Right in the centre - If not now, when? If not you, then who?

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Published on Monday, July 16, 2018

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner & Press

Those are the questions that should be on everyone’s minds as the summer of 2018 rolls along. This is a municipal election year in Manitoba and it is time for all good people to be thinking about their town or municipal council and who will or should be on that council after election day.

Over the next few weeks, every citizen should be pondering the make-up of their local council. No other level of government affects our daily lives as much as our local councils do, not school boards, not the legislature in Winnipeg, nor the parliament in Ottawa.

So are you satisfied with your reeve, mayor or councilors? If so, that is good, but what about the positions that will be vacated? Not all reeves, mayors or councilors are going to run again. There will be openings. It is also doubtful if everyone is content with their current council members either.

So back to the opening questions posed in the title above, the questions people need to answer in their own mind. Who will run and if not now, when? If not you, then who?

Council positions tend to become a career and that is not always a bad thing but it certainly is not always a good thing. Council positions tend to become held by older people. That is probably because older people may have the time and possibly the experience to do the job. However, one major problem seems to go unnoticed and that is that long-term decisions made by older people are going to have to be paid for by the younger people. Let’s say a council of mostly senior citizens decides to spend money on a project that requires a 20-year debenture (loan). It will be the younger people who will be paying for it longer than the older people. Conversely, let’s say a council of mostly senior citizens decides to not invest in streets, recreation or infrastructure. It won’t be the older people who suffer from a lack of streets, recreation or infrastructure, it will be the younger generation.

So, the message is again pretty simple. Will you run for council? Will you get behind a good candidate? Or will you just sit back and let your area fall apart?

What do I mean, “fall apart?” Very simply, just look at our communities. Are they growing or declining? How many communities do you know that have fewer people and fewer services than they did 10 or 20 years ago? Communities can grow or decline based, at least in part, due to local decisions.

The best thing that could happen to any community, regardless of size is to have a contested election for every position on council and to have many young people running. It would be a real victory for any community to have that happen. It would be a bigger victory to have the average age of some of our councils drop by 10 years or more.

People don’t always realize that decisions are made and they have long-lasting effects. Back in the 1960s, Town of Neepawa mayor Harry Smith made it his mission to install curb and gutter in Neepawa. People fought him on that but he persisted and won. People called him “curb and gutter Harry”. That relatively simple decision set Neepawa apart as the streets are more attractive if a community can afford that expense. A few years ago, Rivers pushed ahead with a new community complex. That was a controversial decision, but few would want to go back on that decision now. People can debate if these examples were a good move or not, but they serve to illustrate that decisions are made locally and need good people to make them.

So for the third time in one column, I say to the citizens of every community within our reach, if not now, when? If not you, then who?