Ottawa’s loss will be King’s gain

Mayor Margaret Black has decided not to seek election to the House of Commons in the next federal election.

While we don’t want to set ourselves up as experts in career counselling, we believe Black has made the right decision.

Instead of entering federal politics, she will focus her attentions on King Township, announcing she will seek another term as mayor next year. She believes that is in the best interests of all concerned. The voters in King, obviously, will indicate in due course if they agree.

We believe she has made the right decision for a number of reasons. For one thing, her election to Parliament was certainly not assured. Had she carried the Liberal banner in Newmarket — Aurora, she would have been running against an incumbent, Conservative Lois Brown, who has been seeking votes in that area for some time. While Black has plenty of political experience, she had never before solicited votes in this particular area, meaning she is an unknown to many who live there. As well, the next election is likely to come during an economic recovery, and we think it’s a safe bet that Stephen Harper and company are going to be only too happy, rightly or wrongly, to stand up and take the bows.

On top of that, we have to wonder if federal politics is really for someone like Black. In the 15 years she has been mayor, she has become something of the proverbial big fish in a small pond. Added to that has been the freedom and ability to chart her own course.

The road has not always been easy for her. Many of us remember how she held on to her office by just 25 votes in the 2000 election, and found herself facing majority opposition on Township council. Those councillors, perhaps spurred on by supporters and sensing victory, appeared to move in for the kill. Black was subjected to calls for her resignation, personal attacks and even attempts to exclude her from matters of governance in King. Early in that term, the councillors sought to establish a committee to deal with sewer servicing issues, a committee from which the mayor was publicly and unceremoniously blackballed.

But Black proved herself up to the challenge, demonstrating that if the situation called for it, she could be a scrapper with the best of them. Not only was she able to hold her ground, she was able to get her program in place, despite the opposition.

We still believe the ultimate accolade for her in all of this was represented by the aforementioned committee that she was barred from. It never held a meeting.

In politics, being a fighter is generally an asset, except in the Parliamentary system, where such traits are sometimes frowned upon, and occasionally punished (we refer people to Garth Turner’s latest book Sheeple for elaboration).

We have to wonder if Black would really have been happy in a Parliamentary setting, where she would be obliged to be loyal to her party, and follow the direction of others before her own judgement.

True, her style might have come in handy in the Liberal caucus, especially if the Grits remained in opposition after the election. But we believe her style is better suited to the local political arena.

True, it might be a small pond, but it’s a pond in which she has demonstrated she knows how to get things done.