Cell: 476-5601
Grade this year: C+
Grade last year: C+
I still have very high hopes for Jackie Barkhouse. She’s intelligent, and comes from a union background that should serve her Eastern Passage and Woodside constituents well.
But does she? Well, since she won a byelection to her seat in December 2007, Barkhouse has mostly voted the right way on the issues that matter—enough so that she was handily re-elected in October. And, she’s moving up the learning curve somewhat—just not as quickly as I would like.
Being a councillor is much more than casting the occasional vote. Barkhouse still needs to broaden her representation by getting down and dirty in the council free-for-all, taking on the bureaucracy when needed and—most importantly—driving the issues. She’s not quite there yet.
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City Council Report Card 2009
This article appears in May 14-20, 2009.