Michael Morris, who's big pitch was being vegan. He's also the only candidate to fully back the Featherston Street remodelling, saying that "if the city was serious about sustainability, health and inclusivity it had to look beyond giving priority to people driving motor cars." He's also Green-affiliated, so that puts him to the top.
Number two is incumbent Grant Smith, who has been a pretty good mayor, and (from once being a Nat IIRC) now describes himself as "centre-right with a green tinge" (which is accurate, given his record). Both he and Mickalad had second-thoughts about the design of Featherston Street, but not the goal, which is not a terrible position to take.
Number three is Orphée Mickalad, who played up his National Party affiliations (so fuck him), and whose main pitch just seemed to be "a new face".
Not preferenced: Caleb Riddick, whose answers were all danger-signs: rabidly anti-Featherston Street, self-described "independent", no real platform. I'm not saying that he's a cooker - but from his statements and the complete lack of public information about him, I can't rule it out either. And that's enough to chuck him in the bin.
So, I've now finally filled out my form, and its just a matter of finding a big orange bin to dump it in.
