Councillor Clive Doucet’s decision to enter the mayoralty campaign has come as a surprise to everyone. Interesting times are looming ahead for all the mayoral candidates. There are now four high profile candidates for mayor; three of them are currently members of council.
I am encouraged by Mr. Doucet’s opening statements “I’m not running to be the developer’s go-to-guy and I will not run the city behind closed doors.” Doucet also indicates that his campaign will be financed by “small donations from ordinary people.”
These are words that all candidates for mayor and city council need to pay attention to. I have long opposed election campaign funding by corporate and union donors as well as by owners, executives and senior staff of corporations. Regrettably, there is only a small group of existing councillors that do not accept donations from these sources. It’s time for this issue to be cleared up once and for all. No matter how much councillors take offence and protest that their votes cannot be bought when challenged on this issue, the perception will always be there. We must remove the temptation.
Whatever one feels about Councillor Doucet’s views, it cannot be denied that he is one of the most honest and sincere members of council. Watch and learn!
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