Jim Watson stopped by Algonquin College last Wednesday to discuss his policies and to hear what some of the eager learners of a Local Government class had to say. Although he did have an answer ready for every question, they were too long and lacked direction.
Watson was the third candidate to visit the school within the past month, and the first to show up with a media team. He walked in with his assistant, a CBC News crew, an A Channel news crew and Joanne Chianello, a reporter from the Ottawa Citizen. He introduced himself, talked about his past political experience and then moved on to a question period.
One student asked what would happen to the city wards if the number of city councillors was brought down from 23 to 17. Watson started off: “We have one of the largest city councils per capita apart from Montreal [...]” and eventually concluded that he plans to expand the wards that are excluded, should the adjustment in number of city councillors ever take place. It took him about five minutes to answer a simple question.
In the end, his idea is a practical alternative for Ottawa. It would save money within the municipal government and would lead to more effective decision-making at city council meetings, but the way he trails off and recites everything he knows related to the topic of the question causes his listeners to lose interest. Jim Watson knows what he’s talking about, he just doesn’t know how to talk about it.
2 comments:
teddy shaff.
This is a great article Kyle. Straight to the point, not too dry, and helps build some insight to readers who dont follow politics on an everyday basis.
Teddy Shaffington.
Is this where I sign up for the enlargement pills?
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