On a recent Tuesday evening, I attended the All Candidates Meeting at the Wolf Auditorium organized by Women Your Votes Count and the Urban League.
Sincere appreciation should go to these two groups for their time and effort in presenting the candidates for London mayor.
What the candidates presented us with, however, was a Gong Show.
One candidate went on at length about his past and current difficulties with the London police (including incarceration) and abruptly left the auditorium after the first round of questions. Perhaps he heard a siren?
Another candidate, for the moment living out of his car to better involve himself in his chosen community, is commended for his commitment to actively live out a vision of Christian charity, but is this sufficient qualification for the position of mayor of an important industrial city of 380,000 people?
Yet another candidate would have us believe that London was founded by and for white Europeans of Anglo-Saxon descent. It was unclear how he fits into this definition. It was an interpretation of the city’s documents of incorporation that effectively erased London’s historic black community and the First Nations people who ceded their land so John Graves Simcoe might choose this site on Antler River.
Still another candidate demonstrated his singular unsuitability for the position of mayor by his discourteous treatment of the female moderator of the event and the incumbent mayor, who also happens to be female. Times have changed. It was disturbing to witness his regressive backtalk, and raises questions about how the women with whom this gentleman would have to work as mayor might be treated as well as how issues perceived to pertain to women, such as quality, accessible daycare, might be received.
In short, what ought to have been a thoughtful and serious discussion about a shared vision for the city that serves the community of people who live here, well, was instead a sometimes hateful display of self-serving, self-interest.
This is not to condemn the candidates en masse. There are also clearly capable candidates with ideas that deserve a good hearing running for mayor.
Unfortunately, much time was wasted attending to personal hobbyhorses that are either irrelevant to the community or will not serve it well, so there was little time remaining to hear out those with a broader vision. The audience must assume some responsibility for this as well, as it was apparent that a vocal number of those in attendance had deliberately brought their own limited agenda to the event.
There are 15 candidates running for mayor. Thank goodness they didn’t all show up to this event or we would have heard no one out. However, we should not have 15 candidates running for mayor. As one candidate says online, “I don’t want to complain, it only cost me $200,” or as another candidate said last night, “I paid my $200.”
Running for mayor should not be equivalent to Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame.
One of the better questions asked at the forum was, “What will be your first action when you take office as mayor?” I would like to suggest it ought to be amending the municipal election procedures.
Taking office as mayor of the London is a serious undertaking that requires a serious commitment. The voting public has a right to expect respectful, inclusive discussion of the important matters that concern us all as citizens of this city. Democratic discourse is debased and democratic participation is discouraged when precious public meeting time is wasted on folks who are poorly prepared and ill-equipped to offer the kind of leadership needed.
Steps need to be taken so that a more substantial deposit than $200 is required to toss one’s hat in the ring. In addition, pre-existing public support for the candidacy needs to be demonstrated, perhaps by way of a minimal endorsement of 100 signatures of voting-age residents identified by city address.
If this is beyond the scope of our city government, it’s time to push the provincial government for a serious amendment of the Municipal Elections Act.
Jan Pennycook is second-year PhD student in The University of Western Ontario’s Faculty of Education.