Municipal term limits would be anti-democratic

By Letter to the Editor on June 5, 2018.

Medicine Hat Coun. Kris Samraj has proposed the idea of term limits for municipal councillors and mayors. I disagree.

One of our democratic rights is to run for public office. Mr. Samraj’s proposal, if implemented, would curtail that right. To impose a “best before date” is to merely speculate that a elected official is no longer suitable to serve. Only the electorate should decide that. Why deny the choice, otherwise open to voters, that someone should serve longer than two terms? We don’t deny that choice when voters decide that someone should only serve one term, or not at all.

In Medicine Hat and in Cypress County there are many examples of long-serving elected officials who have made great contributions. Think of the service to Medicine Hat by Mr. Ted Grimm, or to Cypress County by Mr. LeRay Pahl. Term limits would have deprived the communities of the good, hard work of these two gentlemen, and of other who served multiple terms. The voters thought their long terms were a good idea. How can one argue with that?

Mr. Samraj’s proposal is an anti-democratic solution to a non-existent problem.

Gregory Cote

Irvine, Alta.

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