A follow up to a comment

Anonymous said...For those of us who have missed the news could you let us know which two former teachers have announced they are leaving council? Also can you fill us in about the bad old days of Kay and Clement ?

In fairness the quote was: I suppose with two pension laden former teachers leaving the Council the complement should be filled by Mr Henderson, another former teacher - nothing against John but do we really want another teacher on Council? - I didn't "announce" but speculated.

The first question: Dean McCaughey, a career teacher is highly rumoured not to be running, I guess playing on his boat beats sitting in Council anyday! The bush drums beat larger gossip everyday about the Mayor's intentions, He is in the States sitting on some beach contemplating his navel and deciding whether he should be running for Mayor or not. The best indications that he is leaning towards NO is the big rumour that Gil Brocanier is assembling a campaign team. Oh, the Mayor is also a former teacher. They leave and two former teachers are gone.

A bit of history as the BR sees it, it may be called revuisionist by some so be prepared. John Kay was the Chief of Police after Dan McDougal and Gary Clement was the Chief after John Kay. Both men came in with great flourish, promised great things and left the place in tatters. John Kay's time was marked by the controversy over one of his Deputy's impaired charge after a Council event in Port Hope. Gary Clement's time was marked by huge budget increases and bad PR over the botched attempts to establish a West Northumberland Police Service.

A couple of personnel issues

Monday evening Council will nominate former CAO Bryan Baxter as the Town's representative on the Police Services Board. Bryan has done a great job as the Chair and a Provincial rep. But the Province has been tardy in reappointing its reps and both have run over their time. Now the Town has taken advantage of a vacancy in its own representation to appoint Bryan. A good choice but it does put the boots to Dean "I want to be top cop" Pepper in his bid for a spot. His braunnosing of Chief Sweet obviously means nothing as there are only Provincial spots left and as a Tory Dean is on the wrong side for a Lib appointment.
In another announcement former Police Services Board member and Chair, John Henderson who sat on the Board during the bad old days of Kay and Clement wants to be on Council. I suppose with two pension laden former teachers leaving the Council the complement should be filled by Mr Henderson, another former teacher - nothing against John but do we really want another teacher on Council?

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I have just deleted a post because I couldn't make it work, maybe with more time to play I will bring it back, but it was about the Hitler parodies, look here for background.

Reading between the lines

In his stirring defence of the new plans to cut hospital services here, the Chief of Medical Staff, Dr. David Broderick, makes many points. The main one being is that in order to protect the hospital it must cut services to save costs.

By making self-preservation the main ideal the Doctors' Chief is only protecting the status quo of having Doctors maintain their juicy investment in the system. He repeats the mantra: "Health care, already consuming approximately 46 per cent of current government spending, could balloon to 70% in the next 15 years." Perhaps if Doctor's pay was controlled, and they as a group have received far more of the health pie than any other group, health costs wouldn't rise so much. Hospital share of the pie has gone down over the last few years so why would the Doctors blame them for the cumulative increase?

So folks the fight is still on. Mr Biron will defend his moves on Monday evening and the rest of us will stand amazed that he could be following orders so well. The fight here is not with Biron and the Board but with the Central government, and to that end the first phase of our local message will take place tomorrow when a petition containing nearly 5,000 names - surely a local record and one that is easily twice as big as the last local petition, will be handed over to Queen's Park. The fight continues!

So what do the "truthers" think now?

With the many explanations about the SEC filing a charge against Goldman Sachs how does one sort it all out. The conspiracy theorist will jump all over this and shout, "We knew it" the Free-marketeers will say "No big deal it all has to be proven" and the great unwashed will simply shrug it off as another thing they don't want to think about.

So what really went down here? How could one of the largest investment banks get so messy? If one believes the banks they will say it's the fault of one man -a Mr Paulson, we have heard this before when one rogue trader called Nick Leeson nearly destroyed the british trading system a few years ago. But who allowed Paulson to benfit? The bank of course.

There have been many pundits looking at this and here a couple that try to put it in simple terms: the Guardian, and this one using the used car industry as an explanation Even so this move will do one thing - embolden the conspiracy theorists and as you, the good readers know, we at the BurdReport love a good conspiracy theory!

Another message for Cobourg Council

Last night the members of "Citizens for an Alternative Solution" spoke at Council. Mr Tony Farren, immaculately dressed as usual, complete with a brightly coloured tie impressed the assembly with his usual poise and eloquence. Flanked by his supporters, who included former Mayor Angus Read, organisor Bill Patchett local good guy and booster of Cobourg Rod Baker and others who included the former CAO of NHH Joan Ross, and a previous Chair of the Board Eva Nichols. Wow what a turnout.
Tony did not disappoint. Speaking from the same set of facts as last week's delegation he emphasised once again that he Hospital is a big engine of economic growth.and took exception to Mr Biron's insistence that we have the facts wrong, "The lack of dialogue from the Board has alienated both users and donors." he said he had two points to make: one was that the budget cuts had to be balanced and that we must solve the Long term Care problem. He stated that if the local health care issue in the past had been left up to government we would not have a hospital at all but would have been part of regionalisation. Finishing with the statement, "There are alternative solutions in the community and we do believe that Cobourg Council must express its concern."

Another speaker after Mr Farren was a former KPR schoolboard Trustee, Nancy Blakey. Mrs Blakely outlined her views based on her personal experiences over the last year dealing with both ailing parents and the NHH. Her position was simple: the amount of money required to keep the Rehab outpatients service open only costs $245K a year - peanuts in a $60 million budget, Cost savings must be found to offset the cut. She proposed that Council pass five motions.

In response to both speakers, and last week's delegation the Deputy Mayor stated, in the absence of the Mayor, that after hearing Mr Biron next week and on television, as Council is covered by cable, Council will have a position and make a resolution.

Funny things "over 'ome"

The British are in an election campaign, one which all Canadian parties will be watching with anticipation fully believing that conditions are so similar here that our election will mirror theirs.

But up until the TV debate, the first ever for the UK, electoral politics was pretty boring. A Conservative leader viewed with much suspicion for he might be concealing a hidden agenda, a Labour leader who had campaigned for many years for the top spot and when he finally got it proceeded to blow away his political capital and a Lib-Dem who nobody really took much notice of.

Enter the TV debate where the Tory and Labour guys failed to impress and even turned people off by resorting to form, and POW, Nick Clegg a Lib-Dem was not the other two and immediately stood out as a contrast. Up went the opinion polls and now he leads for now. But Why?

With an apathetic and jaded electorate the British appear to be grasping at straws for leadership. Nick Clegg, sometimes known in the past as "cleggover" because of his boasts about his conquests, has caught the imagination of the Country. But is it because the Country really believes it is Clegg's time or is it because the other two are so bloody awful?

It will be interesting to see if the polls hold up for the next three weeks and what the reaction of the Cons and Labs will be as they try to tear down the upstart. More interestingly enough will the contest produce more people at the polls. Or is it just retail politics turned into entertainment?

The BurdReport will keep watching but in the meantime if you want a humourous slant on the campaign follow this page: Two minutes of satire produced daily here

A guest post about the Ecology Garden - just in time for Earth Day April 22nd

Submitted by W Keeler

HOW DOES YOUR ECOLOGY GARDEN GROW?

Spring is poetic justice after the meltdown of the brutal reign of the 1-Colour regime we call winter. The natural diversity of Cobourg Ecology Garden will green itself into another season of multicolourfulism.

From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything,

-- Shakespeare

Fifteen years ago it was nothing more than a great idea with a little ground to root in. It was nourished with love, beginning with Minnie Pennell, chair of the Environmental Advisory Committee, in cooperation with enthusiastic partners Mayor Joan Chalovich and Cobourg Town Council, Engineering Dept, Community Services Dept. Department of Finance, and Dept of Parks and Recreation. Funding was received from the Federal Govt. Friends of the Environment (Canada Trust), Cobourg area Environmental Association, the Cobourg and District Horticultural Society.

There were scouts and students and others. Yes, yes, tree huggers, green thumbs, econiks, with lungs aching to breathe free. Give me Breath then give me Liberty.

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown --
Who ponders this tremendous scene --
This whole Experiment of Green --
As if it were his own!

-- Emily Dickenson

The entrance to the new Ecology Garden had a wooden sign bearing these engraved introductory words, “If ecology is the study of relationships between organisms and their environment, then an ecology garden is a garden that is sensitive to and inspired by these relationships.” That’s the scientific description.

Spring is type2 onset-wriggling, nuanced, slight, mild shivers of warmth, nouns become verbs, wriggling with the itch of life, in the earth, inside seed pods, inside cocoons, inside female mammals, humans of mass creation.

spring omnipotent goddess Thou
dost stuff parks

Spring slattern of seasons
you have soggy legs
and a muddy petticoat

eyes are sticky with
dream

-- e e cummings

Cobourg Town Councillor and landscape architect, Miriam Mutton, who had been instrumental in the gardens initial design, wrote, “The main design aspect is to accommodate people and enable them to get closer and feel a part of the garden. [It] also uses exotics or non-native plants as a demonstration of how to combine plants in a healthy way for interest throughout the seasons.”

Minnie Pennell, chair of the organizing Committee, added that the garden is not only a place “to promote a natural environment, but also demonstrate methods of organic farming.” Organic, yes, organism to organasm in a single breakout season!

It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Who are the unacknowledged legislators who appropoetically aligned spring, poetry and Earth Day, and sang the Battle Hymn of the Poetic? The first Earth Day celebration at the Garden had a turnout of 40 people and that was at dawn. In a handful of years interest in the garden deepened, and Earth Day now attracts over 150 people. Did I mention that this ceremony of secular spirit happens at dawn?

Cobourg Ecology Garden is located at the foot of Hibernia Street on the lakefront immediately south of Legion Village, a local transit stop. A sizable parking lot is available across the street. Every day, in every season, people use the boardwalk that skirts the full length of the garden.

Councillor Mutton, explaining the initial site choice, wrote that “what distinguishes this Ecology Garden is access and location...it is in a high traffic place, easy to visit, it is relatively small and compact and has good sight lines for safety.”

It wasn`t long before the garden was given national exposure in the Globe & Mail by garden columnist, Marjorie Harris, who asserted that ``Public spaces reflect our values and define what kind of society we are.`` She visited the garden on a summer afternoon, describing it as `` bathed in golden light and filled with glorious scents.” She added that ‘It seemed the most enchanting place on earth.”

This is April’s way: a woman:
“O yes, I’m here again and your heart
knows I was coming.”
“Who most loves danger? Who most loves wings? Who somersaults for God’s

sake in the name of wing power in the sun and blue on an April Thursday.”

-- Carl Sandburg

The Cobourg Ecology Garden is well positioned to midwife the grounds surrounding the west pier of the harbour. The area has become an exciting location for daily landings and takeoffs by squadrons of Canada Geese one moment, Mallards another. There is a wildness to the place that compels us to commune with our inner wild nature.

Cobourg Ecology Garden is an outpost for a lakefront feature that will be as treasured by the local community, as Toronto is of the evolution of the Leslie Street Spit. It is a commitment to a relationship between nature and culture in very close proximity to each other.

Over the years the garden has become a living classroom for students from all area schools. A number of workshops are held next to the garden each year, running the gamut from composting techniques to growing herbs to growing ornamental grasses. July is the month for a well-attended garden party. See you there.

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

-- Robert Frost

No resolution from Council Monday

Despite being told on Monday last that Council will pass a motion reflecting its position on the hospital cuts to service this Monday, it will not happen. When queried about the lack of a resolution on the agenda, for Monday, the BurdReport was told that because Council will listen to Mr Tony Farren, a member of the "Citizens for Alternative Solutions", who is speaking on Monday evening, and that they also want to hear Mr Biron tell the public what he's telling selected invitees in private, Council will be making a resolution some time in the future after they hear everybody.

So thanks to all the people who had planned to be at the meeting on Monday to support the resolution, but keep your powder dry until the time is announced.

This stall certainly helps the Council members who are uncomfortable with having to make a decision on this. It was obvious from the Mayor's body language during the last presentation that he would have rather been elsewhere that night. Let's see what kind of gushing orgasmic welcome he gives to Tony Farren who represents the people that the Mayor is most familiar with - Rotarians and the cocktail set.

That brings us to another point now being raised by segments of the poulation - the non-support of the issue because some people don't like the messenger. Well folks the question is is simple - "do you want to have community services delivered by a community hospital?" because if you do just sign the bloody petition and don't bellyache about the people who are asking you to sign it!

Just so that it's not just a Ben thing - here's Patty

Wally K has sent over the other part of the presentation made to Council on Monday.