Raise the Hammer

Hey, I'm all for it. That and recall powers. Just tell me where to sign.

Not me.

I'm not for 'recall powers'.

Not until we grow up as a voting populace. Let's talk when we have a 90% turnout rate and we have people actively involved in their own governance. Recalls are a shite way to run anything. Mostly it speaks very poorly of the ability of those doing the 'job interviews' to choose the best candidate. As it stands right now...and I know I've said this ad nauseam...but the average person puts more time and effort into choosing their next holiday destination or entertainment system than they do in choosing their Councillor or Mayor.

But isn't meeting our councilors without the power to actually meaningfully censure them mere window dressing?

Uh, no.

To be clear: No, no, no...and no.

Censuring to me implies that there's a functional construct. That someone has done something wrong (Um, how are you going to decide that, and on what grounds when you have almost two-thirds of people not voting in the first place?), and that to preserve the integrity of the system, they need to be 'punished'.

I'm sorry, but we don't have that kind of game going on in municipal politics. (No, I have no interest in discussing provincial or federal sports, thanks.) We have what amounts to an undeveloped notion, where half the equation isn't in play, so to me, until we get to that point, then it's extraordinarily premature to be taking punitive measures.

Look; all of this comes down to building and maintaining good, healthy relationships. You know, how business gets done, how coaching and managing gets done, how teams get successful, how organizations thrive...? We don't have that. I repeat: WE DON'T HAVE THAT.

What we have is someone being 'hired' every four years, given the keys to the business...and then left alone. Don't you think it might be a good idea if the 'employer' and 'employee' meet regularly to discuss what's going on... ...so that the idea of a 'recall' is absolutely and totally unnecessary? We've never had the construct I'm talking about. So to everyone who's cynical: what's your reference point? Because I've got a ton of them that tell me that this is just what we need.