I came to Ottawa City Hall in December 2018 as the policy & planning assistant for a newbie councillor. In October 2020, I went to work for another newbie councillor who had won her council seat in a by-election. I don’t consider myself an expert in many things but I have been the witness and advisor to two competent and driven candidates as they took on their new role as elected representatives. I have seen them walk in the same traps, make the same assumptions, agonize over the same dilemmas, and come out of the learning curve as smart and caring leaders. No one experiences being a newbie twice but I feel like I speak with some expertise on the matter of becoming an elected official.
As soon as you swear your oath of office, you will face the same constraints and limitations as your predecessor. One meeting at a time, you will learn why things are the way they are and why there are no quick fixes. It will take three of your first 4 years in office to understand how to pursue your ward priorities within Ontario’s legislative and policy framework. Just as you start to come out of the learning curve, you’ll have to hit the campaign trail again on a record that is just starting to come together.
Voters have seen the “Activist You” during the campaign. They voted for you based on a body of work that wasn’t constrained by legislation, consensus or a broader city-wide vision. You went from a narrow focus as an activist to a much broader focus as an elected official.
Soon, it’s inevitable, a controversial matter will grab the public’s attention and you will notice that some councillors bring their narrow activist focus to their councillor’s chair.
When voters get angry, they demand a level of focused activism from their councillors that they would bitterly protest if it was applied to a cause they do not support. In times like these, activist councillors are popular because they offer simple answers to complex problems. It’s what makes populism work. Is the building too tall? Don’t build it. Is the sidewalk not long enough? Make it longer. Is the new Civic Hospital campus not in your location of choice? Don’t put it there. Activist councillors say what people want to hear and they make life more complicated for those who prefer to govern from a place of consensus. Suggesting a consensus-based approach to a polarized public will earn you accusations of selling out. You will realize that the reason City Council is polarized and rigid is because the people who elect City Council are polarized and rigid. Everyone likes a constructive approach until they have to give a little.
The challenge with consensus is that it emerges from dialogue. There cannot be consensus without dialogue: how can you integrate different perspectives if you don’t know them? Dialogue takes time. Dialogue takes effort. Dialogue takes trust. In a marriage, there is a time to talk and work things out. That time is never in the middle of a bitter argument. During a bitter argument, we want to take sides. We want to be right. We want to be affirmed.
As a thoughtful person, you may see a difference between the “Councillor You” and the “Activist You”. You may see your elected role as that of a facilitator between your constituents’ wide-ranging interests and priorities. This work of facilitation may lead you to make decisions that are principled but unpopular. Your constituents will not see the wisdom of your principled approach. They will demand an Activist Councillor, single-minded, focused on representing the one issue they care about at the exclusion of every other. In this moment, Activist Councillors give residents what they want: simple, binary solutions. Your constituents will demand that you follow suit and tear away at the fabric of inclusivity and cooperation you signed up to create.
The constructive patterns of consensus and dialogue build over time. A position can easily be demonstrated in a Tweet. Ethics and values are demonstrated through consistent action. When you make your first unpopular decision – sooner than you think – you may not have had the time to demonstrate your ethics and values to the community. People will question your integrity and put everything you stand for into question.
There might be a temptation to base your ethics on a particular position, especially in light of the flack you are getting. But the right order of things is to have a broad base of ethics supporting your specific positions. A thing only floats when the volume of water underneath it is greater than its own. Otherwise, it sinks.
As the pyramids of Egypt have been proving for a few thousand years, a broad base supporting a narrow top is the most resilient shape. The opposite is a balancing act.
When the dilemmas of holding office start driving you crazy, return to the Ward office and apply yourself to the work of getting problems solved one constituent at a time. It will re-focus you on the reasons you signed-up for this. There will always be people who expect democracy to be an exact representation of their will and desires. But most people will come to understand that you are leading from a place of principle rather than populist posturing and recognize your consistency.
Steady, consistent, hard work on behalf of your community. When nothing else works, work always works.