PETERS – Park debate shows elections better than one-off consultations

YOU KNOW HOW EVERY TIME AN ELECTION APPROACHES, there are impassioned pleas for people to get out and vote?

It’s often a case of too little, too late. Unless a potential voter is continually given reasons to believe voting is important, once every four years is not going to do the trick.

So this week’s Kamloops council debate about Riverside Park is a good reminder, with the civic election still a good year-and-a-half away, that voting is important.

When we elect city councillors, we do not expect them to make all of the decisions for us on their own. Decisions on larger, community-shaping issues should still be given extra opportunities for public input.

The decision this week on offering space for limited commercial opportunities in Riverside Park is not one of those major issues, no matter what pearl-clutching advocates would have you believe.

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James Peters is the radio anchor at CFJC, coming to Kamloops in 2006. He anchors the afternoon news on B-100 and 98.3 CIFM, and contributes weekly editorials to the CFJC Evening News. He tweets regularly @Jamloops.