Council’s Inappropriate Pay-Raise Decision

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Financial follies / Municipal elections past / TaxesLeave a comment

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Late last month — less than three months before the next municipal election — council made significant decisions about their own pay and the role of the mayor. Given that four of them have filed to run again (and a fifth is pending), and two of those are vying for the mayor’s role, this was a highly inappropriate decision and of questionable ethics. In the story in CollingwoodToday, it noted: ..council voted to approve changing the position of mayor from part-time to full-time, keeping Collingwood council at nine members, and increasing the base rate of pay for council positions to ……… click below for more ↓

Our Troubled Urban Forest

Collingwood / Council / Ineptitude and bungling / Municipal elections past / Planning & Policies / Staff and administration / Wacky WTF ideas3 Comments

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On August 8, Collingwood council will “consider” a proposal to spend “up to $100,000 to retain a consultant to inform the next council on how Collingwood can better protect [our] tree canopy,” according to a story in CollingwoodToday. The article says, “With Collingwood’s population rapidly increasing, the town is behind when it comes to its policies around [our] tree canopy.” (This is an expanded version of a post I put on my Campaign for Council website) Given how poorly the town maintains those few trees it does plant, it’s not surprising: there are dead trees in the Second Street dog ……… click below for more ↓

Just a reminder…

Collingwood / Council / Municipal elections pastLeave a comment

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During this 2022 municipal election campaign, I will also be posting on my campaign website blog with short pieces about local issues, events, policies, elections, and my vision for Collingwood. During the campaign, I remind my readers who care about local issues and politics to check my campaign site at www.chadwickforcouncil.ca/blog/ for the most recent content as well as this blog. Thanks for being a reader and a subscriber. And if you’d like to contact me, to help my campaign, or contribute to it, please click here.

I have filed my papers

Collingwood / Council / Daily life / Municipal elections past4 Comments

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As of today, I am running for a seat on Collingwood Council, in 2022. I will use my new campaign website at www.chadwickforcouncil.ca to publish updates, comments on current issues, policy and position statements, pictures, upcoming events, and other relevant material. As many of you are aware, I served on Collingwood’s council previously, from 2003 to 2014. I would like to contribute my experience and understanding to a collaborative, cooperative council that focuses on the needs of the community first. Collingwood is our home and our community deserves nothing but the best effort from its council. If you would like ……… click below for more ↓

The Misogynist Bully Files for Deputy Mayor

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Hospital / Municipal elections past2 Comments

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Councillor Bob “Lapdog” Madigan — council’s most notable bully and misogynist — filed his papers for deputy mayor, a position for which he is supremely unqualified. Well, to be fair, he’s not really qualified for any council position, is he? In almost eight years in office, Madigan’s accomplishments have been… well, nothing. Aside, that is, from being a misogynist bully; showing disrespect for not only other councillors and the public but for the office itself; acting the clown; sucking on the public tit, voting as he’s been told, and expressing egregiously oleaginous praise for his beloved former mayor. But let’s ……… click below for more ↓

Biblical Commandments the Pseudo-Christians Avoid

Politics / Talibangelists and pseudo-Christians / US PoliticsOne Comment

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The Talibangelists (aka the Christofascists) like those on the Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) or in the anti-abortion movement like to pretend they base their decisions, their politics, their morality, their education, their lives on their bible. But as we’ve seen so many times; they don’t like to follow everything in their bible. Christofascists only quote very selective passages that confirm their existing beliefs and can be used to promote their totalitarian ideology. There are too many inconvenient biblical commandments that would get in the way of their intended theocratic, misogynist, and racist state. For example. look at the ……… click below for more ↓

Berman Flails Over Jurisdictions

Canadian Politics / Collingwood / Council / Ineptitude and bungling / Legal issues / Wacky WTF ideasOne Comment

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Sure, most Canadians are appalled at the recent decisions by the Talibangelists on the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS), and the loss of rights and freedoms their overturning Roe v. Wade represents to women. But aside from never voting for Conservatives to avoid the same thing happening here, what can Canadians do? After all, it’s an American legal decision and legal problem, not ours. Abortion rights in Canada were unaffected by the decision.* Well, according to CollingwoodToday, our own councillor, Steve “Mr. Mediocrity” Berman leapt into action last week to announce he plans to present a notion of a motion sometime ……… click below for more ↓

The Talibangelists Are Winning

Canadian Politics / Evangelicals / Politics / Rightwing claptrap / Talibangelists and pseudo-Christians / Theocracy / US Politics7 Comments

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I imagine what I’m feeling now about the rise of the extremist, pseudo-Christian right (aka the Talibangelists, aka Christofascists) in the USA, Canada, and in other democracies is what my English father must have felt watching the events in Germany from 1934 on. He would have seen photographs and newsreels showing the brownshirts, the SS, the rallies of eager followers raising their arms in salute, the adoring crowds lining the streets to wave as their fuhrer drove by. My father would have read with a sinking heart the stories in the newspapers or heard the radio news about the decade-long ……… click below for more ↓

The Cancer Diaries, Part 31

Cancer / Musings / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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It’s been about eight months since I last penned a post about my ongoing experience with prostate cancer, my subsequent surgery, treatment, my recovery from treatment and what’s happened since. That last post was written at the height of last year’s pandemic and lockdowns. Since then, I have only had phone consultations with my oncologist and urologist, but I expect in-person consultations to begin again with my next appointments this fall. In the meantime, I’ve been doing reasonably well. Until recently, most days, there are no issues or problems, or at least none I can identify as cancer-related. But that ……… click below for more ↓

The Marionette and the Mediocrity

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

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Councillors Mariane McLeod and Yvonne Hamlin have both filed their papers to run for the mayor of Collingwood after a mere single term serving in the least effective, most inept council ever, serving as loyal sycophants to the worst and most disliked mayor in the town’s history. What hubris! Aside from their abilities to vote the way Saunderson expected, to express oleaginous praise for him in public absque verecundia (without shame), and to ignore the needs of the community for the past three and a half years, what can they offer residents? More lingering taint of Saunderson? More wasted public ……… click below for more ↓

Grovel, Snivel & Fawn

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviourLeave a comment

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Grovel, Snivel & Fawn. You might think it’s the name of a law firm, but it’s the art of political sycophancy practiced by our own council.* It’s how our council behaved when the former, and much-disliked mayor, Brian Saunderson, took his leave from sucking on the municipal tit last week (it was not disclosed whether he will be paid for his brief, grandstanding appearance to accept the laurels from the committee). One last time our council cabal eagerly and publicly grovelled, snivelled, and fawned over their Great Leader. And they did it so very well the council chamber floor must ……… click below for more ↓

Crybaby Hull and Ditzy Doherty

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

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As a recent Connection story noted, our acting mayor wept openly when a decision he supported took some community flack. Seriously. He cried at a council meeting. Hardly the sort of behaviour one expects of the man chosen to replace the head of council (our much-disliked mayor who couldn’t wait to get away from his responsibilities). You can watch the entire discussion on video on the town’s website starting from 04:53:39. Hull’s comments begin at 05:01:05; he breaks into tears around 05:01:30 and is unable to speak for about 25 seconds, then breaks up again. And again. The Connection’s story ……… click below for more ↓

Ontario, I Am Ashamed and Embarrassed

Canadian Politics / Musings / Provincial Politics / Rightwing claptrap6 Comments

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This morning, Ontario, I am ashamed of you. Ontario, you had an opportunity to do the right thing, and chose — deliberately chose — not to. I am ashamed and embarrassed by your choice. And that includes your choice not to vote. At stake was the future of this province; its education, healthcare, environment, libraries, long-term care; at stake were our seniors, and our children. None of that mattered to Ontario. Instead of voting for a better future, Ontario voted for Doug Ford. Well, not all of you: few of you actually cared enough to vote. Less than half of ……… click below for more ↓

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 ↓

Right v. Left in Modern Politics

Canadian Politics / Ideologies / Musings / Politics / Rightwing claptrap / US Politics3 Comments

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There’s a lot of palaver on social media about right v. left (or left v. right if you are so inclined), with webs of comments about the differences between these opposing political wings. And, at least among the comments I’ve read from Americans, there’s also a lot of misinformation and disinformation in play, especially about what constitutes the left (usually coupled with invectives and name-calling from the right). While many Canadians and Europeans (as socialist and culturally pluralist states) have a fair appreciation of what those political terms (left and right) mean, Americans —a nation of highly polarized, confrontational politics ……… click below for more ↓

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