On maturity

Following up on last week's post, I'll take some time to expand on what Pat Fiacco's out-sized, self-promotional reaction to events like next year's Bon Jovi concert says about Regina as a city - and what we should be looking to do to take Regina's growth to the next level.

To start with, I'll note that it's indeed for the best that Regina is growing - and whoever gets to make decisions at City Hall next should be eager to continue that trend. But the current pattern of growth without much thought about where Regina fits into the wider scheme of things has effectively put the city in a state of urban adolescence: the population knows things are changing, but hasn't yet given much thought to the question of what change we actually want, settling instead for reassurance that somebody is willing to soothe our self-image.

And Pat Fiacco has positioned himself perfectly to take advantage of that situation. Indeed, one could hardly design a better political analogy to a boy-band/girl-band celebrity developed for the adolescent crowd: camera-friendly, well-funded, well-choreographed and utterly devoid of content.

Here's the problem, though: there's still a good ways left for Regina to go in its development as a city, and the next step is one which Fiacco seems incapable of taking based on his track record. It's well and good to celebrate the first few examples of Regina receiving a perceived boost among urban centres by attracting top-level music acts. But somewhere around the fourth or fifth concert announcement, we should be starting to grow into the understanding that it's not such a big deal as to justify putting the entire city on hold to celebrate.

Again, all of the other stops on Bon Jovi's Canadian tour are well past that point. Out of Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal, none placed the concert as a top local headline, and none had its mayor rushing for the cameras to promote the concert. And the contrast in how the concert was received highlights the fact that Regina has a ways to go before it truly becomes comfortable as a major centre - as well as the reality that Fiacco's political persona doesn't fit with that development.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much prospect of change at the top in this year's election. But some sorely needed new blood on City Council can make for a first step in ensuring that Regina starts growing up rather than just growing out. And hopefully by the next election cycle, we'll have matured to the point that any stunt like Fiacco's will be rightly taken as evidence that a candidate is behind the times.

(Edit: fixed typo.)