How to Win an Election

Books & Reviews / Classics / Municipal elections past / Municipal Politics / PoliticsLeave a comment

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Anyone running for office should consider reading How to Win an Election, by Quintus Tullius Cicero, translated by Philip Freeman. It’s a short, small book subtitled An Ancient Guide for Modern Politicians (Princeton University Press, 2012). It contains both the Latin and the English translation of Quintus’ letter to his more famous brother, the orator Marcus Cicero. Quintus penned it in 64 BCE when Marcus decided to run for the position of Consul, the highest office in the Roman Republic. No, it won’t give you a secret winning strategy. Nothing will. But it has some practical advice that might help, ……… click below for more ↓

Back to Horace

Classics / Musings / Poetry / Poetry & LyricsOne Comment

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During the pandemic lockdowns, I heard a lot of people bemoan their inability to travel; on vacation, to visit relatives, to shop, or just to get out of their homes and see new places. People felt isolated, some went stir-crazy. We are a not merely a culture easily bored with staying in one place: our entire species has wanderlust. Two millennia ago, the poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus — aka Horace — wrote a letter (Epistle I.XI) to his peripatetic friend, Bullatius, a man who travelled the known world looking for contentment. Horace chided him, saying, You can change the colour ……… click below for more ↓

The Science Fiction of Robert Frost

Musings / Poetry / Poetry & Lyrics3 Comments

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Robert Frost was a great American poet, and I’ve enjoyed many of his poems over the decades I’ve been reading poetry. Some are a tad bucolic for my taste, but many also plumb the depths of human emotions so succinctly as to make Frost more universal than simply American. But while he never wrote any science fiction, his words have been used in that genre. Recently I came across a verse in one of Ben Bova’s more recent scifi novels that made me re-appraise and re-read Frost. It was: They cannot scare me with their empty spaces Between stars — ……… click below for more ↓

A Call to Arms

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A newly-formed group calling itself “Arms Around Collingwood” sent a questionnaire to candidates for this municipal election. And while I have never heard of them, they claim to have “a minimum 2,500 voting contacts in Collingwood.” Below you will read the questions they asked along with my answers. They requested that respondents “limit answers to 50 words or less.” Leadership Do you have any conflicts of interest that may influence your decision making at the Council table? Please answer either ‘Yes” or “No? No. Will you commit to implementing all the recommendations from the Judicial Inquiry report? Please answer either ……… click below for more ↓

Another Abuse of Power and Position

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Municipal elections past4 Comments

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As this term of council winds down, with only a few weeks before the election, it seems some members at the table can’t help themselves abusing their position and their power. Their sense of entitlement is an embarrassing display. At tomorrow’s council meeting (Sept. 20), Councillor Jeffery will make the following notice of motion: THAT Council appoint Acting Deputy Mayor McLeod as Deputy Mayor for the duration of the current term of Council. This isn’t just a change in title: it is a political gambit to allow McLeod to campaign as the Deputy Mayor, not merely the Acting DM. Apparently, McLeod’s ……… click below for more ↓

What About the Code of Conduct?

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Municipal elections pastLeave a comment

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I attended a two-hour seminar hosted by the town about Collingwood’s Code of Conduct last week. It was intended as an introduction to the policy for new candidates and a refresher for incumbents, and was presented by the town’s Integrity Commissioner, whose slides ranged from conflicts of interest to accountability, from public behaviour to confidentiality. Councillor Bob Madigan wasn’t there. Four incumbents running in this election attended (Doherty, McLeod, Hamlin, and Berman), for which I give them credit. Madigan didn’t show. Perhaps it’s because the town’s web page about the conduct of members of council says (emphasis added): “Members are ……… click below for more ↓

Just Gonna Leave This Here…

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Municipal elections past4 Comments

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This headline appeared in CollingwoodToday: “Town councillor, deputy-mayor candidate charged with assault.” In Simcoe.com (Collingwood Connection), the headline was “Collingwood councillor, deputy mayor candidate Bob Madigan facing assault charges.” Bob Madigan is running for deputy mayor of Collingwood. Is this the sort of behaviour you want in your elected representatives? Given his past behaviour, this latest event didn’t surprise me. But by the time this reached the local media, his arrest was already well-known around town and shared in the coffee shops and sidewalk chatter. I’m only sharing it here because it’s now been reported in local media.* As CwoodToday ……… click below for more ↓

Hobbesian vs Benthamite Politics

Collingwood / Council / Political philosophy / Politics / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was not an optimist about human behaviour. Writing more than a century after Niccolo Machiavelli, the English political philosopher argued in his masterwork, Leviathan (1651), that the quest for power was the main motivation for humans. And that our quest to acquire more would never cease until we were dead. He wrote: …in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind a perpetual and restless desire of Power after power, that ceaseth only in Death. And the cause of this is not always that a man hopes for a more intensive delight than ……… click below for more ↓

Ancient Election Wisdom

Classics / Election campaigns / Political philosophy / Politics / Stoicism & classical philosophy2 Comments

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I recently came across this piece by Marcus Tullius Cicero (one of my favourite classical authors) on the Sententiae Antiquae website (a good source of classical Latin and Greek translations), taken from Cicero’s oration Pro Murena (35-36). Lucius Licinius Murena was elected as his election as consul in 62 BCE but was subsequently accused of bribery. He was defended by  Cicero, who recorded his speech for posterity. Here’s what Cicero said about elections in general: What strait or what channel do you imagine has as many currents, twists, and tide changes as the disturbances in the breaking waves produced by ……… click below for more ↓

What Just Happened?

Collingwood / Council / Election campaigns / Municipal elections pastLeave a comment

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I was startled to see that one of our candidates for municipal election — the third person in the deputy mayor’s race — dropped out shortly after submitting her papers. According to the town’s web page, Jordan Fleming filed her papers at 11:34 a.m. on August 19; two-and-a-half hours before nominations closed. She withdrew at 2:54 p.m. on Aug. 24. According to the interview in CollingwoodToday, she decided to drop out almost immediately because of family issues. I was surprised she hadn’t considered those issues in the three months nominations were open before she filed at the very last minute. ……… click below for more ↓

Please Take an Election Sign

Collingwood / Council / Municipal elections pastLeave a comment

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C ollingwood residents: I would very much appreciate it if you would  allow me to place one of my election signs on your lawn. Please fill in your name, phone and address in the comments section below. This information will NOT be published and will be deleted after the election and signs have been removed. Alternatively, send me an email or call me to request one. Signs will be placed by me or one of my team on your property within a week of your request and removed within 72 hours after the election (Oct. 24).. If you have a specific ……… click below for more ↓

Hypocritical Candidate Wants to Return to Council

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Municipal elections pastOne Comment

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Two more of our local “basket-of-deplorables” incumbent councillors (aka quidnuncs) have filed their papers for re-election: Steve Berman and Kathy “Me! Me! Me!” Jeffrey. So has former councillor Cam “Sleepy” Ecclestone, who announced he was running in the provincial election for the fringe “Consensus Party” then never appeared on the ballot. Readers will recall that both Berman and Jeffrey willingly participated in the bullying of former councillor, Tina Comi. Both signed identical copies of councillor McLeod’s complaint to the town’s integrity commissioner. Both defended their bullying in public comments. Then they appointed a friend, campaign donor, and lobbyist in her ……… click below for more ↓

Don’t Forget Who Blocked the Hospital Redevelopment

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Ethics and behaviour / Hospital / Municipal elections past4 Comments

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Among those incumbents running for re-election, are (so far), three who were part of the cabal on the 2014-18 council that actively and aggressively tried to block the Collingwood General & Marine Hospital’s redevelopment. Their efforts did cost the hospital money and time, and set the redevelopment back at least five years. Who can forget when that previous council brought in a highly-paid lawyer and a highly-paid PR consultant (both sole-sourced) to lecture the public as to why the hospital should not be allowed to re-develop on Poplar Sideroad? And to publicly scold those who disagreed? During the previous council’s ……… click below for more ↓

Yesterday’s Laughs

Culture / Daily life / Family history / Film & Reviews / Musings / Personal Reminiscences3 Comments

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It may be a small conceit to say I was brought up watching the Marx Brothers movies on TV, but there’s some truth in that claim. I remember seeing them on our small, B&W TV set on weekends when my brother and I were allowed to watch the programs of our choice. I also recall seeing the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and others between the cartoons and kids’ shows in the 1950s and ’60s. The Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy were acceptable comedians in my house because, I suppose, they were somewhat more sophisticated comedy. ……… click below for more ↓

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