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speakup

So I was at a party the other night - the kind of party where people sit around and talk, play guitars, play cards and hammer back a few cold ones.

The TV was on with the sound on mute, and every once in a while someone would grab the remote control and flip the channels between the hockey game and the NASCAR race.

Now I try to keep up with the NHL playoffs, but I don't really give a rodent's patootie about a bunch of shiny billboards racing around in an oval. What would happen if they asked NASCAR drivers to make a right turn? Would the world come to an end?

Anyway, I was sitting there playing bass guitar with one eye and two ears on the jam session and the other eye on the TV screen when a bunch of these fancy-schmancy race cars did a real nice fancy smash into the wall, burst into flames and screeched to a stop. As the maintenance crews scurried onto the track to clean up the mess, there came a voice from the kitchen.

"What's the score?"

I looked at the TV and said in my best deadpan delivery: "There's six cars left."

I heard the familiar snapping sound of a beer can lid.

"No, the hockey score!"

Not sure, but I'm pretty sure Sidney Crosby's still winning. You've got the remote, turn the channel and check it yourself!

Like hockey and car racing, politics is more interesting when you know who's in the game.

Over the last few weeks municipal election candidates have been trying to get the public's attention by knocking on doors, distributing flyers, putting up all manner of signs and appearing at public events like the Meet the Candidates night put on by the Times & Transcript and the Riverview Arts Centre. Elections N.B. also tried to kick up some interest among voters by promoting its new computerized vote tabulation machines.

Did it work?

Well, the numbers are still being crunched, but as of Wednesday it seemed that less than half of the eligible voters bothered or remembered to make a trip to the polling station on Monday. As a journalist who regularly covers Riverview town council and sits in on the meetings every second Monday, my choices for voting were based on first-hand experience of watching the councillors in action. When you attend the meetings on a regular basis, you get to know the issues and the people. After a while, you can predict what each councillor will say or how they will vote on certain topics. But if you try to pick a winner, the results can surprise you.

It is very rare that I see ordinary members of the public show up at a meeting. The exception is when people are there for a specific issue or public hearing. And when that happens, they usually skip out when the part they are interested in is taken care of.

So here's the truly ironic part. One of the main issues in local municipal politics -- besides property taxes, assessments and roads -- is the buzzword of "transparency" and making decisions in a public forum as opposed to a closed door meeting. But the truth of the matter -- in Riverview at least -- is that most decisions are actually made in open council. I can't tell you what they talk about in closed session, because they kick me out. Last year, the town held open sessions on the town budget which were totally open to the public, but nobody from the public showed up. These same people who don't go to public meetings are the same armchair pundits who mutter and grumble about the decisions and are probably among the 50 or more per cent that didn't vote in the first place.

It was during these open sessions that council made decisions on where money would be spent and what to cut out of the budget to hold the line on taxes.

It's funny that people know the stats and have bets riding on their favourite hockey players and race car drivers, but know very little about the people who are making decisions on how their tax dollars are spent.

Now that the election is over, we can get on with the Stanley Cup playoffs and the growing hope that Sidney Crosby will bring the big mug home to a good old Maritime kitchen party in Cole Harbour.

I bet they won't be watching NASCAR that day.

n Alan Cochrane is an editor-at-large with the Times & Transcript. His column appears each Friday. He can be reached by e-mail at cochrana@timestranscript.com