What DOES Matter! (Part 1)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT MATTERS:
Building kindness as part of our infrastructure
Columnist Donna Macdonald on the rise in threats and intimidation against municipal politicians.
                                                               July 20, 2017

Above is the (somewhat heavy-handed) lead-in to her COLUMN in the Nelson Star's on-line edition, under Opinion > Columnists.

Macdonald was a Nelson Councillor for enough already just short of a generation. 

Below is a refreshingly out-there Comment - quoted exactly/completely - by a reader, in response to Macdonald's Column.

Reading the Column first will provide context and - of course - the Comment as well.

But - just to get you there:

Schwapp Joe
"There is also contempt of citizenry. This usually takes the form of simply not representing them, pandering to special interest groups at the expense of the greater good, pushing ahead agendas which the majority of citizens don't want in the first place, and selling the public by using the DAD principle (Decide, Advertise, and Defend). Furthermore, the system, itself, is not based on kindness. It is based on exclusivity and is essentially anti-democratic in that it disallows citizens a real vote on important matters or say on the direction their municipality or zone should go in.

How about putting some more infrastructure into kindness instead? You can only pour so much syrup over something but it won't make it 100% sweet. Meanwhile, potholes and water that tastes like bleach is what most people get. This is happening all over, in tourist towns, a kind of civic austerity. I'm not pointing a finger at Donna specifically, as I never really followed her career that closely, but there is another side to the story."

   

  


"As a constituent, I am in the position of paying taxes and having a municipality with the power to take my house away if I don't, yet, I have no final say in how taxes and grants (also from taxes) are spent. Voters are reduced to spectators by many politicians, a nuisance that complains too much. Of course, that is no reason/excuse to be insulting to someone in power on a personal level, but taking criticism is part of the deal. And, sometimes, if they are not paying attention or don't care, that criticism should be pointed and blunt (as my post is). Anything else is beating around the bush and counterproductive."

End of Comment

  

Macdonald writes "I've always believed that if people just sit down and talk and listen, common ground could be found and collaboration succeed."

Stuff and nonsense and is that so! Nelsonites are fed-up with (again!) not being acknowledged by those they keep electing to (at last!) acknowledge them. So they may start lashing out - sometimes inappropriately, the social-media way to go now: feeling taken advantage of - feeling betrayed.
The platform on which one current Councillor ran for election was "relationships".
We're still waiting!  

Councillor Cherbo did at least acknowledge in another recent Column that Council may not be reaching out enough to the public. While this could/should be a starting-point for (at last!) connecting with the great unwashed: nothing has changed.

If you're not at the table - you're on the menu.
                                                                  Jim Hightower
                                                                  Political Activist, Columnist

In her Column - among vague, anecdotal assertions of nice municipal politicos today everywhere being abused by nasty common folk - reinvented Macdonald lists only one actual example sort-of. 
Even her personal experiences as told are only poor-me.

She also writes "How we ended up here can be debated at length. I am more interested in how we get out of here." Disregarding the basics of problem-solving - hello Council: you clearly identify the what/how/why and (only then) take it from there!  

Within her overall whitewash inferring Nelsonites are bad-bad-bad and those at City Hall good-good-good. Her finger-wagging only further muddling the already tenuous connect between those inside and those outside Nelson's City Hall. 

This is not constructive, Miss Manners! 





Image:
Anano Martsvaladze


Council
nelsoncouncil@nelson.ca

Deb Kozak, Mayor
dkozak@nelson.ca

Kevin Cormack, CAO
kcormack@nelson.ca