"I hate this."

"Uh-huh. Here, turn your head. No, this way."

Roderick stared at his reflection. This was stupid. He was a guy, for God's sake, and he was getting primped and powdered. He managed to fight off the grimace as the tech or makeup artist, or whatever title they had, dusted something on his forehead. Nobody ever told him that running for political office involved Revlon.

"Okay, hmm. Maybe a little more here..." The man muttered, doing some more dabbing and whatnot.

Roderick, mostly to get his mind off of the entire process, glanced at the young man, studying the streaky blond hair and the earring. "So, how'd you get into... makeup?"

"Mm?" The man, glanced at Roderick's eyes in the mirror. "I always used to help my mom with hers. I had fun with it and kind of... I don't know. Cosmetology seemed the natural thing when I went to DU."

"You went to DU?"

"Mm-hm."

Forgetting about the mirror, Roderick's dark eyes fixed on the man. "Anything about it you want changed?"

Half an hour later
He stood behind the podium with ease, and a lot more comfortably than he'd sat in the makeup chair, as he was introduced to the rather impressive crowd of people. He and his challenger, incumbent mayor Bernard Favreau, stood across from him and also faced the crowd.

A general call for questions went out.

Alexa was standing in the crowd with supporters of her university club. They were supporters to protect the Earth and the environment. Unfortunately, the balance of the Earth had been starting to waver and disasters were happening all over the world. It did seem that in the future, the destruction of Earth with mankind still living on it was imminent. She had her group, were fighting those who insisted that the coal industries stay open. Right there was one of the major problems, the pollution was destroying Earth.

Questions? They wanted questions, she would give them questions all right. Her entire group had given her a list of questions, though they all revolved around the same subject. "What is your policy on protecting the environment? Should we simply be willing to give the Earth that we have destroyed to our children? What is your policy?" Her gray eyes were piercing and she looked to both leaders and the questions had quieted everyone around them. She had strong environmental view.

Favreau answered first, his eyes seeking out the girl who'd spoken. "The environment is, of course, important. We do everything we can to make sure that we protect both it and the people who live in it," he said in his hearty voice.

Roderick looked disgusted. The man had said absolutely nothing. "As of right now, Demaitre manufacturing plants meet all of the federal standards for their type. And still, somehow, we're one of the most polluted cities over five hundred thousand in Canada," he paused, his small dark eyes swept out over the crowd. "I want to require all new cars in Demaitre to be fitted with exhaust scrubbers and also to tighten the parts-per-million allowed for the factories."

The problem with that, however, was that the new scrubbers would have to be paid for privately instead of being funded by the city. That meant that any new regulation would have a very low chance of being passed.

Alexa narrowed her eyes at the first person that answered and she could hear the murmurs of the people standing behind her. They didn't sound pleased and they had reasons to be. The candidate had said absolutely nothing, nothing at all and if he thought that they would be placated, he was clearly mistaken.

She was more responsive to the other candidate, he had a head on his shoulders and seemed to actually be using it. Yet she continued to frown, if anybody had done any research, it would be Alexa and her group. They promoted all kinds of environmental challenges and saving the environment ideas. His ideas did have merit, but they knew who would have to fund them and that it would cost a lot of money.

She lifted an eyebrow. "That would cost a lot of money wouldn't it? Money that the government can't afford to use for it. Isn't that right?" She was definitely one smart cookie.

Bernard Favreau opened his mouth to speak, but Roderick got there first. "You're right. It's a long, expensive process to try to outfit factories and automobiles with scrubbers. It's also an expense that the government isn't going to be able to afford; meaning the people and the businesses would have to pay," he paused.

Roderick knew he probably shouldn't be admitting this kind of thing, about how impossible new regulations would be, but hell. He was standing on a platform entitled honesty, so he might as well be straight-up with these people. "Not everyone can afford to pay and even the ones that can aren't going to want to. Which means that they aren't going to vote for any new legislation."

His small dark eyes focused intently on Alexa. "Would you want to pay a few hundred dollars to outfit your vehicle with a scrubber? Not to mention an exhaust cleaner is going to make your efficiency go down and, with gas prices as they are, nobody wants that either." Roderick cared about the environment, sure, but he figured people were the ones that ought to come first. Poverty in Demaitre, as in plenty of big cities, was an unfortunately prevalent problem. Until you dealt with that, you didn't need to be worrying about trees and fish.