Editor:
Re: It's time to clean house with the next municipal election, Community Comment, July 12
Columnist Steve Graham's comment that is time to clean the municipal house next election is interesting; but I wonder if each of the rooms in the house has to be cleaned out.
The ones mentioned in his column, certainly, and with much gusto, however, a sober, second look [ala the Senate, maybe] might be useful for those rooms where sunshine has shone in rather than the darkness of which Graham refers.
An aside: Several years ago while a resident of Richmond, one of the city's councillors ran in the provincial election and won, gaining his seat in Victoria primarily on the coattails of the party's leader and then premier.
The neophyte MLA asked for and was granted a meeting with me; he wanted my advice on how to set up and operate a constituency office.
We met and the first thing I told the MLA was to decide which of the two undertakings he intended to follow. I suggested that as he just won a seat in Victoria, he probably would opt for the MLA's job.
Rather than agree, this juvenile MLA said he intended to do both jobs simultaneously. I suggested that such was not only poor idea but that he would not be able to toil in two separate arenas while being beholden to two different systems.
Well, to make this short, he tried and soon learned that my advice was sound. He ended up resigning his city seat in favour of the MLA position.
What became of him, you ask? Not much. He served one term and has faded into the mist of swelled head politicians who leave only the faintest of footprints in the shifting sands of politics.
Bob Orrick
