The Your Views section of the Gazette has published many letters written by citizens who have criticized our current city council. It has also published many letters written by people who support the job council is doing. A lot of the criticism directed at council is insulting and vicious, the product of a negative minority.
Some of the criticism directed at various members of council are insulting, vicious and above all, stupid. One need only look at the signs depicting Mayor Nolan Crouse sitting on a toilet flushing away tax dollars during the last election, or the more recent ones depicting him as an anus, or the comparisons of Coun. Cathy Heron to a Barbie doll. By themselves, these attacks are stupid, but more than this they also give ammunition to the people criticizing residents who are concerned about the direction St. Albert is going in and many of the decisions taken by council.
What most people don’t realize, though, is that these types of insults are a two-way street.
This was pointed out to me a while ago when I asked, what is the best way to “bridge the gap” between the divisions in our community. I was reminded how people who have raised concerns about some of the decisions made in St. Albert have been attacked with everything from profanity to accusations that they want to destroy the city’s spirit. Either that, or they’re accused of being penny-pinchers who only care about their own spending priorities and not about the greater good of the community.
Unfortunately, both sides of the debate here are flinging disrespect and insults. Not everyone on either side is causing it, of course, but because they can be associated with the people who are doing it, they end up looking bad too. As a result, the people who try to make more valid criticisms end up being attacked as fear mongers and penny pinchers, without addressing what they’re actually trying to say.
People who criticize city projects or offer alternatives are not engaging in negative campaigning. And the people who are concerned about these issues are not a negative minority. If they were, then why did Councillors Cam MacKay and Sheena Hughes, who are most commonly associated with concerns about the city’s spending priorities, get the second- and third-highest vote totals in the 2013 election? Why did Bob Russell win the recent byelection with twice the number of votes of the runner-up?
The majority spoke through election results-and there are a lot of people in that majority that are concerned about what’s happening in St. Albert.
People expressing concern about the way things are going in St. Albert shouldn’t resort to stupid, juvenile antics like depicting the mayor on a toilet. However, the people who support the status quo should realize that many of the people who are criticizing care just as much about St. Albert as everyone else, and recognize St. Albert’s advantages.
These things cut both ways.
