It just seems to me...

I've been reading a lot of material about our Election 2010 candidates.

How they feel about the incumbents, how they see the previous four years' worth of Council effort, what they'd do differently, how they see the challenges ahead...

I've been reading this material at 'The Hamiltonian', at 'Raise The Hammer', at 'The Spec' and 'The Stoney Creek News'.

As well, I've had coffees with numerous candidates, and engaged in email correspondences, spoken on the phone, too.

One thing has struck me more than anything else: above the megaphoned rhetoric aimed at bringing about a certain cleaving with those feeling especially self-righteously enraged (read that as: 'pissed-off'), above the din of vitriol, of damnation, above the usual fresh-toned chest-beating about how 'New is best! Sweep out the old and the lackadaisical!'...even beyond the attacks, ranging from an ill-considered gambit to shotgun-spray of accusations...

...I wonder if the average newbie candidate has a firm grasp on what a councillor...any councillor worth their salt...actually does.

What they actually do on any given day, during any given week, over the course of any given month, year or term.

It just seems to me -and I'll beg forgiveness now for generalizing, but I'm often shaking my head at what I'm hearing and reading- that the general answer is 'No.'

Maybe this is ironically fitting: in the same way that we do not have any 'requirements' for someone running for office, we really don't have anything in place that provides someone with an overview of what a councillor has been doing over their term. Yes, we can see what projects have been successfully initiated and completed. Yes, we can research voting records. Attendance sheets. We can take a look at ward meetings, events, we can examine a councillor's email records, copies of what correspondences they sent out over their term...

...but even with all this, I don't believe that we could get a clear picture, gain a full understanding of what a councillor worth their salt puts into the job.

Let me clarify: I suspect that, based on the materials I've been reading, on the conversations and correspondences I've been having, that at least 'some' of the Election 2010 campaign candidates don't.

Which is extraordinarily worrying.

Because in this 24/7 news-cycle online world of ours, it's so easy to be levying charges (of the conversational sort, not of the legal variety) against a politician, to paint broad strokes with a wide brush...and get the bystander all worked up...when there's a dearth of accuracy or context involved. Mostly (once we get past the grandstanding, the need to gain attention on the soapbox in Speaker's Corner) because the person laying the charges really hasn't done their homework, doesn't really understand what's involved in properly and successfully representing residents.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not bringing into question for one second the passion or dedication or even moral rectitude of any of our non-incumbent candidates. (And I would hate for anyone to infer from this tack I'm taking that any or all Councillors are above reproach.) But running for councillor is not the same as applying for a job. In that scenario, the employer, the one doing the hiring, knows (or should know) full well what the position requires in terms of abilities and skills the successful candidate has to possess. Yes, the person wanting the job can research to varying degrees, they can play their part in the interview process to determine better whether the job's actually right for them...but most of the responsibility falls onto the part of the employer.

In local governance, the 'employer'...the residents, the voters...don't possess either the equivalent information, the acumen...or the interest to ensure to whatever extent is possible that the people on the ballot can do the job.

Moreover, as I'm maintaining, based on what I've been taking in so far, I'm not convinced that the average candidate can be sure they can do the job...because this would require that they have a grasp on what the job entails on an ongoing basis.

Naturally, I'm inviting all non-incumbent candidates in the Stoney Creek wards to prove me wrong.

(By the way: I believe the same can be said of the average resident. And you just know where I'm prone to be going with this...)