Message to my Constituents

Every once in a while I am asked the question, "Exactly what does a councillor do?"

Of course I try to give as complete an answer as possible, so I may say something like: "Well, the agenda for our next meeting includes a request for another crossing guard at a local school, an application to permit a special sign along a major road, the amendment of a zoning by-law, the discussion of a neighbourhood traffic plan, the allocation of water supply to a new development, a proposal to construct a bikeway..." and so on and on and on. Of course, by this time my questioner's eyes are glazing over, and the expression on the rest of his face suggests regret at having asked anything!

I do not mean to imply in the least that the councillor's work is boring. It isn't! But it is incredibly varied and, for me, that makes it interesting, and personally rewarding. I say that because I agree with something written by Vaclav Havel, the Czech writer who was jailed by the Communists and who - after the collapse of Communism in eastern Europe - became the president of Czechoslovakia. He wrote:

"I favour anti-political politics…That is, politics not as the technology of power and manipulation of computerized rule over humans, or as the art of the useful, but politics as practical morality, as service to the truth, as essentially human and humanly measured care for our fellow humans...an approach which, in this world, is extremely impractical and difficult to apply" [emphasis mine].

Yes, such politics is extremely impractical and difficult to apply. Nevertheless, Havel succeeded over the course of his term of public service.

As your councillor I hope to do the same.

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