group speak

St. John's is known across Canada (and even in some of the United States) as having a "colourful" or "dynamic" city council. Many would argue that this is thanks in large part to our last mayor, although I've heard that he was just latest in a distinguished line of characters.

Now we are about to elect a fresh new council, and the stakes appear to be high. This city is posed to benefit immensely from an impending boom in oil and gas exploration and production. And whoever's in charge of the city's budget will wield a great deal of power.

While the Internet is still a relatively new phenomenon, it is finally becoming a pervasive medium for a majority of our population. Apart from its potential for communicating to voters, it present astounding possibilities for citizen engagement in the running of the city.

The comment boards on CBC NL and The Telegram may seem benign at the moment; they are essentially an online, text-based "Open Line." But even just the added feature of being able to "vote" for or "approve" of other people comments has started to change our idea of our ability to influence the direction our public policies take.

All of the candidates are campaigning on the promise of engaging citizens to assist in decision making. This approach is probably as old as democracy itself, however one wonders if candidates are prepared for a new age of citizen expectations.

The Internet is giving us a view of the entire world. Today a person living on Elizabeth Avenue can read the news from St. John's, Toronto, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, and Shanghai. She can see that cities have common issues, and can learn exactly how these cities are tackling such problems. She can observe which ones work, and then ask "why aren't we doing that here?"

And so, perhaps the most effective leader of a city is one who can assimilate a wide array of ideas and inputs, and then mobilize the council members, city workers, and citizen groups to enact programs to address these concerns and suggestions.

Our last mayor told us at every opportunity that our representatives work for him were incompetent fools. Many of us still believe this.

I'm involved in this year's election campaign and have been fortunate to meet many of the candidates. One thing I can tell you is that they are not fools. But I can also tell you that learning what matters to voters takes open ears and a lot of work.

However, it's not hard for voters to submit their opinions and views to the many, many outlets online. These include the sites I mentioned above, as well as blogs, discussion forums, social media (facebook, twitter, etc) and direct emails to the candidates.

And because we're getting so used to being able to do this, we will soon demand that city council not only listen to these voices, but that they provide a central forum for ideas to be shared and discussed expressly for the folks at city hall.

Is your candidate ready for that? Because I know you and your neighbours are.