Saturday, November 08, 2008
Sent to all 33 IT Candidates.
Hi Everybody:
My name is Ian A. Lowden. I am a candidate for the island Trust from Gabriola. I thought it might be a good thing to have everyone who is running for the Trust on a group list, So that we could share some ideas.
I am a long time and solid supporter of the Island Trust Candidate, however I am not always a supporter of some of the things done by the Trust -executive, support staff, or local councils such as the botched rebellion attempt on Galliano by the last council. Everyone says they are supporters of the Mandate when they run for election however as with anything else some people have private agendas. To take a vow and stand for election to support the mandate and not do so is I think the worse form of treachery a person is capable of. Politicians in general seem to have little difficulty selling out their voters and their voters trust without any noticeable difficulty with their conscience which is why, with some notable exceptions, I have always tended to rank politicians as somewhere around the level of pedophiles. Which is why, at this late stage of my life (59) I find it particularly interesting to find myself running for public office.
If you want top know the reasons I am running they are on my bog http://ianlowden.blogspot.com/ . However the reason I am writing each of you is to acquaint you with some of my ideas should I become elected. I intend to apply for one of the vacant spots on the executive - not because of ego I assure you. I have accomplished enough in my life time that my ego needs no boosting by position. The reason I will apply is because I have an agenda - some very definite ideas on what we need to do to strengthen the Trust and it's Mandate.
It should come as no surprise that the trust is losing credibility on many islands. there are distinct reasons for that. Some of it has to do with individual reps but a lot has to do with some bad habits that have grown almost into the accepted way of doing things on the Trust. I have a letter from a trust employee telling another council member that this person will not release some information to candidates or trust members AND MOST IMPORTANTLY to the public. Where this employee gets off telling the trust and the public what he will and won't do is beyond me but apparently the council including the outgoing Chair are hesitant or is it afraid to challenge him. If elected I intend to make it very clear to our employees that the Council of Elected Trust members makes those decisions and staff are there to carry out instructions not to give them. Somehow the culture of the Trust, like most government bureaucracies,has grown up that it is the Bureaucrats that run things as trustees come and go. I intend to reverse that mode of thinking by making sure that all of our employees realize that they hold their jobs at the pleasure of the Trust elected members through the Council. Those who cannot get along with this new understanding, will find that it is not just Trustees that come and go. Though this attitude on the part of some and I emphasize ONLY SOME of our employees is part of the reason that The Trust is losing the trust of many islanders it is not the only reason.
I think that if we are to really be a an effective agent in upholding our Mandate then some of the things that have become habit for the council and the individual reps must change. I refer specifically to our reasons for making decisions and how we communicate those reasons to the public. Too often decisions are made without explaining why in terms of our Mandate those decisions are being made. For the same reason we have to examine every proposal that comes to us in terms of how it will effect the Mandate we are also responsible to people bringing those proposals, ideas or even by-laws why we are approving or ruling against their idea in terms of what our mandate is. Clarity in our thinking and transparency in our methods must be watchwords. people can respect a person that says no to them and tells them why they must say no. What upsets people is that they do not really understand what our mandate is and what it isn't. so we must educate them by our explanations and by our role modeling of being honest, transparent and clear in our reasoning, and understandable in our actions and reasons. We need to make sure that we show how a decision could affect our mandate now or 50 years from now - although 20 year thinking is more doable than fifty and a serious edge over most politicians who sometimes can not envision next week let alone beyond their term. An example of this is our ferry fiasco - anyone who is used to long range thinking would have known that the more expensive you make the ferries the less people will use them and you will end up losing more to lack of customers than you make in increased fares. Likewise it doesn't take a think tank to realize that if you increase fares the long term effect will be to depress the economy of any areas dependent on those ferries and the effect of that downturn will effect the whole economy of the province in a negative way. we spend Billions on the Olympics which in the long term benefits only a few developers but try to take our Olympic losses out of those areas that need ferry service. Why not just introduce a $40 toll on the sea to sky highway for the next few years? because such a toll would not be tolerated and yet we allow the government to run rough shod over us because we aren't all connected by provincially paid for roads. See my article on Boycotting the Ferry Corporation on my blog- it is probably about the fourth item and addresses a concept of forcing fares down which I would like each of you to mention in your local paper and get feedback from your island as to how they might accomplish this on your island.
Please excuse the segway. Back to what we might do to regain support and credibility for the trust and to ensure our mandate is carried out for future generations. One thing I think we must do is switch our thinking a little. Just because we are elected does not make us a government. We are not the rulers and cannot afford that mode of thinking unlike our provincial and federal reps. We are elected as guardians of the TRUST MANDATE and as servants of that goal. When we forget that we are mere Guardians, temporary ones at that, we may find it easier to stay out of the normal pitfalls of THOSE WHO ARE ELECTED. We might avoid thinking of ourselves as important decision makers and makers of policy and thus somehow we must possess a wisdom beyond that of the mere mortals we represent. Those in our higher levels of government believe in treating the public much like they are growing mushrooms - if you don't understand this analogy think of the conditions needed to grow mushrooms. As representatives of our islands and as guardians of a Trust more sacred than our ambitions we cannot afforded to behave in the vulgar, condescending, and just plain silly way our senior levels of government are used to doing.
We must also be able to put aside our ambitions and even our loyalty to our respective island as we represent the Mandate first last and always and everything we do is subordinate to that. Likewise our staff must understand that they are not there to get the best development at the least cost but they are there only to serve the mandates and are subordinate to that mandate and to the elected council of those who are the guardians of that Mandate. both our staff and ourselves need to understand that unlike other levels of government or the bureaucratic code - don't say yes if a no will do and keep information secret because somehow bureaucrats think that information is power. I have news for them - the next time one of our employees tells me that we don't release that information to the public that person had either better have one very good reason or they should be dusting off their resume and looking for a position where needless secrecy is policy and where keeping the public uninformed about how their money is spent is an acceptable business practice because I don't plan on keeping any long term secrets from my fellow Islanders nor do I intend to start lying to my friends and neighbors. I am hoping that many of you share these views and that if we are elected we can work towards a more open and honest apparatus that serves our Mandate better. If I am not elected I would hope some of you will remember and perhaps expand on some of these ideas. Again the blog spot is http://ianlowden.blogspot.com/ and the article I would like you to read and think about is Boycotting the ferry Corporation which should be about fourth down. One other think to think about is did you know that BC FERRIES pays a great deal of your fare money to support professional sports - look for it's logo next time you are watching a game - those don't come cheap and why would a monopoly have to use your money to advertise? Ian Lowden
My name is Ian A. Lowden. I am a candidate for the island Trust from Gabriola. I thought it might be a good thing to have everyone who is running for the Trust on a group list, So that we could share some ideas.
I am a long time and solid supporter of the Island Trust Candidate, however I am not always a supporter of some of the things done by the Trust -executive, support staff, or local councils such as the botched rebellion attempt on Galliano by the last council. Everyone says they are supporters of the Mandate when they run for election however as with anything else some people have private agendas. To take a vow and stand for election to support the mandate and not do so is I think the worse form of treachery a person is capable of. Politicians in general seem to have little difficulty selling out their voters and their voters trust without any noticeable difficulty with their conscience which is why, with some notable exceptions, I have always tended to rank politicians as somewhere around the level of pedophiles. Which is why, at this late stage of my life (59) I find it particularly interesting to find myself running for public office.
If you want top know the reasons I am running they are on my bog http://ianlowden.blogspot.com/ . However the reason I am writing each of you is to acquaint you with some of my ideas should I become elected. I intend to apply for one of the vacant spots on the executive - not because of ego I assure you. I have accomplished enough in my life time that my ego needs no boosting by position. The reason I will apply is because I have an agenda - some very definite ideas on what we need to do to strengthen the Trust and it's Mandate.
It should come as no surprise that the trust is losing credibility on many islands. there are distinct reasons for that. Some of it has to do with individual reps but a lot has to do with some bad habits that have grown almost into the accepted way of doing things on the Trust. I have a letter from a trust employee telling another council member that this person will not release some information to candidates or trust members AND MOST IMPORTANTLY to the public. Where this employee gets off telling the trust and the public what he will and won't do is beyond me but apparently the council including the outgoing Chair are hesitant or is it afraid to challenge him. If elected I intend to make it very clear to our employees that the Council of Elected Trust members makes those decisions and staff are there to carry out instructions not to give them. Somehow the culture of the Trust, like most government bureaucracies,has grown up that it is the Bureaucrats that run things as trustees come and go. I intend to reverse that mode of thinking by making sure that all of our employees realize that they hold their jobs at the pleasure of the Trust elected members through the Council. Those who cannot get along with this new understanding, will find that it is not just Trustees that come and go. Though this attitude on the part of some and I emphasize ONLY SOME of our employees is part of the reason that The Trust is losing the trust of many islanders it is not the only reason.
I think that if we are to really be a an effective agent in upholding our Mandate then some of the things that have become habit for the council and the individual reps must change. I refer specifically to our reasons for making decisions and how we communicate those reasons to the public. Too often decisions are made without explaining why in terms of our Mandate those decisions are being made. For the same reason we have to examine every proposal that comes to us in terms of how it will effect the Mandate we are also responsible to people bringing those proposals, ideas or even by-laws why we are approving or ruling against their idea in terms of what our mandate is. Clarity in our thinking and transparency in our methods must be watchwords. people can respect a person that says no to them and tells them why they must say no. What upsets people is that they do not really understand what our mandate is and what it isn't. so we must educate them by our explanations and by our role modeling of being honest, transparent and clear in our reasoning, and understandable in our actions and reasons. We need to make sure that we show how a decision could affect our mandate now or 50 years from now - although 20 year thinking is more doable than fifty and a serious edge over most politicians who sometimes can not envision next week let alone beyond their term. An example of this is our ferry fiasco - anyone who is used to long range thinking would have known that the more expensive you make the ferries the less people will use them and you will end up losing more to lack of customers than you make in increased fares. Likewise it doesn't take a think tank to realize that if you increase fares the long term effect will be to depress the economy of any areas dependent on those ferries and the effect of that downturn will effect the whole economy of the province in a negative way. we spend Billions on the Olympics which in the long term benefits only a few developers but try to take our Olympic losses out of those areas that need ferry service. Why not just introduce a $40 toll on the sea to sky highway for the next few years? because such a toll would not be tolerated and yet we allow the government to run rough shod over us because we aren't all connected by provincially paid for roads. See my article on Boycotting the Ferry Corporation on my blog- it is probably about the fourth item and addresses a concept of forcing fares down which I would like each of you to mention in your local paper and get feedback from your island as to how they might accomplish this on your island.
Please excuse the segway. Back to what we might do to regain support and credibility for the trust and to ensure our mandate is carried out for future generations. One thing I think we must do is switch our thinking a little. Just because we are elected does not make us a government. We are not the rulers and cannot afford that mode of thinking unlike our provincial and federal reps. We are elected as guardians of the TRUST MANDATE and as servants of that goal. When we forget that we are mere Guardians, temporary ones at that, we may find it easier to stay out of the normal pitfalls of THOSE WHO ARE ELECTED. We might avoid thinking of ourselves as important decision makers and makers of policy and thus somehow we must possess a wisdom beyond that of the mere mortals we represent. Those in our higher levels of government believe in treating the public much like they are growing mushrooms - if you don't understand this analogy think of the conditions needed to grow mushrooms. As representatives of our islands and as guardians of a Trust more sacred than our ambitions we cannot afforded to behave in the vulgar, condescending, and just plain silly way our senior levels of government are used to doing.
We must also be able to put aside our ambitions and even our loyalty to our respective island as we represent the Mandate first last and always and everything we do is subordinate to that. Likewise our staff must understand that they are not there to get the best development at the least cost but they are there only to serve the mandates and are subordinate to that mandate and to the elected council of those who are the guardians of that Mandate. both our staff and ourselves need to understand that unlike other levels of government or the bureaucratic code - don't say yes if a no will do and keep information secret because somehow bureaucrats think that information is power. I have news for them - the next time one of our employees tells me that we don't release that information to the public that person had either better have one very good reason or they should be dusting off their resume and looking for a position where needless secrecy is policy and where keeping the public uninformed about how their money is spent is an acceptable business practice because I don't plan on keeping any long term secrets from my fellow Islanders nor do I intend to start lying to my friends and neighbors. I am hoping that many of you share these views and that if we are elected we can work towards a more open and honest apparatus that serves our Mandate better. If I am not elected I would hope some of you will remember and perhaps expand on some of these ideas. Again the blog spot is http://ianlowden.blogspot.com/ and the article I would like you to read and think about is Boycotting the ferry Corporation which should be about fourth down. One other think to think about is did you know that BC FERRIES pays a great deal of your fare money to support professional sports - look for it's logo next time you are watching a game - those don't come cheap and why would a monopoly have to use your money to advertise? Ian Lowden
