Columnist Edward Keenan cogently and succinctly explains how elected life and a full family life are in conflict. However extrapolating this to all elected officials is very troubling.
Am I — a voter — to accept that public and private life are not compatible and that most elected officials have sacrificed their domestic life to serve me?
It would mean that most government members do not place a high value on family life. Yet isn’t it a core part of government to ensure that Canadians, at all levels of being governed, enjoy the best family life possible — education, health care, transportation, supply chains, ETC …?
If our elected leaders cannot balance their own lives, how can we expect them to make the best decisions to enrich the lives of the electorate?
Can we not set up a system to distribute the workload of a mayor split more evenly between himself and his representatives e.g. deputy mayors? Just the way that medical personnel are on call for emergencies, could we not have shifts where a deputy mayor would be on call to respond to crises?
The mayor could still have input (virtual attendance) via smartphone, but still be able to spend quality private or family time.
The mayor and city councillors spend most of their working days administering the city’s needs, why not do the same for their personal lives?
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