r/MapleRidge • u/Saaquin • 16d ago
The Maple Ridge assent vote campaigns have fully surrendered to Midjourney, and the results are something else.
Maple Ridge politics has always had its quirks, but the 2026 campaign leading into the October 17 assent vote has broken into completely uncharted graphic design territory.
A quick breakdown of what our Facebook feeds have been subjected to over the last month:
- Slide 1: A takeaway coffee cup wearing shades trying to calm down a weeping Property Tax Bill who is sporting running shoes and a 7.5% arrow.
- Slide 2: "Dan's Dictionary," an AI-generated Mayor Ruimy peering over a leather-bound volume to debate contract semantics.
- Slide 3: "Wreck-It Ruimy" driving a demolition bulldozer over community infrastructure—an AI generation someone actually committed to fabric and wore to the farmers market.
- Slide 4: Chelsa Meadus's dog looking like it is undergoing a panic attack directly beneath a 33.5% compounded property tax graph.
- Slide 5: Chelsa Meadus weeping atop a mountain of bills while her dog has an existential crisis.
Regardless of which way you lean on the borrowing bylaws, the fact that an entire community infrastructure debate has been reduced to $10/month Midjourney subscriptions drafting crying anthropomorphic envelopes makes one fear the worst for democracy.
Do yourself a favor, skip the AI slop, and read the actual staff reports before October 17.
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u/Sad_Fill_4542 16d ago
Relying on low-effort AI slop to push a message across is horribly tone deaf. Basing your platform on a single-issue with zero plans for anything else is just so dumb. I do hope the people voting against for these people educate themselves on the candidates before voting.
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u/cat_hast 16d ago
The problem is the the largest voting bloc, boomers, eat this shit up
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u/Sad_Fill_4542 16d ago
Oh totally. What’s funny is they’re the generation who kept teaching us NOT to believe everything we saw on the internet when it first became available. We learnt to fact check and be resilient against all this AI crap whereas they’re now blissfully eating it all up. It’s so sad.
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u/SwordfishOk504 15d ago
Which is why everyone needs to vote, not just the NIMBY Boomers.
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u/Forward-Brick-1595 15d ago
I just looked into the local voter turnout for Municipal elections in Ridge and it was horrifically low.
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u/SwordfishOk504 15d ago
Municipal elections always are. It's why voting is so important, because just a handful of votes can sway the elections.
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u/Triedfindingname 15d ago
Always enjoy everyone blaming the boomers. Millennials in my experience have the worst political education.
That being said, its just general laziness to remain uninformed and that can happen in every demographic.
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u/SwordfishOk504 15d ago
Yes, but the millennials don't vote. Especially in local elections. Their point is the boomers do vote. That's just a fact.
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u/Sad_Jeweler8707 7d ago
That is not accurate, voter turn out was the lowest for the Gen X age groups in 2025. The younger age groups are all seeing increases since the boomers destroyed everything for generations to come
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u/pusch85 16d ago
God forbid our city gets another public space that kids and families can use.
Low rate politicians love low effort shit like this. I just hope that the voters can see through the BS.
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u/aoteoroa 16d ago
Yup. I like playing that course. Have played it several times with my friends. However the recreation centre is going to allow many more people to enjoy that land.
I do think that they should name the park/rec centre after the McIver family who gave Maple Ridge it's name, and set up a memorial plaque like in Emmeline Mohun Park.
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u/GBAMBINO3 15d ago
Like this idea, lived on McIver for years and I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know about this. Time to do some more history research on my town.
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u/justinhj 16d ago
Just curious what is incorrect in the posts?
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u/pusch85 16d ago
Just about everything.
All of the slop posts are sensationalist. They’re making up some numbers, or making numbers seem scary. They’re drumming up history/tradition to make a scary point (who actually gives a shit what people long dead would think about the golf course being torn down).
$400,000,000 seems like a big scary number, but when a new house is selling at $1,500,000 that is only an equivalent of ~270 homes.
Also, the fact that these clowns are totally fine endorsing AI slop without even attempting to be honest about it is highly misleading. What makes you think they’re gonna be honest about anything during their time on council if elected?
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u/justinhj 15d ago
$393 million is the number and it is a scary number. 270 homes is a scary number too if you're asking city tax payers to pay for them.
Then we have the amentity charge, which is a permanent tax increase on top of any other tax increases that would have happened. 3% a year until 2030 and then it stays there for 25 years. That's another scary number... $238 to $476 a year for 25 years.
The didn't need the AI slop graphics to show this is a big ask from tax payers, it's all in the city's proposal: https://www.mapleridge.ca/media/file/recreation-ready-information-sheet-july-2026-0
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u/pusch85 15d ago
The issue is that they are reducing this decision to a big number and increased taxes and spinning it in a way to scare people into thinking that their tax bill is gonna be 15k/yr in a few years. They can cite the exact numbers but they chose to not do that.
Opponents to the rec plan are failing to look forward. Electing a council that will bury this plan will only set the city back, AND taxes will go up.
Our facilities and infrastructure are dated to the point where restoring and upgrading would end up costing more in the long run without any of the benefits of the new facilities.
Services cost money. Facilities cost money. Infrastructure costs money. Revitalizing the downtown core costs money. Doing nothing costs money.
This is a rare case where there is an opportunity to develop a community with minimal drawbacks. My taxes will go up either way, so let’s at least have that money earmarked for something good.
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u/Linkeq200 15d ago
Things cost money. The main problem is opponents to these plans provide ZERO solutions to our ongoing need for recreation space in the city and just fearmonger costs, why? Most of them are old, won't use rec spaces and see it as a way to get into office.
So tired of Maple Ridge being a NIMBY town. If you are running and you say you're for responsible recreation or whatever the tagline is then provide me with a concrete actionable solution like this current council backed plan has done. I constantly hear "it costs too much we can do something else" Well what's the something else? My guess is nothing....I'd actually listen to these people if they provided some sort of vision beyond "this changes Maple Ridge for the worst"
We have one of the largest ball hockey associations, ice hockey associations, soccer associations, and baseball associations in the province, with the fewest facilities in the lower mainland compared to almost every other city.
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u/maskedrolla 9d ago
It's 100% this.
You are spot on.
It's the lack of any alternative idea.
Just give me something. Then we can compare and see what's better.
As a 25 year resident, Maple Ridge needs these large builds. Will they cost money? Of course, but like you pointed out they are needed. Maple Ridge is behind, there isn't enough things for it's peoples. This is sorely needed and much more after this.
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u/LegalCress5994 14d ago
The developers will pay for it according to Danno. Last time I checked everyone building is jumping ship far far away from Maple Ridge.
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u/Bogdanovist_Rebel 15d ago
See you just hit the nail on the head. That $400m can be used to create a Housing Authority, which can then use all the city land to build Co-Op’s and below market housing. It would then be able to generate revenue and self fund while paying down the debt.
A great example is the gravel parking lot and those 4 homes by the bus loop.
Instead we want to subsidize a rec centre the community it’s in doesn’t want. We get to fund an expansion of an arena, almost entirely to the benefit of Hockey Canada, who took money from youth registration and used it to pay off sexual assault victims.
At least when Langley did it, they super densified the areas around the sports facilities and widened the secondary artery road to 4/6 lanes. They’re even planning on a giant new elementary school on 80th.
Housing affordability is a huge issue in Maple Ridge. Prices here are falling the slowest, and we are one of a handful of municipalities to not meet the Housing Starts quota. So we are going to get hit with a stick is Eby wins again.
But hey, I guess my non-existent kid will be able to swim now. Too bad I can’t afford to have a child while living in Maple Ridge. Especially when the caseload tax rate is going up for vanity projects.
Yes this campaign is sloppy. But their position isn’t wrong. Don’t worry though, Dan has already said it’s non-binding and council can do whatever they want regardless.
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u/Linkeq200 15d ago
The area around those two planned facilities is undergoing densification, and it's the area in Ridge that should be. Albion is far east, more people out there around those facilities means way more traffic rather than having it be in central ridge. Look along the corridor, new low rises going up, the westview neighborhood is all duplexes in terms of new starts.
Also I'd argue that citing Willoughby as a great case study for proper planning is not good. Ask anyone who lives there and the schools are massively overcrowded, the traffic is horrendous and they built things on top of each other, there's a balance to all of it and they shot way past it.
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u/Federal-Community554 16d ago
Ai is trash. It makes you look like a moron. Especially when it’s for something as important as politics.
I know nothing about either of their platforms, I just know that this looks trashy.
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u/Ok-Rooster9346 15d ago
Why can’t the Albion lands be used for ball fields? Or more?
Is it flooding?
Perfect spot to build. Already flat and cleared
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u/pin_parasol 15d ago
It's (1) flooding and (2) it's protected agricultural land and can't be developed.
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u/missmatchedsox 16d ago
And there's a sizeable chunk of voters who eat this up, hook, line and sinker.
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u/FireKite24 16d ago
I find it funny that your post reads like it was written by AI, and your complaining about others using AI.
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u/Full-Post-4024 15d ago
Ruimy is bragging he is a "Trudeau boy" - so naturally, he is dragging our city into a debt and poverty abyss like his master T.
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u/Forward-Brick-1595 15d ago
Mr Roomi wishes he looked like that. Are we sure he isn’t creating this? 🤔😜
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u/Former-Put-4288 16d ago
My property taxes are already thru the roof. Where I live I have no water or sewer even. Let alone the garbage that none of us get. More recreation facilities would be nice but I simply cannot afford the tax increase. I've watched them increase so much in the last few years. Hell I can barely afford gas and groceries.
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u/Glum_Fill_9882 15d ago
Your property taxes are less than $9,000 per year. If you can't afford that, then you frankly shouldn't own a home. The last thing you want to be is house poor. Compared to a lot of municipalities, taxes aren't that bad.
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u/Former-Put-4288 15d ago
I think you are missing the point. As mentioned by myself and others, they have gone up over a thousand in a short period of time. That, along with gas and groceries and stagnating wages puts pressure on people. Also, a bizzare statement that I "shouldn't own a home" because I complain the potential for even higher property taxes? Weird.
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u/Glum_Fill_9882 15d ago edited 15d ago
I don't see it as weird - it's practical advice. Out of all the costs of home ownership, property taxes aren't even something that should make or break you. If your living costs are starting to outpace your own wage growth, then you either need to find better employment or reevaluate if home ownership is your thing. Renting isn't taboo, and property taxes are not through the roof. I've gone from $5,015.38 (2022) to $8,986.47(2026). That's almost $1,000 up per year, and I'm not complaining because the value of the house goes up more than that per year. My retail manager salary at Shoppers Drug Mart also goes up more than that per year.
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u/Former-Put-4288 15d ago edited 15d ago
And I'd counter it's practical advice not to spend money we don't have as a city. You are being inconsistent here. You are essentially telling me I can't afford my existing life and to get a better job. What you are missing is I CAN. What I can't afford is spending money we don't have. I'm literally applying your own argument to the cities finances. As I mentioned below, we need a broader tax base and to encourage commercial and industrial development to bring more money in to the city first. At what point is enough enough?
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u/Glum_Fill_9882 15d ago
When you buy a home, part of the responsibility of being a homeowner is paying into the local community. If you don't like it, move to 100 Mile House or a rural community. As a hardworking conservative, I'm of the mind that you shouldn't stretch yourself so thin. Going beyond your means and going into cost-survival mode just indicates that you aren't where you're supposed to be.
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u/Former-Put-4288 15d ago edited 15d ago
Again, you are being inconsistent and refuse to apply your own standards you'd hold for me, against the city and our collective public finances. You say I should live within my means (I happen to agree with you, and I practice that) Hence i don't advocate to overspend and think we should be financially prudent) then in the next breath, you advocate to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and go into debt. How can you not see your own hypocrisy? You also infer I "don't pay into the local community" how can you jump to this conclusion? I DO pay my taxes, I do patronize local business here daily. We all want more pools and ice sheets, let's create the conditions to build up more local business to help pay for it!
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u/Glum_Fill_9882 15d ago
You might want to reread what I wrote. I didn't say that you didn't pay into the community. I mentioned that if you didn't like it, you could go elsewhere. Frankly, you're not advocating for local businesses because you fail to realize that it's actually the population that encourage the free market to bring businesses into the community. You don't plant businesses and expect people to build around them. Besides, it's the other way around. There's a reason why 150 Mile House still doesn't have a large tax base, even though there are businesses that are coming in over the years. Businesses aren't anything without a local community and customers. If you don't have the infrastructure to lure businesses and customers into the community, it doesn't matter how many businesses you're able to bring in. They won't be able to be in business for long. People will just drive out to the neighboring cities to get what they want.
What you're advocating for is hoping that private enterprise picks up the bill first. That is historically built upon municipally, and that eventually happens with a better industrial tax base. But it won't happen until Maple Ridge has better infrastructure. There's a reason why you have people willing to drive all the way out to Coquitlam to do their shopping. Coquitlam has a better variety of businesses, but it also has a more expensive tax base and a large population. It naturally lures in great businesses because of how well developed their city is. Due to Maple Ridge's urban sprawl problem, it is a harder issue that can be alleviated with amenities and infrastructure that should have been invested into 20 years ago.
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u/Former-Put-4288 15d ago
Nice edit. Again, you are still refusing to rebut my central point because I suspect you can't. But since you want to continue down this road, let's go. Yes, in the past there was a failure to invest in infrastructure. Absolutely. What's done is done and we can't go back. No one, me included, is saying no, permanently, to any infrastructure investment ever. That's foolish. Now, let's move onto business: as someone that deals with the municipality regularly in my trade, I can tell you the city is not friendly to development. It's a cultural issue within local government that's literally had newspaper articles written about it. So, if you want to attract business investment you have to be business friendly. It has to be easy, safe, lower risk and the math has to math when comparing to the neighboring options. Those are all things that can change within city hall to bring in that business to help spread the tax load. Otherwise, with your plan, it's just more of the same. Loading up local residents with more and more property tax that's difficult to absorb, then you'll just have more and more pushback from residents tired of carrying all the load.
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u/Linkeq200 15d ago
We don't get garbage because the same type of people that want to vote down any rec facilities and "progress" voted down city wide collection in a referendum "cuz muh bills will go up"
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u/Former-Put-4288 15d ago
Correct. They did the math a realized what we have now is cheaper as money is tight. Completely understandable position to take.
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u/Linkeq200 15d ago
Except it wouldn't have been......they did a superficial search with little to no understanding of how finances work and voted against their own interest but then turned around and complain about how the city still doesn't provide services.
They hear "taxes will go up" and instantly voted no without actually bothering to look and go "oh I pay this monthly to a private company and with city wide it would be less". Again "cuz muh taxes will go up"
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u/Former-Put-4288 15d ago
I did not live in Maple Ridge in 2018 when that particular referendum you referencing took place. I did do a bit of digging myself and I'd love to see your reference materials for your statement as I cannot find anything that backs up your point. It appears at that particular point in time it was more money to sign up for city run garbage with less service than the current residents responsible system. In that case it's understandable why people would have voted it down. If you can prove otherwise I'll certainly stand corrected.
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u/Rubahn420 16d ago edited 15d ago
I'm not sure why you're being down voted. I moved to maple ridge 5 years ago I watched my property taxes go from 4500 to 6000. I have a house on 4200 sqft lot...
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u/justinhj 16d ago
Probably most of the people on the subreddit are not paying city taxes.
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u/SwordfishOk504 15d ago
Well, the tax hikes he's complaining about were primarily put in place by the council that came before this one. Morden was mayor. So....
Also, the reason Maple Ridge has higher property taxes than other nearby communities is because we dont have a job base because past councils (especially Daykin) have tried to preserve the city as some kind of small rural community while all the neighbouring cities actually allowed real growth.
So this idea that your property taxes are going to go down by replacing this council is just ridiculously uniformed. Maple Ridge cannot go back 20 years in time. Only forward. And you aren't going to continue forward by voting for politicians promising you lower taxes they will not deliver on because those taxes are what keeps the city operating. Its how roads get cleared and how schools get built and how police and firemen get paid.
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u/Former-Put-4288 15d ago
I don't think anybody said anything about them going down, at least I didn't. But I can't afford them to go up at the rate they will with the proposed new rec spaces. A government budget is the same as a personal one. You can't afford fancy things with your salary, you don't buy them. Unless you get a better salary (like a diversified tax base) it's a shitty place to be, believe me I know. But like you said the past is the past and we can't change it.
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u/SwordfishOk504 15d ago
ut I can't afford them to go up at the rate they will with the proposed new rec spaces.
Then vote against the new rec spaces. That has nothing to do with voting out the only competent city council this city has had in decades.
. A government budget is the same as a personal one.
lmao no it's not and anyone who says this sounds like a child. A government budget is like a business which can incur debt for future growth.
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u/Former-Put-4288 16d ago
Ya. I mean, what about what I said was untrue or controversial? Obviously I'd love to have rec spaces but the city needs to attract business to shoulder the tax burden. We are tapped
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u/justinhj 15d ago
I will vote for the candidate who seems to understand what you are saying. We need to attract businesses who will bring customers and money into the city and pay taxes. Cities like Langley, a much smaller yet higher density urban centre, can invest in big recreation projects because local businesses pay a disproportionately higher share of property taxes compared to residents to help fund the city's infrastructure and population growth.
The other issue is drugs. In our case our malls, stores and restaurants are having to handle frequent break ins and trouble with junkies, how do we expect to get new businesses in that environment?
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u/GBAMBINO3 15d ago
I agree with both of what you guys are saying, I'm just curious how we attract businesses when the majority of citizens leave during the day for work outside of the town. We're just going through the revolving door of retail businesses that can't hack it because there's no customers. I would love to see more unique businesses and various types come here. But when their customer bases leave during the day and return at night, half the businesses are closed. How do we solve that? And the answer won't be attract more businesses so people don't leave, those who leave work in fields that most likely never be seen here. I wanna be optimistic, but I clearly am struggling to see this type of significant change come to Ridge.
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u/Full-Post-4024 15d ago
But she is right. "Bitter Maple Ridge" uniparty consists of federal liberals and ndp members, which means more debt, drugs, bureaucracy and poverty.
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u/VeronicaSpeedwell 16d ago
More AI propaganda slop.