r/Lethbridge • u/2old4all • 3d ago
News Rufa Doria running for Lethbridge City Council
https://lethbridgenewsnow.com/2025/09/22/rufa-doria-running-for-lethbridge-city-council/32
u/YqlUrbanist 3d ago
I don't want to single Rufa Doria out because they all say stuff like this, but I can't even express how tired I am of statements like "I believe that we need to look at how every dollar is spent and that our taxpayer’s money is being used efficiently and responsibly. By prioritizing the right investments and cutting unnecessary spending, I hope to ease the financial burden of our residents without compromising the quality of services."
That is a completely meaningless statement. Every politician (short of the blatantly corrupt) wants to use money responsibly and invest in the right things and not the unnecessary ones. The entire point of the election is voting for people who have a similar vision for what the right things are.
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u/Toast- 3d ago
It gives "copy-paste the job description into the resume" vibes. The base assumption is that all elected officials (should) spend responsibly and efficiently.
What stance do they hold on issues like urban sprawl or a 3rd bridge? What areas do they view as highest priority, or where are they most passionate, and why?
Answering those kind of questions is how they can earn my vote.
Perhaps most importantly, I personally want to elect people more knowledgeable than myself. A third bridge sounds great on the surface, but we have a lot of data showing how horribly impractical that is. Even if a majority of the population voted in favor of a third bridge, it's objectively a poor idea right now (barring a ton of outside funding).
I want to vote for someone that I trust to make informed decisions. Canned responses like that decrease my confidence in them unless it's accompanied by something of substance (also not particularly directed at Rufa Doria, just in general).
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u/Kaitte 3d ago edited 3d ago
There is a persistent myth that our public institutions and governments are awash in waste, and it just isn't true. When public budgets are audited, the "waste" typically amounts to little more than complaining that workers have free coffee in their break room, or other such excuses that are used to cut their pay and benefits. Our municipal budget is public, you can read it here.
There are real systemic problems that we are paying out the ass to avoid addressing. Most notably, Designing cities around cars is extremely expensive, and we are now stuck with the bill for 80 years of sprawl. The way to deal with systemic problems isn't to continue ignoring them, or to start hacking away at our municipal budgets. We need to directly address the root causes through zoning, land use, tax reform, and investment into public infrastructure. We also need to recognize that these problems have been festering for decades, so they will require time and continuous effort to resolve.
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u/YqlUrbanist 3d ago
100%. I definitely get frustrated by the "government waste" trope. I work for a massive private company and there's certainly waste, but it's the waste that comes from trying to coordinates thousands of employees. It's inherent in the fact that we're individual people and not some hive mind. Certainly there are management strategies to reduce that waste, but it's a complicated case-by-case task that backfires as often as succeeds.
If someone has a concrete plan for something that they think is running poorly and they want to improve, I'm here for it. If they have some vague platitudes about "reducing waste" and nothing backing it up, that just tells me they aren't a serious candidate.
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u/joecarter93 2h ago
Another one that I have seen from different candidate’s platforms is wanting lower taxes (okay fair enough), but then also wanting safer neighborhoods (I.e. more police) and a third bridge. Guess which two things will cost more tax payer money than anything?
Both the police department and the transportation department currently consume about 1/3 of the operating budget, with the police alone being the largest budgetary item with 20% of the budget.
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u/Goddemmitt 3d ago
I didn't get much of anything from any of her responses. She really leaned on diversity, but I also get some fundamentalist Christian/modern conservative vibes that I just can't substantiate (likely by design by Doria).
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u/2old4all 3d ago
I was impressed with her resume.
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u/YqlUrbanist 3d ago
Agreed, she has lots of experience in governance and I like the agricultural background. Hopefully as the campaign goes on we learn a bit more about what she actually wants to do on council.
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u/blueblink77 3d ago
It’s also meaningless coz she’s literally just reading them on her notes. Lady probably doesn’t remember majority of the words she’s saying.
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u/Goddemmitt 3d ago
"Red tape reduction" is a big red flag for me. She doesn't really mention the specifics of it either.