Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Robert Conroy (mayor)


 * 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. Deor (talk) 09:17, 25 August 2014 (UTC)

Robert Conroy (mayor)

 * – ( View AfD View log )

Fails WP:POLITICIAN. Very little written about him. A line or two that he was the mayor and built a hotel. No "significant press coverage". Magnolia677 (talk) 04:32, 7 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Businesspeople-related deletion discussions.  Rcsprinter123     (post)  @ 12:42, 7 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Politicians-related deletion discussions.  Rcsprinter123     (talk)  @ 12:42, 7 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Quebec-related deletion discussions.  Rcsprinter123     (lecture)  @ 12:42, 7 August 2014 (UTC)


 * Keep - Person has been designated as important in the history of his community by Quebec . Technical issues: Person would have been widely covered in the news of his time but would not appear in Google News (current) since it contains only the most recent years and "Google News Archive" is not well indexed by Google any more.(see article Google News Archive). Printed book coverage for Canadian sources from that era is not very well covered by the web. Also, although many of the major figures of that era were British, much of the historical web material is in French, so if you ignore French, there isn't much left on the web. --Big_iron (talk) 16:54, 7 August 2014 (UTC) There are more than a few lines in the listed reference here:--Big_iron (talk) 17:32, 7 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Keep - Seems to be notable enough, and I think Aylmer is large enough to warrant its mayors having articles. -- Earl Andrew - talk 14:36, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Even in its current form as a borough of Gatineau, Aylmer had a population of just 41,000 in 2006 — meaning that as a standalone municipality prior to the 2002 amalgamation it wasn't large enough to confer an automatic presumption of notability on its mayors. That said, I'd be comfortable keeping this if it actually cited enough sourcing to get him past WP:GNG, but in this form it passes neither GNG nor WP:NPOL. No prejudice against recreation in the future if somebody devotes some time to digging out archival sourcing (language isn't an issue, as French-language sources are allowed), but the quality of sourcing and the basic claim of notability as a small town mayor are not good enough to entitle him to keep an article just because better sourcing might be possible to track down, if the better sourcing isn't already in it. Delete Update: Due to significant sourcing improvements that have taken place since my original comment, I'm now down with the keep in this case. I still stand by my assessment that the quality of the original sourcing, as it existed at the time of my comment, wasn't good enough — and it didn't actually make any assertion at the time that he was actually "significant" or "nationally recognized" for his lumber business, but merely asserted that he had a lumber business and went into almost no further detail than that. But it's significantly better now. Bearcat (talk) 04:07, 12 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Keep - With substantial coverage in multiple reliable sources, the topic passes WP:BASIC.--180.172.239.231 (talk) 09:33, 12 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Substantial coverage in multiple reliable sources where? Six of the seven sources cited here are blurbs (not substantial), blogs (not reliable) or maps of the island (not coverage of him), leaving only one source that even begins to count toward BASIC at all. Bearcat (talk) 17:45, 12 August 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't think that there is any room for misrepresentation in this type of discussion. The one item that might possibly be construed as a blog has been fairly well sourced. The item which includes a "map of the island" also includes text (in French though) which does discuss Conroy and his family briefly and was included to document a point in the article. The so-called "blurb" entries from the provincial archives indicate that there has been substantive material collected and maintained and do speak to the notability of the subject. --Big_iron (talk) 01:44, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment - Biographic articles are usually more substantial than news stories. In my own view, a local mayor with ten news stories in local newspapers may not qualify as a notable person, while the one with several independent biographic articles may. And the reason is obvious: If he hadn't appeared in newspapers for several times, who would write biographies for him? Even if local historians want to, they must have enough material, most of which comes from news stories. WP:NRVE says "if it is likely that significant coverage in independent sources can be found for a topic, deletion due to lack of notability is inappropriate." I think this is the case.--180.172.239.231 (talk) 02:14, 13 August 2014 (UTC)


 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.


 * Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, NorthAmerica1000 03:25, 16 August 2014 (UTC)


 * Keep -proven to have reliable sources and he is enough of a notable political figure to get him past WP:GNG--Canyouhearmenow 12:34, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Keep: J 1982 (talk) 17:48, 16 August 2014 (UTC) Short article is no deletion argument. And mayors should always be notable.
 * Mayors can be notable, absolutely — but for a variety of reasons (town is too small, post is purely ceremonial and not executive, etc.) they aren't and cannot be entitled to an automatic presumption of notability just for existing. Bearcat (talk) 21:54, 19 August 2014 (UTC)


 * Delete per Bearcat. The sources provided do not appear to be substantial about the subject, and those would fail to meet WP:GNG. We have not usually presumed the "automatic" notability of mayors for the reason Bearcat suggests (city/town is too small, post is purely ceremonial and not executive, etc.). Enos733 (talk) 21:52, 20 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment: There seems to be some fixation on the small town mayor issue, which is certainly not the subject's only claim to fame. As per sources listed, he was considered a prominent figure in his field at the national and regional levels. --Big_iron (talk) 16:26, 21 August 2014 (UTC)
 * At the time I originally commented, the article as written contained no assertion of his prominence as a lumberman — it merely asserted that he was a smalltown mayor and lumberman, but offered no significant evidence of how he was notable for either thing. You've significantly improved the content and sourcing, so thanks for that, and I've now withdrawn my original vote — but at the time I originally commented, the "small town mayor issue" was the only substantive claim of notability that was present in the article. Bearcat (talk) 16:55, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
 * 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.