Richard May is fighting the good fight.
The Bird Cove mayor, who also works full-time as executive director of Nortip's Community Business Development Corporation (CBDC), has been the only representative of the town council for the past four years - and the only resident running in this year's Sept. 29 municipal election.
"I got a full-time job, so it makes it a little difficult to find the time to devote to all the things that need attention paid to," he said. "There are opportunities that are being missed, just because it's not possible for one person to apply the effort needed."
The complacency of people in Bird Cove is spurred on by the current PC government's neglect in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, Mr. May said.
The complacency of people in Bird Cove is spurred on by the current PC government's neglect in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, Mr. May said.
"I think it would take a sincere commitment from government to sustain rural communities. Government hasn't been making a sincere effort at it. Why be a part of something that's only intended to destroy you? It can be very frustrating in trying to deal with a government that, while it is relatively open to new ideas, still has a very narrow track, when it makes up its mind it doesn't change its mind, and that can be very, very hard, in order to be able to get creativity into something."
Complacency is made easy in that sort of political climate, he added, citing recent health cuts in Flowers Cove and poorly laid asphalt between the Port Saunders branch and Plum Point as a detractor to the political process.
"Usually, when government comes forward with something that is good, it's only usually good in the sense of a dollar value, there's still not a lot of thought put into it," he said, noting the road's poor water retention after heavy rainfall.
"The effort wasn't put into it. What's the point to it? The government keeps spending money in a manner that is meant to appease people, rather than to approach a deficiency from a professional point, they don't want to do quality work; the government is not interested in quality, and that can really tick people off, to the point where, 'Why bother being involved with it if all you're going to do is a poor job?'"
So why hasn't Mr. May become complacent and cynical?
"If you understand where the government is coming from, and you recognize the need, it's a matter of time and patience and trying to work the system to get the best that you can out of it," he said.
During the past four years, Mr. May has fought for Bird Cove to upgrade a portion of the community's water and sewer; upgrades done to roads in town to make them passable; improvements in snowclearing; and a widely needed - and widely used - wellness centre.
"There are things that we have been doing, and what we've doing we've been trying our best to do as right as we can with the dollars we have, and if it isn't right we don't do it. Things have to be approached in that way to make scarce dollars go farther."
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