London Chamber Protocol Regarding Comments on Candidate Election Platforms

9 Jul 2010

London ON -

Over the past number of days, and doubtless throughout the time leading up to London's Municipal Elections this fall, various candidates seeking public office at either the Mayoral or Council level will, or already have, made various announcements about what they will do if elected.

Since these announcements have started to come out, many of you in the media have contacted me and asked for the Chambers perspective or take on some of these promises or election platforms and what they might mean for London's business community or the wider community in general.

While the Chamber may already have some pre-established positions on many of these campaign promises/platforms, it will not be our intention to respond to them up to and during the elections. To do so - no matter how unbiased or careful our response, any comment made by us on these issues will be interpreted by some as Chamber support for a candidate and his or her position on the issue or in other circles an indictment of those same positions. Supporting candidates or parties of course runs contrary to the Chamber's By-laws and long-time practice of remaining politically neutral.

Instead, our approach to the upcoming elections will see us employing a new protocol this year - one which we will be advising you of in greater detail in the weeks ahead. Suffice it to say, that we intend to distribute to all registered candidates a "Municipal Elections Candidate Scorecard", an in-depth survey that will ask each candidate to respond to a series of questions around key business issues that face London and those actions or options that help to drive those issues. Once completed and collected, it's our intent to publish all of those responses in the area media in order to provide the electorate with a better idea of who they feel can best represent their interests.

Following up on the Scorecard, it will also be our intent to monitor the various votes and actions of these same candidates during their term in office. With the added support of the new electronic voting system being installed in Council Chambers, this task becomes much easier and provides us all with the added transparency and accountability we all seek.

We thank you for your patience on this and trust that you will continue to call the Chamber for quotes and comments on all other business related issues on a regular basis. Thank you.

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