A response to the whine of the year

from Wally Keeler a keen observer of all things

According to Cobourg resident, Anita Steins, there is a "beach fiasco" of "epic proportions." Her letter-to-the-editor of Northumberland Today ended with her assertion that, "I too would like to enjoy our beach at least once this year." If she has not been on the beach once this year, how could she know there is any situation on the beach other than via Pete Fisher's smear-job journalism.

Many in 'Corktown' have wide boulevards between curb and sidewalk. It could easily be widened to provide ease of parking and permit emergency vehicles clear access on the very, very few days in the year when parking is stressed. Beach safety is enhanced by moving the lifeguard chairs forward and adding a few extra lifeguards for the very, very few days in a year when crowds necessitate it.

This is the part of Ms Stein's letter that I find particularly offensive. "Those who come here to enjoy our free beach rarely are the kind who spend any money here. They have their day, ignore our laws, leave their trash and go home."

I recall those endless summer days of hippies hitch-hiking across Canada. Occasionally, some rolled out a sleeping bag in the park/beach. Bigots-of-the-day smeared them: hippies were unwashed, smelly, girls had hairy armpits and legs, ignore laws and convention, leave their garbage and move on to pollute the next community. The Cobourg Sentinel-Star's letters page was a display case of this distasteful attitude. The slanders, smears, and sneers against visiting hippies (really, just teenagers with long hair) had two wonderful defenders.

The publisher of the Cobourg Sentinel-Star, Foster Meharry Russell, wrote a wonderful editorial about observing some hippies with a small campfire glowing on the beach. In the morning he returned, and observed that the hippies had cleaned up their spot, placed the camp debris in a bin, and moved on to enjoy their land, Canada. He extolled their freedom.

When the issue of sleep-overs in the park came to town council, Deputy-Reeve, Lenah Field Fisher, a fabulous suffragette who wore extravagant hats, extolled the virtues of sleeping under the stars on warm nights. She referred to the dirty Thirties when the homeless unemployed sometimes slept overnight in the park on their quest for employment.

I live one block away from Victoria Park. I enjoy its presence in my life almost every day, any time of day. The Park/Beach is open 24 hours 365 days a year. The Park is crowded 10-15 days in a year, less than one percent of the year. Why are the few selfish self-centred Cobourgers so resentfully tight-fisted of sharing Cobourg's greatest asset.

Local resident, Steven MacLaughlin in his letter-to-the-editor called for action, "Our park and beach both stink with garbage and outsiders and it is time to clean it up!" Bigotry is the cause of the foul smell and it needs a major disinfectant.

All weekend I strolled through the park, and witnessed extended families from grandma on down to tots, enjoying themselves and each other, laughing, playing games, bonding as a family. How many homegrown Cobourgers take their extended families to the park on the other 350 days of the year?

Many of these 'visitors' came from countries where life is stressed with too lethal consequences. It is a hardship of which most Canadians are unfamiliar. Immigrants have a great resource - their kids. Canada gets their kids. In the meantime, many immigrants take low level jobs, work hard, live in apartments/condos, and deserve to enjoy Canada's freedom and prosperity.

The presence of these visitors in Canada's free parks is part and parcel of their assimilation into our society. These new Canadians make me feel good. I enjoy the smells of their cooking. I enjoy the extravagant glee of their tumbling children. I enjoy that I can witness this in a feel good country, a feel good town and a feel good Park.

Shame on Northumberland Today's hyperbolic exploitation of NOTHING. Were there any picnic tables broken or garbage bins tipped over? Were any lamp posts toppled or broken? Bushes and flowers uprooted? Were there any brawls? In the absence of any this, why would Northumberland Today amplify the message, "Heads should roll"?

The first whine of the year

Well Pete Fisher has done it again. With a rewrite of his article of last year - Beach Woes in Cobourg (my paraphrase) the predictable response has happened. The first of many letters about the visitors ruining the beach for Cobourgers has appeared here.  The writer complains about visitors taking over and the crush of visitors causing a safety hazard. If the writer had been following the MSM she would have been aware that in the middle of that crush, lasr weekend, a missing child alert was issued. The beach was cleared of swimmers and a search initiated in the water. The children were found and safety systems worked. So where's the cry for less people on the beach going to go when we have proved that safety measures work and works well. If the writer of the article wishes to have the Cobourg beach reserved for Cobourgers she should say so. If not then get up earlier in the morning and get a spot on the beach. 

Unfortunately for the people who bought into the 'private' lifestyle that they think they have when they buy in Cobourg, private beach ownership is not on the list. In fact the Cobourg beach isn't an exclusive preserve of Cobourgers - it is a resource to be shared.

If it wasn't so bloody stupid it would be ludicrous

Minister Day, the man who believes the earth is only 6,000 years old, did it again yesterday - said something completely preposterous. The problem is that this statement is used to spend a whack of tax money. He justified the spending of money on new prisons because crime stats are not reliable, therefore we have to handle the influx of criminals, because of the number of 'unreported crimes'. Taken to its extreme we will build prisons to house the perpetrators of 'unreported crimes'. The problem is if they, the crimes, are unreported how do we trace the perpetrators to put them in prison?

OK the summers over

Historically it's all down hill for the weather from now on. August has never been as hot as July and although it may seem hot today it won't last. So now that most of you have taken vacation - last two weeks in July - what's next?

If you are a driver under 22 no drinks that's what. This new measure of Premier Dad adding to the nanny-state and gladening the hearts of MADD may be over the line for libertarians and equality lovers. How can age based legislation routinely over-ride the provisions of the Charter of Rights where age based discrimination is legal? The old argument of a person being able to die for their Country at the age of 18 and not getting a drink is valid. Surely age based legislation should be illegal and the problems of bad drivers and drunk driving for the at risk age groups should be an insurance problem not a criminal or HTA one!

Summer Time Blues

This is the time of year I start yearning for cold winter nights when a big pot of chili or soup on the stove warms up the kitchen and brings smiles to the hungry family. Even though it's only early August it feels like the summer heat has gone on too long, and attempts at sitting outside in the cooler evening can be counted by the angry red insect bites up and down itchy legs and arms.

Enough already! I am as trapped inside by the ridiculous heat and humidity as much as with any snow storm, and at least winter storms end. This summer the weather should have cured any climate change denier of their doubts. We can argue forever if it's man made or natural, but either way it's real and it's happening now, all over the world.

In casting around for the good things of summer, I do find solace in the abundance of tomatoes ripening in the garden, thanks to nightly watering, and the appearance of what looks like a bumper crop of local corn ready to eat just about now. And at least, with a BBQ king in residence, cooking in the kitchen is a task relegated to those other three seasons.

There's also Cobourg's Rib Fest to look forward to, and then the Roseneath Fair to celebrate the coming of autumn. At least the summer ends eventually.

We're not going to talk about politics today, it would only spoil the mood.

An election expense?

In these days of hypersensitivity about frivolous Municipal expenses and spurious election costs will anybody but 'chatterers' make any fuss about this - expensive municipal expenditures. Many questions abound:

• How much did it cost, a full page in NToday is usually well over the thousand mark, 
• If the pages were donated why? 
• How much stafftime was put together to make the Council look good?
• Who authorised such an effort?
• How will it be used by candidates and if it is will it count as an election expense?
• Perhaps this could be the first item of business for the newly formed "Election Accountability committee"?

Just another item for the taxpayers of Port Hope to comment on, the topic has already been buzzing on FaceBook!

The battle of the lists

Lists, used to be a place where jousts took place. Now the battle of the lists is who has the largest collection of names to use in the upcoming election between Brocanier and Partridge. On one side you have John Wright, who was handed to Broc by Peter Delanty (a well placed local liberal), the alleged Northumberland 'rainmaker' and on the other you have Martin Partridge who has been collecting lists for years so that he can fundraise for Liberals of all stripes.

The downside is that anybody who has been connected with the Liberals at any time in recent history will now be fair game for phone calls and other messages from both sides. So how will the general population be hit up by these candidates? Using google we find that Brocanier has a website here even has his own domain name 'gilbrocanier.ca' but no facebook page. Partridge has neither but has powerful allies who could create one in seconds - wait for it.

The BurdReport is told that online campaigning will be a way of reaching the electorate. It will be interesting to see just how "Obamamania" goes hyperlocal.

This just in - Mr. Brocanier will have an opponent in the election

Mr Martin Partridge has filed papers for the Mayor's position in this Fall's election. More to come but the MSM will be all over it tomorrow.

Apropos  to the comment above here is NToday's Ted Amsden's story about Martin and his platform. The BurdReport spoke to Mr Partridge and got the same spin. But the punch of his message is that the Town needs to be looked at in terms of 'value for taxes' and only fresh eyes can do that. After all Mr Brocanier has had four years to make an impact on the public perception that taxes are not high and he has appeared to fail as many taxpayers still do believe that their taxes are high.

Did you know........

....that Premier Dad was in Town today? The love of my life, out walking with her sister came upon a gaggle of bodyguards and an entourage at the 'Dutch Oven' this afternoon. Scanning the local MSM I find there is no mention of the event, [no forward work? ed] but NNews says it will have an exclusive interview up on the website, as of yet nothing.

There is a story about PremDad visiting the Quinte YMCA, but nothing about where else he was today. But if he hit the DO you can be sure it was after the dead white tories had left - they might have had a thing or two to say about his government. Interestingly enough Looo was with him amid a press release from John O'Toole the MPP from Durham that publicly castigated both McG and Loo for their activities with local health care. Ahah - the penny dropped, don't tell anybody you are coming and the liklihood of a demo about local health care is dead, cunning like a fox!

Sometimes Councils do dumb things

Port Hope Council often does things that puzzle the constituents. Buying a potentially liable piece of contaminated real estate for little return, carrying a 6 million dollar liability for the Police Service and now refusing to name a street after its most famous living persona - Farley Mowat.

As an interested observer the BurdReport is puzzled by a few things. One is a good reason why a street should not be named after him, the other is an explanation of the vote by the majority of Council and also the absence of a naming policy that would allow/disallow such a thing to happen.

I should suspect that Farley is embarrassed by all the hoo-hah surrouding this proposal, but if he was he should have told the public and the proponents that he wasn't interested, perhaps if he did the Council would then be offended by the snub. Still the episode was allowed to string out and now the answer is no. It's a good job that he and his wife choose to summer on the east Coast as he is missing this confusing saga.