Category: Saunderson’s MPP campaign

No, Brian Hasn’t Done Any of That!

Collingwood / Entitlement / Municipal Politics / Provincial Politics / Saunderson's MPP campaign5 Comments

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You probably got one of these disinformation campaign cards in your mail this week. It says that Brian Saunderson and Doug “Jabba the Hutt” Ford are “putting money in your pocket.” And then it lists three things Ford did by himself without Brian’s help. Or input. Or even vote because, after all, he’s been the MIA mayor of Collingwood, not an MPP. So how did the unelected (and, I hope, unelectable) Brian do anything like this? He didn’t. Are these claims disingenuous? Or disinformation? Or flat-out lies? Whichever you decide, Saunderson had no part in any of those decisions. And … click below for more ↓

Saunderson’s Your Guy

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Politics / Provincial Politics / Saunderson's MPP campaign4 Comments

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With the provincial election only a few days away, I thought I should remind you why you might want to vote for Collingwood’s much-disliked, hypocritical, bullying, and inept mayor, Brian Saunderson. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve likely read the dozens and dozens of posts I’ve written over the years about his failure to act in even a vague pretense of a leadership role, his hypocrisy, his mismanagement, his personal vendetta, and the constant conflicts of interest he ignores. But just as a reminder, I’ve added links to a few of those posts… If ideology matters to … click below for more ↓

Second Prize is 30 Minutes, Third is 60

Collingwood / Saunderson's MPP campaign / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial InquiryOne Comment

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A recent email from Brian Saunderson’s campaign to get out of his mayoral responsibilities* and get a better-paying job at Queen’s Park offers a chance for readers to “win” 15 minutes of time with The Great Leader. Ooh, I can see you’re wet with excitement. Control yourself. It’s not face-to-face with him, mind you, because Great Leaders like Brian don’t like to soil themselves with the physical company of Little Folk. That would be demeaning. Besides, you might be contagious or insufficiently obsequious. No; it’s only virtual time you will “win”: Anyone who completes the survey by February 28 will … click below for more ↓

Saunderson’s Groundhog Day

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Legal issues / Saunderson's MPP campaign / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial InquiryLeave a comment

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Mayor Brian Saunderon’s two petty, vindictive, and very personal motions are on the agenda for Monday, Jan. 24. You can read the agenda here, and read my comments on our mayor’s obsessive, Stalinist cancel-culture program here, and the background machinations that led to his motion here. This is nothing more than a personal vendetta using town funds and resources. Saunderson’s first motion — to revoke an award given for former Collus-CEO Ed Houghton’s contributions to the community 24 years ago — starts on page 5 of the agenda and runs on and on and on and on and on like … click below for more ↓

Socrates and Saunderson

Classics / Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Philosophy / Saunderson's MPP campaignOne Comment

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In Plato’s dialogue Gorgias, Socrates debates with three sophists — Gorgias the rhetorician and his pupils Polus, and Callicles — about justice, power, morality, and virtue. Socrates also questions the value of oratory and rhetoric — the crafts of the sophists — in contemporary politics and whether they do good for the people. Spoiler alert: he’s not convinced they are for the good. You can read the somewhat stuffy Benjamin Jowett translation here and here, or read David Horan’s more modern translation here. I realize that readers may not be in the habit of reading Plato, or might not see … click below for more ↓

Power Play Behind Council’s Closed Doors

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Saunderson's MPP campaignOne Comment

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This is a repost from a draft of the piece posted on Dec 7, 2021: In the Dec. 7 meeting of the Strategic Initiatives Standing Committee, last Tuesday, one of the issues discussed was the replacement of Deputy Mayor Hull during his unexplained absence, as well the “potential” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) “Mayoral Vacancy” (readers will recall that Mayor Saunderson sloughed off his mayoral responsibilities and his oath of office last January to announce he wanted a better-paying job at Queen’s Park, and since then has practiced the art of flaccidity in office). And underneath that discussion broils the political ambitions … click below for more ↓

Did Our Mayor Violate Copyright Law?

Collingwood / Council / Saunderson's MPP campaignOne Comment

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Did our mayor violate Canadian copyright law? And not just once? His “saundersonformpp” website recently had copies of three separate articles from Municipal World magazine about his vendetta (aka his vindictive judicial inquiry). As of yesterday morning (Nov. 17, 2021), they were all on his site. These pieces were not linked to an authorized site: instead, the text of each piece was typed in on Saunderson’s own web pages (this is usually called “pirating”). There was no indication on any that he had permission from MW to reprint these copyright pieces, that he paid any fee to use them, or … click below for more ↓

Why is Our Mayor Being Sued?

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / deception & secrecy / Entitlement / Saunderson's MPP campaignLeave a comment

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Ontario civil court records found online show our Mayor, Brian Saunderson, is listed as the first defendant in a recent lawsuit, along with his allegedly former employers. The lawsuit is for $150,000 and was filed Sept. 17, 2019. The plaintiff is Grand Mortgage Investment Corporation, which the Financial Services Registry Authority office shows has a local office at 192 First Street, in Collingwood, with John Dopp listed as the mortgage administrator. M. Christopher Diamond, of DiamondPantel LLP, is listed as the company’s legal representative. I have not yet found other details about the lawsuit, or why Saunderson is the only … click below for more ↓

Bad Behaviour, Disrespect in Council Meetings

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Legal issues / Saunderson's MPP campaign / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry2 Comments

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There’s a video clip being shared on social media from the “special” meeting of the Strategic Initiatives Standing Committee Agenda, on Thursday, October 14, 2021 (full video here). It shows a dishevelled Councillor Bob “Lapdog” Madigan in the upper right corner of the screen. It’s worth watching to see how poorly some of our councillors treat their role and their office. The meeting was held to continue the discussions on the judicial report’s recommendations that councillors should disclose their personal financial relations and holdings when elected. Seems many on council (and some staff) think they know better than the judge … click below for more ↓

Our Scruffy, Run-Down Town

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Saunderson's MPP campaign / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Staff and administration5 Comments

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There’s a gravel trail that runs along the waterfront, north of the Shipyards development, that’s been blocked by barricades since the spring. It’s been that way at least six months, perhaps longer. The path suffered erosion and some holes opened up along it. These were marked by barricades. Sort of. Most of the barricades collapsed some weeks (months?) ago, but no one from the town has bothered to pick them up. Yet someone from the town regularly fills the nearby dog mitt dispenser on the trail, so that person or persons must see the fallen barricade every time they do … click below for more ↓

Wilson Blames Council for Hospital Debacle, Brushes Off Saunderson

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Hospital / Saunderson's MPP campaignLeave a comment

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“I blame somewhat the local council,” said MPP Jim Wilson in this recent interview from the Peak FM about the continuing debacle of the hospital redevelopment. Well, so does most of this town. “We’ve not had a clear expression to Queen’s Park from the community, other than myself and Norah Holder, the President and CEO of the hospital, indicating that we don’t think you can use any of the old building. And that’s what we’ll spend the $15 million dollars on, that the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, Christine Elliott, announced this week, proving to Queen’s Park that the … click below for more ↓

Why Are Council’s Conflicts of Interest Being Ignored?

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / Entitlement / Saunderson's MPP campaign7 Comments

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While local media focuses on our revenge-obsessed council’s myopic intent to punish people who committed no crimes, merely thwarted their Great Leader’s personal ambitions in 2012, they blithely overlook the bigger issue at the council table: conflicts of interest. Avoiding even the appearance of conflict is at the core of the recommendations in the Saunderson Vindictive Judicial Inquiry (aka the SVJI), yet these recommendations are routinely ignored at the council table. I have written about and documented them here in detail, but local media also ignores them. Not a word on these conflicts gets published. That’s troubling. We know that … click below for more ↓

The Corrupt PC Nomination Process

Conflicts of Interest / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Provincial Politics / Saunderson's MPP campaign3 Comments

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This week, Stella Ambler, a former candidate for the nomination for the PC party in Simcoe Grey, sent an email that expressed her disappointment over the party’s authoritarian actions: On Monday, Patrick Harris (4th Vice-President, PC Party of Ontario & Chair of the Provincial Nomination Committee for Simcoe-Grey) sent an official reply to my appeal of the decision to cancel the democratic nomination process here in Simcoe-Grey. In short, Mr. Harris informed me that my appeal was unworthy of the party’s consideration and would be neither considered nor voted upon by the Provincial Nomination Committee. Ambler was challenging Collingwood’s mayor, … click below for more ↓

More Secrecy, More Deception, More Conflicts

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / deception & secrecy / Planning & Policies / Publicity & Communications / Saunderson's MPP campaign / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Utilities: electricity and waterOne Comment

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Once again our council scurried behind closed doors to discuss town business that should have been discussed in the open. But openness was never a watchword for this council. However, secretive and deceptive seem appropriate adjectives. Two of the three items on Friday’s (June 11) “special” council meeting were about or related to the job-and-revenue-killing interim control bylaw (ICBL) that was passed in late April without even the pretense of consultation with the public, with water companies, with developers, or with the municipalities affected by the bylaw who get water from Collingwood: Items for discussion: a) ICBL Amendments; b) Water … click below for more ↓

Saunderson Abandons Collingwood

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Saunderson's MPP campaign / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry2 Comments

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In his latest email to PC Party members, Brian Saunderson predictably celebrates his anti-democratic appointment as candidate without having had to actually work for it. Our much-disliked mayor was rescued from likely failure in the nomination process by the intervention of the premier. But at the close of his email Saunderson writes, …it is time to turn our heads to an election in 2022. We know it will take a lot of organization, commitment, and effort. I will continue to keep you posted on the work ahead. I look forward to working with you in the future to build a … click below for more ↓

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