On the wall of Athabasca town council chambers is an old fashioned, spring-loaded, pendulum-style clock, relocated from the old Athabasca train station.
Its incessant ticking isn’t hard to tune out, but when it chimes loudly ever quarter-hour, it usually startles everyone in the room, drowning out whatever debate may be going on around the council table.
Just like that old clock, the pendulum of change has finally swung over town council.
Think back to a decade or so ago, when the council table bore nameplates like Powell, Gismondi and Busch, and council was regularly derided for being left-wing, anti-business and anti-development.
All those critics from the early 2000s have now got their wish; following the Oct. 18 election, the nameplates now read Morrill, Verhaeghe and Verhaeghe, and town council is now decidedly right-wing, pro-business and pro-development.
The question is what impact this philosophical shift may have, and whether Athabasca will be better off for it, or worse. Will the self-professed ‘fiscal conservatives’ force their will upon council from the get-go, or will there be the usual feeling-out process to start? And if the left-wing minority starts to feel marginalized, will they simply accept their fate or begin to fight back, either privately or publicly?
It all promises to make for an interesting first few months around the council table.
There is but one certainty: just like that old clock, the pendulum will eventually swing back the other way.
But by the way, that old clock — it always runs behind.
