PETERS: Even before Halloween, election season is spooky enough

Dreams of safe streets and compassionate care, dreams of world class amenities yet low taxes, dreams of perfectly functioning infrastructure delivered in a timely manner.

More prominent, perhaps, dreams of representatives who can leave their egos at the doorstep and serve with a genuine disregard for who gets the credit.

Here’s a promise that would have been refreshing to hear during this municipal election campaign – “I commit to learning what other communities are doing well and ruthlessly stealing those ideas for Kamloops.”

While people are all unique, the issues facing BC communities often aren’t.

Other cities are grappling with a crisis of unhoused people who live with a complex mix of untreated mental health and substance use disorders.

Other communities have been hit with skyrocketing costs brought on by inflation, by global market conditions and by service contracts they didn’t negotiate yet are obligated to pay for.

Other municipalities have seen elected officials go absolutely rogue and act in a way that’s completely at odds with the strong, steady leadership residents wanted when they went to the polls.

Kamloops doesn’t have to reinvent any wheels, yet very few candidates expressed a willingness to copy and paste the strategies that have shown they can work elsewhere.

On the provincial side, the choice appears to be an out-of-touch NDP that seems to have no plan, a MacGyver-ed Conservative group that could Chernobyl itself at any moment, or parties that have no chance at governing.

Choosing any of them is a lot like when we were kids on Halloween, ringing the doorbell at the mysterious old widow’s house in the neighbourhood.

It could turn out great, with handfuls of candy to fill our proverbial pillow sacks.

Or, she could be a witch.

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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 Pattison Media.

by James Peters

PETERS: Even before Halloween, election season is spooky enough

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