Mayor Linnsie Clark and eight new councillors pose for a photo following their swearing-in ceremony and oaths of office Monday evening at city hall.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
Eight new councillors joined returning Mayor Linnsie Clark as they were officially sworn into their roles during a ceremony at city hall Monday evening in front of a full viewing gallery.
Members of the Medicine Hat Fire and Emergency Services Honour Guard, as well as a bagpiper, led the ceremony into council chambers. Clark took her oath to office, followed by each of the eight new councillors in alphabetical order.
Following the brief ceremony, Clark and councillors posed for a variety of photographs before addressed the first orders of new business, which included appointment councillors to various boards, tweaks to the upcoming council schedule and closed with a new council inaugural address by Clark.
“There is something essential to the proper functioning of our community, perhaps even the existence of community, that we cannot see,” Clark began in her address. “The machinery of trust humming quietly underneath everything we do, the assumption that we will get what we pay for, that water will flow, that people will stop at stop signs, that strangers will obey the invisible rules of courtesy.”
Clark said those expectations – part of a social contract of unspoken promises which keep society bound together – face growing risk as more Canadians show declining confidence in their governments at all levels.
“We see it in the tone of public meetings, in the fatigue of volunteers, in the guardedness of everyday conversations,” she said.
Clark says trust is not just a feeling or attitude, but the framework to building a stronger community.
“When inequality grows, trust falls. When trust falls, co-operation declines. When co-operation declines, collective problems like infrastructure renewal or health-care reform become harder to solve. This pattern is recursive, a feedback loop of diminishing confidence.”
Clark spoke about divisiveness through social media and digital interactions adding to the erosion of trust in the government by erasing authenticity.
“Empirical research confirms the civic cost. Heavy social media users report lower interpersonal trust and higher political polarization,” said Clark. “Algorithms cluster citizens into echo chambers that reinforce confirmation bias.”
Some solutions proposed by Clark for this term include increasing transparency between council, city staff and the public, calling for a calming period to regain citizen trust.
“When leaders behave predictably, citizens rediscover the reward of co-operation. The payoff matrix flips, participation becomes ration again,” Clark said in her closing remarks. “This is how cycles are broken, not through heroic decrees, but through consistent fairness that reconditions expectation.”
Her remarks were bereft of anything to do revitalizing downtown or addressing public safety concerns. Always unicorns and rainbows. Hoping the new council will do these jobs for her.
Her remarks were bereft of anything to do revitalizing downtown or addressing public safety concerns. Always unicorns and rainbows. Hoping the new council will do these jobs for her.