History offers so much for us in the way of teachable moments.
As we look ahead to the municipal elections on Nov. 15, taking a moment to think back to 2005 has value for those who aim to discredit candidates they don’t support. In 2005 an ambitious slate called Squamish New Directions (SND) was coming to the end of the term with its popularity on a slide.
Mayor Ian Sutherland was looking for a second term in office, as were Jeff Dawson, Ray Peters, Sonja Lebans and Dave Fenn, his slate members on council.
The group got in three years earlier promising change and a more open and inclusive local government. In the 2005 campaign the group promised strong partnerships and new opportunities.
SND campaigned in a hostile environment with many voters concerned with the lack of debate in council meetings. The SND council members entered most meetings united on key issues. The community’s traditional business elite didn’t fully approve of the major decisions made by the SND-controlled council. There was a strong feeling that SND needed to be replaced.
Dawson, Lebans and Fenn lost their seats. Sutherland was shocked at the results of the mayoral race. His victory over Terrill Patterson, who ran for mayor only because nobody else signed on to run against Sutherland, was narrow. Sutherland picked up only 54 per cent of the mayoral votes.
The last week of the 2005 election campaign was dogged by a mystery flyer dubbed the ‘Yellow Sheet.’
The sheet was so significant to the 2005 election that an article about it made the front page of The Squamish Chief on Friday, Nov. 25, while the election results from the weekend before were relegated to page 3. The unsigned yellow piece of paper placed in every post box in Squamish was critical of SND. Sutherland said it contained lies and was potentially libellous. He said at the time that he and SND were considering taking legal action against the writer of the document.
Canada Post said that it encouraged its unsolicited mail clients to include contact information on documents placed in post boxes. Local postal workers wouldn’t provide the name of the person who paid for the yellow sheets, but communications manager Bob Taylor gave up the name without hesitation as he said the corporation didn’t keep that information a secret.
How does all this have any relevance to this municipal election?
Well, as we zero in on Nov. 15 rumours are flying. There’s one persistent rumour floating around that suggests Mayor Rob Kirkham is somehow connected to a series of imminent business lease terminations, so a pipeline company can take over a large industrial space and get prepared for the upgrading of the natural gas pipeline that passes through Squamish from Coquitlam on its way to Woodfibre and eventually Vancouver Island.
Rebecca Aldous diligently chased this rumour down over the course of two weeks, speaking with a long list of people connected to or potentially impacted by this rumour. After speaking with a number of businesses and a provincial government spokesperson, Aldous has concluded the rumour is just that, a rumour. There’s nothing to it.
This is the sad thing about Yellow Sheet authors. They aren’t accountable to anyone, unlike Kirkham and his fellow council members, who are accountable to the electorate. Sadly, a lie will become the truth when it is repeated enough and it becomes accepted as the truth purely because it has been heard over and over until a majority of people accepts it as truth.
Unfortunately, the source of this puffed-up pipeline rumour isn’t known. There’s no paper trail leading back to a person or a group.
Is it too much to ask that everyone play nice between now and election day? Sadly, it is. There are people amongst us who will do anything to discredit an election candidate.
Sometimes separating fact from fiction is tough. One telltale sign is whether information has a name attached to it. If there’s no source, credibility should be questioned. No lives are at risk here; it’s just an election. If too many of us get sucked in by unsigned yellow sheets we’ll all suffer in the long run.
