The philosopher Ice-T once said: "If god had wanted us to vote, he would've given us candidates." I'm not saying he made it up, but that's where I heard it.
A couple of days ago, I read a T-Star piece called "How the Tories’ move to shrink Toronto council could be turned on its head". It cheered me up a lot - Dofo's profound shit-headedness was bumming me out, and I couldn't spend any time thinking about it. But this idea - of decentralizing, of local-local government - has been popping up this year, and I am very attracted to it. I could get behind that. I would even go to meetings.
Today, Lanrick Bennett knocked on my door. I only opened it to tell whoever it was to go away, but when he said he was running for City Council, I invited him in. I apologized for not having a shirt on - it's 31 degrees today and my whole brain is hot. I gave him a glass of water, and asked him what he stood for, and now I am excited.
He believes in term limits. He believes politics should be an action and not a career, and he believes in Ranked Ballots. He wants to be proactive (!). He's an environmentalist, and wants to communicate, and is into Libraries and digs the East side. I really liked him.
I told him I was tired of Paula Fletcher. I'm tired of all the careerists. I have been occasionally happy with her - she was responsive and helpful about an issue I was having at Cherry Beach (I'll tell that story sometime). But she took a chickenshit stance on ranked ballots, leaving the room for the vote, probably because she's an incumbent who benefits from inertia, and I can't back that. I'm grateful to politicians who serve, but I'm not interested in lifers. Sorry.
I'll be following this guy. I'll probably be voting for him. I may get involved. Nice to feel hopeful.