"I think we need to talk..." Part One

This week, upstate New York Congressman Christopher Lee resigned over a Craigslist scandal. 

I mention this not because it holds any relevance to this blog, but is tangentially connected to this post. 

During the last municipal election, we had a real confluence of the grumpy, the intolerant, the self-indulgent, the embarrassing...and the apathetic. 

Of late, a lot of these elements have come into play over the PanAm Games Stadium Site Selection Process coming to a head (that's a marvellous visual, isn't it?) as well as Mayor Bratina's attempted United Way donation.

Additionally, local blogger Rene Gauthier posted 'Transparency (Lesson 3)' as part of an exercise to take a look at 'What happened?!?' during our stadium selection débâcle.

Controversies. 

Scandals. 

Head-scratching mysteries. 

Politics on all levels tend to be rife with this stuff. It goes in cycles, yes, and certain eras have more of their shares than others. But until we start electing Artificial Intelligence units, we're kinda stuck with the imperfections almost guaranteed by the human condition. 

Except that, specifically in local governance, we actually have far greater 'power' over what kind of person gets into office, and more importantly, we have far greater input into how they perform. 

We just can't expect these truths to be in effect within the paradigm we've (mostly passively) given our approval to. This 'hands-off but for voting every four years' attitude, one where we don't demand to be part of the collaborative process, we don't demand to know (within reasonable limits) what's going on, we don't demand answers...


...so that there is no mystery surrounding issues such as the PanAm Games Stadium Site Selection Process. (Having the opposite doesn't guarantee that everyone gets what they want. Just that they are able to understand why things end up the way they do.)


Next up, vetting our candidates.