Cobourg makes the bigs

Cobourg's squabble over the Fountain/Rink has made page 8 of the Globe &Mail (Canada' National paper) today here. In a very generic piece the G&M lays out the contretemps in bare bones fashion. This will probably annoy the people who contacted the paper and supplied reams of background . But as they say in the publicity business, never turn down free stuff and make sure they spell my name right - all publicity is good publicity. But some will see this as dirty laundry not to be aired outside Elgin St.

Only doing half the job!

Now that the Fiberals and the Harpocrits have adopted the abominable American practice of fixed election dates and imposing them on the Municipalities the cry for the other part of the equation is becoming stronger. I refer to the practice of recall or impeachment. This is an essential part of American democracy but somehow got left out when the idea of fixed terms was imported.

Both here in Cobourg, and more often in Toronto: where the Mayor has become rather unpopular very quickly, critics are bemoaning the lack of a recall procedure. This is valid, especially in Municipal politics. Four year terms are horrendous for local democracy as we see in Cobourg where four dead white men, five if you count the Mayor, are obstinately disregarding the appeals of the great unwashed - and not just on the FRINK issue but everything else. I did read that the Mayor was recently booed at a public function - that must have been very unsettling both for public decorum and the imperial ego of PD. Incidentally when thee year terms were instituted in the 80s I spoke against it. Local politics is the most responsive level of government and should be electorally responsible as well. Two year terms should be the norm and any politician who says they need that long to learn the job should be sent to the slow learner class and dismissed.

In real terms a recall operation is very expensive and time consuming and usually fails to unseat the incumbent but McGuinty, or his soon to be successor, must add it to the Act that covers elections. After all it's only fair, but then what's fair these days?

I wasn't there but this fellow was

A correspondent noted: "We had to close and secure the doors for the first presentation when we got to about 160 people. The presentation was received with a feeling of shock in the room (at the revelations) and a very prolonged round of loud applause. The questioning session which followed was intense but ended after about an hour when an audience member whose name is 'Lisa' disrupted it with personal insults. She is the same person who came down to the park and, while literally screaming at us, tried to tear down our rope and signs that we attached to the picnic tables for our protest. We were astonished to learn last night that she is an employee of Totten Sims Hubicki. The second presentation was similar with close to a full house, without the disruption. Overall, about $1,000 was donated in cash and cheques as people left the two presentations. (The total out-of-pocket administrative and outside legal costs for the four organizers and the dozen or so 'mentors' who have been guiding our work now exceeds $3,000.)"

Observations arising from the meetings

• Many people were surprised to learn that we have already installed the drainage system for a natural rink, that a natural rink would allow the grass to remain year-round (covering the grass with ice for skating doesn't hurt it -- it's covered with snow and ice anyway), and that we are about to pay more tax dollars to rip out that drainage system because of the new plan.
• Forrest Rowden, the former Mayor of Hamilton Twp (who lived in Cobourg for much of his terms), stood up and made a remarkable public statement about the inappropriateness of how this matter has been handled by Cobourg.
  
• The meeting organisors will have delegation status at Monday's Council meeting to summarize the presentation.
  
• No Councillors other than Frost and Mutton could be seen in attendance.
  
• It was said that a Town official was present to take notes and that the Town intends to challenge everything we said. To protect themselves the organisors voice recorded and video recorded both presentations.
  
• A Rotary member revealed that the lip and drop at the edge of the planned concrete basin is an extreme liability issue for Rotary because they had at least a couple of stumbles or falls even at the last Waterfront Festival with the tent over the oval.

There were two recommendations from presentation. First, that everyone should attend Monday's Council meeting by 6:15 pm (on the day that the Mayor returns from his vacation trip to Russia) and fill the lobby, staircase and chamber as he arrives -- as a human petition. Second, that people should urge the Town to use the natural rink capability at least once this winter to see if it works and if citizens and tourists like it -- we've already paid for it and it won't cost anything to try it out.

There are a couple of background documents available to the public - the power point presentation here, and the paper trail outlining the project chronology here These items will be available as soon as I can log into my ISP

One for those reading this at work!!

Want to change jobs? The Worst Job Listings Ever?

Punishment enough?

Sounds like a plan to me! Man avoids breath test by eating his socks

Another Fountain/Rink discussion

A public forum has been organised to discuss the Downtown facility that has drawn so much fire from all kinds of opposition. Anyway the organisers have emailed people asking that people attend a PowerPoint presentation that illustrates new information. Perhaps this new information will convince others to pressure Council to change their votes when the bylaw approving the tender will be up for discussion. After all it only needs one vote to change and the project is dead.

Thursday evening 5.30pm and 7pm at the Cobourg Public Library. Be there if you are interested.

Theeeere Off!

As my father used to say, "They're off: as the monkey sat on the circular saw!" As are the political parties in their quest for electoral success, Cathy Galt opened her office, local Liberals are gloating about the largesse of the Provincial government (as explained in a leaflet received last week from Loo), and the NDP are holding their first official planning session this week.

Fixed election dates mean longer election campaigns, the question is - can we stand them? I saw election signs in Oshawa yesterday, it's going to be a long Fall.

So what are the local election issues? Please use the comment box to explain your issue and what you think will be a theme as the parties go to the hustings.

For those of you with too much time on your hands!

If you have plenty of time to spare give some of it to these guys Jackie & Dunlap. I really liked this one click here

Remember this story?

I have written about this before, I guess it will not go away! Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election Records Missing

Two provincial issues with local links

Premier Dalton McGuinty, announced two funding endeavours today: one was to spend 26 million dollars and the other to try and get some of his slush fund money back.

Firstly the OPP issue, it is more than a bit galling to discover that the money will be going to fund more OPP officers of a general nature, and only a few to go to an anti-gun squad. That means that urban taxpayers will once again be subsidising the rural policing efforts. What is more than galling is to realise that at present urban taxpayers are still subsidising rural police users although Mr Harris tried to end the practise by making rurals pay for their policing. He did institute a charge for policing but then issued grants to offset the costs. Of course urbans, like Cobourg and Port Hope ending up paying twice; once for their own police costs and then again for the police grants to the rurals. But it gets worse as the urban taxpayer has to pay more toward the rural police because of a way that the OPP staffing is structured. It is a fact that about one third of all the local complements budgets come from a allocation called "Provincial Complement" and is used to pay for events and circumstances beyond the normal rural policing as well as to pay for replacements to the complement due to sickness and absences. For example when the Havelock detachment has to be expanded for the Jamboree the Municipality doesn't get billed, the Provincial Complement pays for it. Correspondingly in Cobourg we pay for everything. We know that all the extra costs of the Waterfront Festival are our costs. Perhaps we should have the Festival at the Pentecostal Camp, in Hamilton Township, and the province (meaning us) will pay?

The second issue of trying to get the slush fund money back will be problematic as all the grants were unconditional and the organisations that received the money can do what they want with the money. But here is a suggestion, now would be the perfect time to give Mr McGuinty his 1.3 million dollars back and the Fountain/ Rink controversy will go away!