Municipal Politics – Page 7

$35 Million Costs Confirmed in Report

I was told recently that the $35 million projected capital costs for the Central Park redevelopment had been called a “red herring.” That’s verifiably untrue. The actual total amount shown in the final report is $35,251,965.11. This isn’t a made up number, an inflated number or an imaginary number. It isn’t a council number, either. In fact the two council PRC representatives did not even attend those steering committee meetings that came up with that figure. Thirty-five million dollars is what the steering committee calculated and approved themselves, working in conjunction with several consultants, planners, architects and engineers over more ……… click below for more ↓

Reflecting on our successes this term

2013-09-08 2013-09-08 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / Provincial PoliticsOne Comment

With just over a year left to go in this term, I’d like to take a few minutes to consider all the accomplishments of this council over the past three years. They are not inconsiderable, and worth celebrating, I think you’ll agree. Most recent are the two new state-of-the-art recreational facilities; jewels in our community. Centennial Pool Aquatic Centre is now open, to the public’s delight and great excitement. If you haven’t seen it, stop by and look inside. Everyone who does is impressed. It certainly exceeded expectations. Bring your bathing suit and come for a swim. It proved to ……… click below for more ↓

Teddy’s Words of Wisdom

2013-07-20 2013-07-20 Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Quotes & Mis-quotes / Social Order & Disorder / US PoliticsLeave a comment

I’m not a great student of American history – my tastes run to other places and people: Napoleon, Casanova, Elizabeth I, the Enlightenment, the Renaissance, the French Revolution, China…. but I do read about it. Most recently Rick Perlstein’s history of the American Sixties, Nixonland. And in that book I came across a powerful, moving quotation from U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt that I wanted to share because it still resonates today: It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The ……… click below for more ↓

The Enemies List

2013-07-19 2013-07-19 Collingwood / Humour & Satire / Municipal Politics2 Comments

Canadians barely lifted an eyebrow in surprise when it was revealed that our Prime Minister had an “enemies list” compiled as a warning to newly-minted cabinet ministers laying out who they can’t trust. I mean, we’ve lived with Harper as leader long enough not be shocked by anything that seems petty, autocratic, paranoid or Republican. So what if the list was so long it had to be delivered in several boxes and had more names than the GTA white pages? The Toronto Star editorialized about how the “PMO’s derisive and adversarial tone is rightly ringing alarm bells.” Clearly they haven’t ……… click below for more ↓

Casinos redux

2013-07-12 2013-07-12 Collingwood / Conspiracy Theories / Municipal Politics / Provincial PoliticsOne Comment

First let’s clarify the terms. A “casino” was never really in the discussion, although just about everyone used that term. What the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) offered was a “gaming facility” as they euphemistically called it. A gambling joint, others said. It was to be a warehouse-like, windowless building with up to 300 slot machines. No keno, no gaming tables for poker or blackjack, no roulette. Up to (and maybe less than) 300 slot machines. No guarantees on the number, just up to 300. The OLG decides how many: not the town, not the operator. The town can’t ……… click below for more ↓

Believing is Seeing

2013-07-11 2013-07-11 Books & Reviews / Canadian Politics / Critical Thinking / Faith / Municipal Politics / Psychology & Sociology / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

“He who permits himself to tell a lie once,” wrote Thomas Jefferson (in a letter to his nephew, Peter Carr, from Paris, France, 1785), “finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.” Anyone following the ups and downs of federal and provincial politics would have no trouble believing Jefferson’s words. We often believe – without any evidence to ……… click below for more ↓

A Sneak Peak Inside Our New Fire Hall

2013-07-09 2013-07-09 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / PhotographyLeave a comment

Councillor Lloyd and I took a tour through the new fire hall, at the corner of High and Third Streets, today. It’s still under construction, but the main components are finished and the firefighters have moved in. It’s an impressive place. Well-designed, well-built (using a lot of local builders and materials!). Make sure you attend the open house when the building is officially completed, this fall. We should all be proud of this place: it sets standards not only for this town, but for other fire services across the province. Here are some images to whet your appetite for visit. ……… click below for more ↓

Centennial Pool Gets Finishing Touches

2013-07-09 2013-07-09 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / PhotographyLeave a comment

A sneak peak into Centennial Pool a few weeks before it re-opens. Councillor Lloyd and I took a look around today (July 9) at how it’s progressing. We were very impressed. It’s going to be fabulous! Collingwood residents will love this place. It is really a stunning facility and we will be proud to host events here. The first image, at the top, shows the therapeutic pool at the bottom, with the ramp for accessibility, then the pool and the new electronic scoreboard. Feels like a cathedral inside, it’s so large! And light galore: bright and open. Warm, welcoming place. ……… click below for more ↓

Troilus and Cressida

2013-07-09 2013-07-09 Books & Reviews / Municipal Politics / Provincial Politics / Social Order & Disorder / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

I’ve always found Troilus and Cressida a difficult play. The characters all seem jaded, cynical, opportunistic, stuffily sanctimonious, lecherous or simply underhanded. Some are merely unpleasant, others are despicable, reprehensible. All seem self-serving, more concerned with their own gains and goals than that of the greater war around them. It’s difficult to understand why it was listed as a “comedy” (although oddly placed in the folio, between the histories and tragedies). Even Harold Bloom calls it “difficult” and “elitist” (although he later qualifies it as Shakespeare’s “most sophisticated” and “intellectualized” play). And Joyce Carol Oates called it, “…that most vexing ……… click below for more ↓

The CAO Conspiracies

2013-07-04 2015-06-07 Collingwood / Conspiracy Theories / Humour & Satire / Municipal PoliticsOne Comment

Collingwood has appointed an interim CAO, John Brown, former city manager of Brantford, St. John’s and Oshawa, to help the town’s administration and governance during the interim while we search for a full-time CAO. This will, of course, send the bloggers into a frothing tizzy of frenetic accusations and conspiracy theories. So to save them the effort of having to explain this, I have written some plausible conspiracy theories for them to consider for their own use: 1. It’s actually Paul Bonwick, cleverly disguised by cosmetic surgery to look shorter, older and bald. Paul was last seen boarding a plane to the ……… click below for more ↓

How should a municipality deal with cigarette litter?

2013-06-30 2013-06-30 Canadian Politics / Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Science & Technology / Social Order & DisorderOne Comment

I was sitting on a decorative rock on the landscaping west of Loblaws, this weekend, waiting while Susan was inside and amusing myself at the bad driving habits of our city visitors in the parking lot. I happened to look down and saw what little, rough grass there was, was almost totally buried in cigarette butts. Toxic, non-decaying, environmentally hazardous and socially hostile cigarette butts. Ugh. It’s not just there, it’s everywhere. Look along the streets, sidewalks, in the park grass. Thousands of cigarette butts, dozens, maybe hundreds of wrappers and packages every kilometer you walk. An estimated two million ……… click below for more ↓

Not All Words Are Equal, or Used Equally

2013-06-22 2013-06-22 Internet & Social Media / Language & Grammar / Municipal Politics / Social Order & DisorderOne Comment

There’s an economic principle known as the rule of fungibility that states a commodity is equivalent to other units of the same commodity. For example, a litre of gasoline is the same commodity regardless of the brand or source. A bushel of wheat is the same regardless of the country. Ten dollars is ten dollars whether presented as a single bill or in smaller denominations. These are fungible items. But fungibility doesn’t apply to language. Words do not have an absolute base value, but are rather weighed in their context, and their source. A street thug telling his pack followers ……… click below for more ↓