Our next municipal election is just over seven months away and our would-be king makers are starting to get organized. This year we have the usual assortment of regulars, one reinvented group and potentially a new player. It’s time to look at our cast of characters and take a peak at a few of their ideas. It’s also time to bring the uninitiated up to speed on how much of the rhetoric should be taken seriously.
One group that has always been taken pretty seriously is the Eco-Alliance. They’ve been around for a long time and politicians who openly oppose them do so at their own peril. A good example of this is the present spate of letters in the Undercurrent about the proposed Snug Cove Master Plan. The plan went from hot to not in a span of about three weeks.
The Improvement Association that sort of became the Ratepayers Association is about to re-emerge under a new banner. This is also a group that has been around in one form or another for a long time. This time they’re backing off on land use issues and promoting more of a back to basics style of governance. Their appeal for better road maintenance and a more frugal municipal hall will resonate well with the more conservative members of the electorate. You’ll see at least one and possibly several candidates in the next election being actively supported by this grassroots citizens group.
One group that emerged as a major player in the last election was the Save Cape Roger Curtis Society. Their demand for a major park on the Cape was adopted by council and has become a centrepiece of the proposed CRC development. Unfortunately the rest of the development plan has met with considerable opposition. Whether or not the society will be a factor in the next election will depend largely on what the developer proposes between now and then.
Then there are the civic facilities promoters. This is an interesting coalition of very community minded folks from the arts and recreation world. Although the members of this group change and there is no umbrella organization except perhaps the Arts Council, there is always a crew of people trying to talk the community into building a civic facility. It may be a recreation centre or a community hall or a performing arts centre or all three but until something gets built this group will always exist. The current council has spent a lot of money and asked the volunteers on the Civic Facilities Task Force to do a great deal of work to come up with a plan. Their final concept will be presented to council within the next couple of weeks. Debate over the pros and cons of the proposal and questions about financing could become an election issue with candidates being forced to declare whether they’re for or against spending several million dollars on a new municipal facility. The new kids on the block are the eco-density proponents. This is a relatively new concept that advocates high density communities that lower the carbon footprint of those who live within it. The idea is to greatly increase the population within Snug Cove and strictly limit any growth on the rest of the island. The larger population would make more service and retail businesses viable. Access to the businesses would mean that the residents wouldn’t travel to town as often. Higher density in Snug Cove would make public transit more viable, which would mean that fewer residents would need cars. The entire concept is quite revolutionary and maybe ahead of it’s time but it’s proponents appear to be serious about educating Bowen Islanders. It will be interesting to see if this small dedicated group becomes a factor this time around.
Over the next seven months our various groups will lobby to get the brightest and best of their supporters to run for office. They’ll attempt to get the rest us enthused with their issues and they’ll try to get all of the candidates to incorporate their concerns into the candidate’s election platform. And then, at the end of the day, none of it will matter. The electorate will vote for a cross section of candidates based far more on their competence and character than their politics.
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