Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

The candidates were gathering on the stage, but Carrigan Howard lurked in the back of the growing crowd. It was important to be here, part of the whole political process, but maybe it wasn't so important for her to ask a question directly. Right? Standing at the back of the crowd was fine. Being present was the point.

It would help if people jumped in and started asking questions, though. Would make it feel less like Carrigan was shirking her duties as a citizen...

Fine. Just one easy question, then, since no one was even paying attention yet. Carrigan slipped to the front of the crowd and raised her hand. "Excuse me? I'm... Carrigan Howard, Department of Accidents and Catastrophes. Candidates often lay out their most important goals as the things they want to accomplish in the first thirty or sixty or one hundred days in office. What is your one hundred day plan if you get elected?"

Althea, of course, greeted her fellow candidates as they arrived, but she wasn't here for them. So after a polite nod to Nolan she was focused on the questions that began to come their way.

She listened closely as the young woman, Carrigan Howard, spoke and asked the first question. A good question. Althea stepped to the microphone and responded.

"Thank you, Ms Howard. I myself formerly was head of your department, so I believe very strongly in having a plan but also being able to respond and change a plan accordingly if circumstances arise which require some other action to be taken. My 100 day plan, therefore, has been laid out very particularly and yet if issues arise early on in my service to the Wizarding public, I will certainly take those into account. Flexibility is just as important as having concrete goals.

My plan is thus: I believe it is important that channels of communication between the Ministry and the community are established and maintained appropriately. So when I am elected I will schedule a regular open session time when community members are able to apply to attend and may address any concerns they might have. The content of these sessions will be publicly available for those who are unable to attend." Those who didn't care about politics or about how the wizarding government worked could continue ignoring it as they pleased, but those who did care and did have issues they wanted to raise, would be able to.

"In the first 100 days we will begin work on appropriate minimum wage increases across the Wizarding United Kingdom, including financial support where required- this is of utmost importance because many magic folk do not have appropriate identification which would make muggle government support possible, so a living wage needs to be a requirement so that our young people will have a stable base from which they may choose to work up from if they wish to have higher education as an option, or if they have children or families to support." This was the short version. There was much more to be said on this topic, but much of it would be expanded upon after the first 100 days so she was sticking to the question.

"The first 100 days will also be a time where I will introduce legislated equality measures for all witches and wizards regardless of heritage, background, gender, and sexuality." Unfortunately prejudice was still alive and well in the wizarding world, and Althea had no time for it.

"During this time we will begin the process of providing further professional growth support for ministry employees, as well as implementing widespread upskilling opportunities. I believe it is important that all ministry workers are able to achieve to their best potential, and in order to do that the opportunities must be provided." She believed that the ministry needed skilled people. And she knew from her time as a department head that there was an inordinate number of entry level workers who were eager to advance, if only the infrastructure to support that existed across all departments rather than just in a select few.

"Additionally we will begin addressing concerns regarding the environment and what we as a society can do to combat climate change and other environmental concerns and how we might use our magic effectively in this area. During the first 100 days, we will plan a summit meeting with environment issues at the forefront of the agenda." They had a well-equipped Department, it only needed to be better enabled to take action, and to have it linked up with other groups around the Wizarding World would only empower them to make a further difference.

"Thank you for your question, Ms Howard." Althea finished, giving the young woman a nod. There were a lot of things she was excited to get underway and she knew perfectly well that the first 100 days were the most important: of course she had a plan for it, far more detailed than what she had summarized.