What makes a Great Politician?
I spent this past weekend in the city of Waterloo, as an invited guest for the final installment of TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, On The Road. (I’ll have more to say on this topic later)
What an amazing day! Instead of the small handful of “usual suspects” (which includes myself, BTW) the Windsor AgendaCamp attracted, highlighted by the glaring lack of political representation, Waterloo was Utopia! Within the first half hour, I was talking with Waterloo’s Mayor Brenda Halloran and Minister of the Crown (Reasearch and Innovation) John Wilkinson! And these weren’t just fluff conversations, either! Each one of them spent a good 15 minutes with me (Mayor Halloran came back and did an interview on tape with me later as well) discussing the events of the day as well as their experiences in office. Later on, Mark Whaley, Waterloo’s ward 5 city councillor, got in touch with me and we also had a great discussion (which was unfortunately lost because of technical difficulties) These folks didn’t just show up for the televised broadcast when the cameras were rolling (like our councillors and labour leaders did in Windsor), they stayed the entire 8 hour day, participating and listening to the thoughts and ideas all the participants had to say.
My point being: why do us Windsorites seem to have such a difficult time communicating with our local elected representatives? I’ve never had a one-on-one with Mayor Francis and the vast majority of city councillors, yet I’ve had great discussions with mayors and councillors from all over southwestern Ontario for my work with ScaleDown. Here, we are treated as liabilities: things to avoid, rather than people to include. This just isn’t right!
So, TVO’s The Agenda is asking you this; What Makes A Great Politician? This Thursday’s episode is dedicated to answering this question, which came from a viewer. Your Agenda will take some of the comments made on the site and pose them during the televised episode.
An excerpt:
“I started wondering, political bent aside, what are the characteristics of a great politician? Who were the greatest politicians? Who are the greatest politicians today? What make them so?I would love to see a show attempt to tackle the issue of what makes a great politician. Possibly shining lights on local, provincial or national level politicians from all over the world (to the extent possible) who are seen to be ‘great’ and what it is that makes them so effective. Is it image, results, ideology, moral character?
What are people’s thoughts?”
I’ve met some great politicians. You know the ones; they give off an air of caring, of participating in the arena of public discourse for their love of the community and not the power it brings. They are open and inquisitive. They welcome the thoughts, cares and concerns of their constituents and do their utmost to address them. I met one the other day in Mayor Halloran, and she gave me hope that not all politicians hide behind their lawyer’s confidentiality agreements while participating in back-room deals.
This is something we’ve come to expect in our beloved city, and that’s one of the worst things that could ever happen to Windsor!
So tell us, and TVO, what makes for a great politician to you?
Post Feedback
not being able to communicate with our elected officials says volumes about the the state of our city. how wrong is it that i can communicate more easily with the mayor of toronto than with my own mayor? there is something seriously wrong with our community and how it is goverened when those we have elected to represent us are no longer doing so or at least we have the feeling that they are not. citizens feel like they can no longer contribute and feel defeated because they have no voice. it is truly a sad state.
Just some thoughts…
A politician is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making.
Positive,
A person who is active in party politics and the electoral.
Negative,
Members of government who serve purely functional roles, such as bureaucrats.
Great politicians have people working with them, not as a part of the collective yes package.
Poor politicians hide behind paper and always find a way to blame others.
Poor politicians also do not communicate. Poor politicians circumvent processes to further their own agendas. They also do a lot of votes where citizens cannot attend nor speak their minds as delegates. Poor politicians use public money, not illegally, to further their own gains regardless. Poor politicians ignore their consituents and hide behind studies and outside consultants.
I have always stated a politician is one who gets into politics to serve themselves. An elected official is one who wants to serve the community.
For the most part which do you think we have?
Chris, if I was in your ward, I would be voting for you come the next municiple election (especially since you announced that you are running!).
I think the reason why local political leaders do not engage with the community is because they are corrupt and furthering their own agenda. Plus, the less spotlight you shed on yourself, the better chance you have to win in the next election (the old motto in Windsor is that if you do nothing, at least you didn’t do anything that bad and you probably will win in the next election).
Again, who is organizing a slate to run against the entire city council in the next election?????
I’m never going to live that slip-of-the-tongue down, am I Ron?
I’ve worked for a variety of politicians in my life time as an aide or volunteer and I’ve found that those with the best public reputations for integrity are usually the least deserving of it. Many are simply able to cast an image of themselves effectively in the media and it catches on. Evidence is never really demanded of them.
Those that really do politics well aren’t careerist, aren’t going for the big wins, but are willing to slog it out in an effort to implement some form of a viable vision in increments. There aren’t many of them, but they make the whole thing worthwhile and add the greatest value. We’ve seen sporadic examples of them around here in the past.
One concern I have about Windsor’s political scene is the part-time structure of council. Given the generous salaries of administrators revealed by the Sunshine list, I can’t see why we won’t fork out a little extra cash to make our council positions full-time. We’re electing these people to provide oversight on a multi-million dollar budget, advocate for citizens, research political issues and represent the civic administration. How can this be accomplished on a part-time basis? If we made it a full-time gig we could demand that councillors hold public visiting hours on a weekly basis, we might attract more dynamic folks and we could potentially reduce the number of conflicts of interest between jobs/businesses and council matters that are rampant under the current regime. (Ward two homeowners, as an example, are without one particular voice on certain issues dealing with rental properties, which is just not acceptable.)
I also second Ron D.’s support for a Scaledown slate of some sort…
Chris for Council, Lets start a website
The Mayor does not care about the people. He does not read the Star comments or the blogs. TRUST me - He does his own thing.
“we elect the sort of lowest common-denominator councillors”
http://www.thestar.com/GTA/Columnist/article/612966
The good news is that public transit is back on the agenda. The bad news is that cities aren’t.
No issue facing the Greater Toronto Area means more to our future than transit. And yet no issue better reveals how civic governments are obstacles to that future.
Simply put, cities are no longer up to the task of running themselves, if they ever were. Partly, that’s because we have created an especially cumbersome governance structure in Ontario. Partly, it’s because we elect the sort of lowest common-denominator councillors who pander to our worst instincts.
The hard truth is that in the 21st century, the parochial attitude they bring to the table no longer suffices. They might argue that they are elected to do the bidding of their voters, but sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.
At this point in Toronto’s history, it’s painfully clear the NIMBY (Not in my backyard) hordes are their own worst enemy – and the city’s. Given that most city councillors have no interest in taking them on, it’s up to the province to do what must be done…..
Personally I haven’t seen a politician or councilor that has inspired me in this city for fifty years. So I nothing to make a comparison. As the article above states “we elect the sort of lowest common denominator,” retirees, mothers as social activists, wanna be lawyers, small business people that think their expertise can run a city, the under-educated, union drinking buddies or children thereof. Nope, nothing to brag about here or write about.