In case you hadn't realized it, progressives conquered city hall last week.
And while I may not agree with many of their political or philosophical leanings, I must admit that they deserved their resounding success at the polls. In fact, it is arguable that the candidates and mayoral nominee of the more conservative camp were trounced in this election thanks largely to the previous administration's waste of political capital on partisan crusades and contempt-filled one-liners. In short, our camp got a well deserved thrashing - let's hope we learn our lesson.
Addressing the winners now, I would like to encourage our incoming council to do what it's best suited for: executing a progressive agenda. For a town as rich in people and resources as Prince George, we are shamefully behind the times in many key areas, from city planning to taxation. To put it plainly, you've won your seats - now use them to get this town off the ground.
I've overheard Mr. Hall say verbatim he doesn't believe in a ward system, which is regrettable. Of course, as a former member of the school board, he might be convinced to implement a "community schools" like program, which devolves some power and money to neighbourhoods, allowing them to better address services and needs in their area. This would certainly empower the citizens of Prince George to meet more local challenges in less time, while simultaneously taking much of the more bitter politics away from 1100 Patricia Boulevard.
For council, the issue of taxation should be given attention first and foremost, as all of their pet projects from George Street to the city limits rely on proper financing before they can even be considered. I'm not going to sugar coat this folks: property taxes as they stand now are all but obsolete. How property is valued has changed, and so it is both more intelligent and sustainable for the city to seek revenue in the form of fuel, sales, and income taxes. That last item may sound like a bit of a stretch, but the fact of the matter is that other municipalities are quickly moving in this direction. The federal and provincial governments have been downloading responsibilities on cities for decades - at least they could let us finance them.
As for the school board, I would encourage you to be as honest as possible with your constituents and our local MLAs: without more authority over revenue and curricula, we're hooped. Of course it's not all bad news, as there are some real areas of advocacy to attend to regarding content, testing and streaming. In short, history and literature should be localized, given that the alternative is really just an excuse to make distant textbook publishers very rich; standardized testing needs to be increased and the subjects it covers widened to give children, parents and teachers a more accurate view of strengths and weaknesses; and, furthermore, the standardized tests will help us stream kids toward viable careers that match their talents.
As a final exhortation to the mayor and council-elect, I cannot emphasize strongly enough that there is a reason right-leaning administrations dominate the provincial and federal spheres of this country and many others: simply put, progressives have a wonderfully self-defeating habit of centralizing more authority while asking for more money to pay for problems that still don't get fixed. Then they're voted out faster than you can say Jimmy Carter.
You all have a chance to push this town toward a more cohesive and intelligent future, but you only have four short years to do it. Don't tax more, tax smarter. Don't expand services to an unsustainable degree, make the services coordinate better. Don't let the unions trample you, the environmentalists own you, or the identity interests drain the city coffers - be fiscally responsible and reap the rewards of true partnership over selfish conniving.
I wish you luck.
