Source: https://clearbc.org/events/
Municipal Politicians – Part 1
Choose your six talking points and know them well. By keeping your topics generic, you will appeal to the majority and more likely to get your foot in the door.
Here are some examples of general topics that will resonate with people:
- Property Taxes: you can declare that you will work to stop the seizure of homes for non-payment of property taxes. There are multiple ways that people can pay this tax debt and the city should work with home-owners to find a solution that is feasible. Auctioning off someone’s home for $100,000 (worth $500,000) for non-payment of a $2,000 tax debt should not be an option.
- Bicycles and pathways: bring back the bicycles for rent. Scooters do not offer any health benefits but bicycles do. Create more bike paths throughout the city to make it safe for cyclists to travel.
- Provide petty criminals with the help they need. Deal with the root cause of the problem instead of wasting time and resources putting them through the court system’s revolving doors. Homelessness, drug use and petty crime are symptoms of deeper problems. Acknowledge and help these individuals face their issues so they can get back to contributing to society in a positive way.
- Clean up and maintain city garbage and recycling receptacles as well as public washrooms. Many remain broken for years while public facilities are not cleaned and maintained regularly. These low-skill maintenance jobs could be given to homeless people participating in a recovery program.
- Eliminate Paid Parking Meters. This is nothing but a cash grab and people should have the right to park for free on city property. A token could be put in the slot to regulate time limits instead and tickets would only be issued if the token expired.
- Stop the destruction of residential family neighbourhoods with zoning that allows two residential buildings per lot. Kelowna is not geographically designed to accommodate a million people. The fast & furious building of multi-family units and sky-rises means less quality of life for everyone. Backyards should not be considered a waste of space.
- Reduce the salaries of the mayor & councilors and put that money towards the homeless problem in Kelowna which has skyrocketed. For example, public outdoor patios are now unavailable to the public because homeless people have taken them over.
- Stop the RCMP practice of rotating officers in and out of the city for short-term periods. We need officers who plan to live here long-term so they care about the city and the citizens they should be serving and protecting. As well, officers are trained to reply to all inquiries with pre-programed, rehearsed responses. We need human beings with the ability to communicate, not robots.
- Stop the current city council practice of picking and choosing which topics they will consider while cancelling any one’s voice that they don’t want to hear. Right now, if they don’t like your issue, you don’t get to speak to council.
- Encourage and support small business ownership. We need to educate business owners about their rights to operate and make a living. Small Business is essential to maintain a thriving society. They are the fabric of our community and should not be discriminated against while foreign big box stores are afforded different privileges so they can profit at the expense of the small business owner’s demise.
- Public schools need to be over-hauled. Children are not being taught the important, basic skills required to become independent, fully-functioning adults. Basic hand-writing skills, basic mathematics, financial responsibility, respect for the environment, social skills, Canada’s Constitution etc…
- Start programs that encourage healthy eating and regular fitness routines to educate people on how to take responsibility for their health. Teach people about the amazing powers of a healthy immune system so they don’t waste their money on unnecessary drugs that only mask symptoms.
Whatever other ideas you come up with, avoid hot-button words or subjects. Thoroughly research each topic and make sure you offer feasible, practical solutions to the problems that you want to deal with as councilor/mayor. In Part 3 of this series, I will discuss tips on what you need to do to promote yourself to establish name recognition.