Every election there will be at least one wag who will rise to his or her feet at an all-candidates meeting and attack some candidate for “not living in the ward”.

There is, of course, no such legal requirement, and for good reason. Many council members from days gone by have lived outside the wards they represented (I think immediately of Megan Walker and Ben Veel, to name but one pair of high-profile types from not too far back).

Even more important than precedent is the idea that the voters should be free to choose anyone they want to represent them. If I don’t like any of the prospects who live in my ward but I do like a candidate from outside who is willing to represent me, how is it anyone else’s business to restrict my choices?

With the loss of our four votes for Board of Control, we have precious few choices left, I’d say.

There’s the issue of propinquity, too. There are times when you can be too close to an issue to see it clearly, and councillors are charged with representing not just the parochial interests of their constituents but the welfare of the city as a whole. That may be harder to remember with 14 different wards all containing local activists with very local agendas, but it remains true nonetheless.

I am of the Edmund Burke school of political thought when it comes to the responsibilities of the democratically elected. I don’t believe their job is just to reflect their constituents’ passions of the moment and shout out the wishes of any temporary majority, it is instead to exercise their best judgement on behalf of those same constituents even if there are times when that judgment might be at odds with the “will of the people”.

It is a time-honoured safeguard against what Aristotle and others have referred to as “the tyranny of the majority” and the safeguard against its too frequent use is the ballot box, where abusers can be held accountable in a very meaningful way.

People should be free to vote for anyone they choose, and the operative word there is choose.

It is my observation that in the past those who complained most loudly about ‘non-resident’ candidates are those who most fear losing to one. That might bear some thought if the issue comes up this election season.