Appearance of partisanship hard for Charlie Clark to shake

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One of the most enduring myths about municipal politics is that they are non-partisan.

It's one that incumbent mayor Charlie Clark likes to promote when he talks about the lure of local public service.

In announcing his bid for re-election this year, Clark said, "the reason I like municipal politics is it's not partisan. It's the most tangible on-the-ground form of politics."

While it's true there are no political parties at the local level, in reality, partisan politics is never very far away from the city council table. Tear the cloth of a councillor's pants and you're likely to catch a glimpse of coloured underwear, whether it be NDP orange or Sask. Party green.

Recent history demonstrates this.

The current deputy premier of the province, Gord Wyant, put in three terms on Saskatoon city council before moving on to provincial politics. Long-time councillor Pat Lorje became an NDP cabinet minister before returning to council.

A look at this year's lineup of mayoral candidates shows a similar bent. Rob Norris is a former Sask. Party cabinet minister and Zubair Sheikh ran unsuccessfully for the NDP in the 2011 election against Don Morgan.

Clark, Meili share many supporters

While he's not particularly visible in NDP circles, it's impossible for incumbent mayor Charlie Clark to escape the perception that he is also in the NDP camp.

NDP leader Ryan Meili was a prominent guest at Clark's 2016 campaign launch and the two share plenty of supporters in the concurrent municipal and provincial campaigns.

A stroll through Saskatoon's City Park neighbourhood shows that a lot of people who support Meili in the provincial election are voting for Clark in the municipal election. Look on almost any block and you will find yards sporting lawn signs for both of them.

The returns from the 2016 election also show that the areas of the city that tend to vote provincially for the NDP also overwhelmingly supported Clark, but not only those areas. He also did very well in some of the suburban neighbourhoods on the east side of the city.

These results are interesting, because as mayor Clark has not been the spear-carrier for the left that a lot of NDP supporters had hoped.

They point to disappointments such as the city's failed bike lane policies, which leave us stuck in our cars, or the so-called fire pit bylaw, which leaves us breathing the smoke from our neighbours' backyards.

They wonder why a progressive mayor would not be pushing for making masks mandatory in stores and other public places as the COVID-19 pandemic surges.

On the other hand, the business community has never particularly liked Clark. They see him as blind to the challenges of meeting a payroll and captive to the environmental lobby because of things like the city's low emissions policy.

Perhaps more visibly, city council has so far failed to deal with the Lighthouse, which has left some people fearful of going downtown. Meanwhile, the city dithers over irritants like the snail's-pace speed limit on the four-lane freeway through the North-East Swale.

Clark driven by process more than ideology

Of course, Clark is just one vote on council, but the mayor tends to carry the collective responsibility. Clark finds himself stuck in the middle of many debates, neither fish nor fowl.

He is muddling through, doing his best to chart a middle-ground that everyone can agree with, even if no one is ecstatic about the results.

Clark is that rare politician who is driven more by process than by ideology.

He has no bumper sticker slogans and no glib solutions to complex problems. Listen to him at a public debate or examine his website and you will find that he spends as much time talking about achieving consensus as he does promoting particular outcomes.

That makes his campaign a bit harder for voters to grasp than some of the others. Clark is asking people to actually think about the issues, which is sometimes a risky proposition in politics.

And yet his style of "collaborative leadership" has produced the lowest annual tax increase Saskatoon has seen in 10 years. That's where comparisons between Clark and Meili end. Where Clark now has an established record of reasonable fiscal management, Meili is unable to say when or if he could ever balance the provincial budget.

Perhaps that's why Clark seems to be well on his way to a second term as mayor and Meili is bound for four more years in Opposition.

This column is part of CBC'sOpinionsection. For more information about this section, please read thiseditor's blogand ourFAQ.

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