It's crunch time for the Cobourg Council

If one glances at the middle pages of the Cobourg Daily star one will notice that is is full of letters, perhaps the most letters ever published at one time, covering two pages. And what are the letters about? The waterfront park of course! Not one letter is is in favour of the project. Seeing so many anti letters I was prompted to phone the editor of the CDS and she told me that the letters were an attempt to clear up the backlog. Asked what was the ratio of pro and con Mandy Martin told me it is running about 5 to 1 against the proposal, for various reasons. The most interesting observation was that "the usual suspects" were not writing the letters. Mandy admitted that this deluge of letters was the most she can recall about one issue in recent history.

So given this background how will Council handle the groundswell of opposition? Monday evening is the time for the vote. Given my bent for looking for Machiavellian moves It is possible that Council could kill two birds with one stone. The Trailer Park has long offended the "cocktail set" and the elites. Moving the rink into that area would satisfy that constituency, long bothered by "those people" and the "Trailer Trash" that pay no taxes, only hefty park rentals. Taking them out however would take longer than the time line imposed by McGuinty. After all how can you put the shovel in the ground in the middle of the tourist season and still qualify for the election money?

So no predictions from me but it looks as though Council may be hoisted on its own spike of hubris. So sad for a Council where each person pledged during an election to be responsive to the electorate.

CONspiracy theorists should read this

Garth Turner has published a primer on the Security and Prosperity partnership (SPP) and you will be hearing more of this over the summer as Parliament dies down and the chattering classes have nothing else to talk about. Besides in the absence of Parliament all kinds of secret meetings will flourish. Deep integration - read it here

Leading into the doldrums of summer

Expect these posts to be sporadic, we are now entering the summer hiatus for some and the natural slowdown of old age for others. Even Cobourg Council has published its summer schedule.

The waterfront park will be put to bed on Monday despite the number of pleas from concerned citizens to modify or scrap the project. It is clearly becoming obvious that delegations have little effect on this Council and really only serve the purpose of providing alternate opinion to a Council that hates that.

Expect the public meeting for the OPP costing to be scheduled for the most inconvenient time for the opposition, probably one week before the July Council meeting and further expect the deal to be wrapped up with a minimum of discussion by September and look forward to Fantino parading his 'black and whites' next January. Leaving us all with a huge bill for severances and retirement packages. Just my opinion of course. Meanwhile support your local police service!

Let the debate begin

You might have thought that the debate about Cobourg moving to the OPP was almost over, by the lack of debate and thoughtful letters to the local media. Well it has just been kickstarted by the action of the Cobourg Police Association sending out a flyer explaining what the local police do for the citizens of Cobourg. If you don't get a Northumberland News read the flyer here. All the CPA is asking that one contacts the local councillors and tell them that the local option is the best. As well they are asking that letters of support be emailed to cobourgpoliceassociation@hotmail.com

Bush gets no respect!

Just came across this video this morning, for the early morning chuckle! Bird Poops On President Bush During Presser

Council hears unpleasant news

Tonight the Cobourg Council listened to delegations who wanted to speak about the harebrained scheme to spend 1.3 million dollars on an ice rink [get it right Burd, the estimate is now 1.8 million - ed.] Three speakers expressed three concerns: the process of the decision making and the rush to complete it without adequate public discussion, the questionable estimates and the projected true costs and finally the last speaker spoke about the usefulness of the project but please relocate it.

Of course the other side had two delegations: one from the DBIA who said "it is good for businees" and the other being a member of the disabled community congratulating Council for the wisdom of providing a warm bus shelter. There was also in the meeting a resolution presenting a large memo, that outlined the costs and details of the project, that was accepted as information. However when councillor Mutton asked for details outlining who made what decisions and when she was met with a stony silence. The most telling part of the evening was during Mr MacKenzie's presentation the Mayor was at first acknowledging his various points and prompts to questions as "Michael" when it became apparent at the end of his presentation that Michael had criticised severely all things before him, it became, "Thank you Mr MacKenzie!"

I think, and I hate to defend the rich and famous, that the residents of the harbourfront have a very good and defensible point of law. Nowhere in the documents before them, when they bought into the area was an ice rink mentioned, in fact the documents given by the Town, when asked, were the original plans for the park, minus the rink. So they have had their lifestyle and accepted norm for quality living compromised and should be able to sue, let's see if they go that far. An injunction at least to allow further public input, should put a crimp in the Town's plans and put the axe to a local plank in the upcoming provincial election.

Proportional Representation

Now I smell a conspiracy theory. Proportional Representation (PR) is a form of voting that enables voters to get representatives in a Legislature in numbers that correspond to the number of votes cast. Proponents will tell you that the end result is more diversity and a mixture of political opinion that mirrors voter's wishes. This is not possible in a First Past The Post (FPTP) system where a majority governemst is routinely formed by a party that does not get a majority of votes.

Mr McGuinty set up a commission to investigate PR and randomly picked (there's a laugh the commission suddenly became a model of diversity not necessarily random) and they investigated all forms of PR and held hearings and are now recommending a system called Mixed Member Proportional Voting (MMPV). Under this system there will be 99 regular MPPs and 30 odd Party MPPs, these members will selected by parties off a list drawn up by the party.

Now for the problem and the conspiracy. The conspiracy first. McGuinty was dragged kicking and screaming into this issue. by angry electorates and PR zealots. His answer was the old political gambit - set up a high priced and gold plated commission that recommends unpalatable and unpopular policy and he looks good in trying to fix the issue. His unpopular axis is the recommendation - MMPV. To convert the electorate into supporters he will have to persuade them that a Party MPP is a valuable resource and the price of democracy. It is ingrained into the voters subconsciousness that you vote for a person to represent you not a political party to govern.

Personally I will not be voting for this proposal although PR is absolutely necessary to get proper representation, the idea of two votes - one for the MPP and one for the party is not my favourite and will lead to inequality in the legislature. I would be voting for it if the Single Transferable Vote (STP) had been recommended. Again this is where the conspiracy comes in, all McGuinty has to do the kill PR is to make sure that he adopts an unworkable idea and confuse the voters and he has. In defense of MMPV he and others in power say that the STV system is unworkable because of its complexity. Well is that so? Both the Liberals and Tories have been using the STV in nomination meetings for years - so much for unworkability!

My stinky opinion

Sometimes I hate to go against the tide just to be right but in the case of PC Nelles justice demands that the system be played out to the end. Nobody knew that the game wold go into quintuple overtime. It is not our fault that the Police Services Act (PSA) demands that officers under review get paid, that is patently unfair to all other workers who get suspended and then reinstated - or not. It is the fault of the government that our justice system is underfunded and therefore under resourced so that these cases take so long to process.

The upshot is that Nelles is entitled to his full days in court, we are entitled to swift justice and the governments should be severely chastised for not making this possible.

Cobourg Council is dysfunctional

More evidence that Cobourg Council is a law unto itself and being ruled by four dead white men and presided over by a Mayor more interested in his legacy hit the public domain this past week.

In theory Cobourg is governed by the Council which has divided the workload into little fiefdoms called "portfolios" - planning, safety, public works, parks etc. In practise this means that each councillor can really only look after the kingdom and ignore what the others are doing. This lazy and inefficient practice has been going on for years. But with a recent election and the imposition, by the public, of the top vote getter being given the most important portfolio - planning, the old way has changed slightly. Now the four dead white men in their chauvinistic way have decided not only will they look after their own little fiefdom they will look after the planning portfolio as well.

Two issues bring this practice to light: one is the announcement of a public meeting to discuss the official review of the Official Plan ad the other is the ongoing definition of the harbourfront park and the planned changes to it. The first issue - the review of the OP, a dispute has arisen between the old king of planning and the incumbent. Dean McCaughey, who was the biggest loser in the last election and now sulks in Public Works and doesn't do committee work, says it should be a very brief meeting because it is only a perfunctory formality to have this meeting, Miriam Mutton disagrees and says that members of the public should be free to speak about their thoughts on the new OP. The second issue is more fundamental and shows that the losers (the four dead white guys) really want to put the boots to the new person who is a woman! Ms Mutton takes the broad view that because the location and planning of the harbourfront area is integrated and therefore changes to one component affects the larger area it is a planning matter in the widest sense. Councillor (I used to be the Deputy Mayor and now sit on my arse and collect the money) Spooner believes that because the area is called Rotary waterfront park, totally diminishing the good name of Dr. Bob Scott, after which the area is named, is in the Parks portfolio and therefore Ms Mutton is "grandstanding" by uttering an opinion.

Putting these issues together and adding in the fact that the Coordinator of planning has had her choices of committee personnel routinely savaged and her cogent and reasonable ideas ignored you could say that she really is not the master of the domain and is not getting the respect that is due her portfolio. That is tragic and cannot be tolerated. That is why the practises of the dead white men majority are continually under scrutiny and often exposed.

The conclusion is that the Council is dysfunctional because the majority of the team have decided that it can run the Town with one member on the bench!

And who says there is no Provincial election?

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