Does Age Matter?

The age breakdown of our current council is as follows (I've simply added four years to the age they reported during the 2006 election campaign):

St. Andrew's
Andrew Gill 35 - not running again
Joe Kushner 69

Port Dalhousie
Len Stack n/a (but older than 45, I would imagine)
Bruce Williamson 50

Grantham
Bill Phillips 60
Dawn Dodge 51

St. George's
Greg Washuta 41
Peter Secord 50

Merritton
Jeff Burch 41
Jennie Stevens 46

St. Patrick's
Heather Foss 41
Mark Elliott 55

So, not including the Mayor (who is over 50) and Councillor Len Stack (for whom I do not have an accurate age), the average age of a St. Catharines City Council member is 49 years. Factoring in the Mayor and Len Stack would put the average over 50, I'm sure. That might not be a negative thing overall, given the age demographic of St. Catharines; however, this is the age demographic of the people making decisions for individuals in their 20s and 30s who are beginning their careers, buying homes, starting families and will - over the long-term - benefit from or be burdened by the decisions made at the Council table.

We need more diversity in age on Council, and I said this during the 2006 campaign too.

Wouldn't it be nice (assuming we had the candidates to choose from) if our Council was made up of something like two people (most ideally a man and a woman) each from their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s? Wouldn't that make for a pretty good attempt at well-rounded decisions at the Council table?

I think so.

This time around, there is at least one candidate in each ward who is under 35...