Your Community. Your Business.
Every municipal election needs a Nutt
I don't know Larry D. Nutt.
In fact, I'd never heard of him until I checked the city hall web site in late August to find out who had thrown their hat in the ring for the October municipal elections.
But if the elections were being held today, I'd vote for him.
Nutt, it turns out, is seeking one of four city council seats. Another four people will be chosen to sit on both city and county councils. And, of course, we will have to pick a mayor.
Nutt's main problem will be a lack of name recognition. The sad fact is that the incumbents, no matter how incompetent they might be, have a huge advantage.
That's why, unless he changes my mind by saying something incredibly stupid at a meet-the-candidates meeting (or in a media interview) I'll be marking an 'X' beside Mr. Nutt's name come October 25.
I always vote for as many newcomers as possible, just to keep the incumbents on their toes. Once in a great while, a rookie politician makes it onto council, but usually only because one of the incumbents has decided not to seek re-election. As a result, we usually end up with a stagnant group of councillors who tend to take voters for granted.
Year after year we elect the same people. Dave Boushy, for example, was first elected 46 years ago. We've gone through nine American presidents and nine Canadian prime ministers since Dave was first voted onto Sarnia council back in 1964.
Of course Nutt is not the only new face on the ballot. As of late August, Ray Fillion,
Darren Nesbit, Bryan Trothen, Glenn MacKinnon and Elizabeth Hudie had also registered for council seats. I would urge people to take a close look at all of them. Find out who they are and what their positions are on the major issues. If they're at all credible, consider voting for them. And to help them win, don't vote for any of the incumbents running against them. Otherwise, you'll just cancel out your vote for the newcomers, giving the tired old warhorses a free ride.
In addition to picking novices, I like to cast ballots for young people because they bring energy and enthusiasm to the job. That's why I'll almost certainly be voting for MacKinnon and Nesbit.
At this writing, not all the candidates had come forward and I'm sure there will be others that will be well worth taking a long hard look at.
Of course some of the old timers deserve to be re-elected. And it would be disastrous if we tossed them all out. But I never worry about that. Even if hundreds of people reading this column were to take my advice, most of the incumbents will get back in. So there's no need to worry about them. I'm much more concerned with making sure they have some competition.
September, 2010
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