What's a voter to do?
With barely two weeks away before “decision time” I drive around the City and I can hardly see the street and stops signs for the election posters with smiling faces that seem to say; “Pick me! Pick me!”
Incumbent Peter McGuire with “Aim Higher”, is he trying to tell us that we weren’t aiming higher for the past two terms?
Ivan Court with “Ivan Court for Mayor”! I’m confused I thought Ivan Court was already mayor, does he mean re-elect Ivan Court for Mayor.
Then there’s Mel Norton’s “Tell Mel”, tell Mel what?
Would be Councilor at Large John Campbell’s battle cry is “Common Sense for Common Council” does that mean the City Hall has been void of common-sense?
Signs as far as the eye can see proclaiming motherhood statements like “Change”, “Honesty”, “Integrity” “Accountability”
Has City Hall Councilors lacked all these commendable attributes; tell me, tell me what is a voter to do?
It would seem that the issue at hand is that trustworthiness, so what does Ipsos Ried have to say on the subject of “ trustworthiness?
Jan 2012 Pharmacists most trustworthy Poll of attitudes to professions; Doctors, soldiers also highly rated, but not CEOs, politicians and car salespeople……
“For another year, pharmacists, doctors, soldiers, pilots and teachers are the most trusted professions in Canada, according to a new poll. The top tier of the poll from Ipsos Reid, conducted exclusively for Postmedia News and Global News, remained unchanged from the previous year. It showed that 78 per cent of poll respondents said they trust pharmacists the most, followed by doctors (75 per cent), Canadian soldiers (74 per cent), airline pilots (73 per cent) and teachers (65 per cent.) Meanwhile, CEOs, municipal politicians, union leaders, national politicians and car salespeople were ranked in the bottom five out of 26 professions. The bottom portion of the list also remains unchanged from last year”.
Ouch!! Not very encouraging is it? What’s a person to do?
We are about to trust some of these candidates to extricate use for our current financial quagmire and we get less that encouraging news from a national polling company…….but take heart all is not lost. We do and have had political pillars of virtue;
Lester Pearson winner of the Nobel Peace Prize,
Jack Layton who in spite suffering from a terminal illness continued to fight for greater equality among Canadians.
Allan Blakeney pioneer of the Canadian Health care system
Tommy Douglas who introduced universal hospitalization in Saskatchewan and in 1959 announced a Medicare plan for Saskatchewan
….. and more currently Newfoundland’s Danny Williams and Mississauga’s Mayor Hurricane Hazel McCallion the only elected officials that have shared a 90% approval public approval. 90% can you believe it?
So what special characteristics did or do these elected officials have in common? They were not politicians, …….they were or are statesmen.
A statesman makes decisions that serves this and future generations, They have never forgot they were elected “by the people to serve the people”, whereas politician all to too frequently makes decisions with an eye to the next election. At the very least this is the perception held by the majority of Canadians.
So exactly what is a person to do?…..ignore the smiling faces and signs, ignore the back slapping hand shaking, baby kissing candidates.
When they knock on your door stand toe to toe, eye ball to eye ball and ask “Tell me, what are you going to do to get us out of our current mess and start moving this city in the right direction for a change”?
That’s what I’m going to do.
