If cornflakes could clash, the resulting brouhaha might look similar in texture and sizzle to Prince George's mayoral race.
The battle between Lyn Hall and Don Zurowski continues to be a courteous affair where the faces are as familiar as the promises. Indeed, as the Citizen's Charelle Evelyn and the Province's Cassidy Oliver have reported, the two popular council veterans agree on about everything - the need to grow Prince George's population; the role of the city's post-secondary institutions in spurring economic development; and the importance of upgrading the community's decaying infrastructure. One wonders if the campaigns don't touch base every morning to insure the two men don't wear the same tie.
But there is a compelling theme underlying the race, a tale that's as well-worn as John Henry taking on a steam-powered hammer or as classic as Neo dueling Agent Smith. When Prince George goes to the ballot box on Saturday, the question will be whether a man can beat a machine.
The man in this case is Lyn Hall, a longtime municipal politician so well-regarded his signature accomplishment so far is his, by most accounts, adroit handling of closing schools while he was on school board.
After becoming a councillor in 2011, Hall spent the past three years as a quiet but prominent figure during Mayor Shari Green's tumultuous reign. Perhaps to distance himself from the ugly, ultimately frivolous exercise of Green's core review and a nasty fight with city unions that culminated in the first strike by municipal workers in Prince George history, Hall is touting himself as a different kind of mayor who would adopt a conciliatory, consensus-driven style.
Leadership style has thus emerged as an issue in a mayoral contest starved of debate, not least because of councillor Garth Frizzell's open letter to Hall and Zurowski in which he framed the question as a choice between a Council Mayor who will "stand beside and support colleagues" or a CEO Mayor that believes "ultimately s/he is responsible for the success or failure of policies." In a response to Frizzell on his website, Hall wrote that while he would need to be a CEO mayor at times, "I would be a Councillor mayor... it is imperative that a Mayor treats each council member as an integral part of a team of nine."
Zurowski takes a different approach. Declaring at a forum at UNBC that "this isn't a Mr. Congeniality contest", Zurowski said as mayor: "I'm not looking for permission to make a decision." He makes a confident, CEO sound and he can afford to - he seems to be at the centre of a powerful political engine.
Running Zurowski's bid as mayor are co-chairs Charles Scott and Terry Kuzma, who also helped co-ordinate two of Prince George's more notable campaigns in recent memory - the re-election and election of area Liberal MLAs Shirley Bond and Mike Morris in 2013. Zurowski's campaign has all the hallmarks of that battle-tested, provincial-level effort - professional, on-message, and accessible.
Compare the candidates' websites - lynhall.com and www.zurowskiformayor.com. Hall's is a bit of a jalopy - quaint and a little rickety, with bitmapped buttons and a barrage of earnest, bullet-point ideas filled with capital letters and baroque punctuation. Zurowksi's is a tight, tablet-ready affair with all-caps calls to action - WHO I AM and HOW WE GET THERE.
It hints at larger cogs of a machine - money, organization, volunteers.
The problem is Zurowski also has the mindset of a free-enterprise machine. For instance, he's made the chest-beating open-for-business vow, the absurd municipal election promise, similar to its federal tough-on-crime cousin, that insinuates his opponents are somehow not as attractive to investment as he is. It leads to a ridiculous one-upmanship in which the candidate proves he would be the most open-for-business mayor ever - Zurowski's new height would be his dream to put a billboard outside of Prince George declaring the city is... open for business.
That free-enterprise fever feeds into his campaigns' big idea - his campaign motto to Let's Get Growing, a vow to increase Prince George's population to 100,000. Citizen columnist Tracy Summerville pointed out it would take 77 people coming to the city every week for five years to fulfil Zurowski's chicken in every pot promise; like Christy Clark's LNG fantasies, Don Zurowski isn't going to bring 20,000-30,000 people into Prince George but it's fun to believe he could.
Funnily enough, one of the most practical things he could do as a candidate and mayor to attract people to the city hasn't been fully addressed. According to the Citizen, as a councillor in 2000, Zurowski refused to recognize Pride Week and to show support for the Pride Parade. He softened his stance in 2002, signing a watered-down proclamation; one hopes his views have further evolved since bringing in 77 people a week until 2019 would require Mayor Zurowski to unequivocally welcome and embrace everyone in this city.
That said it's doubtful such considerations will matter. As UNBC political science instructor Jason Morris told the Province, Saturday's vote will likely come down to who campaigns the hardest; in a race between Hall and Zurowski, best guess is the latter's seeming organizational edge will hand him a win.
The machine will likely beat the man. Whether it will produce the best mayor is another question entirely.
