Without a party system behind them, some prospective municipal government candidates may not have the opportunity to really dig into what it means to be an elected official, according to a former federal party leader.
"The parties have nominating committees and staff people that meet with potential candidates and try to answer questions. And at the municipal level there isn't that same kind of infrastructure so you're kind of on your own," said Preston Manning.
Manning, who formed the federal Reform and 91原创 Reform Conservative Alliance parties, is the CEO of Calgary's Manning Centre for Building Democracy and joint Manning Foundation for Democratic Education.
"One of our functions is to strengthen the knowledge and the skill level of these folks that want to run for elected office," said Manning, who will be speaking in the Lower Mainland on Friday night at an event designed as a launch for a municipal training initiative.
Though it won't be making a stop in Prince George, Manning said the aim is for the tutorial - which gets potential candidates to deeply question their readiness for public office - to be available online (www.manningfoundation.org) in short order.
"They're pretty basic questions that go all the way with thinking through exactly why is it you want to do this," Manning said. "Because there'll come a day when you ask yourself 'why did I want to do this?'"
Other lines of questioning include looking at the probabilities of success given the area's history, the implications of being in public office for one's health and family, and campaign resources.
"Have you got some access to funds? Have you got people that will be part of your campaign team besides your mother-in-law and your cousin?" said Manning.
Voters head to the polls for municipal elections Nov. 15, making now a ripe time for asking these kinds of questions, said Manning.
"Once people get really close to an election, become candidates they're pretty well set in what they're going to do and don't have any time for preparation or thinking through things," he said. "But if you do it far enough upstream that they've got some time for some corrections if they need to do it and yet close enough to election that they're actually thinking about and interested in it."
Though his centre is traditionally focused on deepening conservative values, Manning said the local government training is more neutral given that most municipal officials run independently.
Instead, Manning said they're trying to get people to think about the principles of good government, strong economy and a strong social network.
There are multiple arguments as to why there should be more attention focused on preparing those getting involved in local government, said Manning. One of them is the sheer number of citizens across the country who dip their toes into the waters.
Manning cited a rough approximation of 4,500 people who seriously consider or run for federal seats, up to 8,000 who tackle provincial or territorial politics but anywhere in the realm of 100,000 people or more who take a run at the country's 25,000-plus municipal positions.
"So there's a huge market of people that at least give some thought to this but there's very little to service them," said Manning, noting most think tanks or training programs focus more of their attention to federal or provincial politics.
"I think it's kind of been underemphasized how important it is. You'll hear the federal, provincial politicians refer to municipal politics as the third level of government," said Manning. "I always used to say 'no, it's the first level.' If you're a democrat particularly, it's the closest one to the public. The councillors can't run away to Ottawa or Victoria the way MPs or MLAs can."
