Dear Editor,
When Murray asked me to run his campaign for Mayor, I said yes right away. I had long encouraged Murray to run because he is someone rooted squarely in the mainstream of Bowen life. As a long-time resident and small business owner on Bowen he has developed friendships and business relationships in all corners of the island. And he has always taken a uniquely independent and plain-spoken view that didn’t fit in either the left or the right side of the political agenda. As a former Mayor myself, I instinctively felt he had the right stuff to represent the entire island.
I first encountered Murray though his Bulletin articles. I was Mayor of Bowen for the six years between 2005 to 2011. I learned quickly that it paid me dividends to read his Bulletin. Not because it was necessarily flattering. Sometimes it was. Often it wasn’t. But because he always had a point, always had something worth listening to, and there was an inherent fairness in the way he said it. Sometimes I agreed with his whole piece. Sometimes I didn’t. But even when I didn’t, it sharpened my understanding of what I did think. And because he offered a lot of facts, I could un-hitch his conclusion from his information. In retrospect, he taught me a lot.
Recently there have been many voices speaking to the importance of civility in our public discourse. I heartily agree with this. This was my bedrock principle for my six years as Mayor and for this I have been thanked many times by folks of all political stripes. But there is a point here that seems to be overlooked by some. One of the critical values of civility is to create a climate where vigorous debate can thrive. Vigorous debate is essential to getting to the better idea, and discarding the rest. Such debate ensures accountability of our elected officials. We need to be very wary of those who cast civil debate as “divisive” to avoid accountability. This Council needs to be held accountable for both its shortcomings and successes. I have watched carefully all five councils that we have had since incorporation and I can confidently say that the current council has set a damagingly low standard for transparency, accessibility, and civility. I say this based on their record: council meetings held only during the day so few could attend, a bare minimum of special public meetings that invited the public to speak, a clear lack of welcome to those whose views they did not share, the inappropriate use of closed meetings for decisions that should have been made in the public, and withholding of a planning report on a controversial issue that prevented effective public scrutiny to name a few.
Mayor candidate Tim Rhodes needs to be accountable for his role in condoning these actions this Council. He has, since deciding to run for Mayor, pitched himself as a consensus builder, and changed his writing style. When I look at his record, I find his claim astonishing. For two years, Tim wrote a very divisive newspaper that continually attacked not only the actions of Council but individuals. If he now wants to be a force for consensus, wonderful, but he has come to this conclusion very recently. So I can only be skeptical of its sincerity at this point.
Tim Rhodes has also yet to convince me that he is independent of the major development interests on Bowen Island. His BITE newspaper was funded by major developers and his writings promoted their point of view. He ran as part of a slate with our island’s major developers in the last election, and took campaign contributions from other major developers. In this election, he has been publically endorsed by a major developer. He has refused to reveal who funds his current newsletter, his expensive full page colour ads in the paper, and who is funding his campaign. My concern is this: a mayor must hold the public’s confidence that he or she’s first allegiance is to the public good of Bowen Island, and not to some other private interests. Tim has yet to convince me of this.
Which brings me back to my own conviction that Murray Skeels is a much better candidate for Bowen Island’s mayor. Murray is a very uncomplicated person. He writes what he believes, and he says the same thing. Those who know him, have worked for and with him, speak highly of his integrity and his honesty. He means what he says. Early on in this campaign, some suggested that he reveal some unflattering information about a competing candidate, to gain advantage. It impressed me greatly that he, without hesitation, said neither he nor anyone on his team would have anything to do with it. That to me is integrity - doing the right thing even when it is to your disadvantage. For me, this mayor’s race is all about trust.
Bob Turner
