Kamloops election results should put an end to ward system talk

In their top eight councillors, each vicinity selected at least seven that were elected by the city as a whole.

Those results really support the argument that most residential areas of the city have the same concerns and the same priorities, and thus their voting patterns won’t vary by a significant degree at all.

Westsyde and Barnhartvale and Brocklehurst and the other outlying residential areas all have key issues that could be broadly placed under two categories: traffic and transportation, and availability of services.

Generally speaking, each area wants to ensure its police and fire services are ever-present, and that its potholes are being filled and transit stops are being increased.

A pessimist might say all of those parts of the city feel equally neglected.

That’s why they all voted along the same lines.

And that’s a strong rebuke to anyone – including former KTW columnist and now city councillor-elect Dale Bass – who has argued in favour of a ward system in Kamloops.

It simply isn’t needed, in part because there just isn’t much difference in the way we all think and the priorities we share.

And if you listen to former Kamloops alderman Gordon Bregoliss, a ward system would probably do more harm than good.

Bregoliss was on Kamloops council just after amalgamation in the early 1970s.

With all of the outlying communities’ mayors bundled onto one council, Kamloops had a de facto ward system.

Bregoliss says those were hardly the halcyon days for local governance.

Council was beset with infighting, with each area councillor looking out only for his or her own neighbourhood, and no one working toward a vision for growing Kamloops as an amalgamated single entity.

Bregoliss is convinced the same toxic atmosphere would soon return if Kamloops reverted to a ward system now: a cacophony of bickering among councillors who have no incentive to think of the well-being of Kamloops as a whole.

He’s right.

Ward systems work very well for larger cities whose councillors can’t possibly speak with any authority on the issues important to areas apart from those they personally represent.

Vancouver would probably do well with a ward system.

In Winnipeg and Regina, among other larger cities, it’s working just fine.

Kamloops may get to that size someday, but it’s not there yet.

We still need councillors who look beyond their own neighbourhoods and toward what the municipality can do for all of its residents, no matter where they hang their hats.

by Two & Out

Kamloops election results should put an end to ward system talk

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