Back To The Future

After attending the candidate’s forum I now have a more impartial view on what strengths the various candidates offer this community. I am probably different than most in my thinking, as I have been trying to find that perfect blend of experience and qualities that can debate but still function. I am not a big fan of wholesale change or stacking the deck too far one way. There are the obvious popular choices that will get elected regardless of what I say and in reality I will be voting for some of them myself they are only human not without fault just like the rest of us. If we are only looking for candidates that have never made a mistake then we will surely be disappointed in less than four years. As far as the Mayors position I believe the popular choice will prevail. He is a safe choice and in time will work out well for the community. Always treats people with respect and is used to dealing with a good cross section of the public. Truthfully there were probably stronger candidates out there (experience wise) but they had no interest in putting their name forward. As far as the other options go I will never support any one who disrespects the citizens of the Crowsnest Pass either through their newsletter or on their blog. When they choose to make light of their behaviour or offer ridiculous explanations I find them even less appealing. You can be honest and speak your mind without personal attacks. So in knowing all this we must fine-tune and look amongst the rest of the candidates for the strengths that will be the foundation for a successful group to lead us. Unfortunately over the last few decades we have either petitioned against or voted out the several councils in an effort to find the perfect group that will not let us down. Throwing out the baby with the bath water. I think they call that the true definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In saying this we may have to live with some of the incumbent councilors as they offer invaluable experience and do represent a segment of the taxpayer. Just as I don’t believe the majority of the candidates would support funding for the Albert Stella arena as they said they would at the forum they will reconsider their pledge when they have to balance a budget Also I don’t believe we will be returning to the past with the fire departments there will still be some form of restructuring. To borrow a quote from John F. Kennedy “ We would like to live as we once lived but history will not permit it”. There is concern about how certain people can work together when there should be concern about councilors working too well together. Being agreeable on all matters doesn’t make for a good council we just came through three years of that Some will say there was debate, well we never seen it until it was too late and the important decisions were not debated enough before the irreparable damage was done. For the record I have already gone on record and supported candidates Dean Ward and Emile Saindon on their blogsites as I personally view them as the strongest candidates in my humble opinion. If you pay attention and listen you see their strengths and faults you definitely know what you are getting. Dean is obviously more seasoned at this and I would say Emile is what you call honest to a fault. As far as my final choices go two of them are actually quite intangible much the same view points just a matter of throwing out the old for the new. Still debating about the Rebranding process and new revelations about how that came about That may be enough to sway my vote. When I start to completely lean the other way it puts too much power base in an organized group so we definitely have a dilemma here. I am not going to tell you how to vote but will ask you at this time to do some research and check our political history I have been doing that and found a fascinating article from the Tuesday October 26/2010 edition of the Crowsnest Pass Herald. The article features Gord Lundy entitled Retiring CAO recalls six years six years in the Pass. After reading it I felt he was fairly optimistic about our future. Where did we go wrong? Peter Rosner