Time always on Ken Seiling’s side over 33-year tenure
“While a painter’s medium is paint, a politician’s medium is time,” writes former federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff in his political memoir “Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics.”
“What we call luck in politics is actually a gift for timing, for knowing when to strike and when to bide your time and wait for a better opportunity,” Ignatieff observes. “When politicians blame their fate on bad luck, they are actually blaming their timing.”
Ignatieff had spectacularly bad luck/ timing in leading the federal Liberals to a historic defeat in the 2011 general election. But he knows what he’s talking about: time is the most precious commodity a politician can possess.
And few Canadian politicians have been more blessed than Ken Seiling.
As his historic 33-year tenure as regional chair comes to an end next week, it’s time to consider his remarkable longevity, and how it’s affected our region.
Let’s begin with the obvious. He was a steamroller at the ballot box.
Seiling was first elected councillor in Woolwich in 1976, then mayor in 1978 and acclaimed three more times. He was appointed regional chair in 1985, 1988, 1991 and 1994 by his fellow councillors. When the position became popularly elected in 1997, he pulled off six more consecutive wins. Most times he garnered 70 per cent or more of the popular vote running against a dubious collection of cranks, mumblers and no-hopers; real competitors knew enough to stay away.
The only time his support dipped as low as 59 per cent was in 2014, when his main challenger spent nearly $250,000 (four times Seiling’s budget) and had the lever of the LRT controversy.
This remarkable string of successes was largely due to Seiling’s embodiment of traditional Waterloo Region values such as frugality, hard work and community participation.
Frugal? Hard-working? When your correspondent offered to buy him lunch anywhere he wanted, Seiling chose the cafeteria at regional headquarters. We then carried our trays back to his office and got down to work.
And no one has ever attended more plaque presentations, ribbon cuttings and other small-scale celebrations than Seiling. “The joke is that I’ll go to any event,” he admits.
Yet Seiling doesn’t hog the media spotlight or engage in publicity stunts. The ratio of Ken-in-the-flesh sightings to Kenon-the-news sightings is the inverse of most other politicians.
“You can get sick of some politicians very quickly,” observes John Milloy, a former Ontario cabinet minister and now director of the Centre for Public Ethics in Martin Luther University College at Laurier. “So a low-profile person who just gets things done can have a certain appeal to the electorate.”
This grassroots appeal gave Seiling the freedom to permanently set aside re-election worries. “The fact that Ken was always fairly secure in his position meant he was able to think about getting things done over the long term,” says Milloy. “And that’s a huge luxury for any politician.”
Few politicians can measure their time horizon in decades. How might Ontario Premier Doug Ford change his controversy-heavy, go-fast approach to governing if he knew he’d still be premier 33 years from now?
“During my political life, I have always spent a lot of time trying to figure out how various scenarios might play out,” Seiling says. “And sometimes it gets frustrating when things don’t seem to be moving fast enough, but that just gives you more time to bring other people along with you.”
This trademark patience has allowed Seiling to engage in the sort of ambitious, large-scale planning that now defines Waterloo Region, the most obvious being 2003’s Regional Growth Management Plan. Long-term transit, water and waste policies have been established with remarkable consistency and forethought, sheltered from the vagaries of political upheaval.
And while it’s possible to disagree with many of Seiling’s innovations on cost, concept or impact on personal freedom, there’s no denying the achievements.
Seiling was able to nurture the LRT concept for years until senior levels of government finally caught the transit-funding bug and made it possible. A less patient politician fretting over re-election chances might have forced the issue years earlier, with less-favourable results.
The recent and surprising uptick in green bin usage following the shift to every-other-week garbage pickup is further evidence of his patient approach. (Although it’s left residents with a greater-than-desirable familiarity with the breeding habits of maggots.)
There are times, however, when a hard sell is necessary. Seiling’s quiet diplomacy has failed to remedy the closed-shop scandal that still plagues Waterloo Region — forcing it into unnecessarily expensive contracts with unionized firms on major construction projects. If change does come here, it will be due to Ford’s sledgehammer style of government.
“My guiding principle in politics has always been that you’ve got to cross that bridge twice,” Seiling says. “So it doesn’t make sense to burn it going one way.” Preparing to cross the bridge one last time, however, he still refuses to say anything incendiary on the closed-shop issue. Or anything else for that matter.
As a great painter wields paint, Ken Seiling has proven himself a great politician through his patient mastery of time. Here’s wishing him an equally long and productive retirement.