The City of Flin Flon is not enemy number one.
Yes, you may not agree with everything they do. Yes, your property taxes and utility bills are going up. And yes, chances are on your way to work today you will be detoured around yet another giant hole in the road.
But honestly, some of the venom being spewed toward our municipal government is more than over the top; it’s shameful. From Facebook to restaurant tables, many residents’ favourite pastime is picking apart the city in the most petty ways imaginable.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for open debate. To question one’s government, to hold its feet to the fire and to criticize it with an analytical mind, is a hallmark of a strong democracy.
Questions
Indeed I have heard many city-focused rants produce some interesting, valid questions.
Why does the city have such a haphazard repaving schedule? Why can’t spending decline with population? Why is the provincially paved main drag through town still in such good shape many years after the fact while some city-paved roads look like war zones?
I don’t know the answers to those queries. But I do know that when condemnation of the city turns personal – as it inevitably does in the fishbowl environment of our community – I have no time for it.
Flin Flon is coming up on what will likely be a highly charged civic election. Issues such as taxes, seniors’ housing, crime and maintaining population will be among the key issues.
I would love nothing more than to see the public dialogue stick with those issues and stray from personal attacks and conjecture.
The candidates deserve no less. The same goes for us as a community.
