Let’s Hold Those Hoping to Serve on Our City Council to a Higher Standard
As many Brantfordians know, we have a significant local election coming up in just a couple of weeks now. With a combination of several retirements and tens of candidates running to replace them, we will elect many fresh faces to our City Council for the first time in quite a few years.
While this prospect presents an opportunity for much-needed new ideas given the many challenges facing our community, the race thus far has left me concerned, especially after the quality of the recent debates.
Last week, I helped moderate the forum jointly sponsored by the Brantford Chamber of Commerce and Rogers TV. As a longtime resident of Brantford, I was excited to play a small part in our democracy, as I strongly believe that every candidate should have the ability to present their ideas and vision. Yet, as the debate proceeded, I started to develop a feeling of dread – it was all too apparent that many of the candidates taking part were, at best, woefully unprepared.
I’ve written before that Brantford faces strong challenges in our times. We face a changing climate, under-resourced social services, and an economy weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic, just to name a few of them. But even with those as a backdrop, our most pressing issue at present may just be that we could very well elect City Councilors who lack political maturity, leadership qualities, and vision.
That outcome would be catastrophic. And I know, deep down, we all know that.
So let’s not waste our votes this upcoming election cycle on poor-quality candidates. For all that needs to happen to help Brantford get back on track, we certainly don’t need a rudderless City Council full of Councilors collecting paychecks while making matters worse.
Andy Straisfeld
