Image Credit: CFJC Today

By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: Riverside Park debate shows voting at the polls more valuable than one-off consultations

May 21, 2021 | 11:30 AM

YOU KNOW HOW EVERY TIME AN ELECTION APPROACHES, there are impassioned pleas for people to get out and vote?

It’s often a case of too little, too late. Unless a potential voter is continually given reasons to believe voting is important, once every four years is not going to do the trick.

So this week’s Kamloops council debate about Riverside Park is a good reminder, with the civic election still a good year-and-a-half away, that voting is important.

When we elect city councillors, we do not expect them to make all of the decisions for us on their own. Decisions on larger, community-shaping issues should still be given extra opportunities for public input.

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The decision this week on offering space for limited commercial opportunities in Riverside Park is not one of those major issues, no matter what pearl-clutching advocates would have you believe.

It’s not as if allowing a couple of food trucks and an e-bike rental kiosk in the park for a summer is the same as council allowing a Walmart to be dropped in the middle of the green space.

This is a pilot project; if it ends up somehow ruining the ambience of Riverside Park, councillors will certainly take note of that before the summer of 2022 — which, by the way, is an election year.

In the meantime, there are no fewer than 100 parks, sports fields and green spaces in Kamloops for those who find their visit to Riverside Park too closely resembles a trip to Costco.

Going to the public for specific input on relatively minor projects is getting awfully close to governing by referendum.

That type of governing does not require any leadership at all; it requires a long list of online polls and a bureaucracy to act on the wishes of the majority — no matter what the turnout or the implications to the vision for the future of the city.

No, we elect leaders to lead, and they do that in part by considering issues themselves and making decisions themselves.

With the Let’s Talk feature on the City of Kamloops website, City staff have been trying to add avenues for public consultation.

Not only that, the mayor and the eight people around the Kamloops council table are eminently reachable through many different means. It’s a key part of their job to listen to your concerns.

It’s difficult to say with any credibility that a person wasn’t offered a chance to have their say.

Other than that, the voter’s chance to have their say is at the ballot box.

If you aren’t happy with what council has done this week, remember that feeling for October of 2022.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.