Thursday, July 23, 2009

Here come more Czars....

My last post explained what I think about Czars replacing our politicians and their incompatibility with democracy.

I had not intended to write again so soon on this topic but a news flash from the local radio station has prompted me to do so.

The Ottawa Council apparently has a small committee of councillors which decides, from time to time, whether to reinstate taxi licences to drivers who have had their's revoked for some reason.

A couple of councillors, including ours in the rural west end of the city believe that councillors do not have the skill set to make such important decisions. They are urging Council to establish a new committee composed of civilian "experts" to do this work.

Rubbish.

Councillors do not very often have the background to deal with huge budgets - but they do so all the time as members of City Council and the list of such goes on and on.

One of the main reasons we as residents of the City elect Councillors is that they are not "experts" rather, they are our peers, often ordinary people who have been given the chance to use their best judgment in decidinge what is best for everyone.

If they serve on a committee to consider the reinstatement of taxi licences, we expect them to use their common sense to determine what is best for we the public. That's why we elected them and that's why they are accountable to us the taxpayer.

This applies to all elected officials - non elected Czars - even those proposed for the municipal level, should look for work outside of politics.

More later...

"Galagher"