Bill's Bulletin Board
By Bill Rea

Barring unforeseen circumstances, we're pretty close to having a very full election roster in King Township, at least as far as the composition around the council table is concerned.

True, we've got one member acclaimed, and with all due respect to Bill Cober, I submit that's one acclamation too many. On the one hand, I believe that a person who is going to hold elected office (and collect a salary for occupying it) should actually be elected to it. On the other side, an acclamation is the ultimate indication of voter satisfaction with services rendered, and if anyone disputes that conclusion, would they be good enough to explain to me why they are not seeking election as councillor for Ward 4 in the Township of King? Cober has been returned to his seat before any of his colleagues because in the eyes of his constituents, he's earned it.

But the good news is we're going to have contests for all the other seats around the council table.

I have always looked forward to elections. As I once told my mother, as she

observed my anticipation on the advent of an election night full of work, "This is what I got into this business for."

And after more than 22 years in the community newspaper field, I have reached the conclusion that the municipal level is the most interesting and important, while least understood level of government that we have. The proof it's not well understood is based on the fact that voter turnout in municipal elections is notoriously low. The figures in King are better than the norm, but still nothing to write home about.

I think there are many people who don't understand municipal government because its nuances have never been taught to them. It's been some years since I've gone through the school system, but in my day, municipal politics didn't take up a lot of classroom time. My high school civics classes were heavy on the parliamentary system and party politics, but light when it came to what the local politicos were up to. That's interesting, when you consider school trustees had a lot more clout then than they do now.

I took a political science course in Grade 11, which provided the most fun I had in school outside of gym and music classes. Even that program treated municipal politics almost as a side issue. The little attention that it received was largely owing to the fact I took the class in an election year.

I remember the day after the election, when our teacher asked us what policies we would have put forth had we been seeking municipal office.

"Well, I've heard that most teachers are commies, so I'd get rid of them all," one student responded. And no, he wasn't joking. This guy was absolutely serious. It took some very unprintable words for our instructor to restore order after that.

I majored in politics in university, where I was lectured on the difference between the terms "power" and "authority," how to interpret opinion polls and just what it was Plato was getting at in The Republic. I also became proficient in pinball and appearing to be attentive while hungover. But I can't remember many words about municipal government in lectures.

No, I had to get into the newspaper business to learn something about municipal government. And one thing I have learned is the smaller the municipality, the closer municipal government is to the grass roots. That lesson was driven home during some five years working in what is now known as the

megacity, where councillors would sometimes show up at community events. But in fairness to these politicians, the wards are a lot bigger than in King, at least in terms of population, with a lot more people to serve. Mike Harris and company thought they were doing everyone a big favour when they reduced the number of council positions. I advocated increasing the number of wards and cutting the salaries of councillors accordingly.

The fact is it's the municipal politicians that people get to know, because they will see them at community events, or bump into them pushing their carts through the local IGA.

And yet there are many people reading this, who live in the community, who won't bother to get our and vote Nov. 13. Go figure.

Municipal elections, I think, are the most fun because there are individuals running, and not mouthpieces for various political parties, as is the case federally or provincially. While party or faction politics do play a part to some extent (New Democrats have had a very strong presence in Toronto politics for years, and there is some factionalism in King) individual candidates have to more or less sink or swim on their own merits.

Municipal politics, alas, can also get a little more dirty than at the other levels, but I guess that's sort of the nature of things, although that's something those running for office have to watch out for.

As is the case with anything else in life, some elections are more interesting than others. I covered a mayoralty campaign once in which there were five people running for the job. The incumbent was a cardcarrying New Democrat (he has since been elected to Queen's Park) who had been appointed in mid-term and was seeking election in his own right. The main challenger was a former local councillor who was sort of a poster boy for the area Liberal and Conservative establishments who wanted to stick it to the NDP, and he turned out to be a bit of a political mush ball. There was a lady who wanted to put a stop to mud slinging and spent most of the campaign being mad at a lot of people, including me (King does not have a monopoly when it comes to hating my guts). There was a woman who called herself a "liberal racist," whatever that was supposed to mean. Then there was the other fellow, who didn't seem to know what he stood for, but who regaled audiences at allcandidates' meetings with accounts of his days as a drug addict).

I really don't expect anything quite like that in King's elections this year. But I am expecting a lot of talking back and forth, debates, discussions and maybe the odd heated arguments.

I think we have a fun couple of weeks ahead of us, or at least ahead of me.