Finally, we’re in the home stretch. Even I’m starting to experience election fatigue. After an uninspiring national beauty contest, a heart-warming if insufferably prolonged race south of the border, we can finally put our local house in shape for the next couple of years and, Ullr willing, get on with the serious business of sliding down snowy mountains and hoping enough visitors join us to keep the lifts turning… all of them.
If you’re undecided at this point, I hope it’s because you have difficulties making decisions when confronted with too many choices. If it’s because you haven’t been paying attention, don’t know anything about the candidates, don’t know the issues and generally sleepwalk through life, do us all a favour: don’t vote. There’s nothing worse than voting out of a sense of guilt, obligation or boredom.
And, with this crowded council slate, if there aren’t six people you’re keen on, don’t cast six votes; nothing says you have to and, quite frankly, we’ll probably wind up with better results if you don’t.
For example, I don’t feel comfortable offering any opinion on those vying for the two open school trustee positions. It’s not that I discount in any way that important job. But having never committed parenthood, I’m generally ignorant about the issues facing the school board and believe I should follow the course I generally urge the Pope to adopt on birth control: you don’t play the game, you don’t make the rules. Paying school taxes and warping young minds is sufficient contribution on my part.
We’ll be going into this most challenging ski season and tough economic times with, at minimum, half a new council. Nothing wrong with that and, frankly, nothing wrong with increasing that fraction. I’ve made my picks and nothing this past week has led me to re-evaluate whether I’ve chosen wisely or foolishly.
And that leaves the top job.
Being mayor of most small towns is a generally thankless, connect the dots kind of task. Being mayor of this small town is, by any measure, bizarre. Aside from the usual triad of water, sewer and roads, Whistler’s mayor has the impossible job of meeting the insane expectations of a pampered electorate and demanding tourists who expect their Whistler experience to be, well, magical.
Layered on that baseline is the often opposing demands from two senior levels of government, VANOC and the IOC. I have this comical image in my mind of our mayor being twisted and pulled in all directions like so much warm taffy.
But it’s decision time and I’ve made my decision. Part of that decision was easy. Jag, take a hike. While I both believe in and vigorously defend the democratic process, Jag’s “run” for mayor has been an insulting joke. You don’t live here, you don’t understand either the community or the issues, you haven’t bothered to show up for most of the public meetings and when you did it was a comical exercise in semi-literate bafflegab. And as though the cake needed icing, you’ve carpet bombed the valley with your annoying, ugly signs. In normal election years, they’d be considered the height of bad taste. This year, just your presence on the ticket has already raised that bar even higher.
Brian, Miro, thanks for running. I don’t believe being on council is a prerequisite for becoming mayor. I do believe being more involved in the community is. If you’re serious about the job you have to lay the foundation.
That makes it a two horse race. One might characterize it as a choice between the devil we know and the devil we don’t know.
This time around, I would prefer to go to the party with the devil I know.
I have had some unkind things to say about Mayor Ken over the last three years. I am not unmindful of them nor do I retract any of them. He’s made decisions I’ve been at odds with, needlessly provoked segments of the community and, at times, let the pressures of the job bring him to the edge of intolerance with the public.
Having said that, his motives and vision cannot be faulted. The decisions he’s made have been in the best interests of moving the community forward while placating the demands of some of those taffy pullers mentioned earlier. That he’s done it without palming off some of the heat onto VANOC or the province is a testament to his growing statesmanship. We shall reap the rewards for his restraint.
The furor over this year’s budget had more to do with form than substance and it’s annoying how mayor after mayor has failed to grasp the importance of messaging and communication. The fact is, we got dumped on by the province and this mayor and council scrambled to keep property taxes from going up way more than they did. Going forward, some tough choices will have to be made and I believe Ken is better prepared to make them than Kristi.
I fear Kristi’s answer to tough economic times will be to throw open the gates to unfettered growth. I also question her ability to deal honestly with the people she’s seeking to lead. I don’t understand her reluctance to answer the simple request posed to her at Monday’s mayoral debate: Name the top three contributors to your campaign.
The others had straightforward answers. What kind of obfuscation lies in the answer, “Myself, my mother and….”
Only when pressed did she mention another name. And while we’ll have to wait for the statutory declaration required to discover who her real contributors are, the smart money in town says it includes a long list of developers and businesspeople.
Exacerbating her unwillingness to honestly respond was her assertion that such transparency was meaningless because if someone wanted to donate more than $50 — the level at which names have to be named — they’d just give multiple donations of $49.99 and that “everybody” plays that game. Well, everybody doesn’t. And the law requires disclosing total contributions, not individual ones. If that’s the way Kristi plays the game, there’s no reason to drag the others down to her level.
Equally worrisome was her profound lack of understanding of the concept of conflict of interest. She seems to think she’s off the hook when land development proposals by First Nations former clients of hers come forward simply because she isn’t working for them anymore. Most school children would understand that if you’re voting on an ex-client’s proposal you helped shape, you’re in a conflict of interest.
Kenny’s not a perfect choice. He is, however, a more perfect choice.
