October 16th 2006

COMMENT: City Hall ignores another election

Can someone please inform City Hall that there is an election going on?

It is truly reprehensible, the extent to which City Councillors and city staff have under-promoted, under-funded and virtually ignored this year's election. From the day nominations opened (January 2), the election has been treated as an administrative chore. First, the public headquarters for candidate registration was buried in the "Lottery Office" at the very back of City Hall. At a single desk, you could request an application for a bingo event, a lottery, or to run for Mayor. Zero funds were allocated to promote the fact that nominations were open.

Then there's the City's website. Even today, with four weeks left to go before election day, no one has bothered to put a prominent link on the city's homepage. There is only one tiny text-link buried in a list of "highlights". The top three items on the list are "Nathan Phillips Square Design Competition", "City Public Auction" and "2015 World EXPO". The election is item #10....at the very bottom.

It's as if City Councillors and staff have been wrongly informed that we've converted to a monarchy. More than a dozen City Councillors haven't even bothered to put up websites for their re-election campaign. They gave themselves a raise this year and then they voted in favour of spending tax dollars to promote themselves during the months leading up to the election. And of course, to top it off, most Councillors supported the secret Provincial legislation that reduced the frequency of City elections so they wouldn't have to work as hard for their job. City Hall needs a deep cleansing of the arrogant sense of entitlement that permeates through the second floor offices.

Toronto also needs an arms-length independent elections department that has substantial funding to promote every aspect of our elections. Our City Councillors have repeatedly proven that they view the democratic process as a burden rather than a privilege.