Tag: democracy

STRUCTURED TOWN HALL PLANNED FOR MID-OCTOBER

It’ll be two sessions, one starting mid-morning, the other at maybe 5 PM.  Both sessions being limited to a maximum of four hours, since gatherings like these qualify as official council “meetings” and are therefore required to adhere to the procedural rules listed in Clerk Carolynn Errett’s Little Red Book of Municipal Procedure, available at fine bookstores nowhere.  

That shouldn’t amount to any sort of problem, because, honestly, four hours is more than enough for an exercise in transparency and accountability, as well as simply putting faces to the various political and staff positions that are behind the day-to-day workings of the Corporation of the Town of Renfrew.  Offering two such gatherings is, in my mind, more than generous, so I applaud the effort to hold an event such as this, to close any gaps between the citizens/taxpayers and the staff and political types who govern their municipal affairs.

I’m talking about what has been referred to as a Structured Town Hall, where residents can come out to learn more about how they’re governed and to provide some measure of background to various points of concern and/or curiosity people may have with policy, policy direction, decision-making, and all the other stuff that’s part of running a town, or any other place for that matter.

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DEGRADATION OF LOCAL DEMOCRACY

Democracy is a frail and fragile thing.  In fact, it’s absolutely precarious, something we’re seeing all over the world, and, perhaps most noteworthy and alarming, right next door in the great republic to the south.

But democracy is imperilled here in Canada as well, and yes, it clings to life right here in Renfrew, where municipal mandarins and an either weak or complicit, perhaps even incompetent mayor team together to deny democratic process in municipal government.  

Owing to its fragile nature, it’s not terribly difficult for empire builders to trample all over its basic tenets, and people with personal or ambitious agendas represent the greatest threat to democracy, here and everywhere.

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RENFREW GETS A STRONG MAYOR

Ontario premier Doug Ford has proposed extending so-called “strong-mayor” powers to 169 additional municipalities in Ontario, and the Town of Renfrew is one of them.

What makes a strong mayor out of a mayor?

Simply put, it allows the mayor, as Head of Council, to push forward agenda items without obtaining a majority vote of other members of Council.  It’s something usually reserved for large urban areas like Toronto, or Ottawa, or any other densely-populated metropolitan areas.

But Renfrew?  And also Arnprior, Pembroke, Deep River and Petawawa?  Because they all made the cut, whereas urban powerhouse Douglas got left out, most likely because they’re part of a township government, and I guess we haven’t yet arrived at the point where rural townships require strong mayor powers.

The changes, if implemented, take effect May 1, 2025.

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TENURED POLITICIANS

There are two types of politicians that walk the floors of town halls, city halls, legislative halls, or agency halls.  A third type frequents the boards constituted by the first two, giving us a full compliment of three very different forms of political figures.

The first, and most obvious, are the elected politicians, the ones who got to where they are the old-fashioned way, by doing all the grunt work, working the phones, knocking on doors, hammering in lawn signs, kissing hands and shaking babies.  The ones who are up front-and-centre when the public gets its dander up and is looking for answers to difficult questions.  The people who have all sorts of things thrown at them, whether it be criticism, profanity, rotten tomatoes, any of it or all of it.  These are the people elected by the other people, the public, and are the forward-facing tier of democracy.  They have something called legitimacy.

And then there are the tenured politicians.

They’re the ones who got hired by the first group, probably with educational credentials out the ears, plucked out of nowhere to be given the task of steerage, of keeping the ship both afloat and headed on the desired course as directed by the captain and other ship’s officers.  They are the ones with their hands on the wheel.

Perhaps the best way for me to make my point is to use Granny, the most wonderful woman in the world, as an example.  Always a warm and encouraging smile, thoughtful to a fault, spoils the grandkids shamelessly to their delight, a member of her church and volunteer for numerous church and civic causes.  She is the apple in the apple pie.

But put her behind the wheel of a car.

This beatific human being becomes something completely different while she navigates the Costco parking lot.

So it can often be with tenured politicians.  They start as one thing, but inexorably make their way up the ladder, in competition with others, but with no need for term limits and things like elections to get in the way.  They become entrenched.  

They aren’t part of the system.  They become the system.

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WHEN THE DOGS AND PONIES ARE RUNNING THE SHOW

The circus comes to town every couple of weeks when Town Council has its regularly scheduled dog-and-pony-show exercise that passes itself off as municipal democracy in action.  And despite everyone performing their roles, with varying degrees of success, the production is made up seemingly of a council rubber-stamping whatever the administrative side of things wants it to rubber stamp.  Mind you, a couple of councillors will periodically raise objections to this, but will often get out-voted if they raise their concerns to the level of making a motion

That’s because here in Renfrew, we have what looks to be a chimera of democracy in play.  

Elected councillors are flummoxed by redundant and poorly organized agenda briefing documents, almost always numbering over a hundred pages, two-hundred pages, and often more.  This is how administration does it, firing smoke grenades to obfuscate things enough that councillors routinely pass what’s put in front of them because, as some have said, they trust the department heads to manage their departments with effectiveness and due diligence.

Sort of like the last council did.  

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PLACING BETS ON TOWN COUNCIL

I’m not a betting man.  If I was I’d be a poor betting man.

I know betting’s all the rage now, especially with how easy it is, using your phone and, hell, even being able to place in-game bets.  Even Wayne Gretzky is all over it, a guy who is right up there with Tim Hortons and their Roll-Up-The-Rim contest in terms of Canadian identity and popularity.

Money lines, point spreads, over-under, parlay bets, teasers and props, middle, future, and live bets, there’s no shortage of ways to get fabulously rich, or if you’re me, fabulously poor.

Luckily for me, I don’t have the kind of money to engage in this activity.  Losing a single $5 bet would have me in apocalyptic circumstances, so I stay away.  I don’t even buy Lotto 649 anymore because I feel it’s too risky.

That said, I know others absolutely love the action, and are willing to place money on the most trivial of things, mostly in the world of sports.  But sports betting has it’s drawbacks, especially if players, coaches, officials, etc go to the dark side to influence how a game goes, or how much court-time a player gets, or ice-time, or at-bats, or carries, etc.  

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