Due to the length of my
rants and my inability to edit my thoughts down, I have given in to the idea of
a blog. It’s long and rambling (consider yourself warned!).
While I personally prefer
September as a time of year for setting goals and resolutions, the approach of
January is a great time to reflect on the past year and ponder lessons learned that might help in the future.
I recently finished reading
Michael Ignatieff’s book, “Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics”.
While I found it to be an extremely frank memoir about the trials and
tribulations in the struggle for power, there is one quote that kind of
encapsulates some of my learning from the last year (and for those keeners out
there, I’ve included some other great quotations from the book at the end of
this post):
“Once you see a country as a
sustained, everyday act of will, you understand why politicians matter. They
bring people who want different things into the same room to figure out what we
share and want to do together. Countries are “imagined communities” and
politicians are the ones who represent what we share then figure out the
compromises that enable us to live together in peace…I talked about the “spine
of citizenship”…It meant for government to do what it could to strengthen the
common experiences, sense of shared history and common rights and
responsibilities that make us into a people. It’s only when you’re in politics
that you understand both the divisions of a country and the hunger for unity
that transcends those differences. Politicians have to find ways to articulate
what is common and then build that common life into the fabric of its
institutions.”
Obviously,
municipal politics is not on the same scale, however I have fully realized in
the last year the enormous diversity of opinion out there…and that my role is
to represent all citizens, whether they vote or not…and to find the reasonable
solution that is in the best interest of the greatest number. I appreciate so
much the feedback I get on social media –it helps me to make informed
decisions, but I also appreciate all the people who I speak with every day, who
write notes or call to let me know their thoughts on a particular issue.
I’m convinced that despite
the abysmal turnout during elections, democracy still matters and that the more
informed citizens are about the issues (yes, sometimes they are complex) the
better off we will all be. There is a tendency sometimes for all of us to feel
overwhelmed by the “big, thorny issues”, sometimes the media feeds into this feeling
of apprehension for the future and citizens feel a lack of power and an
inability to change things. But, from what I’ve seen this last year, citizens
have ENORMOUS amounts of power to affect change in our world. In fact, in my
opinion, that is where the great changes are coming from. And of course, I do
think that getting kids involved earlier in citizenship/leadership roles is
absolutely vital to the future of democracy. Kids don’t see any limits to
making the world a better place, so we need to lead by example and free-up
opportunities for the kids to participate.
(Don’t let the
doom and gloom get to you! Not to be the Pollyanna here, but check out Margaret
Wente’s article from Saturday’s Globe
and Mail … there are a lot of ways the world is getting better…sometimes I
know I need to hear this amidst all the negativity.)
I am very positive about
the future of Moncton. We have a lot going for us at the moment with really
strong economic indicators in a lot of sectors…and with the upcoming Economic
Leadership Summit, I’m optimistic that we can come up with some concrete plans
to keep that sustainable growth going. The City is in a solid financial state
(despite all this snow!) and we are benefitting from some excellent leadership
over the years. This last year has seen such a spectacular turnaround on our
river and its vital importance to all of us from tourism, economic, cultural
and just plain pride perspectives...which all bodes well for the ongoing
improvement in our river’s health. Our downtown is on the cusp of great things,
I’m convinced. Right now I’m reading an excellent report on “Financial
Incentive Programs and Strategies that Cities utilize to incite Downtown
Development and assist with the preservation of Heritage Properties”…I’m
looking forward to co-chairing the Downtown Revitalization Committee and
solving three major DT stumbling blocks: parking, unsightly premises and
incentives for DT development and heritage preservation.
There is still a lot of
room for improvement on public transit, but I do think we are slowly moving in
the right direction. I’m looking forward to continuing the improvements and
increasing the $4 million return we get on our $10 million investment. I’m
thrilled that the City was able to tangibly commit to helping to stop the cycle
of poverty through its donation of land for the YWCA’s Home for Her. It seems
that the city will be playing a bigger and bigger role in the reduction of
poverty and economic disparity and looking to the future is vital. According to
the World Bank, a $1 investment today for a child living in poverty will be a
savings of $5 in the future. We simply can’t have kids in our community going
hungry…poverty is NOT an immutable fact of life, rather, in my opinion, it is a
failure of our collective imagination.
We have finally passed our
new Municipal Plan and accompanying Zoning By-Laws…now the challenge will be
the implementation of the excellent ideas in the plan. While this has been a
long time coming, it is so vital for the future of our city and where it will
be in the next 20-50 years and just sets the stage in a very positive way. I
know that planning is vital and we do a lot of it at the City, but now, I
really think that we have enough plans...the time to make some things happen is
now!
So, if you’ve
made it this far, thank you. I will continue in 2014 to be there for you,
trying always to apply my quadruple bottom line to all of my decisions
(economic, social, environmental and cultural) and trying to be a leader,
benefitting from your excellent input. Now, back to my pile of novels, because
fiction, more than anything else, helps me to make sense of my world (since the
role of artists is to articulate the world for us). Happy New Year!
As promised,
here are some quotes from “Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics” by
Michael Ignatieff (Random House, ©2013)
· “Nothing gets you into more trouble
in politics than blurting out the truth.”
· “I
saw my country as an example of civility, tolerance and international
engagement for people the world over.”
· In
his Massey Lecture called “The Rights Revolution”he “tried to define Canada’s political
uniqueness: the fact that we didn’t have capital punishment or a right to bear
arms; that we believed in group rights to protect the French language and
aboriginal title to land; the fact that we believed a woman’s right to choose
should prevail; the fact that a bilingual national experiment, always under
stress, forced us constantly, as a condition of survival, to try to understand
each other and reach common ground. …Compromise was built into our way of doing
politics. Or so I thought.”
· “In
a time of social fragmentation, where we are ever more walled off by class and
income, race, religion and age, where so many people live alone, where the
public square feels deserted, a political party is the place where strangers
come together to defend what they hold in common and to fight in a common
cause.”
· “As
soon as democracy loses its connection to place, as soon as the location of
politics is no longer the union hall, the living room, the restaurant and the
local bar and becomes only the television screen and the website, we’ll be in
trouble…YouTube videos and ads are no substitute for an encounter between real
flesh-and-blood human beings.”
· “In
politics calling a fact a fact can be the equivalent of pulling the pin out of
a hand grenade.”
· “Without
the enthusiasm of volunteers to inspire them, politicians risk becoming the
puppets of their paid strategists.”
· “Compromise
is impossible unless adversaries are open to persuasion.”
· “So
I wouldn’t say our democracy is in difficulty. It is alive and well in
citizens’ hearts, or at least I believe so. Where it isn’t so healthy is in the
place that should be the very temple of our democracy, the House of Commons.”
· “Politicians
have to negotiate trust against the backdrop of permanent dislike of their own
profession. When you represent the people you actually spend most of your time
trying to overcome their suspicion that you have left them behind to join a
brutal game that will do them no good.”
· “The
challenge lies in trying to change what must be changed and preserving what
must be preserved, and knowing the difference between the two.”
· “If
you don’t believe in the ultimate rationality of citizens, you don’t have the
faith needed to make democracy work.”
· “To
enjoy politics and to do it well, you have to believe that you serve everyone,
whether they voted for you or not…To be a good politician is to be responsible
to the people who put you there and to be responsible for your actions.”
