Rocky View County report November

Politics is getting rough. As your Councillor, the Elected Official for Division 4 at Rocky View County, I am in Municipal Politics. I wasn’t always in Politics. I was in Business, for the longest time I was a Realtor, I also had multiple Businesses, some did well, some didn’t. I was called a Realtor, sometimes a businessman. Now I guess I am a Politician, I don’t know if you get the title Politician when you first run for office whether you win or lose or if you only get the title once you have won an election for something but I have a Political position at a County so I suppose that makes me a Politician. I always thought a Politician was a reasonably noble thing to be, after all, people who are elected to something are generally respected, especially by those who voted for them which is obviously the majority or they wouldn’t have become the Elected Official. I am starting to rethink the whole thing.
Watching Elections with an interest in Politics and in part, being a Politician for the last few decades is telling me that the whole landscape of Politics is changing, and not for the better. I don’t know if it is due to the information age we see ourselves in or if our tolerance for other people’s opinions has been reduced to angry intolerance. The most recent Election in the USA stooped to an entire new low. The US Presidential Election became a media frenzy where each “side” dug up words that the other said and things the other Candidate did for the last 30 years or so and used them to make each other look like criminals, bigots and thieves. It’s finally over and the nastiness continues, they have people in the streets protesting decisions that have been made, I really hope it ends someday soon, I used to watch news shows with interest, now I watch since it is sensational, and some of it makes me sick. Somehow the positions of their Political parties got lost in the craziness, Republican and Democrats have quite different basic ideals, I would hazard a guess that many of the voters don’t know what either one stands for.
The very basics, in case you were wondering, are this: The “right” in general tends to strive for less Government, lower taxes for all, a strong business atmosphere and help available for those in need. That is Conservative or in the USA, Republican. The “left” in general strives to have a more active Government, a more collective bargaining type of employment, a close watch on Businesses to pay more to support society, and more Social Programs. That is NDP, sometimes Liberal, in the US the Democrats. I am trying to be as level as I can but I admit I am a Conservative thinker. Right now in Alberta we have more of a Socialist Government in the NDP and a left leaning Liberal Federal Government. Two years ago in Alberta and in Canada, the Feds as well as the Province were very Conservative or on the right. Things change, Elections are when the changes happen, from there the conversations get complicated.
In Canada we have had a Federal Election and a Provincial Election in the last little while and within a year we will have another Municipal Election. Municipal Politics is not Party or platform type of Politics, it is representation on a Board of Directors style of tribunal called a Council. Right now it is made up of 9 people who make decisions from all input they can receive. The decisions should be in the best interest of the County and the Residents in it. Sometimes it gets complicated too. I have my fingers crossed that it doesn’t start getting nasty like the others. I know there will be pressures that way, the next little while will be interesting, I hope not disturbing.