There has been a furious debate on social media this weekend about the terrible situation with a woman who stepped on a foreign object at Victoria Beach in Cobourg. We call it an object because although a murky picture has emerged of it there is no definitive proof that it was in fact a needle or if it was disposed of by “druggies”.

But folks do not be distracted by the histrionics of the election candidates who are trying to capitalise on this incident and their cries for more enforcement against the visible indigents, homeless and mentally ill people who are on our streets because of inadequate Provincial funding for the resources needed to help them. There are other issues and two of the three Mayoralty candidates have articulated complete and viable policies on the other issues that are in the mix for the election. Go to their webpages (nicolebeatty.ca and votemax.ca) check them out. In contrast Mr. Cleveland’s website lucasforcobourg.ca is devoid of content and four years old. 

So this post is a reminder that the election campaign is being hijacked by emotion. The important issues are being swept aside  such as: 

• what kind of planning should we be doing to make Cobourg liveable
• How much money is it going to take to fund the planning applications and rapid growth which is coming
• How do we as a Town handle our assets and reserve funds for the next twenty years
• The failure of the “governance reforms”, initiated by the Mayor which shut out meaningful public input to our Municipal affairs and concerns

The other reason we should be looking at the candidates’ policies is that on the “law and order” position they are all singing from the same song-sheet. More coordination of services, making the County more responsive, lobbying for more money from the province etc.

So what else do they say or have even thought about? 

The situation was inflamed by a statement put out by the Mayor headlined with his mantra – “Enough is enough” if you want to read the statement go to Mr Fisher’s website. However this happening is a gift to the “one trick pony” campaign that the Mr. Cleveland is running on.