What matters to me is vision, the name of the blog should be a give away about that. It drives me nuts that in this region people are content to just sort of plod along with the status quo and only Colin Plant is not that sort of person, he has a vision of where he wants Saanich to be in 30 years.mildly tweaking what is done from time to time. Councils put more energy into a subdivision proposal than thinking about where they want the city to be in a generation and how to get there.
I first met with Colin in early July for a coffee because he was recommended to me by someone for whom I have a lot of respect. I met a smart and capable man that obviously saw Saanich needs change. He had some serious ideas about what that change needs to be. The man I met did not live down to his website, he was so much better a candidate than the sunshine and puppy dogs direction the website took.
In local elections almost all the candidates use one of two sets of words to say why they are running. It is very easy for everyone to sound roughly the same. There is one set that want to just slightly improve on the current status quo because things are so great - they want to improve livability, deal with affordable housing, talk about sustainability, and etc blah, blah, blah. All puppy dogs and sunshine but really meaningless. The second set are there because they are angry about one thing, normally their taxes though it can be a specific development.
Neither approach is a well thought vision for the future and that is where Colin Plant is different than so many others running especially most of the current council. Thankfully he has changed his website and expresses himself much better.
There is a single line on his home page that really speaks to me:
"I want to help make Saanich the greatest and greenest place in Canada to live."That to me is the strongest vision I have heard anyone make in a council race in this region. He knows where he wants Saanich to go.
The current council are not a bad set of people I just think overall they have become lost in the minutia of the day to day and can not see the bigger picture. Council meetings seem more like the board meetings of an apolitical not for profit than an energetic government. This should be obvious, without a clear long term goal there is no way to reach it. And yes, I have read the OCP and I do not think it is a seriously long term vision for Saanich,
The staff of Saanich are there to run the day to day and make sure things work, it is council that is there to set the clear direction especially for the long term. I think Colin will be the person that can get council to lift up their heads and think bigger and better.
If you live in Saanich, please cast one of your ballots for Colin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just a reminder, if you have someone you really like in one of the local races, write up why you like them and I will post on the blog
No comments:
Post a Comment