Local Elections
Last Saturday our local council Knox City, had their elections like many others councils to elect their ward councillors. it was an interesting day and has caused me to reflect on local politics and politics in general. In local council elections there is very little, if any opportunity to get a fair hearing on what the real issues are. Our one was no exception. The BIG issue for many candidates was lower our rates. For many people that is very appealing, we all want to spend less money, yet when we see our local rates in action it is a different thing. I reckon elections are lost rather than won, the amount of deceit and lies put out there was incredible. I know what your thinking, this would never happen at state, federal or even at a global level. But I have come up with a couple of new theories, one is that I reckon 80% of voters have no real idea who or what they are voting for and so are vulnerable to the glossy images, and secondly I reckon people get into local politics for 1 of 3 reasons. They are either a) concerned about local issues and already involved themselves in wanting to make their community a better place, b) see it as a stepping stone into something bigger and better, ie state/federal or c) have a huge ego and need for power.So these last few weeks were interesting, I personally backed a local candidate our sitting councillor not because of brownie points, but because I reckon she has done a great job, is a local and gets her hands dirty. So when confronted at the booth last Saturday with "vote for this guy and lower your rates" I asked him what services he was going to cut, he couldn't answer that one. So I asked for another reason to vote for him, and couldn't get a satisfactory response so I stuck with the person who I know is committed long term to our area. Call me naive, but I have another theory that truth will win out in the end, well it seemed to for some of our wards anyway.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home