Dear editor:

As a NOTL resident and journalist, I am dismayed by Coun. Stuart McCormack's inexplicable refusal to speak to the media.

He is an elected official, accountable to the citizenry.

In any democracy, the media play a vital role in keeping those in power answerable for their actions and decisions.

The councillor's disdain for local media is an affront to fundamental democratic principles. He has not explained why he refuses to engage with journalists and boasts that he doesn't even bother to read any local papers.

How can an elected official be uninterested in what is happening in his own town, and not want to hear the voices of its residents as reflected in those papers?

Why does Mr. McCormack want to be a councillor if he has no interest in communicating with the people who elected him?

He owes us all an explanation, through the media.

Jim Handman

Virgil