Electoral Slates Are Like Stacking The Deck

I’ve been a card player since I was old enough to hold cards in my fat little hands.

At first it was simple games like fish, war and memory, then my grandmother taught me how to play poker - I was 7.

In high school, I always had a deck of cards in my pocket, ready to pull it out and play Rummy, Cheat, 31, Blackjack, Poker or various games of solitaire.

My friends and I would often play multideck games like Canasta or Double Solitaire. When I had children, I used playing cards for a number of activities.

I used playing cards to

• teach my kids their numbers

• help improve their memory (by playing memory)

• teach them strategy like in the game of Cheat (aka Bullshit)

• teach them how to add by playing counting games like crib or pyramid solitaire

Never once did I teach them to stack the deck - playing a game you know you cannot lose is not worth playing. Instead, I taught them how to play well within the rules.

Local Slate?

A local mayoral candidate had declared to many people that he has a slate of council candidates.

A slate is defined as a list of candidates that have common interests, views, priorities - they may or may not be dedicated to supporting their fellow slate members after the election.

Here’s My Thoughts on Slates

I see a slate as equivalent to stacking the deck. 

I believe if your policies are so weak that you must depend on a slate to back your play, that they do not deserve the light of day.

I believe if your ability to work and pay well with people who have different views is so poor that you must stack the deck, then you are unqualified to sit at the table.

It's Easy to Preach to the Choir

Sure - having people on council who think exactly the same way I do would be a hell of a lot easier, it’s easy to preach to the choir. It would not require me to use my considerable powers of persuasion and again, I would not have to have a good argument.

I’m not here to take the easy road because good decision-making on complex issues is not easy. Most of our critical decisions will not be easy.

If you are thinking it will be easy to sit on council, you should probably rescind your nomination papers.

Here’s a question you must ask candidates who are on a slate -

Do you have a will of your own or are you sworn to support all policies?

It's probably good to join a slate if it gets your name out there. Name recognition is huge.

It’s probably not good if you must give up your freedom to vote your conscience, to allow someone to subvert your own will to be a part of it.

I Make My Own Decisions - Nobody Makes Them For Me 

I’m not willing to sell my vote to have a chance to serve my community. I tell my donors that the money they donate does not entitle them to tell me how to vote on any issue. I do not want money from anyone who thinks they can buy my vote. I will certainly listen and am open to changing my mind when presented with new facts but I will not guarantee anything.

I have stood my ground on my values, I do not allow pressure to get to me. If I did, I would have quit my job a long time ago.

My past actions show who I am. I’ve been following and writing about city council and city hall for over 4 years. I have gained a huge amount of knowledge over that time. Some of my views and opinions have changed over that time, I am far less naive than I was.

I've worked hard at my job; I have earned the respect of many others over the past 4 years. People know exactly who I am. My public persona is the same as my private one.

I'm not always going to show my cards, I'm no fool.

I Don't Need to Stack the Deck

I want people on council who have different views than I do because that is how I learn. I do not pretend to know everything; sometimes I change my mind when I hear a different point of view.

I want people on council to have different views than I do because that is how we get the entire picture. Again, I do not hold all the answers, nobody can. I do know how to get the answers so we can get the entire picture.

I want people on council who have different views than I do because I do not wish to work in an echo chamber. We live in a democracy, not a dictatorship.

I want people on council who have different views than I do because I believe the public deserves to hear an argument from all angles. The public deserves transparency and explanations.

To quote a favourite book of mine

“If you put away those who report accurately, you’ll keep only those who know what you want to hear. I can think of nothing more poisonous than to rot in the stink of your own reflections.”

Frank Herbert - Children of Dune