HEAVEN: A magical evening of unicorns, double rainbows, and...er...reasoned democratic discourse
By Adrian Barnes
Thursday evening around forty Rosslanders gathered at the Old Firehall to do a little speed dating with nine of the ten candidates for our upcoming municipal election. Mayor Granstrom, although invited, neither responded nor attended. So much, I have to say, for both accountability and leadership on that front.
The event, ably hosted by Kelly McLean, went smoothly and all the feedback indicated that attendees and candidates alike enjoyed themselves and their conversations.
Being busy handing out FREE beer and wine that the Telegraph paid for in its ongoing attempts to lubricate the creaky wheels of local democracy (it was called Beers ‘n Ballots, after all…), I didn’t get to spend a lot of time in the conversation groups, but the vibe as I flitted from table to table was decidedly convivial.
Anecdotally, the two biggest topics of conversation appeared to have been--not surprisingly--the infamous Delegation Bylaw that gave dictatorial powers to CAOs Victor Kumar and Cecile Arnott (Are she here? She are not) and...somewhat surprisingly...the lack of a recreation deal with Trail that sees young families paying through the nose for culture and sport opportunities down the hill.
But more than any issue that got aired, I saw value in the airing. An incumbent or two might have had reason to be apprehensive about facing a crowd that, frankly, showed up because they were sick of the way this city has been run for the last three years. However, the reality was that this outraged mob was just a bunch of intelligent, open-hearted folk who just wanted a chance to talk.
That’s all...talk. And all the angry, hurt feelings went away. (That was the double rainbow portion of the evening)
And so what I took from Beers ‘n Ballots was this: we need to demand that the new council commit to making themselves available for informal conversations on a monthly or bimonthly basis. Andrew Zwicker has floated a ‘ski with me’ idea and Kathy Moore has mentioned the idea of a ‘go for a walk with the mayor’ approach. These are the ideas we need...and more.
During the last two elections I covered the central issue each time was communication. All candidates pledged to be good little communicators but this last time, we got nothing but circled wagons.
But as it turns out, nothing but good comes from talking and I think that the candidates and the citizenry proved that last night. More please!
NOTE: I’d be grateful to any attendees--candidates or plebes--who would be willing to share their own thoughts or experiences of the evening. If you write a quick note/letter and send it to me at , we’ll publish it and, by doing so, try to keep the conversation alive up until election day and beyond...
Adrian Barnes is the editor of the Rossland Telegraph and president of Lone Sheep Publishing.