Author: Ian Chadwick

Semi-retired writer, editor, reviewer, media relations & communications consultant. Former municipal politician. Ukulele player. Aficionado of Shakespeare, Horace, Machiavelli, Chaucer, Cicero, Homer, and tequila. Curmudgeon and cynic. Lay historian. Godzilla and ERB fan. PC gamer. Avid reader. Skeptic. WordPress/website tinkerer. Loving husband. Companion to one dog and two cats. Passionate about my small town. Perennially curious about everything. My writing is copyright © protected.

Why is Collingwood So Secretive About its Salt Use?

Road salt is a huge concern in Ontario for its destructive effects on the environment and the infrastructure. Progressive municipalities across the province have been exploring alternatives for years, cutting back, looking for safer ways to manage winter roads and sidewalks. But Collingwood? Try typing “salt management plan” into the search bar of the town’s user-hostile website. Nada. You don’t get any documents; you have to wade through more of the town’s poorly-designed click-fest web pages, trying to find simple … click below for more!

Reading the Iliad

There was a moment when I was reading The Iliad that I thought to myself, “This is it. This is what the epic is really all about.” Somehow it all seemed to come down to one particular scene and all the rest was just leading up to it. Why I had that epiphany, I’ll explain in due course. But what struck me is that the real message of this epic poem was almost hidden by all the thousands of lines … click below for more!

Council’s First Year, Part 4

The final piece in the series in CollingwoodToday begins with an egregious error: “Collingwood’s Town Council, elected one year ago on Oct. 24, 2022, is celebrating their first year in office as a group.” Council’s first year in office began with their inauguration on Nov. 15, 2022. Before that, they had no official status. But local media, eh? Maybe I’m being too picayune to expect accuracy from them, but where TF is the editor? The final part of the series … click below for more!

Council’s First Year Continued Part 3

The third part of the series in Collingwood Today asked members of council what “surprises they’ve experienced so far in their terms.” As a former councillor, I appreciate how stepping into the role for the first time is a bit of a shock; it takes a while to learn everything, everyone, all those policies, bylaws, processes, reports. And, most importantly: how to stand up to staff and represent the residents. Being on council is far more demanding, complex, and challenging … click below for more!

Barbie: A Review for Conservatives

Hey there, conservatives (especially you conservative males!), let’s talk about the Barbie movie. Yes, I know nothing makes you want to take your AR-15 to the local Toys ‘R Us for a well-deserved shoot-up than a film about a girl’s toy (please don’t do it!). I mean, how dare anyone make a movie without guns, car chases, explosions, bullet storms, babes in skimpy outfits, and a beefy male action hero like Jason Statham or Daniel Craig to deal mayhem and … click below for more!

Council’s First Year, Part Two

Part two of the series in Collingwood Today about our council’s first year asked “how councillors felt this council has set itself apart from previous Collingwood councils.” As with the previous piece, the article brought more face-palming moments as some of the council tried to justify their place at the public trough. In the article, DM Fryer is quoted saying “councillors attending many more community events, such as a regular spot at the Collingwood Farmers’ Market, this time around” sets … click below for more!

Council’s First Year Considered

I did a few facepalms while reading CollingwoodToday’s four-part piece on Collingwood Council’s first year in office. CwoodToday approached each of them with questions “about their accomplishments so far, to how this council feels they’ve set themselves apart, and to surprises they’ve experienced so far as elected officials.” No similar coverage was in the increasingly irrelevant Collingwood Connection. Given the ineffective communication techniques the town currently has to reach residents (not to mention the abysmally awkward, user-hostile website…) it is … click below for more!

4.25% Tax Increase! WTF Is Council Thinking?

A story in CollingwoodToday says the latest draft of the town budget puts a 4.25% increase on property taxes for 2024! WTF is council thinking, adding more costs to residents during a period of high inflation? People are already struggling with rising costs for food, electricity (the Saunderson-privatized EPCOR got a 5.23% rate hike this fall*), gas (vehicle and natural), water, clothing, mortgages, transit, lumber, vehicles, and just about everything else. A property tax hike this size will send our already-steep … click below for more!

The Subservience of Council

Late last month, council was presented with a revised, six-page council-staff relations policy, which, according to the story in CollingwoodToday, “seeks to formalize how council and staff should interact with each other.” The story notes the first draft of the policy, a 14-page document, was presented to council in mid-September, but approval was deferred while councillors considered if it meant their impending emasculation.* Councillors Jeffrey and Doherty, and DM Fryer expressed concerns about the policy when it was first presented, … click below for more!

The Affordable Housing Myth

Let me start with a few basic, uncomfortable truths about housing. It’s a myth that municipal politicians can, without a coordinated and regional approach that includes private developers and upper-tier levels as well as stakeholders and advocates, solve anything related to housing. And even then, it requires the involvement of provincial and sometimes the federal governments (as well as possible funding from them). Affordable housing is one of the biggest and most challenging issues for municipalities across Canada. A lot … click below for more!

Homer’s Odyssey Revisited

Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Thus begins the 1897 translation by Samuel Butler of Homer’s Odyssey. It’s just one of more than 60 translations of the book into English since the first in 1615, including one by T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) in 1932. Odysseus — Ulysses in the Latin form — mythical king of Ithaca, is a complex protagonist; sometimes hero, … click below for more!

Let Them Eat Cake

The Continued Arrogance of Brian Saunderson Our gormless backbencher, the CONservative MPP Brian Saunderson, recently exposed his egregious arrogance in a comment to CollingwoodToday about the province again burdening municipalities by downloading more costs onto them. For Collingwood, that means another $615,000 added to our expenses.* He didn’t even bother trying to explain — let alone justify — the downloading, merely shrugged it away. That’s arrogantly disrespectful of how the town deals with spending and what burden it puts on … click below for more!

The Social Contract

How shall we be governed? Philosophers have debated that issue since Plato and the question is more important today than ever, given the rise of right-wing extremism everywhere, especially in liberal democracies where there is an ongoing, concerted effort by several current political parties and non-government organizations (NGOs) like the IDU to subvert or overthrow Western democracies and replace them with authoritarian dictatorships; American Repugnicans and Canadian CONservatives among them*. Let’s look at the history, first. It was Niccolo Machiavelli … click below for more!

Review 9: Son of Godzilla

I‘ve hesitated to write this review because, of all the films in the Godzilla franchise, I dislike the campy-cute, family-friendly Minilla, the so-called “son” of Godzilla. Minilla appears in three films: Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, and Godzilla: Finals Wars, but the most saccharine of them is this one: Son of Godzilla. And it is, by my standards anyway, one of the worst of the franchise in many ways, not least of all in the remade Godzilla suit, but … click below for more!