Is honesty a requirement for a politician in this modern age?

When Leslie Farkas the owner of Skydive Wasaga Beach announced he was running for mayor in the next and still quite distant election he drew a lot  of attention. Being a political neophyte; not having held any kind of position in the past or apparently any experience of how a council runs this was a big announcement in a town that had soundly rejected the last inexperienced Mayor only three short years ago.

Still every candidate deserves some attention, we need to fairly judge before we vote. Mr. Farkas is still relatively unknown. A Google of his past brings up little. His web page skirts his experience, achievements or education so it’s difficult to judge his qualifications to run our home town. We must then judge him on the little we have left: his actions.

Many will have seen his recent promotion (attached) for skydiving on to Wasga’s Beach. Quite a coup. I don’t believe any provincial park allows skydiving let alone onto the narrow strip of windy sand that is our beach. Still, his resume says he is a very experienced skydiver so I’m guessing it will be safe?

His $600 package announced he had approval from the ministry and that you could book online now. I’m sure this once in a lifetime offer attracted much attention. Alas not everything promised about the skydive onto the beach was true. Namely the actual skydive onto the beach.

As someone surprised by the MNR being willing to allow what seems to a non skydiver as risky activity, and also them being willing to close down a provincial park for a private business to have an event, I contacted the ministry and discovered that they hadn’t in fact granted him access to skydive onto the beach. This despite him selling tickets to do just that and responding to queries that the ministry has given the go-ahead.

If I may just quote from his web page:

“While many have the luxury of making mistakes and carrying on, that is never an option for Leslie. In the day to day operation of Skydive Wasaga Beach failure or mistakes are not and cannot be an option as lives are at stake.”

While it is easy for us all to make mistakes, is it a mistake to sell tickets to an event that doesn’t have approval? This strikes me as rather reckless and if you will forgive the pun: flying by the seat of your pants.

Now of course in business you take risks, you push the edge a little and in many cases just hope everything will turn out. Unfortunately this is a man promoting himself as suitable to lead our town. Furthermore he is doing this with nothing more to judge his suitability than his current actions.