I've been trying to decide who to vote for in next week's municipal election. It's a lot more difficult, since there seem to be a lot more candidates. Elections here have often been the incumbent and a few other candidates who don't seem ready for prime time. But now there are a lot of candidates who seem quite serious and professional. So I've been going through newspaper write-ups and candidate web pages trying to make up my mind.
I'm pleasantly surprised that few of them are running on the angry-letter-to-the-editor platform. That is, most candidate make a token reference to defending the taxpayers' money, but there were no angry tirades about throwing out the bums on the gravy train. Actually, way more people were highlighting poverty and affordable housing as important issues.
But one trend that I have noticed is that Transparency and Consultation have become extremely overused. Every candidate makes a big deal about talking to the people, being available, and having meetings open to the public. Obviously those are all good things, but they're also bland, unquantifiable, safe promises that anyone can make. They are to municipal politics what a promise of a suggestion box is to student council.
It's weird that at a time when we can barely find the time to vote or read a newspaper, we demand closer interaction with our politicians than ever before. I make an effort to keep informed about politics, but I don't really feel the need to get any more involved. I'd be happy to vote for a candidate who's slogan is, don't worry, I'll handle it.
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