Local Politics & True Colours and Sacred Cows

Elected Idealogues Can Turn Municipalites Into Brave New Worlds.

Jan 21, 2009

With local politics turning on skimpy turnouts, some activists are thrust into positions of power and are able to implement minority causes for the whole of society.

Thomas Jefferson said that "democracy is nothing more than 51% of the population who may take away the rights of the other 49%." But a variation is that power is given to those who win the most votes from those who turn out to vote, with serious consequences:

For instance the mayor of Victoria, Dean Fortin won with 7,706 votes, the most among 8 candidates. This represented 45% of the 17,000 cast. Only 27% of the 60,000 eligible voters cast their ballot, meaning Fortin became mayor based on 12% of the possible voters.

True Colours

Local politics can create strange bedfellows. On Victoria Municipal Council, the mayor ran as a bloc with two others openly affiliated to the New Democratic Party (NDP). Orange is the NDP colour and they sit with two who were sponsored by the Green Party. Mixing orange and green renders an odd brown colour, hardly good branding for politics.

Vancouver has a history of running party slates rather than independent individuals. Vision Vancouver recruited over 11,000 members to become arguably the largest municipal party in Canada and ousted the Non-Partisan Association. When is a bloc a political party? They both have platforms that identify them with the political spectrum, one more left & red; the other more right and blue.

Colours were used to denote political leanings since the French Revolution. Those that sat to the left of the speaker were more radical, republican and red; those that sat to the right were more moderate, conservative and blue. More recently the U.S. media has muddied the water colours with

Sacred Cows

As for ideology, the NDP generally has stood for the working class and social equality while the Green Party espouses the environment. But once elected to power they focused on the homeless in both major BC cities.

In Victoria, a city of approximately 80,000, the Mayor's Task Force( May 2007) reported there were 1,550 people who were in immediate need of housing, i.e. homeless. That's less than 2% of the population. So 2% became the hobby horse of a council elected by slightly more than a quarter of the voters. It's true that a civilization may be judged by how it has treated its poorest people, but there are other pressing issues also.

An individual councillor brought forward her special interest. Specifically it was:

There had been a proposal to use the area for a new centre that included an Art Gallery and Children's Museum. But in a recent Council meeting (Jan. 8, 2009), the colours and the cows coalesced.

The councillor's motion read that the bowling green and park "...be removed from consideration for development." Ignoring the fact that a much more heritage- oriented green space existed across the road and that there was a bowling green in a park a mile away, Council members cited their desire to be green, to help seniors and possibly be anti-development forever. In the vote there were 4 in favour, none opposed and 4 abstained. Less than half of a council passed a motion hamstringing a city's future plans and a Children's Museum.

Tip O'Neil, the former American Speaker of the House was credited with saying "all politics is local". Politics at all levels effect people at the local level and if citizens don't get involved, they will have to be brave while the few create the new world for them.

The copyright of the article Local Politics & True Colours and Sacred Cows in Political Activism is owned by James Ellsworth. Permission to republish Local Politics & True Colours and Sacred Cows in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.