municipal elections

The landscape is dotted with the various signs asking me to vote for this or that person in the upcoming municipal elections.

I have to admit, I'm still quite in the dark about local politics. In fact, I'm embarrassed to say that because I drive all over the municipality, I'm not even quite sure which person on the signs is a candidate for my ward...

Local papers are scarce on details. The rhetoric is colourful and even vitriolic. It is often directed at the provincial and federal governments. Perhaps it's assumed (by those who have always lived here) that everybody knows everybody (and what they stand for) already. (I am a newcomer, after all.) However, I'm willing to bet that most people know more about who represents them at the provincial or federal level, than here locally, where perhaps it might have a most direct impact on their lives! ( I'm even willing to bet that our citizens are more familiar with, say, President Bush, than Prime Minister Stephen Harper.)

One of the most amusing things I ever saw was Rick Mercer's interviews of supposedly intelligent Americans, asking their opinions on fictional/mangled political/geographical "facts".
Sadly, I happen to know that Canadians are pretty much just as poorly informed, even about their own country and politics. It takes the individual effort of citizens to become informed for a democracy to work.

So, very much in the dark about actual local issues--other than the retro-wishes of those who want de-amalgamation of the City of Kawartha Lakes -- I have been wondering how to become better informed. The all-candidates meetings sound promising. I plan to be there.