There’s a Federal election in the air – sure at the moment it’s just a whiff, but with hints of June dropped recently you never know.
While our riding chose Guy Lauzon by a large percentage of a tiny apathetic vote, were those numbers based on Mr. Lauzon’s popularity or on a lack of support for Liberal leader Stephan Dion?
Cornwall, and this riding have many challenges and need strong leadership. The candidate should be able to bring our concerns to Parliment and to communicate strongly and support the local community.
While I personally feel Mr. Lauzon has failed in a multitude of ways even I have to admit that for him to lose there has to be a very viable alternative.
So for months now we’ve been conducting a poll of potential rivals to Guy Lauzon.
Please note that these numbers are not scientific and in fact are not accurate 19 times out of 20.
So far the over riding winner of any vote against Mr. Lauzon has been Cornwall City Coucillor Bernadette Clement.
What we’re hearing about this bright spitfire is that she’s energetic; genuinely cares about people; is frighteningly bilingual; and has much better rudimentary arithmatic skills than the numerically challenged Mr. Lauzon. Since the Liberal leadership change the numbers are showing that she’d win by a margin similar to that which Mr. Lauzon just received.
Darlene Jalbert of the NDP also has strong numbers, but so far has not clearly shown numerically that she can beat Mr. Lauzon. She has a lot of strong qualities that you like in a candidate but comments have come in that she doesn’t have enough local coverage and a few people were not excited by her last campaign. Her numbers were still very strong against Mr. Lauzon and much better than the last election results.
My dog Melly. While response was positive on the whole most people noted that she is in fact a dog, and while her counting skills were on par with Mr. Lauzon’s this riding just isn’t ready yet for a canine candidate. Also, Melly’s politics lean a bit too far to the left for Cornwall.
Tom Manley. A lot of people like Mr. Manley. He ran against Mr. Lauzon and has lost though and many people hold losing against a politician. An interesting candidate.
The fact is that this riding, whoever is running, needs a better voter turnout. I hope that in the next election all the candidates get themselves out and raising the total vote numbers.
And I hope that the candidates focus on the real issues like the economy and stopping the destruction of the Medicare system in Canada.
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Followers need leaders.
The challenge is not to rely on others, take up the torch and run with it yourself.
Run as a team if you need support,… but if you start “following the leader”, you abdicate authority and delegate responsibility to others.
The freedoms of thought, conscience, speech, and the press didn’t come from following leaders; it came from the spirit of our forebears that disdained and left the authorities of the old world behind. It came from critical and independent thought and individual activism.
Following… that’s just shirking the obligations of freedom.
Some of our politicians are a problem, but the greater problem is that they get elected. That means instead of being creators of these situations, voters need to be the solution.
Your over simplified solution is to get someone elected, sure…. but expose the crooks and incompetents for what they are beforehand. And that is not griping.
Perhaps the greatest problem, and one that you’ve inadvertantly highlighted, is this idea of getting “someone you like” elected. Someone you like? It’s not supposed to be a popularity contest. Let’s concentrate on honesty and competence.
Sad to say but your choice falls into that group. She’s likeable and tries to appease, and accommodate… and well, she’s a diplomat at best, but not someone to hang hopes on as an MP, MPP, or even mayor. And all the good intentions she may have do not make up for her lack of knowledge of government.
I’ll give you a little example. During a council meeting to decide on going ahead with the arena and land purchase she actually said… “this is a democracy and I have to go along with the majority” (she said this before casting her vote, as justification for her vote). She does not even understand democracy; you go along with the majority after a vote for heaven’s sake, not before — that’s what voting is for.
And she rises to speak often without even knowing enough about an issue to discuss it intelligently, and instead simply throws around warm, fuzzy, inclusive cliches meant to promote herself as some kind of peacemaker (I’m afraid she looks like someone schmoozing for votes).
Trent it’s easy to sit and type anonymously. To stand in the public is a different thing. See this isn’t a perfect world. People do vote for people they like and likability is a factor in all elections.
Just like people would never actually vote for an “honest” politician. People vote for people who reflect their values and goals and sadly some people have few of either so we end up with some very bad politicians.
My point is that nothing will ever change unless you get involved in the process. A goal of having 10 well informed people of super integrity and intellect as our 10 City Councilor’s is just not going to happen. Many of the councilors elected are there to serve the people; people being those that DONATE to the campaigns and help them get elected. It’s a circle.
During the last Federal election the Green party ran without taking donations in our riding and their candidate had a super message and did well in the debates. Where did he end up in the voting?
Mr. Lauzon had the weakest performance of any of the candidates short of poor Dwight Dugas; but he had money and support behind him not to mention the local media in his pocket. He won by a landslide in an apathetically low turn out.
So Mr. Tulip. If you want change you have to work to make it happen and be patient. Go to City Council meetings; email and phone councilors and city hall. Post on all the papers boards and get out and support candidates you “like”.
Frankly I think Ms. Clement to be one of the ablest local politicians who has a lot of super qualities that a successful candidate needs in our community.
She’s 100% bilingual. She works hard and actually does some good in the community, and I don’t think her politics are too far to one side or the other.
I also think that she can work with others and make this area better than it is whether she works at City; Federal, or Provincial levels.
That’s just my opinion and as you can see we’re big on opinions around here as we just let yours hit the net.
Yes I sit and type anonymously. But I also stand up in public.
There is a time and place for each.
And opinions are OK if they are backed up, and frankly the quote and behaviour that I witnessed at city council clearly indicates that the strengths of one particular city councillor are definitely not favourable as the head of a governing body.
But of course a body has many parts. I’m certain there are other more suitable roles. She would be an able spokesperson, a team builder, a sounding board and individual that can add sober second thought to a discussion.