Thinking about running for mayor three years from now? Maybe alderman?
Are you reasonably qualified with genuinely good ideas? Are you a legitimate contender who has accomplished something in life and who is now ready to give back to your community through public service?
I'm glad to hear it. Good municipal government starts with good candidates because good candidates offer voters positive choices.
Any good municipal election starts with a solid base of candidates for voters to choose from.
Business leaders. Church leaders. School trustees. Professionals. Union leaders. Activists. Community Association Presidents. All make good candidates.
A truly democratic election offers a range of candidates that, at least in a broad sense, reflects the society in question -- men, women, visible minorities, high income, low income, middle income, no income, retired, semi-retired, full time, part time, and even a few students.
The problem these days is that not many of the people in any of these groups can hope to raise a million dollars. In fact, few can legitimately hope -- in the short span of a six month campaign -- to raise the $40,000 that some aldermanic races have recently required.
True. Some business leaders and professionals can raise this kind of money quite easily. And any pro-union candidate can reasonably raise $40,000 with the support of four or five large unions. But few of the others, short of mortgaging the family home, can hope to do so.
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No. Gone are the days of the citizen mayor in Calgary. Gone are the days of the credible populist underdog.
The arrival of the million-dollar mayoralty campaign in our city has changed everything. It was an unexpected revolution. And in the long run I don't expect that it will prove to have been a happy one.
In fact, I expect the most immediate effect will be a return to party politics on city council.
Why party politics? Simple, really. Given the means of the average truly qualified candidate, raising the kind of money necessary to run a credible campaign against an incumbent in Calgary takes a few years -- at least.
The question is, how many Julia Turnbull's do we have in Calgary? How many people have the means to put their job, business or profession on the back burner for two or three years in order to have the time, energy and focus needed to raise the money and develop the profile necessary to knock off an incumbent?
Think that sentence is long? Try doing all of that and nothing but that for two or three years and then losing. Then you'll know what long is.
No, I am afraid that our recent unexpected revolution has made the return of parties a necessary evil in municipal politics.
Few individuals can spend three years raising the money needed to succeed these days. But parties can.
Few good candidates have three years to invest developing the kind of campaign that will be required in order to look credible against a million dollar opponent. But parties can.
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Parties can because parties are groups of people with similar interests who can share the work and share the cost.
Parties can develop and deploy a three-year program that starts with issues and ends with the selection of a qualified contender.
Parties can -- better than individuals -- raise the million or so needed to run for mayor and the tens of thousands needed for a credible aldermanic campaign.
There is no other way. Without party participation in municipal politics incumbency will become everything. We will be governed by an oligarchy of insiders with little hope of changing direction short of outright rebellion.
Municipal elections without parties in the era of the million-dollar mayor will be characterized by an insurmountable list of powerful incumbents, an unacceptably short list of legitimate opponents and a cadre of freaks too stupid to realize their candidacies are little more than jokes.
The reintroduction of parties to the municipal campaign scene, on the other hand, will not diminish the freak factor, but it will reduce the power of incumbency and in doing so it will strengthen our government by making our elected officials more accountable to the people who elect them.
© Brent Johner. Originally published in the Calgary Herald, October 2004. Reprint rights available.
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