An interesting proposal

Tucked away in this story here, about the activities of the Port Hope Pier Group is an interesting statement - "And finally, due to 2010 being an election year, a community action task force is looking to find and support candidates for the next municipal election."
Hmmm, not only is this growing group looking to the community in its grass roots activism, but it is also looking to make sure that it gets its way in landuse decisions, which affect the area, by making sure they have the votes. This move may well succeed as it is being driven by well known civic activists who are known for their heritage tendencies. this is an intelligent move and has a precedent in Cobourg. Prior to an election a couple ago (I can't remember which one, but it may have been Delanty's first mayoral race) a few of us used to gather at various places in Town to discuss the elimination of train whistles. Peter D started to appear and support us, not long after that, and he has obviously conveniently forgotten, I will not mention the word "dotage", Bob Spooner turned up at the meetings. After the election a 2300 name petition appeared at Council and a "champion" who was socially acceptable to Council spoke about the elimination of the noise and thus they were banned. So with a mixture of the votes, friendly candidates and the right social movers the Pier may be saved after all.

BTW if you want to support the Pier Group go to the Rally:
"The rally takes place on Wednesday, March 3 between 7 and 9 p.m. at the Capitol Theatre's AK and Bob Sculthorpe Room. "

This event may not be so local after all!

Intrigued by a story that proclaims that the icon of contrary, Farley Mowat, has consented to lend his name to a Green Party fundraiser, here, the readers of the BurdReport deserve some opinion and more details.
Firing a full set of cannons "It's time we had some democratic government in this country and it seems there is very little possibility of getting it from any of the other parties," he said. "So I am supporting Elizabeth May, who may be the only honest-to-God, functioning democrat on the federal scene." it is obvious that Farley's long association with the NDP is over.
However are the Green's, in this event, really funding the local association or Elizabeth May's next run for a Federal seat, in BC against Minister Gary Lunn?
This release, found on the Green's main website makes it quite clear that Farley is being used for a high priced fundraiser designed to attract the wealthy from the City.

Details: (taken from the Green's website)
Gourmet food and wine, casual chic dress
$550/person minimum donation, VIA Rail tickets from Toronto can be arranged for an additional $50/return ticket

So the Greens, in a move reminiscent of the artsy fartsy trips to Stratford, on the train, are now selling tickets for $550 bucks a pop for the opportunity to meet an 88 year old literary icon who now believes that democracy can only be delivered by the truly green and politically pure. I wonder just how many locals will pay this price? And if there are few locals there can it still be called a local riding event or just a bunch of rich folk getting together at a posh house in Port Hope to meet and greet the leader, who happens to be tilting at windmills in far away British Columbia.?

If you want to see the Shelter valley Folk Festival win an award vote for them

a submitted notice

The Shelter Valley Folk Festival has made the Top 40 list but needs your vote now! (link below) Shelter Valley is on the Top 40 list but votes are needed!

You can help tell the world about our amazing Festival by voting in the CBC 3 Searchlight Contest for "The Best Music Festival in Canada" through our home page link (www.sheltervalley.com) or direct through this link http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/searchlight

Vote every day and tell 3 friends! 20 finalists are to be announced Wednesday February 24^th on CBC Radio 3, and voting continues!

N.B. you will have to be prepared to register on the site, if you are not a member already, to vote.

The pic that soared around the world

This is the pic that was used by all of the major news agencies when filing the Col. Williams story. With the exception of a couple of major outlets credit was given to the photog - Bill Tremblay from the Brighton Independent, a section of the Northumberland News, a Metroland paper. I even picked it up on the CBC National, with a credit that was displayed all over the Country.
Bill, who is in line for many awards for this story and pic, should be feeling good when he sees his handiwork on the cover of Macleans Magazine staring back at him from every newspaper stand in the nation - well done Bill

If only it was that easy

The Toronto Star blares out "EI claims drop" here, implying that economic conditions are improving. They may be in other parts of the province but here in the good old Muskokas-Haliburton-Northumberland region the stats tell a different story. Check out the monthly report here

In January 2009 there were 9,900 people declared as unemployed, one year later we have twice that many, 18,400. We also know that very few of the unemployed got jobs in January as the employed workforce only expanded by 1500 people. So the stimulus package hasn't kicked in yet!

The slogan, "Come to the Muskokas - Ontario's playground" is really ringing true as this area's unemployment rate is third highest in the Province behind Windsor and Niagara Falls.. Unfortunately the unemployed have little to play with. Perhaps this is something MPP Loo should be looking at as he goes about bragging what a wonderful place N'land is. Sadly those poor folks whose EI has run out will probably disagree!

You can't win for losing

Following up on the County leasing situation here one cannot help that the County Boss can't win for losing. By attracting non-profit agencies into his brand new empire Bill Pyatt has contributed to the loss of commercial rent in the Fleming building by offering discount rents. Is this what we are after - government putting the boots to private enterprise? If we own the building, as pointed out in a previous post, why are we charging rent at all to our own departments and not charging commercial rates to the others? The idea was to save taxpayers money not increasing inter-departmental chargebacks to inflate a budget that taxpayers have to pay. In addition we now find that the County will do this at the expense of one of the biggest landlords in Cobourg - LinMac.

The Puffster strikes again

In this Youtube video we see Senator Mike asking for money using the Olympics as a backdrop. Strange to see when the Cons said they would keep politics out of the Olympics.

Nobody Wants to Know

A few months ago I heard a song by that venerable songwriter Kris Kristofferson. Called "To Beat the Devil", it was about a crusading singer feeling discouraged to the point of giving up in his quest to compel his audience to listen and heed the message in his songs. He's broke, hungry, and listening to the Devil who's telling him to just give up; nobody is listening, nobody cares.

By the end of the song he concludes that he will keep going, that somewhere, somebody will hear the message and his travails will not be in vain. That song spoke to me, having spent a large chunk of my life in essentially that same struggle. I marvel at my friends who manage to keep going, seemingly never discouraged by the lack of results and always maintaining hope. At this point I am like the guy in the song, ready to just pack it in and forget it. But somehow, I and we never do. We keep going.

What motivates us that is not present in other people? A co-worker once told me she admired our commitment, noting that in her own life she really didn't care about anything but her immediate family and the next vacation. She thought she should be ashamed, but admitted she wasn't. That conversation has stayed with me, and for years I have tried to figure out how to reach people like her, to make them understand that caring about our fellow humans is our only hope. It is what separates us from the other creatures on the earth who just exist to hunt down their next meal.

It would be much easier to coast through life that way; nothing to keep you awake at night except deciding whether to holiday in Mexico or Florida. Trouble is, for some of us, that just isn't possible. But why? What makes us different? Why do we bother at all? The loving spouse of a friend of mine thinks we're crazy, tells us we should mind our own business and that absolutely nobody wants to hear from us.

Is that spouse right? I don't know, but I sure would like to figure it out. Any thoughts on this topic are welcome, it could be quite a discussion. Or maybe nobody cares...

Should we "settle" or WIN

In this story Rosie DiMannio of the TOStar writes: "But it was silver for defending moguls champion Jenn Heil and there's nothing, nothing, underwhelming about that." Maybe not Rosie but it wasn't a win.
Are Canadians going to be nice or be killers in this quest for gold. Jenn Heil was the World Champion, winner of 5 World Cups this season and the reigning Olympic Champion so on paper and in her mind the Gold was there, should have been a dead certainty. Don't give me the whine about a bad day, or a better opponent this Gold should have been hers, after all this is what she trained for. She didn't get it and Canada still fawns over her for putting in a good effort. Sorry folks the killer instinct must kick in, we have to learn how to win, and this case where Jenn Heil has obviously learned to win we must learn to maintain the win.
Sorry folks this SIlver is not good enough for me and we should say so!

Cobourg Council is wrong

Just because Council says "It's not our fault" they can't afford to deny liability. In the case of the flooding in the George St, Buchanan St Station St area the Town told local residents that it's not their fault that the area flooded. The reasoning being that the flooding occurred as a result of an inadequate storm drain on private property.

Quote from the NNews
"In an interview after the flood, Ted MacDonald, acting director of public works, said town staff were out in the field on Jan. 25, inspecting the George Street culvert as well as areas both up and downstream and found no evidence that the George Street culvert was blocked, based on flow rates observed in other parts of the system. The George, Buchanan and Station Street area has long been defined as a flood plain and the affected homes have been there for over 50 years, said Mr. MacDonald. Currently, new building is restricted on flood plains, given the likelihood of flooding. However, the homes in the area predate the current rules and regulations, he said.

Flooding in this area is not a new occurrence, he added. Similar circumstances back in 1980 - frozen ground and heavy rains - also resulted in heavy flooding. He added the culvert that runs under the CN/CP tracks is not on town-owned property nor was it built by the town.

"Any flooding that occurred (in the area) was not due to any negligence whatsoever on the town's part," said Mr. MacDonald. "We (Town of Cobourg) have worked hard over the last 20 years to improve infrastructure to limit any damage that may occur during flooding."

The BurdReport asks the following questions:

• If the Town has worked hard to improve infrastructure how come this area flooded?
  
• If the Town is responsible for Storm Water Management how come they haven't ordered private property owners to improve their facilities to modern standards?
  
• If the Town knew that this Railroad culvert was inadequate twenty odd years ago why haven't they followed the standards of the latest Storm Water Management Report and ordered changes on the railroad property?
• If the Town is denying culpability why didn't they tell the Homeowners to sue the Railroad Company?
  

For a video of the flood as it passed below the affected area, the railroad lands, look here; Wally's video