Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathgod
 You can't possibly not know what I was talking about when I said "recall mechanism to remove a politician on an emergency basis".
I'm talking about something that would allow the citizenry to remove a politician any time between elections. A very large petition would have to be presented (signed by a significant percentage of citizens in the riding), along with some level of collateral that would be forfeited in the event that the recall was unsuccessful (to dissuade frivolous recall attempts). A certain number of members of council would also have to sign off on it, then a recall election would take place.
As for no material difference, that's not necessarily true, as the Ward 4 vote on council could potentially be the difference between some legislation passing vs not passing. |
When I say no material difference I mean Chu, admitted molester of underage girls, and Chu, I just suck at city council would both perform equally and it’s pretty clear that Chu, I just suck at city council is the choice of ward 4. He was crushing DJ Kelly in the early vote. Since the two Chu’s both vote the same way on every piece of legislation there is no loss of representation.
Do you like the UCP recall thresholds? I think they are too high to be realisticly achievable but any lower leaves them open to abuse. The election every 4 years is a reasonable way of addressing this issue. Remember that in introducing recall legislation you need to assume it will be abused to the maximum extent possible.