When 24 people decide they want to be on Yorkton city council, and four decide they want to be mayor, it sends a message that is hard to ignore: people are not happy with the status quo.
The previously largest field in my memory of reporting on, or being on council over the last almost 50 years was 20 candidates for alderman way back when.
The conventional wisdom is that when there are that many candidates, the incumbents have the advantage, because of name recognition, of having been in the news.
Not sure how much that applies this time. The current council has been fairly low-key, and news coverage of city council is, by and large, abysmal. However, I am always amazed at how many people watch the live coverage of council meetings on Access cable, so people may be more aware than I give them credit for.
I have my favourites on the long list, but it’s not my job to tell you who they are. Go to the city web site (Yorkton.ca) and read all about them. It’s a bit difficult to find: go to City Hall at the top, then City Council, then click 2016 Election at left, then Candidates at left. Unless it has changed since this writing, you’d almost think they don’t want you to find the information.
But I do want to say that a city council should reflect the makeup of the community – the age groups, the job types, the income and social levels, the interests (think sports, social needs, cultural background) the gender divisions, the neighbourhoods.
The business community has often and long moaned about not being adequately represented, but then again, not many have sought election. No such problem this time. However, a council made up only or primarily of business people is not the answer either – the most dysfunctional council we have had here in my years consisted largely of business people.
We need variety. We need to elect a council that reflects the community, because we all have a vested interest in our city, we all pay taxes: rich and poor, owners and workers, men and women, old and young.
Don’t discount youth. One of the better mayors in my experience was one of the youngest. Nor should we discount experience. An all-rookie council will find itself struggling to grasp with the issues and complexities of the way municipal government works and spends money.
There is a learning curve, and new council members need to be prepared to spend some significant time getting familiar with the laws and regulations and nuances.
We don’t have party politics in our civic government, and that is a good thing. But neither should we have so-called voting blocks that go in with their own agenda, and are not open to discussion. Civic government is a collaborative process. Each council member is his or her own “party”. If you want to get things done, you need to convince at least three others that you have the right solution.
Nobody has a lock on smarts, nobody has a monopoly on the right answers. But a representative elected group of open-minded people willing to listen and discuss will usually come up with a good solution.
And open-minded voters willing to elect such a council are likely to be happy with the results.
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