Yesterday, Winnipeg Free Press city hall guru Bartley Kives had a self-described “meltdown” on Twitter.

Kives had been tweeting what many of us have been complaining about for quite sometime – the lack of policy ideas/positions coming forward from mayoral candidates. 

Candidates who are applying to be mayor are essentially asking voters to make them the CEO of a $1 billion organization with immense taxing power. Despite election day being just 90 days away, we still haven’t heard much about what the candidates would do with such power.

Sure, there have been a few policy announcements here and there (and some are pretty good), but overall the candidates haven’t told us too much.

Personally, I think candidates should have done a lot more to turn heads back in May and June but obviously that window has closed.

Some say that in order to win, you have to wait until the 30-45 day election window to announce your platform. Yet, former Ontario Premier Mike Harris released his entire platform a full year before winning the 1995 election. Harris wasn’t in an incumbent position either.

People working on mayoral candidate campaigns will probably tell you that it’s pointless to release policy info now as everyone is off at the lake or not paying attention.

To them I would say “why go completely silent?” Why not tell us a bit more about what makes your candidate tick. Hold back the meaty policy, but in the words of Dr. Evil - throw us a 'frickin bone.' Tell us more about your candidate's values and core principles.

Doing so could even help attract more donors and volunteers.

For example, a candidate could express concern about salary costs skyrocketing at the hall. They could commit to keeping future increases in-line with what everyday taxpayers are receiving.

How would they meet that objective?

A candidate wanting to keep the finer details quiet until September, could respond “I’m still putting the final touches on that policy. The final plan will be announced in September.”

It’s not ideal, but at least if you’re a taxpayer who is concerned about taxes continuing to rise higher than necessary in order to pay for skyrocketing salary costs…well, now you would know there is a candidate out there that thinks a bit like you. Perhaps you might even offer to deliver some flyers for the candidate too.

Another example would be for a candidate to express concern about councillors being kept in the dark about information they need to do their jobs. A mayoral candidate could indicate that they would pass a bylaw to stop to the administration from refusing such information.

What would the bylaw define as 'essential information' for councillors?

Again, at the very least a candidate could say “I’ll be disclosing a bit more information on it in the fall.”

It’s not an overly descriptive response, but at least the public would get a feel for where the candidate stands on the issue.

I’ve only discussed two examples, but hopefully you can see my point. Candidates should, at the very least, be willing to tell us broadly what direction they would go in on certain issues. By doing so they’ll let us learn more about what makes them tick and how they would approach issues.

The more candidates let us know about where they stand, the more the public will be inclined to start donating, volunteering and paying attention to their other ideas.

At the very least, telling us more about where they stand might help prevent poor Bartley Kives from having another “meltdown” ;)