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The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. Swarm we ♥ our hive 07:04, 31 July 2015 (UTC) reply

Ken Melamed (  | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – ( View log · Stats)
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WP:BLP of a person notable primarily as the mayor of a town not large enough (9K) to automatically confer notability on its mayors, and as an as-yet-unelected candidate in a future federal election — but neither of these are claims that pass WP:NPOL. While there is a bit of stuff here about the town's role as a junior partner in some of the 2010 Winter Olympics events, that just makes him a WP:BLP1E. Of the eight sources being cited here, further, fully half of them are primary sources like his own federal campaign website, the city's website or the Federation of Canadian Municipalities — and of the four that are left, two of those just passingly namecheck his existence in the process of failing to be about him. So there's not enough reliable sourcing, substantively about him, to claim WP:GNG instead. I'm certainly willing to withdraw this if he can be sourced a lot better than this, and he'll certainly qualify for an article if he wins the federal election in October — but an unelected candidate for office only qualifies for a Wikipedia article if you can make a credible and properly sourced case that he was already notable enough for an article before he became a candidate, and there's not enough substance or sourcing here to put him in that camp. Also conflict of interest, as the article was created by Melamed's deputy campaign manager. Delete. Bearcat ( talk) 16:33, 23 July 2015 (UTC) reply

Note: This debate has been included in the list of British Columbia-related deletion discussions. —  JJMC89( T· E· C) 01:30, 24 July 2015 (UTC) reply
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Politicians-related deletion discussions. —  JJMC89( T· E· C) 01:30, 24 July 2015 (UTC) reply
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Businesspeople-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k ( talk) 02:19, 24 July 2015 (UTC) reply

Neutral. Not notable for federal candidacy or Olympic negotiations. Question is: Is Whistler a "cit[y] of at least regional prominence" ( quote-unquote)? If it is, then being mayor of said prominent resort municipality would satisfy NPOL, barely. This article should be a lot more neutral-worded, though. FUNgus guy ( talk) 05:40, 24 July 2015 (UTC) reply

The basic standard that's applied at AFD is generally that the place has a population of close to or above 50K. That's not a hard and fast rule, because it can be swayed "smaller in" or "larger out" if there's a compelling reason for such an exception (such as a smalltown mayor being unusually sourceable as more GNG-worthy than the city's population would suggest, or a large city's mayoralty being a ceremonial post that just rotates annually among city councillors rather than being directly elected), but consensus has established 50K as the base standard for whether the city has the level of "regional prominence" needed to be automatically eligible for inclusion on the mayoral criterion itself. Anything smaller than that needs to be either much better sourced than this is, or have a consensus established that the city qualifies as a "special case" for some reason. Bearcat ( talk) 16:15, 24 July 2015 (UTC) reply
Ok, thank you Bearcat. So "prominent" city is generally 50K+ with a few exceptions. Does Whistler qualify as an exceptional case? I checked a comparable city, Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, which also has world-famous skiing and a permanent population of ~9K. I could not find one article about one of their mayors. Clearly Mont-Tremblant is not considered "regionally prominent", and therefore neither is Whistler. So, with this new information, I change my vote to Delete. FUNgus guy ( talk) 04:15, 25 July 2015 (UTC) reply

Keep it Whistler is a city known around the world and is one of the premier tourism destinations in North America. A community it is certainly much more notable than many cities much larger. Also, it is one of the few cities to host any part of the Olympics or Paralympics. Yes, it was not the formal host of the 2010 Winter Olympics but it was the host of the 2010 Winter Paralympics which were by far the most successful paralympics to date. Ken Melamed was mayor for that event and on the international stage because of it bern99 ( talk)

Keep it Hi all. Thanks for this excellent feedback. This is my first article and I'm determined to make sure it's accurate and unbiased. I'd say Whistler is definitely a city of regional importance despite the AFD guideline regarding population. Even though there are only 9,500 permanent residents in Whistler, there are over 2.1 million overnight visitors every year. As a world-renowned tourist destination, it is not only of regional importance but of provincial and national importance. [1].

References

I'll work on adding more secondary sources this week and will edit for more neutral wording. Are there any sentences in particular that seem bias to you? Cambutt ( talk) 06:41, 24 July 2015 (PST)
And what about Whistler's local politics is a topic of any broader interest to any of those tourists? Bearcat ( talk) 22:34, 25 July 2015 (UTC) reply

Added new references Hi again. This was bugging me so I went through and added some new references tonight. Please review and let me know what still needs work, if anything. Cambutt ( talk) 11:37, 24 July 2015 (PST)

  • Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources.
    1. McGrath, Charles (2010-02-20). "Whistler Mayor Revels in Olympic Spotlight". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2015-07-31. Retrieved 2015-07-31.
    2. Atkinson, Cathryn (2008-03-28). "How hope for a soaring future taught Whistler's mayor to love the Games". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 2015-07-31. Retrieved 2015-07-31.
    3. Ogilvie, Clare (2005-11-21). "Whistler elects pro-environment mayor". The Province. Archived from the original on 2015-07-31. Retrieved 2015-07-31.
    4. Ogilvie, Clare (2008-11-16). "Meet the other Olympic mayor". The Province. Archived from the original on 2015-07-31. Retrieved 2015-07-31.
    5. Dupuis, Braden (2015-04-23). "Green Party candidate Melamed launches election campaign". Pique Newsmagazine. Archived from the original on 2015-07-31. Retrieved 2015-07-31.
    6. Taylor, Alison (2011-05-20). "Ken Melamed goes around the world for work: From Whistler to Switzerland to China and back home". Pique Newsmagazine. Archived from the original on 2015-07-31. Retrieved 2015-07-31.
    There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow Ken Melamed to pass Wikipedia:Notability#General notability guideline, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject".

    Cunard ( talk) 05:48, 31 July 2015 (UTC) reply

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.