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Eight weeks before the municipal election and four weeks before we have a full slate of candidates and yet we have an indication of what the electors in Cobourg can look forward to; not much! Two candidates for the Mayor's position, one candidate looking unbeatable in the Deputy Mayor's spot and a bunch of people who have barely raised a yawn. All I know is that everywhere I go people are asking, "Is that all?"
For the last two weeks I have been explaining to people why I am not a candidate in this election. Yes folks, barring a last minute conversion, a la Saul on the road to Damascus, my name will not be on the ballot for the first time in eighteen years. Here's why: in politics if you want to be part of change, two things have to happen. One is that the council has to be led by a Mayor with a vision of what he or she wants to do. A plan that all can buy in to. Secondly if the first condition is missing then a determined group of councilors must form the majority of change and persuade the Mayor, by means of voting power, to go in their direction. In Cobourg, at this time, I do not see either of these conditions or a place for my ideas in the present structure. In a column a few weeks ago I explained why the present structure of 'co-ordinator' does not lead to informed councilors being able to make intelligent decisions. For example many people found that when they were questioned on the issue many councilors did not understand the many issues and details of the Walmart debate. Until the governance and committee structure changes similar future ignorance will prevail.
I thank
the Cobourg Star for allowing me to write this column, many of you have
told me that you like it. I certainly enjoy
writing
it and as this is the 26th column (that makes one full year) I thank you
all for the comments. A full collection of the
columns
is on my web-page www.eagle.ca/ben and all emails will be acknowledged
(ben@eagle.ca). Having said that
everything
I would say, and more, if I were on Council can be said here, another reason
for not being on Council.
Moving on, now there's a mayoralty race let's look at what we have. One candidate has completed two terms as mayor and the other has done one term as councilor. Both appear to have made little difference to our lives, or the municipality, over the past three years. On the surface there appears to be little ideological difference little age difference and a gender difference. So as we examine deeper we should look for clues about the future. One of the biggest clues is who donates money and who is supporting the candidate. Mrs. Chalovich has assembled her usual team and why tamper with success. Mr. Delanty has assembled a mixed bag of supporters but one thing stands out to me is that members of the West Northumberland Economic Group have joined in. This group of individuals has made no secret of their dislike of present economic initiatives and understandably has hitched their wagon to Mr. Delanty's train. But how beholden is Mr. Delanty going to be 'interest groups'. Gossip has it that this group thinks that there is little to choose between the two candidates but as Mrs. Chalovich has failed to listen to this interest group, in the past, then they chose Mr. Delanty because, "He will listen".
I have been criticised for being picky about election campaign donations, especially when I pointed out that the developer of the Walmart proposal was the major contributor to the majority of council members. I make no apologies for this and would point out that if we want a transparent election we have to know who the main supporters of each candidate are and to whom they may be beholden. And campaign donations do make differences. When a pamphlet costs 5¢ and the postage to deliver it costs 9¢ and a sign costs $2.50; money is special. So don't tell me that cash strapped candidates will forget who gave money to them when voting time comes around. That is the reason we have disclosure rules; so that the voters may detect bias. But as politicians wrote these rules they are not meaningful and do not tell us, the voters, what we really want. I want to know where the campaign money came from before I cast my vote. These are the rules in the USA and I think this is one US import that I like. I challenge all candidates to do so in this election.
As Jerry Maguire says, "Show me the money" and then I know where the candidates' real interests for the future are.
Show us the money!