Civic elections today. And in case you want more drama, here’s a quiz showing you some of the crazy stuff going on…
In the Vancouver Sun, today, Pete McMartin has a great column, a pop quiz actually. I’ll reprint it here, but click here to view the answers.
This quiz will not be counted as part of your final mark
Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, November 15, 2008
The civic elections are finally upon us, and I thought that, before you vote today, we might have some fun and test you on some questions about civic candidates, other than that one important question you will be asking yourself when you enter the polling booth and look at the list of candidates’ names before you. And that one important question you will be asking yourself when you look at the list of candidates’ names, of course, will be, “Who the hell are these people?”
So the following quiz contains questions on facts about candidates that the public is really interested in, and by that I mean they have nothing to do with the candidates’ politics, because, seriously, as long as the garbage gets picked up, who cares what they get up to?
So let’s get to it, because you still have to get out and vote, or, if past turnouts are any indication, do your laundry. The questions:
1. What current candidate, arrested on seven criminal charges, once partied at Piggy’s Palace, the makeshift nightclub operated by convicted serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickton on his farm?
2. What candidate posed on the cover of Canadian Firearms Journal holding a Colt .45, applied in the U.S. for a permit to carry a concealed weapon in that country and offered her support to a National Firearms Association campaign promoting the right of women to carry concealed firearms for protection?
3. Name two current civic candidates who were stopped and charged for driving under the influence, and who initially tried to keep the charge quiet and did not disclose it until it became public knowledge.
4. What candidate survived a bout of depression, two car accidents, injuries from a chandelier falling on her head, and injuries from a Gap store mannequin falling on her head, for which she sued The Gap and successfully won a settlement of $330,170 because, in the judge’s opinion, she would be unable to return to her work as managing director of a theatre, but who, four years later, ran for city council and won, demonstrating that getting hit very hard on the head does not necessarily matter when it comes to having a political career?
5. A two-parter: (a) Name the municipality in which there are four candidates with the same surname running for office, and give those candidates’ names. And (b), in that same municipality, name three other candidates with the same surname that form a love, or possibly hate, triangle.
6. Which acronym of a municipal party name might be used to describe either (a) Aretha Franklin, or (b) that party’s mayoral candidate?
7. What candidate took out a full-page ad in a local newspaper to offer the opinion that his municipality needed to be run by a man, and then, after a letter to the editor complained about his ad, he clarified his position by writing, in his own letter to the editor, “Please let me make this clear: I love women and every woman has their own beauty and special charm … I am not a sexist in any way?”
8. Which city council candidate not named Jesus Christ promised to bring “mobile foot washing” crews to the streets of Vancouver, and provide people with “clean socks and clean shoes twice a year.”
9. What candidate running for office once scored 8.6 on the HotOrNot.com website, on which subjects are rated for “hotness”? (Hint: It wasn’t Gregor Robertson.)
10. Which candidate stapled a Twinings Earl Grey tea bag to each of his promotional flyers, with the invitation to voters to “have a tea on me (Let’s meet for a cuppa)” — a stunt that resulted in the hasty removal of the tea bags after the chief election officer suggested that they might be considered an “inducement” to voters to vote for the candidate?
11. Another two-parter: One month before today’s vote, the Columbia Institute Centre for Civic Governance did a poll on civic election issues. What was the percentage of respondents who gave the correct date of the election? Was it (a) 67.9 per cent, (b) 31.6 per cent or (c) 7.2 per cent? And in the same poll, respondents were asked to name just one of their councillors. What was the percentage of respondents who incorrectly named either their MP, their MLA, or a councillor no longer in office as a sitting councillor, or could name no one at all? Was it (a) 27.8 per cent, (b) 52.4 per cent or (c) 61.9 per cent?
That’s the quiz. The answers will be provided below. For answering all or any of them correctly, you will win the grand prize of my everlasting amazement for having read this far.
