Thursday, August 16, 2018

The New Face of Toronto?


A well-intentioned movement is underway in Toronto. Its motivation is concern over the lack of municipal representatives who are non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual. To state their aim in positive terms, they want more Councillors who are Black, Asian, Indigenous, female, trans-gendered, gay, indigent, disabled.

To this end, volunteer groups offer encouragement, election experience, possibly financial aid to those not currently represented on the municipal scene. Is this noble venture in accord with the purpose of a municipal  council, or indeed any elected body?

Reportedly there are more than a dozen activist groups gearing up for the October 22 election. They are concerned with issues such as transit, the environment, the arts, gun control, adequate housing, bicycle safety. What these activists want are representatives whose municipal views more or less match theirs.

Advocating facial diversity runs counter to the purpose of government.

We elect people whose platform more or less is an accord with our idea of municipal governance. That's why I support my Councillor, not because she is a woman which I am not,  not because she is homosexual which I am not, not because she is Asian which I am not, not because she is dark-skinned which I am not. I vote for her because her vision of our great city matches mine.

Otherwise, we are in danger of promoting identity politics, so condemned by Barack Obama in his July speech to South Africans. Martin Luther King, Jr.  dreamed it this way, ". . . that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character."