A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS

I came home from council last night and thought about what happened there. I considered it the worst of conduct. I thought about other occasions that might compare.

My last Blog triggered the first memory. It was a meeting between the election of 2003 and the new council being sworn in.

Councillor MacEachern was arguing in favour of a manual recount. She had disagreed with the Director of Corporate Services before the election that the machines he had recommended to council were the right ones for the job.

Now it was contended the election result proved they didn't work. Two candidates at the low end of the vote. polled within forty votes. David Griffith, an incumbent candidate was unseated, I was the one who unseated him. Councillor MacEachern had already urged David to ask for a recount. He refused.

When I called David to wish him well after his loss, he in turn congratulated me and assured me he was content to accept the decision of the voters. He added he had no stomach to serve on the upcoming council. He anticipated the ugliness.

Nevertheless Councillor MacEachern persisted. There should be a recount and Councillor Damir Vrancic agreed.

"I have no desire to sit here for the next three years looking across the table at someone who doesn't have a right to be there” he said.

I was in the council chamber at the time. Councillors MacEachern, Pederson, Griffith and Timpson were on their way out. But there was a vote anyway and a recount was held.

Councillor Kean argued it would cost nothing because only staff time was involved.As if hundreds of man hours on a particular project does not have a cost.

The result was exactly the same as on election night. The machines were accurate. and efficient. The Director had been right. Councillor MacEachern was not.

I took my seat and Damir Vrancic did have to sit across the table for three years looking at someone who did have a right to be there, whether he liked it or not. I fancy there were several occasions he did not.

I could have been offended by the Councillor's comments. I found them quite amazing. I am accustomed to the concept that a person elected is respected by virtue of being the choice of the electorate particularly by people who arrive at the table by the same process.

Just as David Griffith had expressed. During the recount, Councillor Vrancic took the opportunity to declare to me in a voice all could hear, "The voters are stupid".

I refrained from inquiring if he thought so because of the support he had received. I knew full well what he intended...Something had happened in the years of my absence... A new, and unattractive element had entered our town's affairs.

Most politicians I have known are of a different breed.. Affable. Inclined to be helpful. Competitive yes,they are capable of being angry but they laugh easily and don't take themselves too seriously. Politics is a humbling process. A reputation for simple human decency is the single most important quality one can offer. It is often the only one people care about.

The expectation that a council will work together for the betterment of the community has always been a given. The blatant and virulent hostility; the dog eat dog competitiveness displayed from the beginning of that and the current term of council is a new element to me.m though I understand it was previously manifest.

A person who perceives leadership as taking total control of all decisions while freezing out half the elected council from participation.is, a concept foreign to Aurora and I think most of our neighbours. Determined and persistent sabotage of the role of the administration is equally catastrophic to the competent management of the municipality's affairs.

I understand why David Griffith wanted no part of it. It was meant to be, I think for David and I to change places for a while. Obviously I have a stronger stomach than he does.

I am not so inclined.