It’s funny how a wee trip down memory lane can remind you of how you came to reach opinions that have lasted a lifetime.
I had one of those nostalgia/confirmation jaunts just last week when I returned to Calgary for the first time since I was a reporter at City Hall there, 35 years ago.
There I was in a bustling busy city that had grown exponentially since I was plying my trade reporting on municipal politics.
New skyscrapers now loomed over the old sandstone City Hall building at the heart of the shiny local government complex.
There was a magnificent, massive modern public library for the Calgarians to enjoy that wasn’t there before. A lovely boardwalk ran along the side of the Bow River.
It was busy and lively and clearly prosperous – although like every other North American major city did not have its troubles to seek with the visible and omnipresent problem of homelessness and addiction.
Calgary has come a long way in the past three and a bit decades since I lived there and the driving force behind that will have been its city council.
Which brings me back to validating firmly held beliefs. You see, Calgary does all this with one mayor and 14 – count ’em Jim, 14 – councillors. Not 45 like Aberdeen – 14. Not 70 like Aberdeenshire – 14.
And an absolute absence of party politics.
‘No tribalism. No point scoring’
While I was standing looking into the Calgary council chamber last week, I looked up to the wee booth in the press gallery where I got my induction 35 years into how it worked from a grizzled veteran reporter. She laughed when I asked if the seats were arranged on party lines.
“Party politics? In a council? How would that work?”
How indeed.
In Calgary you don’t stand behind a rosette and a manifesto. You stand on your name, your achievements, your talent and your unbending will to do the best for your ward and for your city.
No tribalism. No slavish following of party dictat. No point scoring.
You are there to do your best for the only folk you answer to. The people.
Now compare and contrast with what we have in every local council in Scotland – up to and including Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
‘Streamlined, efficient and effective’
How would things be, if instead of working as bear pit of political argument and at times sheer party pettiness, we had councillors working together for the common weal. Folk who find ways around the inevitable disagreements on policy without the pall of partisanship and dead hand of dogma.
Isn’t it time we had a clear-eyed look at how we organise ourselves in our local councils in this country?
Couldn’t we at least stop and ask if this is the best way of doing things and whether we can imagine a better way, one that is streamlined, efficient and effective?
We don’t have to imagine when we can see it for ourselves in places like Calgary.
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