As I knock on doors I have been pleasantly surprised by how many looks of recognition and words of support I get.  Someone actually thanked me for fixing an issue I did not fix.  “It wasn’t me”, I clarified.  “Oh”, he added, “they just came and fixed it so I thought you had something to do with it”. 

I am grateful for your support and am honoured to be a part of this community.  It’s more tight-knit than people realize.  I’ll take a break from meeting people and will hang out at different village squares with my kids.  If you see me then come say hi. 

Two pillars of accountability are answerability and enforcement. 

Answerability requires public officials to provide information about their actions and justify them to the public.  This requires both accessibility and transparency.  Some public officials tend to be inaccessible.  Very few ever state their values in writing.  If they are not both accessible and transparent, then they do not wish to be answerable. 

Enforcement implies that an institution responsible for accountability can sanction the offending party or individual.  Often this is absent as well. Except in extreme cases, voters have to wait until the next election.

Democracy cannot function without true accountability.  Even if there is a democratic process, without accountability it’s not a real democracy.  

I am committed to completely accountability.

If elected, I promise to be accessible, transparent and representative.

1. Accessible:  Today you can contact me via this website, e-mail, facebook page, twitter or cellphone.  That will not change.
2. Transparent: I will continue to be fully transparent. I am not always right and you will not always agree with me. However, you will always know where I stand.  In fact, I am even publishing all campaign donations online.
3. Representative: I work for us.  I will represent you and only you.  I am not here to serve developers, builders or any other special interest groups.

I will consider the opportunity to be your spokesperson in the council an honour.  For further details, please see my campaign page.

Regular readers of my blog may not be surprised to learn that I have decided to enter the race for the Local council for Ward 8.

I am not going to make vague and ambiguous promises. I am not promising to change the world, bring about world peace, end world hunger or to teach every bad driver how to drive. However, I do unconditionally promise to be accessible, transparent and representative (full commitment).

A councillor is supposed to listen to his or her constituents and represent their interests in the Council. Those who know me know that I can do that very well.

I want to improve the quality of our lives, and those of our children. You can get highlights on my campaign page (or drill in deeper to get a whole lot of details).

If you support me then perhaps you’ll consider fanning me on facebook to show support. You may also consider making a little campaign donation.  Every bit helps.

[ps: I have disabled comments on this post. Please leave a comment on my campaign page instead.  Thanks so much]