August is upon us, the sun is busy frying Coast lawns and metaphorical tumbleweeds are lolling through the boardroom at 1975 Field Road. It would be a quaint, Sunshine Coast reminder of summer if it weren’t for the autumn election. Instead, the empty boardroom feels more like a moment of suspense in John Carpenter’s The Thing – the election monster looms but no one knows who’s infected yet.
People have yet to climb out of the woodwork and declare their decision to run, and much like the shape-shifting extraterrestrial in the above mentioned horror flick, that’s a little disconcerting.
It’s disconcerting because there are a historic number of empty chairs to fill. Of the five rural electoral areas in the Sunshine Coast Regional District, four directors are bowing out, while one – Elphinstone director Lorne Lewis – has yet to announce his intentions.
SCRD headquarters hasn’t been a total wasteland. Lori Pratt has announced her decision to gun for Halfmoon Bay’s seat and has been appearing at board meetings for months, joined by a handful of other potential candidates who haven’t gone public yet. That’s the good news.
Here’s the bad. Last election, the nomination period started the last day of September. For this election, the amount of time between the nomination period and voting day may be the same, but that period is happening a month earlier – nominations start Sept. 4 and voting day is Oct. 20.
It’s a little time change that could make a big difference for the SCRD because there are no meetings in August. Aside from the handful of candidates engaged in boots-on-the-ground homework – understanding process at a level only possible by setting foot in the boardroom and observing the politics unfold – I’m left to infer that many of the people who will be putting their names on the ballot are going into this election blind.
All those rookie rural directors will be relying on the experience and institutional knowledge of politicians from the Town of Gibsons and District of Sechelt, maybe Lewis, and of course SCRD administration. There will be much handholding at a time when key decisions will need to be made on multi-million-dollar projects and in the midst of a massive service review.
Here’s the thing: democracy needs voters. But it also needs informed candidates.
It appears a portion of the new crop of directors has lost their chance to sit in the room and observe the vets, which means they may end up under their thumbs. Scary.
