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Having fewer councillors could also upgrade the average quality of our representatives by cutting out the bottom two-thirds of the group. A good city councillor requires the mental acuity to read complex reports, ask difficult questions and propose useful improvements to city policies. Does anyone really think we have more than eight such people on city council now?

City council veterans would quickly tell you that the workload would be impossible. With all those committee meetings, city council meetings, constituent issues, and community events, it simply couldn’t be done.

That would be true, if we kept doing everything exactly as we do now, but the job of city councillor is long overdue for a re-think. Who says we need eight committees, with 10 councillors on each? Surely three that knew something about the subject matter could do just as good a job.

Community expectations would have to change, and they should. We don’t need councillors to personally attend to our small issues when a competent staff member can do it. Surely community events would be just as successful without feeding the local councillor.

The last person who seriously proposed reducing the size of city council was the power-hungry populist Jim Watson, who proposed in his 2010 campaign that council could be cut to as few as 14. Not surprisingly, his council colleagues were unwilling to approve a plan to eliminate their own jobs.

That’s why change, if there is to be change, has to come from the provincial level. It’s the provincial government’s job to make these kinds of decisions. In Toronto, the timing was awkward, but the direction is not wrong.

The next election is four years away. If Ottawa wants change without a rush, the door is open.

Randall Denley is an Ottawa commentator, novelist and former Ontario PC candidate. Contact him at randalldenley1@gmail.com