EDITORIAL: Time to shake up councils for Muskoka’s future sake

MUSKOKA — Election day: a nail biter for some (candidates), important for most (voters), mildly amusing for a lot (of others), and care less for far too many (more than half of us).

Which box above will you check Monday?

It’s worth thinking about — seriously.

Municipal elections, while lower on the political pecking order (still beneath federal and provincial enumerations), are closer to the bones of most people.

They can affect your life in myriad ways; from how much you pay in taxes and how those public dollars are spent, to whether you can even spend your own money on your own home without government involvement.

To be bluntly honest, towns have very little spending leeway with the millions they take in from property owners.

Once the municipality pays its own bills and staff get paid to provide those services, their budgets are a lot like your own household income. The disposable income for discretionary spending can be as meagre without going into debt.

Which at least Gravenhurst and Huntsville find themselves in after big projects like the Muskoka Wharf the G8, respectively.

But they can dip into reserves and raise taxes, which most Muskoka town have done, many would say needlessly.

So, then, where does this leave the electors to decide on councils and mayors.

Well, first, forget the election speeches, pamphlets, signs and other assorted political rhetoric.

They’re all the same motherhood hooey, one in the same.

If you want to know who to vote for, look long and hard at the candidates.

Who are they, what do they do, where do they work, what is their personal track record — and the big one, why are they really running.

Most successful people who would be qualified to run towns don’t need part-time jobs.

The oddballs we need aren’t the ones we have.

The crux of this election, like most in the past, is the future of Muskoka — not the past (unless you take into account dealing with large debts that hamper growth).

Muskoka’s seven lower tier governments manage on average 10,000 people per body year-round.

Summer, that changes; but is that still relevant.

Four seasons trump one today.

The four dozen or so elected officials — CAOs, planners, economic officers and their staffs — need to come to grips with the new reality they’ve been ignoring.

So far, they haven’t.

For residents of the “Gateway to Muskoka,” “the Heart of Muskoka” and all the other towns and unelected villages to survive the approaching tsunami from the south, they must elect a less conservative collection of naysayers.

That isn’t to say we should vote in spendthrifts, but people who have solid business acumen with accountable records that don’t rob the public trust.

Grand but not grandiose.

If we are going to spend money to grow, something has to give; and the voters have to accept that new reality that it may mean a change in what services get funded and to what degree.

Or we carry on our simple, merry way.

Employment should be the No. 1 priorty; and that definitely doesn’t mean more government jobs. We’ve done that and you can see where that has gotten us.

There are jobs out there that can be brought to Muskoka — if only economic development departments were more willing to go get it by knocking on doors, rather than relying on mom and pop shops to open and close. Other towns do it.

The old Muskoka Centre in Gravenhurst and the Muskoka hospitals future are just two areas to consider when voting. Neither is near resolved, and each will have profound, long-term consequences.

No sense having aging housing if you can only service their needs half-assed.

A young, vibrant workforce, too, requires mental and physical health care that meets their needs, as well.

That front has been talked about to death, with Huntsville and Bracebridge fighting hard for their towns, rather than the district. They can’t see the forest for the trees.

Lots to think about.

Decide wisely, don’t waste your vote on the past. Think of the future and who is going to get you there. Not the sticks in the mud who may have gotten you into the messes we’re in now.

There are some bright new choices out there and some life left in a few still on council.

Which ones you choose can make or break Muskoka by 2022.

Especially so, as at least 22 of the elected District of Muskoka councillors will get to pick the next district chair among three men who have all done the job in the past to seriously varying degrees. (More on that later.)

By then it may be too late, so think wisely and seriously.

Good luck, we all need it.