I lived in Britain until 1990, when I moved to Canada, where I now live. I
found it really refreshing to discover that there could be directly elected
mayors in their 20s and 30s - such a thing never happened in Britain, as I
recall.
My main impression of local government in Britain is that compared to where
I live (Victoria), it was so often sewn up by "the old boys"' and that the
Mayor was usually the oldest and often the least innovative of the bunch;
the system promotes in-house values of never rocking the boat, whereas the
Canadian system allows for a lot more fresh energy to emerge.
Having lived with direct elections for mayor for 8 years now, I'd favour
the system any day, as one small step in the direction of community
democracy.
Best wishes,
Guy
Guy Dauncey, 2069 Kings Rd, Victoria, B.C. V8R 2P6, Canada
Sustainable Communities Consultancy
Tel/Fax (250) 592-4473
'JOURNEY INTO THE FUTURE : VANCOUVER ISLAND IN THE 21st Century'
a series of illustrated Public Lectures
at the Kaleidoscope Playhouse,
520 Herald St, Victoria
Monday Jan 5th : EARTH - A New Era of Stewardship
Monday Jan 12th: SUN - The Dawning of the Solar Age
Monday Jan 19th: HOME - From Sprtawl to EcoVillages
Monday Feb 9th : WORK - Building a Green Economy
Monday Feb 16th: SPIRIT - A New Worldview
all at 7:30pm
for tickets ($12/$8), call (250) 475-4444
or www.ticketmaster.com
Editor, EcoNews http://www.islandnet.com/~gdauncey/econews/
