Incumbents Stack the Deck – Time for Change
I could only smile when I saw the headline in today’s Ottawa Citizen, Watson decries Cullen’s office-paid ads – City official says no election policy breached. This is the second time in as many months that mayoral candidate, Jim Watson, as implied that his opponents are using their office budgets to bolster their own political agendas by disguising it as city business and not electioneering.
Well, at least I’m glad to see the topic is getting some print. Ward challengers have forever complained about the use of office budgets by sitting councillors to “inform” their residents of ward issues. It’s not just coincidence that there are more updates during election years. These updates, called “householders”, are sent to each house in the ward or part of a ward and usually contain the councillors’ face on the front with their name in big letters and again on the back with many pictures of the councillor doing ward things throughout the piece. Since I live in Ward 16, River Ward, I always get a kick out of counting the number of times my councillor uses her name or uses the pronoun “I” in one mail out.
I would like to ask Mr. Watson to propose some guidelines that councillors should follow so as not to give them such an advantage over challengers. Here are some suggestions:
• City of Ottawa should design a template that all information going out from city offices, including councillor offices and mayor offices.
• The number of householders should be limited once the nomination period is open.
• During election years, each householder that goes out after nominations are open should contain the list of nominated candidates in their ward at the time of printing just as the city does on its website. It is only fair that councillors update their ward residents of who running in their ward for the next election. This is important ward information too.
After the 2006 election, council reduced the number of days elections signs can be displayed from the length of the campaign period to thirty. This reduced the number of days non-incumbents can use a very important electoral tool to bolster name recognition. Couple this with the fact that councillors can send out as many householders as they want with their face plastered all over it right up to the close of nominations and you start to get the picture of what Jim Watson is complaining about.
Over to you Jim!
Taxpayer-funded householders are arguable one of the most significant tools available to political incumbents. Bottom line, as long as there are legal loopholes and grey ares, the incumbent will continue to reap the benefit of the doubt. And a bit more. Such has been the landscape of our politics for decades. I suspect, this isn’t going to change any time soon.
SHAME ON YOU JIM
I agree with Fred.
Also non-incumbents should be allowed an extra 30 days to post their signs.
As for those householders…I’d rather see it in print in the local paper, one less thing to recycle or better yet not at all, they just use them to toot their own horns……if people want to learn what’s going on attend a community association meeting or ask for a email of what’s happening.
Don’t forget it maybe coming from their office budget but that money came from your taxes!!
Also how about a cap on their ‘achievements’ otherwise known as the job they were hired to do…only allowed to go back four years.
JOIN THE GANG OF ANGRY TAX PAYERS TODAY AT DALTON McLIAR’S OFFICE 1795 KILBORN AVE NOON TILL 2 HAVE YOUR SAY SIGN PETITION TO ECO TAX
The public school board had a policy in place preventing trustees from using their trustee communication budgets’ (Taxpayer-funded householders – your tax dollars) during election campaigns.
Unfortunately, Trustee Brockington (River Ward Trustee) introduced an amendment to a motion in order to change that. His amendment asked that the following section of the policy be deleted, “In an election year, no constituency communications activities shall occur from September 1 to November 30”.
During the ensuing debate, Trustee Scott noted that trustees who are running should not be using Board funds for advertising. Unfortunately, Riley Brocking disagrees.
The City of Ottawa has a policy that in part reads “In a municipal election year or in the event of a by-election, Corporate resources and Members’ budgets are not to be used to sponsor any advertisements, flyers, newsletters or householders from the day after Nomination Day up to and including Voting Day. “.
Can you imagine the public outrage if the city were to remove that policy.
Fortunately for Trustee Brockington, the public (and media) pay very little attention to school board issues!
Leave your response!
Tags
City Hall Alex Cullen Ottawa Citizen Rob Snow Randall Denley Ottawa HST Maria McRae OC Transpo Larry O'Brien Stephen Harper Tim Hudak Michael Ignatieff Peter Hume Tim Tierney Jim Watson CFRA Ottawa Sun Mathieu Fleury Dalton McGuintyGuest Bloggers
Recent Comments
Most Commented
Ottawa Web Design and Development By Mediavanta