Have Ottawa city councillor Jim Watson's reputation and his mayoral ambitions been
damaged by the recent flurry of trivial, clumsy and unnecessary debates at city
hall? A less elegant way of phrasing the question would be: does he emerge looking
stupider than anyone else?
This controversy had no sooner faded that council invented another emergency: what
would happen if women insisted on going topless at a municipal pool? This has never
happened, nor is there any pent-up demand (as far as anyone knew) on the part of
women to shed their tops. But city staff, alarmed at an Ontario court ruling in
December that gives women the right to go topless in public, asked council for guidance
-- just in case.
Instead of directing staff to find a pothole to repair, councillors leapt into a
sometimes hilarious, sometimes ugly debate that soon spread to the larger community,
uncovering a disturbing reservoir of hostility toward women and widespread ignorance
about sexuality.
It, too, ended in compromise, one more likely to exacerbate than resolve the problem.
City pools will now carry signs warning females over 10 against baring their breasts,
although toplessness will be permitted on city beaches.
This debate consumed so much of council's time and energy (two and half hours, compared
to seven minutes spent discussing the withdrawal of $30 million in federal grants)
that there wasn't much vitriol left over for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
Pride Week proclamation. As a result, another issue almost guaranteed to rouse slumbering
hatred was dealt with expeditiously (for once) and passed on a vote of 8-2.
Watson, who supported both the Pride Day declaration and warning signs in swimming
pools, says the topless issue should never have arisen -- and wouldn't have, if
there was a "hands-on mayor" at city hall. It isn't as if there aren't
serious issues to debate, starting with the downloading of provincial services to
municipalities.
If he was mayor, says Watson, he would have met privately with city staff and told them to drop the topless issue. In his words, "everyone suffers if we become a laughing stock on the national stage," particularly hard-working city staff demoralized by the antics of their political bosses. He quotes former Toronto mayor David Crombie: "Most cities are well run, but poorly governed." They should engrave that on a wall somewhere in a city swimming pool.