Let your name stand
The 2018 election season kicked off Wednesday with Kyle Sampson’s announcement that he’s running for city council.
Prince George plays its municipal, regional district and school board elections low-key compared to other parts of the province, where there are political parties directly or indirectly involved and candidates announce their intentions much earlier. Sampson is the first one out of the gate so far, just over four months away from voting day on Oct. 20.
It was this week four years ago when former city councillor Don Zurowski announced his candidacy for mayor and Lyn Hall followed a week later. Neither announcement was news because both men had been lining up political and financial support for their campaigns for several months prior to their announcement.
Contrast that to how wretchedly long the unofficial campaigns last leading up to provincial and federal elections. And that’s still a blink of an eye compared to the United States, where campaigning is already in full-swing for the mid-term elections in November. There is already a Donald Trump 2020 campaign team and both Democratic (and Republican?) candidates for president will declare by this time next year.
In Prince George, it seems nobody declares too early for fear of being seen of wanting the job too badly. That’s the right thing to do but for the wrong reason.
For anyone thinking of running for public office this fall, none of these jobs are van- ity positions. All of them require far more of a time and emotional investment than showing up for some meetings, saying yea or nay, collecting that cheque and calling it a day.
If you don’t feel a burning desire to do your part to make your community better, then you shouldn’t run.
If you don’t play well with others and think you already have all the answers so you don’t need to consider the views of others, you shouldn’t run.
If you’re running out of anger because you’ve been hard done by, you shouldn’t run.
If you wouldn’t do it for free, you shouldn’t run.
On the other hand, if you love this community and feel you owe Prince George a far greater debt than it owes you, please consider political service.
If you love the people of this community and want to work for all of them, not just the ones who agree with you or voted for you, please consider political service.
If you are willing to cast a vote on a controversial issue knowing that friends and family will be upset with you but you believe your stance is what’s best for the overall community, please consider political service.
There’s still plenty of time to gather some support, get some signatures for your nomination papers and put your name out there for consideration.
Let nothing but fear and the opportunity to make a difference stop you.