4 replies to this topic

[Bernard]

The Saanich Civic League held a meeting last night in downtown Victoria at the Grand Pacific in the ballroom (first time I was in that room for an event that was not a federal Conservative event). It was billed as From Paralysis to Action: Engaging our neighbours in a new kind of politics.

About 240 people arrived to hear about civic engagement at the local level. I had hoped for something new and interesting, but alas it was not to be.

The crowd was old - I am guessing an average age of 55, I was young for that crowd. The crowd was very white bread middle class. It also looked significantly left of centre. What worried me the most was that about 1/3 of the crowd were people I recognized. I was not worried that I recognized so many Victoria lefties, but there is something wrong if the people that show up at this sort of event are the set of people I could have predicted would show up. There was a serious absence of much new blood.

On the bright side, I managed to catch up with a number of people I have not seen for awhile.

The claim was that the event was non partisan, but the big Victoria Labour Council sign at the back of the room and the word progressive on the literature certainly set the tone as that of the bland and boring pointless NDP left in BC. The aging boomers with beards were also a dead give away.

The evening started with Will Horter of the Dogwood Initiative speaking. Why him, I have no idea. Certainly his talk had no real connection to civic engagement. He added nothing to the evening and only distracted from the reason I went.

I was interested to hear about the story of th e Guelph Civic League. Annie O'Donoghue gave a good talk about the work her group had done in Guelph. Even though they were somewhat leftish in tenor, the Guelph group did a good job of being non-partisan and engaging with the people of Guelph and figuring out what their core values were and then using those values as a way to measure the council and the candidates for office. They had a lot of success, the council in Guelph is one that mainly fits closely with their values.

Meanwhile there has been a Saanich Civic League created. It is not the same creature as the Guelph one, they are not non partisan. They are also defining the values first and then surveying the public to see if they agree. The values they have raised are ones anyone running for council would agree with. Certainly I could not see how any of the existing council would not be in accord with the values.

Horse before cart comes to mind.

If the Saanich Civic League is going to be relevant, it has to take a few steps back and honestly engage the public in a debate about values and allow the people that hate politicians and do not vote in civic elections to drive the debate. The SCL also needs to pro actively distance itself from the bland, boring, middle of the road NDP crowd.

[Caramia]

Gah! I was there, and now I am trying to figure out which person you were. And yes I definitely got to catch up with a lot of folk there - great for that!

Ooh - also, there were a couple of things that came out of the Guelph example I thought were fascinating.
The first one was Electronic Voting for council - everyone votes simultaneously, which reduces herd voting - and more importantly, the votes are recorded, so that the citizen's league can then track every councillor's voting record. Wow!

The other thing was the idea that a non partisan group can discuss the candidate's stance, not just on issues, but on values, and then make that information available to the public. Vibrant Victoria plans to do something similar - with our 2008 Election forum issues section. We hope that our members will be part of a huge scavenger hunt through the media, through speeches, and through candidate websites, copying and pasting relevant statements about various issues to try to determine each candidate's stance on each issue - and then of course inviting all candidates to clarify their positions, and correct mistaken assumptions. So the Guelph example was definitely interesting fodder for thought.

[Nparker]

The Saanich Civic League held a meeting last night in downtown Victoria at the Grand Pacific in the ballroom...

Ironic that the SAANICH Civic League had to hold its meeting in a Victoria hotel. Just a little more fuel for my amalgmation bonfire.

[Lover Fighter]

I was there too, but wasn't overly excited by the speakers.

I'm thinking about volunteering with the Saanich Civic League though. I live in Saanich (although I obviously think of myself as a Victoria resident) and am amazed at how few people I know here who vote during our municipal elections.

[Joseph]

I was there also. My only real disappointment was with the lack of municipal councilors and staff at the table. I know it wasn't designed for those already directly involved, but given the significance of the gesture, I would have expected more support from political reps.

I also thought it was strange there were more Victorians there than people from Saanich.

As for a lack of new faces, I would like to point out that from my observations, this was not intended as a meeting for citizens inactive in their communities, but for civicly-engaged folks to form a working team to strategize on ways to improve voter turnout/participation.

The Q&A format was a nice break from the usual stand-up-and-wait-in-line format that is ultimately dominated by one or two individuals/subjects more often than not, but it would have been nice had they had an alternative method of accepting questions/encouraging dialogue.

Next time we all have to wear VV badges or something. I'm wondering who all of you were.