When it comes to economic development there isn’t much that hasn’t been tried by one community or other at some point.
Whether it be the promise of a party that just doesn’t stop – a la Mardi Gras Carnival in Rio or, we’re lead to believe, any given night in Las Vegas – or something gigantic erected at the town border – take your pick of a giant nickel, goose, apple or a cow – or just a good old-fashioned family-fun festival set against the quiet backdrop of a small town. We generally prefer the latter.
But our hats off this week to Kearney mayor Jeff Johnston who entered another stratosphere of thinking outside the box when he recently launched a surefire way to get seasonal residents to visit outside the norm of Victoria Day Weekend to Labour Day to Weekend.
The scheme, if you will, started innocently enough when he and his council voted in favour of returning to the tried and true method of voting in this fall’s municipal election with polling stations and ballot boxes. This is a move that is wholly endorsed by the Almaguin News.
Voting at ballot boxes is not only a time-tested method, but the most secure. It is the only method where a returning officer gets to look a potential voter in the eyes and double-check that they are indeed allowed to vote before being handed a ballot. Other methods, the mail-in vote especially, distribute ballots willy-nilly with little in the way of checks and balances as to who receives one and whether or not the ballots actually end up in the hands of the intended recipient.
The traditional polling station/ballot box method is also the only means of voting we are aware of that offers any assurances of the democratic principal of secrecy of the ballot. In other words, only you know whom you voted for – if you so choose.
The mail-in vote grossly fails this test. People may fill out their choices in the comfort of their living rooms under who knows how many watchful or questioning eyes. Consider the possibility of an association holding ‘voting parties’ where the leadership would have the ability to scrutinize each ballot long before they reach the scrutineer.
To be blunt, we believe the mail-in vote makes a mockery of the democratic principles western civilization is founded on.
But back to economic development: in nothing more than a few wordy emails, Mayor Johnston has ensured that his community will be brimming with seasonal residents during the advance polls this October. Instead of standing on solid principles of democracy, he chose to single out ratepayers, saying these ones are more worthy of a vote than another. He has even gone so far as to call large blocks of residents and seasonal residents a ‘negative element.’
Bravo, Mayor Johnston! Bravo!
The selflessness of this man in sacrificing any chance he may have for re-election is tremendous and to be admired. So rare is it that we see a municipal leader willing to pay a price politically so that their constituents may reap the rewards. The vitriol and scorn he heaped at the feet of the Proudfoot Property Owners Association, we are certain, is something the ratepayers of Kearney will not forget anytime soon.
The old saying goes that you can always get more flies with honey than you can with vinegar doesn’t hold true at election time. We’re certain that the acidic comments of the mayor are certain to bring Kearney plenty of voters, though it may not gain him many votes.
Kearney owes him a debt of gratitude.