The Politicans Have Earned The Distrust Of The People
Tuesday, July 3, 2012 @ 9:00 AM
Global‘s poll which suggests Canadians have little faith in their Federal MP’s, in BC even less in the provincial MLA’s, and somewhat more in the local municipal councillors.
That poll reflected a national feeling, however if you took it one step further you would find that there is a major disappointment in local Municipal governance.
While the media is certainly no measure of the feelings of the day we asked recently ,”if an election were to be held today in Prince George how many votes would Mayor Shari Green receive”. That figure ranged from a high of 3000 to a low of 500 from a few of the reporters we spoke with.
The local council didn’t fare any better, save the three new councillors, although they are getting painted with the same brush.
The comments range from "they said they would do this but did the opposite when they got to council", to "their promises are all wet".
Roads and services take the spot light in Prince George where six of the nine (including Mayor Green) sat on the previous council. Clearly they could have introduced a program to tackle the problem of our roads, instead they opted for land transactions and the winter games.
The argument that the road conditions started with Colin Kinsley and moved forward with Dan Rogers is valid, but both only had one vote and the council of the day could easily override their wishes and that has been shown time and time again.
So what has happened is the old guard council members are suggesting that it was a previous council that created the horrendous condition of the roads we are faced with, all along not admitting that they voted not to increase the money to fix the problem.
In the end, the politicians of the day, all stripes should be sitting down and studying the results of that poll and the comments on the street of the people. The distrust of politicians didn’t come about by default, those in office have earned that feeling.
I’m Meisner and that’s one mans opinion.
Comments
Well did we need a poll to give us all this redundant information.
Cheers
And earned it very well, I might add.
I guess its time we add ‘honest politician’ to the oxymoron list.
I believe that most politicans enter office with good intentions and to bring about positive change.
However, they run into several hurdles, from internal squabbles, to red tape, to unrealistic expectations from the public (fix the roads, and oh, and by the way, don’t raise my taxes), and many are left with a no win situation.
It’s not unrealistic to expect that they use the taxes they collect to maintain our roads, winter and summer. It’s a matter of priorities…what is more important, the foundation of the community or the fluff?
Plus, they have to deal with the mess left by the previous administration(s).
A majority of people voted Ms. Green into office in Novemeber, and you would be hard pressed to find too many people that support her, based on the comments on this site.
People don’t know what they want, they vote people out, not people in. Provincially, the NDP is going to coast to victory on “We’re not the Liberals” and not much else of substance.
I didn’t vote for Sheri Green, but like it or not, we’re stuck with her for another 2 1/2 years.
“…and the council of the day could easily override their wishes and that has been shown time and time again.”
Council not only gets directions from the mayor but also from the city manager and from reports with recommendations about what action to take from other city department heads.
How realistic is it to expect councilors to do their own independent research and insist on a different action when confronted with these ‘expert’ recommendations and suggestions?
When was the last time a manager for the city was ever let go for poor performance. That says it all IMO.
‘expert’ recommendations and suggestions. All that says to me is “an ‘ex’ is a has been and a ‘spurt’ is a drip under pressure.
The mess that was left by the previous administration. They are the previous administration. They have a vote in council, if you donât like what is offered up, is there something hidden somewhere that says you have to vote for it whether you like it or not. They are trying to blame the previous administration; problem is they are the previous administration.
@Sonya – The million dollar question is: So why did they get voted in again if everyone is seemingly so dissatisfied with their performance?
promises, promises,promises. never admit you were wrong
It would be sure nice to have a mayor and council that are available to answere for criticism about their decisions. I got to agree with you Ben when there are so many friends of politicians getting golden hand shakes and lucrative contracts being brought into question. The sale of BC Rail. A most positive benifit for our province and a shining example of what the people have done to benifit all of BC’s inhabitants. Was sold by the very people we voted in to govern us. When any one of these crooks need extra cash all they have to do is raise our taxes. Politicians I am sorry to say have a bad name IMHO.
“So why did they get voted in again if everyone is seemingly so dissatisfied with their performance?”
That is easy. Because the voting public, on average, has no clue.
Federally and provincially we vote for people based primarily on party affiliation, not the individual’s attributes. We also get a reasonable amount of coverage over the year and even during election period since it is a large population base which is being served.
There is affiliation to a party structure in large cities such as Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, etc. Not only that, there is also geographical affiliation through ward systems. That brings it down to local issues, but along party structures.
It is a scramble in most smaller cities.
As far as reporting? Lousy all around. We do not even have anyone who makes an attempt at producing a voting record on incumbents. An easy thing to do, but no one does it.
gus: “That is easy. Because the voting public, on average, has no clue.”
That’s where I was leading.
gus: “Federally and provincially we vote for people based primarily on party affiliation, not the individual’s attributes.”
Most of these individuals just toe the party line, so it’s not hard to see why people do this.
gus: “As far as reporting? Lousy all around. We do not even have anyone who makes an attempt at producing a voting record on incumbents. An easy thing to do, but no one does it.”
Totally in agreement.
voter apathy in 2011 was one of the worst in a long time… only 28% of the voting population in PG bothered to go to the polls…individual attributes are not evaluated during a politician’s term and the general public doesn’t keep track of who is doing what from one day to the next let alone over a three to four year span.
there are some politicians who are about thruth and integrity… they know how to cut through the dust and grit and do excellent work on behalf of the greater good, unfortunately there are far too many that don’t seem to be grounded in reality and are quick to chase the daily headlines in an effort to shine…the crazy thing is it works because these same politicians get re-elected
The key to running a City to meet at least the minimum requirements at the lowest cost possible are not the politicians, they are the staff who work for the City.
That is the prerequisite.
The things that will allow a City to shine are those extras above the base requirements. In order to accomplish that it requires a very close working relationship between the Mayor and City Manager and a close working relationship between the Mayor and individual Councillors in order to move the City beyond the base requirements into a position of well being.
I have seen no outwardly signs of those relationship qualities in PG with the current Council, Mayor and City Manager.
Team building and a public conversation was on the election platform.
I see no publicly displayed strengths from anyone to support those goals. In fact, there appears to be some back stabbing going on that I have not seen with past Councils.
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