Summer thoughts

Putting the MJ event in perspective. A writer from the Vegas Sun has penned this story. A comparison of mammoth funerals and points out that the MJ event wasn't as big as it seemed when put up to other funerals.

Hot and sweaty politics in Northumberland. The President of the Federal Liberal party is going to be here for a meeting of the NQW liberals. Local Lib organisor Martin Partridge tells the BR that this was just going to be another mundane executive meeting but -

"However, with a hot nomination race suddenly underway there's more excitement within the ranks.  Attendance is expected to be quite high, and both of the declared candidates (and perhaps one or two undeclared candidates) will be chatting up the crowd."

Mr Alfred Apps ( I bet nobody has the cheek to call him Alfie) is here to chat up the troops, keep the morale high, and remind all that there is an election to win. And of course if you are a Lib and want to check out the new faces get to the meeting: 7pm at the Colborne Legion.

The days after

With all the Waterfront festival people claiming a record success, they would wouldn't they? I went off to look for myself on cleanup day.

The King St merchants I spoke to did not notice much more traffic during the festival, cementing an opinion that visitors to the waterfront rarely migrate to the downtown whenever there are waterfront activities. This opinion was confirmed when the merchants told me that Sunday, the first day after the festival and the day after the American holiday, was a busy one. "Nothing at the harbour let's go downtown!" seemed to be the sentiment from the majority of people, mainly visiting Americans. Not to be negative let's celebrate the fact that Cobourg put on a good show, even though one must remember that it is a major commercial event run by the Rotary for the Rotary.

The Toronto garbage strike is going to drag on and the two sides have to get down to brass tacks now that McGuinty has said he will not legislate them back, well he can't if he has let the Windsor strike drag on for eleven weeks. What did Mayor Miller expect? that the union would roll over. Not going to happen. You can't give all the unions (police and fire) except the grunts 3% raises and improvements to contracts and then turn around and takeaway a year later in the bargaining cycle, "Just because things have changed" Besides despite the big issue, that keeps getting distorted, like the sick pay issue (this one for all the union bashers is in lieu of the short term disability that most provate sector companies have) you can't take away without a quid pro quo. I wonder what all the bashers would say if the Feds suddenly said, when all the execs in the country are getting bonuses and when all MPs and other pols are raising their own wages "Your CPP is being cut by 10% because we are in a recession!" not going to happen. But because these folks are in a union their wages and benefits are fair game. Both the City and Union have to get real - compromise and finish with a status-quo contract. Unfortunately Miller, who has had bad advice on this issue, will come off worse but perhaps he deserved it because he has not led on this one.

Sad, reports from the war-zone that two more soldiers have died today. The tragedy about this one is that it may have been caused by technical failure. Let's face it we are fighting with equipment built by the lowest bidder and held together by baling wire.

Must be the day for weird headlines

The headline says it all, funny old world where this guy is now richer by dying and nobody really knows who the heirs are. His mother isn't in charge any more, his ex-wife may come back and claim the two children she bore and then dumped, The brain is going to be tested for all kinds of things and may be buried later, probably a big plot for another funeral. E-bay has clamped down on the "free" tickets to his service that were being sold for thousands and although everybody says they are sick of the whole affair TV ratings for anything associated with MJ go through the roof.

Mexicans love their wrestlers, big or small and the whole country is mourning the loss of a pair of famous twins who died after drinking 'spiked' drinks with two prostitutes, story here.

So, the question is - how much do we want to pay?

The Fullertons, the family that has owned the property at 100 Bagot St, since 1916, have a solution to the problem of beach access. They have offered to sell a part of their undevelopable land to the Town for $345,000. They justify the price as less than market value of the land, if an upzoned value was applied, because they also want a solution. But as with all good negotiators, Mr Morand, back in the picture as the spokesman, says that there will be no termination of a considered lawsuit if the Town does not give a speedy response.

So the question is this - is $345,000 a good price for the Town to pay? As the local editorialist from the NToday.com opined on Friday, it may be high but worth it and called for the Council to stop being petty and negotiate a resolution. The BurdReport's position is simple, the Northern boundary must be in line with the boundary of the High School's property, which is also the same as the Legion Village's property all the way to the beach. Pay the money and let sleeping dogs lie. There must also be a public subscription campaign the way the Victoria Park extension was funded. If Cobourgers want the beach they cannot have it handed to them by a benevolent Council, they must pay for some it themselves!

There is a burning rage amongst old Toronto Sun staffers to recreate themselves and whenever Sun Media lays another person off, consolidates offices and services or just shuts local newspapers down the writers of this website (the TorontoSunFamily) go nuts and encourage the affected personnel to recreate the "miracle of the TO Sun". Well today's post on the TSF site announces that in Hinton Alberta, four ex-staffers have done just that. An online version and a print edition are going out weekly, here is the online version and investigation reveals of the stafff on board two are in sales so the emphasis is on ad revenue. It will be interesting to see if the traditional model of "one news and two ad people" can cut it in the world of fast diminishing ad revenue and a weak online presence can be a commercial success that will support four sets of wages. Good luck to them for trying.

Elvis is alive and seen in Cobourg

Spotted in a wine bar?? Elvis was in Cobourg last night. One of the sights of the waterfront festival. The second full day seemed to be an event that was running out of steam, at 5pm anyway. The food vendors and the Midway people were standing around looking at each other and scanning for customers - let's hope that today will be better; it is Friday after all!

The death of an urban legend. One of the local tales, that circulated really fast this week, and spread by gossips who should have known better, it even surfaced at Rotary on Friday, by way of the Dutch Oven, was a story about one of the local Police - Sgt. (well he was last week) Delkie Curtis. A bit of a lad this fellow stands about five foot ten and not an impressive looking (no muscle builder is he) guy - just your normal hard-working enforcer of the law.
The story that came back to me by way of a brother-in-law fresh from a trip at the do'nut shop was, "Hey have you heard that Delkie Curtis got pummeled into the ground by seven guys outside Kelly's the other night?" With ears perked I tucked the info away and then yesterday I had a chance to ask his Boss - the Chief about it. Roaring with laughter he chortled, "That's just an urban legend, do you think that we wouldn't have heard about it if it had happened?" Then last night riding through the park I spotted the man himself, DC, and asked him. "I've had people coming up to me all week asking how I am" he said. Besides it wasn't seven guys it was only two but one of was a big 'un, and Greg McCurdy took him down" Referring to an arrest his platoon made last week. Some one watching must have been either in the cups or wanted to stretch an overworked imagination and told his pals. A good story though!

Videos of our Senate at work. Videos have appeared on Youtube that show a Senate committee in dispute about almost everything on the agenda. Click here to go to the "video page" to see them

At least this ride had riders! - well only two.

Help Deputy Dave lose 100lbs in a year

Deputy Chief Dave Cromlish, of the Cobourg Police Services is determined to change his lifestyle and in the process lose weight. With the aid of his personal trainer - Andrea Johnson (both are seen in the pic on the right), of Bodilogix, a personal training outfit located on Ontario St. in Cobourg.
He intends to drop 100 lbs. In fact he started the regimen a week ago and has already lost 12.5 lbs from a high of 336. Read about the 100lb challenge at nocopoutchallenge.ca and check out the blogs. A valiant cause and we wish you well Dave, in your quest. Anybody willing to do such a public thing deserves support, so go to the website and discover how you can help Dave lose100lbs and pledge to raise money for a new ECG machine at the NHH.


Had a chance to ask the Chief of Police about the news of Troy Davey's appeal. He had lots of praise for the Crowns involved as they had made great efforts to keep the family in the loop during their trying time.

What an evening

Couldn't get out to see the sights of the day but the evening made up for it. The usual fireworks display delighted the crowds which were stretched from the East beach to Factory Creek, of course the beach from Ontario St West to the Creek were shut off to the public but the West Beach from the harbour wall to the bottom of Ontario was packed with families just out roast a few wienies and sit in deck chairs and watch the skies. A tribute to common sense and family fun. Hilton Adams, of Cobourg, and his family picked out their spot at the bottom of Ontario.


How's this for family fun? and who said the West Beach should be for solitude!

Happy Canada Day - hope it doesn't rain!

Happy 142 Canada.

I'm unleashing the right wing opinion dogs on this one, a comment in the TO Star by Sid Ryan about striking workers and the tendency for employers to bash them into the ground, for as the 649 man says, "I can"

Monday evening Council was faced with an interesting situation over heritage windows. Gary Sharpe, the owner of 4,6,8 King St applied for a heritage permit to replace the 2nd storey windows. LACAC took a look and decided that in order to confirm to Town guidelines (in place since the early 90s) the windows should be repaired not replaced. Mr Sharpe disagreed because he wants to refit with vinyl windows. LACAC stuck to its guns and the application went to Council on Monday. Mr Sharpe, a very popular local businessman was present to see the coordinator of planning present a motion rejecting the application that did not get a seconder - a very unusual situation. Obviously the rest of Council was determined to support Mr Sharp and showed it by not supporting the motion. The Mayor determined that this motion and recommendation from LACAC could not remain in limbo and asked for another motion to dispose of the application. Councillor Stan Frost made a motion that was, by design?, a clever motion that the other councillors failed to understand - they after all only wanted to give Mr Sharpe his windows. SF's motion read"That the replacement windows be of material reflecting latest technologies but must be compatible and fit with the heritage surroundings". Up went the hands in support but in order to comply surely the replacement vinyl must be specially designed to fit the surroundings as opposed to the normal replacement windows. A Machiavellian response.
The situation gets murkier as during the debate Mr Sharpe said that he wanted to fit the same kind of window shown on the right (see pic above). These were fitted two years ago with the approval of LACAC. When the BR investigated the situation the conclusion was that the LACAC folks of two years ago were not the same as today - they had lower standards! So how do we achieve consistency? We have to find a way.

We may have to stop following George across Canada as he might get too famous. Another email in this morning from Connie in Moosonee. She says she is looking forward to meeting him. All George wants to do is ride his bike not do interviews. Ah the power of the Internet!

A statement from the former MP of NorthumberlandQuinteWest, Paul Macklin has crossed the wire wherein he has ruled out another crack at the nomination. Throwing the race wide open expect aspirants to be blitzing the riding for support in an election that may or may not come in the Fall. Names being bandied around as horses in the race: local Cobourg businesswoman Kim Rudd, Andrew McFadden from the riding centre and perhaps Christine Herrington from Brighton.

It is Wednesday the 1st today Blogspot is fooling around with the date on the entries.

Went to Council last night to see what they did with the CC

The resolution to approve the Community Centre was on the fast track - as soon as the resolution was read the Mayor barked out, "All those in favour?" hands shot up and it was done - five seconds!

The bike and rider have been on the trail six days now and are approaching Cochrane.
email from George:
"Anyway, things here are going reasonably well. Took the train to Longlac, - along with 40 passengers from England, who had never been to Canada. Their only complaints were that the cabins were too small, and that people weren't dressing properly for dinner in the dining car!

They were aghast that I was getting off in the "wilderness"! I started biking east from Longlac on Hwy 11 last Thursday. Two days of great tailwinds took me to Hearst by Friday PM. I was worried about overdoing it (in terms of what my legs would stand), so I purposely cut back on Saturday and ended at Mattice at noon. Then heavy rain on Saturday AM, to the point where it was too dangerous to continue on the highway:virtually non-existent paved shoulder, and lots of trucks avoiding hilly Lake Superior route).

Had to relent, and hitched a ride with a couple in their truck, who took me to "Kap". Back on the bike again today, and arrived at Smooth Rock Falls (Abitibi mill town, but mill has been shut for a few years now). Should make it easily to Cochrane tomorrow, then on to Moosonsee by rail. I've had no physical problems yet (which is very encouraging), and equipment/clothing is working pretty much as expected. Heavy rain highlighted a leak in the tent, so I'll need to get some seam sealer before Quebec. I'm sending this from the public library in Smooth Rock, which is just about to close. I'll have more time to catch up in Cochrane/Moosonee. Bye for now,

What a difference a week makes in politics, last week the developers for a site on Elgin St were granted a fraction of what they wanted and this week they were back congratulating Council for being flexible and donating enough land for a new soccer pitch adjacent to the existing ones. So what went on this week for such a change of heart? More discussions with the staff and a new report presented to Council that's what. The early report restricted the build of 285 houses to 1/3 singles, 1/3 medium density, 1/3 high density. The new report reduced the number of medium and high density homes and increased the number of single family homes from 75 to 122. One soccer pitch and park equals 47 singles!

Another delegation was the appearance of a very frustrated homeowner. Adrian Worley, who lives at 157 King St W. has the misfortune to be the first to have his road swept, three time a week, by the very loud and slow mechanical Town sweeper. His beef is that the sweeper starts at 5.30am, well before his normal wakeup time. he has done everything right - complained through all the official channels and to the pols - for over a year, but was told by the Director of Works, "The Town is exempt from the noise bylaw!" Well he came to Council to say enough is enough and he is mad about the runaround. So what happened? His complaints were sent off to the Director of Works for a report.

OK found some time

Michael Jackson - tragic but inevitable, ironic that his estate will make piles of money and a cottage industry will spring up fighting over it
The PC's have elected Tim Hudack - another urban rube for the snotty liberals to try to patronise.
The talk shows in Toronto will have found their Messiah by tonight - reports that John Tory may run for Mayor has orgasmic quivers all over it for these guys.
A new Doctor in Town - it will be interesting to see just how fast her book fills up as she signs up the "orphans". With the Port Hope Health Centre 50% under subscribed it looks as though there might not be as many "orphans" as the experts predicted.
Dare to dream - another airy-fairy exercise of the "chattering classes" will take place, but only if we can get a grant for it! Council has decided to let the citizens play at being community builders by asking for those interested in playing in the sandbox to help design something on someone elses's land. A "design charrette" will held led by a hand-picked consultant who will be paid $10,000 to hold a session where people come in and tell someone else just what they (the chattering classes) think should be built on the old Tannery Lands. Interesting, plan away but this land is the most polluted environmental toxic waste dump in the town. The site which has had the contents of the chrome tanks, used in stripping hides and fish, routinely dumped on the ground for many years, before the practise was outlawed in Ontario. Just what mix of chemicals lies underneath is unknown but plan away - just another waste of public money.