Keep the Picture!

*****TRANSFORMING CLIENTS INTO CITIZENS******

THAT'S ALL THAT'S LEFT!

For those of you who went to Council on Wednesday or watched it on Eastlink on Thursday, you will have heard our local politicians skating around the issues related to the Moby Dick church. It was interesting to watch and those I've spoken with have all had their own take on the public airing of the views of local politicians on the issue.

I honestly had mixed views on whether we should keep the church or not or how we should dispose of it if we chose not to keep it. I could have lived comfortably with either decision. What I was looking for was a more public process for dealing with public issues.... and I did get a bit more.... not much... but a bit!

I agree that once elected politicians are mandated to deal with public issues as they arise. In normal political systems, politicians are rewarded or punished for the manner in which they deal with public issues by their constituents at election time. Unfortunately, our municipal system in the Town of Shelburne does not facilitate that method of accountability because of the system we have for electing our councillors at large. This way, no one gets credit and no one gets blamed.... great for politicians... lousy for democracy.

Want to have local politicians more accountable? Change our present system for electing councillors and you'll see a dramatic change in local politics. Councllors elected by geographic areas (wards or districts) know who they are accountable to, while those elected at large do as they please most of the time (until election time nears) and have no real obligation to consult the electorate.

That's my view anyway.....

BTW.... I also believe that crushing the church and hauling it off to a landfill was a waste of resources that might have been used by others.... and the worst solution from an environmental perspective.... what a waste of lumber!