The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
To idealists, municipal elections represent the purest form of democracy. Untainted by party politics and attack ads, civic campaigns, they believe, centre around ideas, not trivialities. Only in La-La Land does this sentiment ring entirely true. Here in reality, local elections Ð including those in Flin Flon Ð can turn on factors having little or nothing to do with a candidate's actual platform. "I know him" or "I like her" are two common rationales I hear when residents discuss their voting intentions. And on the surface, you can hardly blame them for instinctively thinking this way. This is the down side of small-town elections. They sometimes, if not most times, appear to be more about personal popularity than cerebral debates over the direction of a community. In practice, merely knowing or liking a candidate is a poor indicator of how he or she will perform in local government. You can love a candidate to pieces all you want, but unless you believe in their ideas for the future of this city, they have not earned your vote. To be sure (and fair), many voters are quite astute and will base their checkmarks on the what matters. But as Flin Flon's debt piles up, as its ratepayer base shrinks, as many of its tax rates soar, and as its primary employer looks to downsize and shift jobs two hours away, it has never been more essential for all voters to put policies before personalities. In the candidate profiles that have permeated The Reminder this week, a smorgasbord of goals has been identified: newer sewer lines, better health care, improved safety, broader business expansion, enhanced transparency, you name it. Spending A key issue for all voters should be the state of municipal spending. Much concern (rightfully) exists that City Hall cannot continue draining more and more dollars from fewer and fewer taxpayers. Revenues taken in by the previous council in 2005 totalled $8.3 million. Just five years later, the 2010 budget is worth $10.5 million, meaning costs are rising an average of $440,000 a year. Meanwhile, between 2001 and 2006 Flin Flon's population plunged by 431 people, or seven per cent. You don't have to be a mathematician to know something's gotta give. No surprise then that retiring city councillor Dave Kennedy, long a voice of fiscal conservatism, recently opined that one job for the next council will be to address the expense, not revenue, side of the ledger. "I mean, it really has to," he emphasized. What's ironic is that in 2007, our present council went out of their way to chastise the Flin Flon School Board for not doing more to cut costs as student numbers fall. In a letter to trustees, council alleged that the board "seems to be falling behind somewhat" in reducing the appropriate teaching staff. Why does the school board's budget keep going up while its enrollment keeps going down? It's a fair question. But it's just as fair to ask council why they can never make due with even a level budget despite having fewer citizens to serve. Council might argue that their situation is different, that their hands are tied by the fact they must maintain the same services whether Flin Flon has 12,000 people or 5,000. But we cannot forever relegate population size to the heap of extraneousness. If a city keeps bleeding citizenry, at some point its elected officials must acknowledge that the services and staff of yesteryear have to be narrowed or eliminated because they are unaffordable. Others will argue that present spending levels are within our means, that property taxes can rise further and still be reasonable, and that boosting budgets year after year is acceptable as long as the money is spent wisely. And some voters don't even have spending on their radar. They're more worried about affordable housing, crime, and the environment. Which is why ideas are what truly matter in this and every election. Read up on the candidates. Stop them on the street and ask them where they stand. If you're so inclined, phone them at home (you assume the risk of upsetting them, not me!). On Oct. 27, let's put policies ahead of personalities. The next four years of our precious community are at stake. Local Angle runs Fridays.
