I have a daughter in rep soccer. I have friends with sons and daughters in rep hockey. Besides the obvious similarities and differences with the two sports, there is one thing that is rarely spoken of but impacts the dynamics of the team to a very large degree. That is, with rep hockey the player is required to live in his city, whereas with soccer, that is not the case. I know that hockey is much more established in Canada and I’m not trying to change the way things are. I am saying in a perfect world the player would live in the city he or she plays for.
The same is true for candidates for municipal government; in a perfect world a councilor would live in his or her ward. This is not the case with all of our local candidates. More than a third (18 of 50) of our local candidates are running outside of their home wards. They may be great candidates. I’m sure they have their reasons. I think it is incumbent upon us to find out why.
