l’editoriale del Georgina Advocate

Editorials
April 30, 2009 07:30 AM

It's time for the circus to leave town.

Vaughan and its citizens have been embarrassed, even humiliated, for far too long by the antics of Mayor Linda Jackson and a dysfunctional council that provides almost a text-book perfect illustration of how municipal government should not work.

No, we are not saying that Mayor Jackson should resign because she has been charged with 68 counts of breaching the Municipal Elections Act.

We still have the presumption of innocence in this country, and Ms Jackson has broken no law until and unless a court determines that she has done so.

It would be too easy to drive people from elected office if they were automatically expected to resign as soon as charges against them are laid, before it has been determined whether they are in fact guilty or innocent.

Rightly or wrongly, Ms Jackson was elected by the voters, and the will of the electorate should prevail in a democracy unless it is set aside by a court for the most compelling of reasons.

That's not to say that it wouldn't be nice to see the last of Ms Jackson at city hall, not because she has been charged but because she is an appallingly lousy mayor. Her demonstrated ability to provide any leadership, along with her erratic personal style, has turned out to be a far cry from the improvement so many people have been expecting over the allegation-ridden Di Biase era.

Unfortunately, however, it's not as if a quick departure by Ms Jackson would itself be likely to provide much of an improvement. There isn't a single member of the current council who springs to mind as promisingly capable of providing the kind of serious, grown-up leadership that Vaughan needs and deserves.

The people of Vaughan can be forgiven for wishing that the whole clown car would simply complete its spin and lurch on out of the centre ring. So that is where the next election comes in. The terms of Ms Jackson and the whole council expire in November 2010, and that is when we need a clean sweep and new blood at city hall.

But for that to happen, now is when we need for people of real quality to start coming forward, expressing their views on Vaughan's future and letting the community know what they have to offer.

We don't mean a comeback by former mayor Michael Di Biase. The community has already seen how he and his team performed, and the feeling that it wasn't good enough was what opened the door to the Jackson fiasco.

And, no, we don't think a particularly promising solution would lie in a turn on the political stage by OPP Commissioner and Vaughan resident Julian Fantino.

Mr. Fantino's last contribution to public policy in Vaughan was a hyperventilatingly alarmist report on crime in our community that included a bizarre call for designating, as "drug-free zones", any area within a 300-metre radius of schools, parks and other city-owned facilities.

Now, as OPP commissioner, Mr. Fantino is involved in a weird court battle over attempts to discipline two senior officers on the force, in which he is seeking to have the adjudicator removed amid allegations that Mr. Fantino himself abused his power and acted unlawfully.

Let's be clear: It's not that Mr. Fantino has publicly declared any interest in the Vaughan mayoralty. There has, however, been talk about such a possibility in the community, but his track record to date doesn't necessarily hold out the promise of the kind of fresh, drama-free new beginning that Vaughan politics needs.

What the situation calls for, rather, is an influx of calm, thoughtful, serious-minded people of unquestioned integrity who have made their marks in other walks of life and who can bring fresh ideas and a fresh approach to the governance of a municipality that has so much unfulfilled potential.

There's been enough of Vaughan being made a laughing stock of not just the region but of the whole country with all this nonsense at city hall.

It's time for what has humiliatingly started to be called "the city above the law" to become "the city above reproach", and the time to start focusing on that challenge is now.

www.georginaadvocate.com

 

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