Leadership

Steve Ferguson ambled along Main Street in Wellington on a cool but sunny morning on Saturday. It was slow going. The village was still shaking off three months of COVID-19 slumber. Residents and business owners were busy washing windows, tending greenspaces and mending the bits that had yielded to a winter of ice and fierce winds.

Folks were eager to talk. Mayor Ferguson was taking the temperature, he said. Hearing first hand both relief—that folks are returning—and lingering unease that folks are returning. Ferguson noted the tension between these views as he bobbed from one conversation to another. He acknowledged the consensus, however, that most are learning to muddle through this next phase as best we can. Carefully. Cautiously. And with sensitivity.

To that end, Mayor Ferguson clutched a fistful of flyers, prepared by the County, urging diligence—to leave space between you and others, to wear a mask where physical distances might be compromised and to wash your hands regularly. The Mayor asked businesses to display the signs prominently. And most did.

Later that evening I happened to pass through Picton. I spotted Mayor Ferguson, still clutching a handful of notices, making his way along Main Street near the Armoury. A long day.

Steve Ferguson, it seems, was made for this crisis. Calm. Unruffled. Self-assured. Assuring. It is tempting to suggest that our Mayor rose to this challenge in the way that other leaders in Ottawa and Queen’s Park have done. But one senses when speaking to Mayor Ferguson, the same unadorned, unaffected demeanour as was ever there. There is assurance in that. A tone that promises that “this too shall pass” more clearly, more profoundly, than words alone can convey.

Consider for a moment, the challenge of a small community mayor during this pandemic.

It is often noted that city bus drivers endure high-stress levels because they are expected at the next stop in two minutes but lack the means to manage the traffic in front of them. This constant and irreconcilable push and pull is corrosive and can shed years off a driver’s life expectancy.

The bus driver’s dilemma might seem familiar to municipal leaders during COVID-19. Residents and business owners want precise and correct remedies. They want clear guidance. And they want it right away. But our local leaders have few real tools, few resources and few levers to deliver satisfactory answers or to compel behaviour or compliance.

Both the federal and provincial government were able to command a lockdown, in part, by reaching deep into the treasury to pay folks to stay home. Municipalities have no such means. There is no treasury to dig into. Municipalities are not permitted to run deficits, they must, by law, balance their budgets each year. Lacking the carrot, the stick has little effect.

So municipal leaders urge. They persuade. Plead. Cajole. Ultimately, the municipality may impose fines and further financial hardship on the worst offenders, but this is always a weak weapon. If a large enough cohort chose not to comply, the municipality will soon run out of bullets.

Consider, too, the cross-current of views whipping ferociously across the County. From those urging closing bridges to all but those with documented primary-resident status to those predicting the demise of Prince Edward County as a viable community if allowed to drift into structured and long-term isolation. Consider how tempting it might have been to be carried away by the loud voices.

It is mostly, therefore, a communication exercise. A most serious one. It is about carefully shaping expectations. Setting guidelines. Erecting rules. And then going out into the community and spreading this information widely. Consistently. Credibly. Sincerely.

It was about listening. Processing. Not simply reacting.

It must be said that Mayor Steve Ferguson has excelled at this. From the first weeks of the crisis, Mayor Ferguson prepared video messages and shared them widely on social media. More important than the actual content was the tone. Serious and sincere. But also calm and determined. There was no panic, none of the shrillness that leaks out when folks are under stress when the future is utterly unknown. Unknowable.

His conversations, perched on the edge of the empty horseshoe (council table), let us know that everything that could be done, was being done and that we would emerge this crisis. He and his team at Shire Hall made missteps but they didn’t double down when they became evident. They listened. They responded thoughtfully. Quietly. With humility.

So it was that Mayor Ferguson spent his Friday talking to folks in Rossmore and Ameliasburgh. Saturday in Wellington, Bloomfield and Picton. On Sunday he visited Sandbanks Provincial Park, Bloomfield and Picton again, and then out to Waupoos and Lake on the Mountain.

Mayor Ferguson says it is just part of the job, and a part he enjoys. Perhaps. But leadership is so much more than a job. Leaders are revealed in crisis.

Steve Ferguson is the leader we needed in Prince Edward County.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca