This post was prompted as a response to an article appearing in the Chronicle Herald on September 11 titled ‘They huffed and puffed, but Kelly’s critics failed to find a rival’.
With the closing of the nomination period for local elections of Halifax Regional Municipality councilors and mayor, a number of articles and blogs are lamenting the absence of candidates from Citizens for Halifax. Yesterday’s article in the Chronicle Herald and a blog post from Tim Bousquet of The Coast are two examples.
As a Citizens For Halifax board member (and at the risk of drawing out the critics) I would like to take this opportunity to dispel some of the myths about Citizens for Halifax and its agenda in regards to municipal elections.
The overarching goal and mission of the CFH society has always been to ‘build the most vibrant and livable city in Canada’. To accomplish this goal, it would appear that the best way is by striving to ensure that the people who make the decisions about the city:
- share this vision, and
- are well suited to pursue it, and
- are afforded the opportunity and resources to do so once in council.
Hence, you will notice the apparent orientation of CFH is to focus primarily on HRM issues related to council, council members, candidacy, and elections.
The group formed in late 2007 as a direct community response to a growing frustration with the handling of city affairs. If you remember, 2007 was ripe with controversy for city council, with frequent headlines criticizing discussions related to cat bylaws and chickens on one end of the spectrum, to the Celine Dion debacle and the handling of the Commonwealth Games on the other end of the spectrum. It appeared that council had lost direction and is no longer working on the big picture items that are vital for HRM’s growth and the prosperity of its residents.
From the outset, skeptics of CFH raised two important questions:
- 1 What are the intentions/agenda of CFH (i.e. which issues will you promote in council), and
- 2 Will CFH run their own slate of candidates for municipal elections
In terms of an ‘agenda’, the issues CFH is promoting to council are publicly listed the CFH website (Click here to see the seven CFH statements). They are a result of various public engagement sessions held over several months leading to the summer AGM where members gathered to vote on adopting these position statements. Identifying these issues is no stroke of genius. After all, any resident of Halifax agrees that taxes are too high, public transit is unsatisfactory, and that council is too rural or too urban focused (depends on who you are talking to).
Contrary to some opinions that the ‘H’ in CFH stands only for peninsular Halifax and does not include the concerns of all member of HRM, a crowning big-ticket item on CFH’s agenda is the apparent urban/rural divide on council. This divide is causing a tremendous amount of inefficiency and territorial infighting on council, and dissatisfaction of residents in all areas of HRM who feel that progress on issues affecting their area of residence is extremely slow.
Such stalemate on council is counterproductive to creating ‘the most livable city in Canada’ within our foreseeable future. Many CFH members who reside outside the urban centers of HRM are therefore determined to ensure that ALL members of city council are committed to addressing the urban/rural issue, and that the candidate(s) have a clear plan and intention on resolving it within the next municipal governance cycle.
If a candidate’s platform doesn’t address the deadlock caused by the difference in rural and urban priorities on council, then HRM residents will be hard pressed to believe that this candidate is aware of the needs of the general public and the political advocacy work that will be required to resolve the root of the issue. Such candidate is more likely to to serve their term on council with no significant contribution to the future vision of HRM. The same logic would apply for candidates who feel that public transit in HRM is adequate, or that the existing tax structure is a fair reflection of services received in each municipality of HRM.
Residents of HRM must demand that each candidate (rural and urban) show a clear understanding and plan for addressing each issue as it relates to the future of this great city. Taxes, transportation, sustainability, development, and arts and culture are top priorities of majority citizens and should therefore be top priorities for the next municipal cycle. Cats, fireworks, and booking concerts may not be the best use of time for HRM’s highest municipal governing body. After all, if council is not discussing and working towards the big vision, who else will?
This brings us to the question of whether CFH intended to slate people for council and mayor. CFH received much heat from critics and some members of the media when a CFH public meeting queried participants about running a CFH-endorsed slate of candidates and mayor. Frequent comments from critics noted concerns about ‘lackey’ councillors and a puppet council. Various unattributed hidden agendas suddenly materialized as the ‘unannounced evil goals of Citizens For Halifax’. The society sustained many attempts at discreditation, painting its members as ‘elitists’ or ‘development-alists’
who are far removed from what the ‘real’ residents of HRM are asking for.
Ironically, current headlines are now looking at Citizens for Halifax as having ‘let down the public’ by ‘failing’ to produce candidates for mayor and city council.
Regardless of controversy, CFH will continue to encourage qualified candidates to run and will lend its support and resources to any candidate who agrees to pursue some or all seven areas of priority (identified by CFH members) during their term on council. CFH will work with existing council members to ensure that priority council-time is being devoted to the big goals and creating the most livable and vibrant city in Canada, in this lifetime.
Muhammad:
Sarfaraz:
Cheap hosting Canada:
Window Glass Replacement:
Best Man Gifts:
Jane Novak:
Paula Deschamp: