ROTHENBURGER: How RHJ confounds his critics and wins hearts and minds
Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson. (Image: Mel Rothenburger)
THERE ARE THREE big reasons Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson prevails over his critics and will continue to prevail. Two of them involve key civic issues and the third is about the man himself.
The eight City councillors find fault with him at every turn. Reporters revel in the latest bit of controversy. The keyboard critics for those same media rely on him for target practice.
And yet, he remains standing. I wonder if there’s ever been another civic politician who is so unpopular with his fellow council members and so universally criticized by the media.
Doesn’t matter. The councillors are on the wrong side of two major public issues and they simply can’t win on either of them. They believe they have valid reasons to be unhappy with RHJ’s performance but in their determination to oppose his administrative style they’ve taken their eyes off the ball.
Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
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In the far distant past I wrote a weekly newspaper column one of which was titled,” Would you buy a used car off this guy ? “, the guy being a crook by the name of Mulroney.Us old people all remember him, Ronald Regans singing companion. I,d buy a used vehicle off the new mayor anytime,
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Mel, I think that you are seeing one of the transferrable skills RHJ brought to the Mayor’s office from his past career as a “used car salesman”. That skill, developed over time, is how to deal with people; even the “difficult” ones.
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