A mere five months after our civic election and already residents are up in arms about an issue that didn't even come up during the campaign or even during the recent budget approval process. City hall has made the decision to borrow an additional $32 million for repairs, which comes with a very possible 10 per cent tax increase.
Why do the good citizens of Prince George, so quickly after an election, have to pursue options to bring accountability to the management of the city? Can't the citizenry expect that the budget process will actually include known expenses like repairs to various buildings and roads? Just who is guarding the interests of the residents already being taxed at rates among the highest in similar jurisdictions? Isn't that what our elected officials are elected to do? When they don't do this, shouldn't they be held accountable?
So why wasn't borrowing $32 million for repairs an election issue?
To the casual observer, there were no real issues facing the city. Everything seemed roses. The only interesting thing that came up was a last-minute candidate for mayor. Other than that, the whole thing was pretty vanilla.
I think the voter was cheated.
Cheated, in part, because too many candidates endorsed each other. We lost the essential purpose of a campaign, which is the discussion and actual debate of issues of concern. Instead the campaign was too frequently a rather boring display of "vote for me because I Love PG the most-est... but so does incumbent councillor... so vote for both of us" and "I am endorsed by Councillor Fred... and you like Fred so we will all sing kumbaya together!"
We were cheated because when candidates endorse each other nobody pursues issues that may expose flaws.
"If I say something that might make Fred look bad, his people may not vote for me" or "Sophia will be embarrassed if I mention what the city has been doing wrong over the last four years, so I won't address it."
The most common concern I heard during the campaign was voters knew very little about the candidates. They didn't know what one candidate would do differently from another. They felt the election was pretty much a popularity contest, sort of like electing a high school student president.
I realize we have to work and live together, and respectful dialogue is right, but this lack of real accountability and introspection is embarrassing.
Voter apathy comes not just from lazy voters. It also comes from lazy candidates who endorse each other thereby avoiding the nasty issue of accountability for the past or future. And that is not the fault of the voter.
