LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Vote for platforms and ideas not banners and labels

Re: Choose carefully in local elections, Think Again, Michael Zwaagstra, Sept. 10, The Carillon.

How little does Mr. Zwaagstra think of the electorate, I wonder, to suggest that candidates running in the municipal election must fall on one side of the political spectrum or the other, and that this should be the deciding factor in how we vote?

In the view expressed in his column, traditional values and low taxes are right-leaning, so anyone supporting them must be on the right, while inclusion and big spending are left-leaning talking points used by those who are left-leaning. There is no room for nuance; all candidates must be sorted into either team left or team right so you can safely vote for whoever falls on your side of the line.

The word for this is tribalism.

Municipal politics does not, and should not, work this way. Reducing local elections to left versus right is doing a disservice to our community. When the city needs to fix potholes, is that a right-leaning or left-leaning issue? What about when a property owner applies to rezone a parcel for higher density, or when the city plans new recreational facilities? None of these decisions come with standard partisan labels, and candidates can offer compelling arguments for or against any of them regardless of where they sit on the political spectrum.

Mr. Zwaagstra posits that voters need to look beyond a candidate’s brochure to see what they truly stand for. But if all you’re doing with more information is sorting them into a neat partisan box then ultimately what is the difference?

We should be voting for platforms and concrete ideas that benefit the community, not banners and labels.