Who cares where you live – it’s what you do Ward 4 candidate Mike Salisbury raised the age old issue that sounds something like “you don’t live in my neighbourhood, so you shouldn’t run here” in the televised debate of candidates for council in Ward 4. His point is that people who don’t live in Ward 4 should not represent Ward 4. To this, my well articulated, well thought out response is: False. You know what I want from my elected leaders? Brains. The ability to put a compelling argument together. A leader who inspires otherwise unengaged community members to volunteer or take part in something (anything) in the community, an elected official who will take a meeting with anybody, regardless of ideology. You know what I don’t care about? Their address So yes: in this election, let’s find the best and brightest candidates. The people that will, just maybe, inspire us over the next four years and shape Guelph as a place businesses want to locate and operate, where the less fortunate are taken care of and we have and work towards a long term vision of a city where elected officials and staff serves all it’s residents in a transparent and responsible way. In this viewpoint, I’m implying that we need to make foundational shifts in the way we approach electing our officials. Why do we take a parochial approach to dividing up the city? Do we think that a cadre of people from the Clairfields area are going to be elected and not care about the needs of St. Patrick’s Ward or development of the East End? I say no. I say that this council is going to be looking at the issue of full time councillor’s, and that from a theoretical perspective they should also be looking at city wide council elections. I won’t go so far as to say I fully endorse both ideas without seeing the financial impact, but I would feel better represented under this model. Let’s attract the best and brightest to our city council, people interesting in dedicating a portion of their lives to public service and willing to make sacrifices to their careers and families to do so. Our current model, of part time councillor’s, does not easily allow for typical 9-5 workers to serve given the irregular time demands of the position, let alone allow for that same demographic to actually build relationships and engage the community. So Mike, and anyone else who bases their vote on the longtidue and latitude of their candidate: I’m not with you on this one. Let’s find the best possible candidate we can, period.