If I Run For Mayor...

It's been a strange fortnight, punctuated by unprecedented power-outage and startling late-summer heat here and in Europe, fueling fear that France's vineyards may not survive what the French now term "le canicule" -- the dog day that can kill.

Few commentators link Can-Am electric woes and our shared dependency upon Middle Eastern Oil and nuclear reactors of dubious merit. Few note that the system, as constituted, is as anachronistic as its antiquated circuits. How--for starters--can power company monopolies from the "old" culture work in our global free market economy?

We also see Canada carrying George W. Bush's burden in Afghanistan, pledging to help rebuild that benighted (and forgotten) land. Rebuild how? What? What sort of nation does the U.S. envisage to replace warlords and the Taliban? And Iraq? And the Saudis?

In Canada, Jean Chretien played golf through the outage, Ernie Eves and his Tories flip-flopped on barbecues, and Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman whined. The politicians recall California during the Enron crisis. Smaller centres were left pretty much on their own.

Now we behold the gubernatorial recall circus in California, proving again--as Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger knows--these days anyone can run for office.

So, why not here? If I run for mayor…

• I will work with Council to identify two or three big things to accomplish. These items will play to Kingston's strengths, as well as its needs, by emphasizing professional and entrepreneurial strengths, within a progressive and compassionate framework.
  
  
• Our May-October focus as a tourist mecca requires sharpening. What might we do to enhance that standing? Might Block D serve that focus, or at least part of it? Has the time come to tear down the Memorial Centre, sell that land, and build a new waterfront centre?
  
  
• We must strengthen our infrastructure, in technological and spiritual ways. We must repair what needs to be repaired, remove what needs to be removed, and --most important -- seek enterprise to add real jobs for people, not the contract and sessional/seasonal work we see so often now.
  
  
• We need to involve Kingstonians more than we do in thinking about the city's future and what is possible in creative endeavour. We need different groups in the city to respect each other, and difference and diversity generally. We need a civil city council and--yes--an end to the hoary ward system. Open elections would energize Kingston.
  
  

These are modest proposals. We are fortunate that they are.

Get informed about Kingston electoral issues at http://www.kingstonelectors.ca.