By Don White

At first glance, the article The intellectuals are far too sophisticated to see the truth in Ukraine published today in The Line appears to have little to do with next week’s municipal election in Namaimo. However Andrew Potter’s column about “sophisticated” rationalizations to limit Western support for Ukraine is a vital reminder to recognize questionable over-intellectualization whenever it is found.

Potter argues that recent rationalizations of why Ukraine should capitulate to Russia as a means to end the war is “to see endless shades of grey where there is only black and white.” Stated without the metaphor, “sophisticated” over-intellectualizing muddies the clear moral travesty of Russia’s invasion of a foreign territory. For Nanaimo voters, it’s a timely argument.

How does if connect to Nanaimo’s current crop of candidates for its City Council? There is a similar over-rationalizing “sophistication” in some candidates’ assertions that Nanaimo Council has no purview to protect the city (and local voters) from the impositions or dereliction of Victoria. Ethically, this reduces to the preposterous claim that one level of government (elected by us) has no responsibility to protect us from being screwed over by another level of government because the means to do so is not spelled out in current legislation.

I suggest an alternative perspective. If the means to change is not written in the legislated rules, then find a way to change the rules or find a workaround. As I’ve written before, Victoria cannot currently be overruled by local governments because the current legislation doesn’t say it can. And Victoria has been using the omission to download responsibilities onto local governments without the needed resources to carry them out for at least a decade. Interestingly, those responsibilities include every one of the issues currently top of mind for voters including safety, homelessness, and drug crises. If you are wanting change, now there’s the issue on which to focus!

This is not to ignore the Local Pothole Purview. Of course City Council must also ensure local infrastructure is adequately dealt with. However, managing that infrastructure is the job of the CAO. In some cases, Council might need to ensure the CAO gets that job done properly, but it always needs to provide its city manager with the current vision and direction. Those factors are not in the CAO’s purview; potholes are. Vision and direction belong exclusively to council. As do inter-governmental negotiations and bargaining. No city staff vote at the UBCM.

I have also written elsewhere that voting for candidates unwilling to challenge Victoria for its now seemingly frequent irresponsibly toward local governments (and their electorates) amounts to voting for those willing to abdicate one of their key responsibilities. No matter how grey the candidate attempts to paint it, that is the issue in black and white. Just as Potter describes.

Equally reprehensible, a candidate – whether he or she is an incumbent or not – who claims it is not the stated job of local governments to protect their electorates from other levels of government is being disingenuous. They are cloaking their unwillingness to act on the public’s behalf with a flawed rationalization. Serving the interests of their voting public is exactly what comprises their job description. To argue around or qualify that task amounts to the same “sophistication” found among Potter’s intellectuals: arguing that an issue is complicated when in fact ethically it’s clear.

Elections are the time to sort out city councils by sorting out the candidates. That sorting is entirely up to voters. Consequently, to best look after ourselves we need to choose only those candidates who share our commitment to this issue and then hold them accountable for pursuing it after the election.

If we fail to sort correctly next week, it will later be an uphill battle.