A threshold
The public are right to ask whether some council candidates are actually serious
Democracy is a wonderful thing and it is important that our elected officials represent a true cross-section of the community. A professional political class – where the ranks of elected officials are largely made up of people whose entire career experience relates directly to getting into parliament, leaves decision-makers even more out of touch with those who they are supposed to represent.
We also should want to avoid a situation such as the US where the highest offices in the land are essentially the exclusive playground of the ultra-wealthy or accessible only to those who have millions of dollars in their bank accounts.
True grassroots candidates generally are found at the council level where virtually everyone has already had at least one career in a totally unrelated field.
It still takes a solid bank account to get elected, but with spending caps on divisional and mayoral candidates now in place, these offices remain within reach.
Some will take issue with incumbent mayor Tom Tate’s comments about dramatically increasing the nomination fee for the mayoralty to prevent last-minute candidates or those who might not be mounting serious campaigns from entering the race. However, there are a large number of people who will be in strong agreement with Mr Tate.
Even those who oppose Mr Tate or want to see fresh blood in council have decried the quality of candidates on offer for the city’s top job.
That some have not even bothered to get how-to-vote cards or signage sorted with less than two weeks to go is telling.
Equally so is the dearth of ideas or vision being presented for voters.
It seems absurd that anyone would put themselves forward without either having any particular vision for the city or even being able to articulate it.
While nobody would want to see council or the mayoral in the same situation as a state or federal seat, there surely should be some threshold to weed out people who are potentially wasting the electorate’s time and taking up space on the ballot sheet for no clear reason.
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