An email to Ward 10 candidate Bernard Josipovic

Mr. Josipovic;

I don't expect you to agree with my take on voters.

In fact, I'd be surprised if you did.

You see voters in a certain way. You need their support, your energies are focused on getting their attention, of rallying them to your cause (your election) by way of appealing to whatever it is that you've identified as their needs, their complaints, their desires. This is what getting elected is all about: at the core, it's a popularity contest. And to win one of those, you have to take a certain approach. Which is what you're endeavouring to do. I might take issue with the often bland rhetoric you choose to use, but I respect the fact that you're going about your task in the way you've chosen.

I see voters in an entirely different way. I see them as individual expressions of the society we've created. Mostly of the unengaged, the apathetic, the uninformed. We have become a culture of complainers. We seem to have lost respect for the basic foundations of what a great society traditionally possesses: self, family, community.

I believe we need to demand more of ourselves.

I believe we need to demand more of our fellow citizens.

I believe they need to demand more of themselves...and in doing so, would have every right to demand more of their Councillors and their City Council as a whole.

Every single candidate whose platform and 'What I'm About' portions of their site I've taken a look at stresses a much deeper commitment to engagement with their potential constituents. But while this is heartening, I believe it's only addressing one side of the equation. The other side is a commitment on the part of the constituents to engagement with their potential Councillor.

Again, this isn't an election issue. But it is something that needs to be addressed. Because I'm sure you'll agree that when we're getting far less than half of our eligible voters out to the polling booths, things aren't exactly 'the best they can be'.

We all deserve better.