Inspiration from the Oddest Places

Every year when the Film Festival lands in Toronto I avoid watching TV news. The simpering, smarmy reporters following the celebrities for what seems like weeks on end just drive me crazy, leading me to fret about the mess our society is in when this event creates such excitement and wonder amongst the masses.

Since nothing ever stops me from reading the print media though, I saw in the Toronto Star a lead story this morning that made my weary heart sing. There he was, Martin Sheen, walking the picket lines with strikers at the venerable Royal York, the hotel targeted for a single day of action today.

Telling the press he has been a union member all his adult life and that he supports the labour movement, he then came out with a statement that spoke directly to me. He said, and I quote directly from the Torstar, "I'M HERE TO REMIND YOU THAT LOST CAUSES ARE THE ONLY CAUSES WORTH FIGHTING FOR".

It hit me like the proverbial bolt of lightening, and for a split second I swear my heart stopped beating, then resumed with a lilt that's been missing for quite a while. In that one short sentence was contained the entire rationale for a lifetime of seemingly fruitless work on my part, work that sometimes feels like it has drained all my energy for nothing.

The significance of Mr. Sheen's remark is stunning. It reminded me that it's easy to work for popular causes like curing cancer or diabetes. Everybody believes in those goals, and nobody will tell you that you're destroying peoples' lives, an accusation hurled at me more than once for my efforts to end poverty. Nobody booes you when you speak, nobody calls you nasty names or gives your kids a hard time because they carry your name too. Instead, you get awards and accolades for it. Like I said, it's easy to carry the flag for popular causes.

But just try advocating for a cause that is controversial, like giving the poor an adequate income so they can feed their children properly and live in decent housing. For some reason, that drives some people crazy, and they will go to great lengths to discredit and silence you. That's true whether it's anti poverty work, or union activism, or gay rights, or any other worthy but controversial cause.

But Martin, dear Martin, put it all in perspective for me again. Nothing worth having is gained without a fight, and the harder the fight, the worthier the cause. Just think of civil human rights, and womens' rights. Those battles are far from over around the globe, and if the fight to win them here in North America is any indication, we still have huge battles ahead before we succeed.

Now, at least, my head is clear. Like Braveheart and Robert the Bruce, I say bring it on, the battle is nigh.

Had to interrupt the vacation for this

Cobourg Tourism should be proud. In a letter to NToday.com:

Shady experience at beach

I visited the Cobourg beach on September first with my two children. My son is two and a half and my daughter 10 months old. We arrived at the beach at about 10:30. We set up our two sun shade tents and proceeded to play in the water and sand.

At around 11:10 a police officer approached us and asked us to take down the tents because they aren't allowed on the beach. It would be a $103 fine if I left them up. In embarrassment we packed up and went home, all the while my son was saying "I just want to play at the beach."

I understand if there was alcohol or something to that matter, but there wasn't. I had my two small children and my mother with me.

Nowhere was it posted or in any website I searched on to say anything about no sun shades allowed. On one of the hottest and sunniest days this year, I can't have shade for my children? Absolutely ridiculous. So much for trying to get people to visit Cobourg. I was thoroughly disappointed! I drove 45 minutes to have a beach day with my children only to be kicked off the beach an hour later.

Tara Martino Oshawa

Enough said 

Gone travelling

Back in 14 days, travel diary here

Where are the candidates?

With only one week to go before nominations close for all of the seats in Municipal elections to be held in Ontario a quick perusal of the lists shows a disturbing trend - nobody appears to want the job. Two Townships in the county - Hamilton and Cramahe will have all councillor seats acclaimed, if nobody else files. Hamilton twp will have its complete slate acclaimed if nobody else files and the Cobourg councillor race, which usually has a lineup in the double figures by now only has nine for five spots.

So why the lack of interest? Is it because of the daunting workload for a small stipend, is it because of an increasing apathy toward politics or is it a generational change. It is a well observed trend that has reduced the number of volunteers who wish to participate in anything that requires meetings. The generation of volunteers, those in the upper age bracket - 70-80s are getting fewer and those in the prime volunteering age just don't have the urge to get stuck in, unless it has a personal attachment (volunteering to run the Scouts or Soccer because they have their own children involved).

In an aside, when the Mayor of Cobourg commented on the move to eliminate traditional balloting methods and go online he observed that this might be one way to get youth involved. Earth to Peter - Just because youth live on the keyboard doesn't mean that they will vote. To get votes one has to inspire. Frankly, what inspires youth less than a ballot made of up people their granddads age?

Before you slam Ben Burd for mouthing off and not getting into the race let me say why I haven't. Not wanting to waste all of your money - yes I would be asking all the readers of the BR for a $100 donation, $99 if you wanted to remain anonymous and expending a lot of my effort and a considerable amount of time I declined the offer. Why go through that exercise only to discove what I know already - I am not one of the five most popular people in Cobourg. Competence has nothing to do with being elected - ppopularity wins everytime. How many people will admit to voting for the meanest SOB available?

So I will miss the opening salvos, and not much else we (Doreen and I ) are off the drink wine and discover antiquities in Italy for a couple of weeks. There may be a travel blog so that others may share the pics, but check us out on Facebook.

Why isn't anybody dressed in blue stepping forward?

For the past two election cycles the local PCs have been coasting. After the decision by Doug Galt not to have another term in office his wife Cathy stepped up to the plate. She lost to Loo Rinaldi. Now that the latest polls have "little mike" Hudak's neocons even with the "fiberals" (ahead in Eastern Ontario) why doesn't the local party have a candidate?

Perhaps they do but we haven't even heard a sniff from interested parties, only the stale rumour about Linda Thompson wanting it. That is not good enough in these days where we have a Lib incumbent on the ropes and the NDP not even murmering.

Announcements

#1 From W Keeler to the Mayor

"I request 10 minutes to make a Power-Point presentation to Cobourg Town Council concerning the footprint left on Victoria Park by Northumberland Ribfest. I want to display the challenge that must be met by future organizations wishing to utilize the lush and beautiful grounds of Victoria Park as a venue. I want to make several recommendations to prevent any further similar harm to the grounds of Victoria Park.

Attached is a Power-Point presentation of the content that I wish to exhibit to illustrate the challenge that must be addressed.

Mayor Peter Delanty said it right on when he referred to Victoria Park as “the crown jewel of Cobourg.” I declare my interest as a life-long heavy user of Victoria Park.

#2 from the Dave Glover campaign.

Dave Glover to File Nomination Papers at Town Hall, Tuesday, August 31 at 11:30 a.m.

Contact Dave at: votedaveglover@cogeco.ca

What is a tourist

Many postings reveal many attitudes. The most lively discussions that  take place on these pages are those about the Victoria Park visitors. Why is this? Is it because of the many rigid opinions that have emerged. On one side we have the residents who are fed up with having to cater to many visitors, most  of whom do not look like them, thus being perceived as threats. On the other we have many who are willing to embrace the idea of a diverse bunch of people enjoying themselves in our resources. The official response to this influx of visitors is to attempt to discipline them and force a behaviour on them by regulation of almost anything that might contribute to the beach experience.

But one of the latest comments reveals an very vexing question - "What is expected of a Tourist?"  The Town has been successful in promoting the Town and are now unprepared for the influx that came, who's fault is that. And was the Town only expecting visitors with wads of cash or "lookyloos". It appears that the Tourism Department has only done half the job - getting people here. Now it has to use that resource to take advantage of them. But in doing so does the Town ask itself - what is a tourist?

Using myself as an example, our family is now spending 75% of our disposable income on tourism related activities and in our travels we have never asked ourselves "How much do we have to spend in a place when we get there?" The idea of going to a place to spend money is way down on the list of tourist activities. Buying admission tickets to local sights maybe, the cost of getting there but the notion of buying another teeshirt to remember the place by or picking up a souvenir is not on. Definitely the thought of buying a meal does come up, but if we decide to have a picnic no money on meals. To answer the Cobourgers' plight - that of asking the visitor to the beach to spend some money downtown is not in our destiny whenever we visit a strange place. And the last thing on our minds is to take out garbage home with us. We look for a well adminstered location with plenty of garbage receptacles. I know of no other tourist destination where the expectation is that one trucks the trash home.

A guest post

submitted by Wally Keeler

Martin Partridge posted in the local papers, MY IDEAS RE VICTORIA PARK; THE BEACH “Enforcement is essential. Scofflaws undermine the rules and make us look ridiculous. Garbage and environment are big issues. How about a daily ‘environment fee’ for non-resident adults? Parking is another big issue. Why don’t we stop non-resident car access to the core on busy days? Force guests to walk in from further away. They’d bring less stuff and maybe visit downtown en route.”

The first two sentences I would dismiss as legal tough talk which caters to the Corktown crowd. It’s a throwaway.

” Garbage and environment are big issues.

No problem for the garbage. More bins and weekend overtime for staff for the really really busy weekends.

” How about a daily ‘environment fee’ for non-resident adults?”

How do you collect it? How do you ascertain whether someone is resident or not? How many staff will be delegated to carry this out. Will this be a summer job? Or special weekends only? Will Northumberland residents get a weekend exemption for Northumberland Ribfest, but others outside Northumberland pay full fee? Where will the checkpoints be?

” Parking is another big issue. Why don’t we stop non-resident car access to the core on busy days?”

Really? Is this a serious question? On busy days, we stop cars to check their residency status? Create a traffic nightmare? And where would the checkpoints be placed? Can’t do that to Provincial Highway 2 aka King Street. So how ya gonna carry this out? How many staff will be involved to carry this out? This is one of the most bizarre ideas I have ever heard.

”Force guests to walk in from further away.”

Don’t ya just love it when a political hopeful is honest enough to use the word “force”. Because I live within half a block of Victoria Park, I’ll have to tell my Guelph-resident friend, James Clarke, former Ontario Supreme Court Justice, that he will be forced to walk a block or two to visit me on certain days of the year. I could never imagine treating a guest like that – how inhospitable can you get?

”They’d bring less stuff and maybe visit downtown en route.”

Stuff? Is that the idea. The problem with the park is that outsiders bring stuff. What? Blankets? Umbrellas? Children’s toys? Folding chairs? Coolers? Propane BBQs (They’re legal), Beach balls, Volleyballs? Etc. Yep, the loutsiders will feel the hospitality of this feel good attitude. What’s with the “maybe”? I’d want to be far more certain that the loutsiders do visit downtown and buy stuff, before I’d set residency checkpoints on all streets leading to “the core.”

Check a bit of history. Victoria Park was privately owned in 1874, but was always accessible to the public. That is the legacy of this park. Mr Partridge has diminished this legacy with his suggestion. At least Gil Brocanier is known to have dived off the pier in his youth, along with many other young men over the long history of Cobourg harbour.

I hope Don isn't right

There is a nasty discussion going on about a proposed development that sums up everything that is wrong with the  planning and approval process as currently designed.

The old curling club building, on Queen St., that for years has housed a procession of auto repair shops is now going to be torn down and a developer proposes to build (what else?) condos. The problem is that this is a small site and in order to maximize his profit he needs to build five stories high. In an area where there is only one other five storey building, the norm is three, this will be a high one. Not only that the building will be abutting two popular bars and grills. The owner of the nearest, the Oasis Bar and Grill, is predicting that if the building goes ahead and is built during the next two summers he will be out of business. Unfortunately if he survives the building period that will only be the start of his troubles. The new owners of the condos won't be long in complaining about the mirth and merriment on tap. Those corrosive complaints will put to shame the nasty complaint process seen recently from the 'Baystreeters' about noise in the Victoria Park. Neighbours will complain about anything they can, witness the complaints the Marina receives regularly about its noisy lawnmowers.

Where does the problem lie at the moment? On Council's doorstep. The committee of the whole approved the application 4-3 with the Mayor obviously casting the deciding vote. While the Official Plan calls for progress that progress must be balanced with the uses of the existing neighbourhood. Obviously the two uses here - a quiet residential domicle and outdoor music on a busy patio will clash. Council for its own sake - does it want to be the referee of noise for the foreseeable future - should declare the two uses incompatible and come down on the side of common sense and limit the building to three storeys with sound barriers or not allow it to be built citing incompatibility.

Declining Fortunes by Deb O'Connor

Yesterday I travelled along Highway 2 from Dale Road in Welcome on to Oshawa. It was the first time in nearly two years I had taken this route, a familiar one I have grown to love since I was a kid before we even had Hwy #401. Then, it was the only way to get to Toronto and my Dad would entertain us with stories of local history as we made the rather long trip. At least for a kid it was a long trip.

After this long, there were changes along the way. Ugly sub divisions have started to mar not only Bowmanville but Newcastle too, where they seemed especially out of place among the rolling hills and creeks. A new and huge suburban nightmare has grown even larger west of Bowmanville, with a brand new Wal Mart announcing it's open for business even as the construction continues around their store. Oshawa itself looked especially run down and dirty with large expanses of concrete and dust and rubble all over the place.

While I noted these so-called improvements, there were revealing indicators that suggest prosperity is dwindling for many of us. Stores and businesses that didn't exist the last time I went by are already closed and empty, and the shops and restaurants in Bowmanville, while appearing quite busy, seemed to be catering to a demographic that is unlikely to support much growth on a long term basis. Like in Cobourg, I wonder how many dead flower arrangements and wooden carved objects a consumer can buy before satiation occurs. Likewise, how many restos offering lunches of fancy salads and miniscule portions of seafood can a community use?

What really struck me though was the number of single family homes with large boats and recreational vehicles small and large with For Sale signs on them. Many of the homes had the same signs on their front lawns. Seeing all this it's hard not to wonder if the inhabitants lost their jobs, used up their unemployment benefits and were now looking at their possessions to try and generate some grocery money.

In Cobourg we now have two pay day loan type places, and three pawn shops in operation. What does that tell us about the state of the local economy? Combined with the dramatic increases to the welfare rolls, the increased use of food banks and emergency assistance, it's nothing to celebrate. Are our candidates for municipal office even aware of the desperation and poverty that exists here?

Coming at it from a larger perspective, we know that home sales have tanked, not only in the USA but now in Canada too. Stock exchanges all around the world keep falling, and while Canadian banks are still posting profits, they are not as big as the banks expected.

Is this all just summer doldrums, a blip on the trading floors that will soon reverse itself? Or are we seeing the early symptoms of a world wide decline in human fortunes as some think. Combined with the ravages of extreme weather all over the world, not to mention the extreme politics that seem to be emerging, are we in big trouble that we are totally unprepared for?

The next few years are going to be very interesting as the consequences of human development land on all of us, rich or poor. Are we ready, willing, and able to meet the challenge? We'd better be, this ain't gonna be pretty.