Politics (from Greek: Πολιτικά, politiká, ‘affairs of the cities’) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations between individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.
The idea of political well-being may be the hardest one to capture accurately or with certainty. The concept of political well-being is interdisciplinary and often overlaps with other areas like education, the economy, health and making progress.
In many ways, we are all part of the politics of our city, whether we choose to actively participate or not. Political well-being can mean having the ability to participate in the political process. We are a democratic country with democratic principles of governance at all three levels of government.
At the local level, political well-being means our residents can participate in the political process, have their voices are heard, and feel they’ve been listened to, even when decisions may not go their way. Decisions are made to benefit the collective, not an individual. Council is secular secular- we accepts facts, not just strong opinion. We have healthy debate and conversation. We communicate with our residents.
And we value relationships, understanding we cannot do it alone at the local level. We maintain working relationships with our regional partners, our provincial government and federal government. We don’t accept interference from other levels of government when it’s inappropriate and we’re not afraid to defend that position.
Local council is busier than ever and there is a lot of complexity to the issues before us The committee work is intense but council is at the table to represent Spruce Grove to other levels of government, fellow local governments and associations.
Being a councillor means being politically active but maintaining a non-partisan point of view while representing the city with the best interests of the community in mind.
As a resident and a member of council, consider the following:
- Collaboration and partnership– You believe in collaboration and partnership. You agree that it best to work with all levels of government without prejudice. You respect the city’s administration as subject area experts and to make appropriate choices to run the operations of the city. You believe in working with our regional partners because we are stronger as a region. You believe in partnership with our local associations and organizations like the Rotary, CCBA, the Chamber, our volunteer groups and more.
- Keep municipal politics local and non-partisan– You believe in the democracy set out and while local government is a creature of the province, that we must be able to govern without interference. You believe in proper consultation and that local governments understand the local issues best. You understand partisan politics has no place locally and that council members make decisions based on what’s best for the residents, and not party policy. You understand that we are a secular government and are not to be influenced otherwise.
- Healthy government– You believe in transparency and accountability. You believe data should be accessible. You believe privacy should be respected. You support your local government doing all they can to secure sensitive data from hacking or theft attempts. You respect a government that takes healthy risks and is not risk averse. You understand that not all debt is bad debt and a healthy government makes decisions not just for today’s residents, but those 20 years from now. You believe in public participation. You agree that residents are free to share opinion with their council. You agree decisions should be made publicly, not behind closed doors. You believe in healthy debate and respectful political discourse.