Sir: A politician often is faced with a choice between what the best action would be and what the majority of his constituents would at first accept.
When is a politician’s best time to take bold action that might at first create concern or even opposition within the electorate?
Answers:
• Within the first budget year of a four-year term. This gives the councillor three years to convince constituents that the action was wise.
• When there is a new council with progressive views
• When there is a fresh new administrative senior staff capable and willing to implement bold action and justify it with results.
• When there is a need by the municipal citizens for new solutions.
All four of these conditions exist now in our municipality.
- Our new council is in the first year of its four-year term. None of these councillors will have to run for office again until 2018. Sometimes in politics there is conflict between what will get votes and what is best for the municipality. If ever the councillor will have the courage to support what is best, the first year of the term should be that time
- We have six outstanding new councillors at the table. No reason to expect “the same old same old”.
- The CAO and all of his direct reports can be considered as ”new” as of next April and a number of managers at the level below that have also departed. This is a team open to constructive change like never before. They have no investment in the way things have always been done.
- The citizens’ need for change was clearly expressed in the recent vote results and in the four months of discussion in the Citizen Coalition Facebook group. Severe loss of jobs and of population and the obvious consequences in our communities have got us all looking for solutions
On top of all that, Mayor Hope has declared this his third term as his last. He is free to take decisive action without concern for electoral consequences.
Let’s go, council! You’ll never have a better chance to make a real difference!
John Sigurjonsson
Chatham
