In with the new! In this case, 2018.
Look at it this way; it can’t be any worse than 2017, can it?
Sure, the deranged gentleman who runs North Korea started the year off with a, um, bang, by reminding us that he keeps the nuclear button at his desk at all times.
We can only hope the button’s on a short circuit to his mouth.
Otherwise, there’s nothing we can do about threats from afar.
New Year’s resolution: Disarm Kim Jong-Un.
We can’t even lose 10 pounds, never mind that.
So we should make realistic resolutions we can keep, such as: “have another cup of coffee,” or “buy doughnuts.” If we want to be slightly more ambitious, we could look ahead to Oct. 20, 2018 and resolve to vote in the next municipal election on that date.
If you think about it, you can fulfill all your resolutions by picking up coffee and doughnuts on the way home after voting.
Typically, about one in five people vote in the North Shore’s municipal elections, which is about the same as the number of resolutions that survive until February. Life gets in the way – think of all the Netflix binge-watching that has to get done.
One overlooked feature of voting is that it’s a great way to get other people to solve our problems so we don’t have to solve them ourselves. North Shore traffic is crazy and getting worse; housing gets less and less affordable by the day. There are three councils working on this stuff as we speak. The least we can do is find out who they are, what they propose to do and whether or not we should vote for them on Oct. 20.
Doughnuts may be the nemesis of your annual weight loss resolution, but frustration is the enemy of engagement. We elect all these people in the city and the districts to take care of traffic, etc. and it only seems to get worse.
Counterintuitively, we don’t hold them accountable and even bother to show up and vote.
Remember that both North Van District Mayor Richard Walton and West Van District Mayor Michael Smith were elected by acclamation in 2014. That means they were the only candidates applying for the job. Smith was also acclaimed in 2011. The evidence suggests he’s the only guy who wants to be mayor of West Vancouver, one of the nicest places on earth.
Walton, meanwhile, has just been re-elected co-chair of the TransLink Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, at a time when both provincial and federal governments are aligned to support the mayors’ TransLink initiative. He’s a very important guy in a very important place. I have a lot of respect for Richard Walton, but his leadership was not endorsed by voters in 2014.
So we have a situation where two out of three mayors did not face the electorate last election and a little more than 20 per cent of the electorate voted. What’s wrong with this picture?
Instead of voting, we’re stuck in traffic. Instead of voting, we’re looking for a place to live in Chilliwack because a home in the ’hood costs $1,000 a square foot. Instead of voting, we’re taking to all channels to complain about the lousy job our politicians are doing about traffic and affordable housing.
The truth is most of us have no idea what our politicians, specifically the locals, are doing about traffic and affordable housing. This calls for a resolution that we pledge to keep at least until Oct. 20.
The great thing about this resolution is that it can’t be derailed by doughnuts. It doesn’t matter how fat and out-of-shape you are on Oct. 20 as long as you can still mark the little boxes with X.
Of course, it helps to know who the candidates are, what they stand for and their track record, if they have one. I have to admit, even for me, when I’m in the voting booth there’s a temptation to vote for school trustees in order of appearance on the ballot.
This year, I resolve to know them all if not all about them when I turn up to vote. I also resolve to share that information with you, dear reader, on the run up to Oct. 20.
I can only hope that you resolve to continue reading. It’s not fattening either.
Journalist and communications consultant Paul Sullivan has been a North Vancouver resident since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Madonna. p.sullivan@breakthroughpr.com
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