By Bill Demeter

EARTHQUAKE: We are so fortunate that the earthquake occurred when it did and all of us have many stories to tell. The true reflection of this city is how well we pick up the pieces, help each other, and then plan for the future with vision, patience, and relying on the ideas of many versus a few. We are in a unique position of re-building this city in the right manner to last generations or we can squander it away by reacting versus acting.

ANDERTON: It was good to hear of Jim Anderton’s decision to promise to resign from Parliament if elected as Mayor of Christchurch. Experts say we have a five year and five billion dollar rebuild on our hands and that is more than a full time job.

Jim Anderton will be hosting public meetings throughout Christchurch to hear from leading engineering, architectural, community and heritage leaders on how they envision rebuilding our city in the wake of this devastating earthquake.

ELECTION: Local elections will continue as planned with voting papers going out this weekend. This election becomes far more important as we must carefully choose our councillors and mayor given the monumental tasks that lie ahead.

Each of the incumbent councillors and current Mayor are fully accountable for their voting records of the last 36 months and be highly skeptical of the recent on camera performances of the mayor when weighted against his dismal voting record (Henderson bailout, Flower show costs, Art Centre fiasco, 24% rent increase on council housing. We need leadership not showmanship.