Being on Council

(Published in the NGTimes, Aug 11, 2022)

Friends, family and more recently, prospective candidates for Council have asked me, “What’s it like?”

Being on Council is challenging. Rewarding but challenging. Of all the roles a Councillor plays; Policymaker, Steward, Leader, Representative, it’s the representative role that’s the most challenging and contentious, in my opinion. This article attempts to illustrate why.

How do you balance the wants, needs and expectations of a single resident, small groups of residents or business owners against those of the entire community? Is it simply a case of the majority rules? How do you address competing interests? Do you use expensive direct democracy tools like referendums, plebiscites, or cheaper less accurate surveys to inform your decisions?

In North Grenville, we leave decisions on critical issues up to the judgement of five so-called representatives whom we elect to Council every four years. Five individuals with different backgrounds, interests, life experiences and by extension, different understandings of the larger community they’ve been elected to represent. They don’t always agree and so, ultimately it comes to a vote.

Election to Council has required a much broader understanding of the issues that impact this municipality as a whole. My focus has been on making decisions that are based on evidence rather than ideology or personal bias. It’s taken diligence and certain amount of self-reflection to try to get it right. Having advice and support from competent professional staff at the municipality certainly helps. Maintaining respectful communication and conferring with my Council colleagues has also been key to arriving at workable solutions to complex problems.

Engaging with the broader public daily, one quickly becomes aware of the often-competing interests and expectations that residents and business owners have. Unpacking, assessing, and addressing those interests and expectations has been one of the biggest challenges I’ve experienced being on Council. Making judgements about what best serves the common good can be tricky; decisions are sometimes very unpopular.

To further complicate things, the idea of a collective or common good is being threatened, in my opinion. Besides being imperfect and messy, democracy is inherently fragile. Defining what holds people together in an increasingly diverse and secular community is getting more difficult. Social media is fundamentally transforming the very idea of community. People increasingly self-segregate into virtual communities of like-minded individuals in ways that can make geographic boundaries less relevant.

Social media has also become an influential medium in how residents experience local politics and form candidate preferences. How do you take the measure of a person’s character if you never actually meet them face to face? How do you know they’ll make the right decisions for you and your community? For that matter, what is “your community”?

Luckily, North Grenville suffers less than other municipalities, in my mind, as it still possesses strong values of generosity, volunteerism and community spirit. Unfortunately, the ability to think beyond immediate personal circumstances is what I see lacking in more and more people.

For me there’s an intrinsic value in being involved with different community and non-profit groups. It’s wonderful to see what a group of people can accomplish if they have a common purpose or a shared goal. I find that energizing and invigorating. Identifying a common purpose and a way forward for over 17,000 residents and business owners, however, is a different journey. The recent Community Strategic Plan was a laudable attempt and perhaps the only legitimate document the next Council will have for guidance in pursuing shared goals.

I’ve concluded there is no single, correct approach to fulfilling the representative role of a Councillor. Being on Council requires making decisions that are often difficult and frequently unpopular. It requires having confidence in your own judgement; in trusting your gut; in having confidence that you’ve truly explored and considered what’s best for the common good, as you define it. I found the role of representative to be challenging.

To the curious, including prospective candidates for election to Council, I say, having the sense that you’ve made the right decisions for the right reasons for the community can feel extremely rewarding, at least for me it has. Best of luck to everyone in the choices you’ll be making.

Small Scale Farms – are they sustainable?

As we move closer to the end of Act 2 in the Kemptville College saga, will small scale farming education be part of the discussion in Act 3?

Is there a place for small-scale farmers to learn what they need about the business and management of small farms? The Two Rivers Food Hub is helping with growing markets for local producers but that is just part of the puzzle. Consumer awareness is another factor. The Kemptville Farmers’ Market plays just a small part in consumer education about the value of local food. More needs to be done in the area of local food literacy.

Below is a link to a thoughtful article written by Cara Parks that asks if sustainable small farms are sustainable? I’d encourage everyone interested in local food to read it

The End Of Organic Farming Might Be Sooner Than We Thought

A Downtown Revival

It’s hard to pin-point exactly when the turnaround downtown started as it evolved slowly. I’ll say, it was about two years ago when Array Hair Studio opened across from Geronimo Coffee House at 201 Prescott. Array brought a nice upscale business that seemed to fit everyone’s vision of what Old Town Kemptville could be. Then Terri and Lee McIlvenna bought and built Geronimo’s into a thriving business that not only opens nice and early but now seven days a week. Recently Array moved a few steps north and bought the building at 115 Prescott across from the CIBC. Like To Be Continued‘s second expansion in just four years, it’s another concrete example of business confidence in the future of Downtown Kemptville.

Since January of this year however the pace has picked up noticeably. Next door to Array’s new location, we’ve seen 113 Prescott, the former Kemptville Advance building leased to the professional engineers of ISI Controls Inc. Setanta Solutions Inc, another professional IT service, now occupies 206C Prescott just south of Voice2Net which opened last year at 200 Prescott. Exit Realty By Design celebrates the Grand Opening of their realty office this Wednesday at 310 Prescott and Integrated Business Solutions Group is in the process of opening offices at 28 Clothier Street East. Up in the Rideau-Sanders Triangle, Andrew Beveridge CPA opened shop at 200 Sanders and across the street at 215 Sanders, the North Grenville Times now has an office on the ground floor (side entrance).

The new growth downtown hasn’t all been just professional services however. We have new investment downtown through new owners of the Kemptville Academy of Martial Arts (formerly Tekken MAA), Brewing Oasis, the South Branch Bistro (formerly the Branch Restaurant) and the Clothier Mills Inn Motel across the street. The Bowen Approach is now located at 3 Clothier and Get Cronk’d , a new fitness business at 9 Clothier (behind), has just hired a new trainer! GlowSport – Kemptville, The Glow Entertainment Company is opening soon at 29 Clothier Street East. By the Prescott Bridge both 10A and 10B Prescott have been leased – look for a number of innovative businesses housed at those locations opening soon. The Prim Shed at 419 Rideau Street and the Posh Plum at 207 Prescott opened just a few months ago. Just last week New Energy Kreations began renovations of a new showroom at 132 Prescott, which will greatly improve the streetscape of that section of Prescott, in other words, the broken window has been replaced.

(Ken Schliemann stands outside his new showroom for New Energy Kreations with Array Hair Studio reflected in the window)

We all look forward to see what will occupy the former Butler’s Victorian Pantry (currently being renovated by new owners) and who will be the new tenants of the vacant storefronts recently leased, such as Array’s former location. The BIA will be working hard this Fall and Winter to help fill the last of the available commercial spaces downtown. Look for even more Grand Openings in the months to come.

How to Save the Conservative Party

Andrew Coyne is my kind of conservative (whether he identifies as one or not). He writes in this article “there is no neccesary contradiction between a concern for the individual and an ideal of community.”  Limited government is government that minds its place – it’s not less government or small government, it is the creation and servant of the people.

Worth the time to read …

Source: How to Save the Conservative Party · thewalrus.ca

With a little help from my friends …

Subaru May 22

The good news was I broke my left leg in November of last year which meant that repairing the clutch in my Subaru wasn’t as urgent as it had been just two weeks earlier. There it sat at Rekmans Automotive while I healed over the Christmas holidays and relied on the generousity of friends, family and neighbours to get me from point A to B. It’s now back in my driveway (honk if you see it)

I missed driving; the Subi’s a great little car. I hadn’t owned a vehicle for the 30 years I lived in Toronto – I cycled, walked, took cabs, used the transit system and rented when I wanted to get out of town and visit family in Ottawa. When I moved back to the country I knew I had to have a car and my brother Michael was deputized as my car advisor as I knew absolutely nothing about them including their care and feeding. In fact it took me longer to find a local mechanic I could trust than a local family doctor. Rekmans Automotive, a family owned and operated garage at County Road 44 and the 416 exit (#28) was were I landed. I’m glad I did.

Enough about cars; this is really about how resilient and interdependent I’ve come to realize country people are and about how lucky I was to have landed in Oxford Mills exactly seven years ago. In the past five months, I’ve managed to make every single event, meeting and appointment I had to attend and run every errand I’ve had to accomplish. I’ve had meals, care packages and groceries dropped off at my door. I was so well taken care of, that on occasion, I felt guilty about having to turn down unsolicited offers of help.

Where does this rural outpouring of generousity come from? I believe it comes from the values that are instilled in you from the realization that when you live in the country you are dependent on your neighbours . “Pull your neighbours car out of the ditch as you would have them pull you out of the ditch” is how I’d express it. I’m not being cynical when I suggest the golden rule is as much about self-preservation as it is about altruism – it actually brings out the best in people. It helps create a true sense of civility, of community. It’s a blessing to be surrounded by that depth of resilience; that type of caring.

So finally, I’m truly grateful for all the assistance I’ve had over the past few months; the drives to town and back home again, into Manotick, Brockville and Ottawa and back, the errands run and the vehicles loaned. In no particular order and apologies in advance for inevitable exclusions – THANK YOU David, Dave, Marc, Penny, Shelley, Deron, Steve, Phil, Robin, Rebecca, Diana, Tom, Kevin, Gerry, Gerald, Karen, Kendra, Dad, Bro’, Sis and Maggie.

Cheers,

John