The $100 Million Mayor?

Collingwood / Council / Financial follies / Saunderson's MPP campaign / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Taxes / User fees and costsOne Comment

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In a story on CollingwoodToday, our mayor, Brian Saunderson, shrugs off the costs of his Vindictive Judicial Inquiry (the SVJI) as being but a drop in the bucket for the town’s annual budget: He noted the town’s annual budget is nearly $100 million, and the inquiry costs amount to less than ten per cent of the yearly budget. Perhaps he was flustered by being challenged over the egregious waste of taxpayers’ money on the SVJI and just pulled that budget figure out of his hat. Perhaps he plans to spend a LOT more of your tax dollars on reports-about-the-report-about-the-report so ……… click below for more ↓

Musings on Making Pasta, No.3

Daily life / Food & Drink / Pasta / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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How thick should any particular type of pasta be? Seems like a simple question that could be answered by a basic chart or spreadsheet. But if it has been, I’ll be damned if I can find one online. In my numerous books on pasta, only a few actually give recommended thicknesses for making your own. Anything that deals with dried, store-bought pasta simply deals with the type of noodle and recommended cooking times, not its thickness. I’ve scoured my many books and the internet looking for this information so I could build a simple chart that told me what roller ……… click below for more ↓

Saunderson to Flog his SVJI at the County

Collingwood / Entitlement / Planning & Policies / Publicity & Communications / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial InquiryOne Comment

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On the County of Simcoe agenda for Feb. 9 is a motion from our mayor for the rest of the county to support the Saunderson Vindictive Judicial Inquiry (SVJI) and back his run-on motion: …Collingwood’s efforts to advocate for the Province of Ontario to make review, and/or commence consultation with the municipalities of Ontario and other stakeholder groups, such as the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, to make changes to the municipal legislative framework including, but not limited to, the Municipal Act and the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act pursuant to the recommendations of Associate Chief Justice Marrocco in his ……… click below for more ↓

Will Madigan Pay for Inquiry Costs?

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2018 / Entitlement / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Staff and administration2 Comments

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In a recent story on CollingwoodToday about the Saunderson Vindictive Judicial Inquiry (SVJI), Councillor Bob “Lapdog” Madigan commented that he wanted, “…those who are responsible for this need to be held accountable.” Since neither the inquiry nor the OPP found anything illegal or criminal in the proceedings (no charges have been laid, although the OPP began its investigation in 2014!), the basis for a lawsuit would be… what? Council’s opinion? Or just Madigan’s umbrage? We assume from the story’s headline, “Council wants to know litigation options following inquiry,” that he and others at the table want the town to sue ……… click below for more ↓

Enough B.S. (Brian Saunderson)

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Hospital / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry3 Comments

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Yet another week has gone by and our mayor, Brian Saunderson, stubbornly refuses to do the right thing for the people of the town of Collingwood, and resign. He continues to pursue his personal political ambitions at the expense of both our taxpayers and the credibility of the office. Not to mention tarnishing the reputation of those on council and staff who refuse to stand up to him or call on him to resign. Resigning would be the honourable and ethical thing to do, but I do not believe residents can expect that from Saunderson. You might want to take ……… click below for more ↓

My Report About the Report About the Report

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Financial follies / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Staff and administration / Taxes3 Comments

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As I predicted (correctly) late last year, Collingwood Council was given a dumbed-down, $700,000-as-important-as-clean-drinking-water-report-about-the-judicial-inquiry-report. More than 900 pages of the original report reduced to a mere 15 to report on the report. And as I also predicted, it would include pie charts.  You can read it here: “STAFF REPORT #CAO2021-02 Phase One – Collingwood Judicial Inquiry Next Steps. You can also look at the PowerPoint presentation made to council — which, as I also correctly predicted, would have the report “reduced to a dozen bullets on PowerPoint slides, written in a large font and read aloud, slowly, at a council ……… click below for more ↓

A Municipal Challenge to Democracy?

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Publicity & Communications / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Staff and administration / User fees and costsLeave a comment

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Collingwood has joined other local municipalities asking the province to revamp its Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA; a guide from the Information and Privacy Commissioner to the Act is also available here) to make the process more restrictive and less open. While some of those changes might seem appropriate to outsiders, I see buried in the wording of the request some dark challenges to our democracy. The story in Collingwood Today is titled, “Freedom of information rules ‘archaic’ and in need of modernization, says Collingwood clerk.” Democracies depend on some core attributes: openness, accountability, transparency, ……… click below for more ↓

Saunderson’s Still Here

Collingwood / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial InquiryOne Comment

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A week has gone by and our mayor, Brian Saunderson, has still not done the right thing by the town of Collingwood and resigned from his office. He continues to pursue his personal ambition at the expense of both the local taxpayer and any credibility he might have had. As my readers know, Saunderson announced he didn’t want the job of mayor and is campaigning to be our local MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament). However, he announced he is staying on as mayor until he gets elected, which won’t be (if it happens at all) until June, 2021. Until then, ……… click below for more ↓

Musing on Making Pasta No. 2

Cooking / Daily life / Eating / Food & Drink / Pasta / Personal Reminiscences2 Comments

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In its most basic form, pasta can be made from only two ingredients: flour and water. But while true, it’s deceptively simple, and far from the tastiest or most expressive pasta you can make.  (see part 1 of this essay if you missed it) Flour is delightfully complicated; there is some interesting chemistry at work within flour and it’s fun to experiment. Wheat is classified into several categories: spring and winter (by the planting season), colour (red or white), hard or soft (high or low protein content), and durum (an amber, hard wheat). Canadian wheat has five classes for eastern ……… click below for more ↓

Musings on Making Pasta No. 1

Cooking / Daily life / Food & Drink / Pasta / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”16″ exclusions=”302,303,304,305,306,298,297,296,294,290,289,288,287″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″ number_of_columns=”5″ order_by=”imagedate”]  Long-time readers here may recall that I used to post about making my own pasta and bread quite frequently some years back. Last spring when I was diagnosed with cancer and then went through surgery and then radiation, I stopped doing both. This week, I finally got back to my pasta-making— not quite as adroitly as I had in the past, mind you; the old skills were a mite rusty — and expect to get back to bread shortly. Both activities provide me a sense of tactile creativity and pleasure, and give ……… click below for more ↓

English as She is Spoke

Books & Reviews / Grammar / Language & Grammar / Meaning of words / Style & usage / Translations & translating / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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One of the more delightful books in my personal library is a reprint of the 1883 American edition of English as She Is Spoke, described by Wikipedia as,  …intended as a Portuguese–English conversational guide or phrase book; however, as the “English” translations provided are usually inaccurate or incoherent, it is regarded as a classic source of unintentional humour in translation. Even a quick glance at its suggested English phrases and you’ll see the humour. It reads more like a guide for the speech of the beloved character of Manuel in Fawlty Towers than a guide for visitors and immigrants: “We ……… click below for more ↓

Why Saunderson Should Resign Now

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour3 Comments

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Imagine an issue so important, so utterly non-partisan that both the National Post and the Toronto Star — two newspapers of widely divergent politics, perspectives, and ideology — agreed. That issue is that municipal politicians running for higher office should resign from their municipal roles on council. But our own Mayor Brian Saunderson, running for the Progressive Conservatives, has decided he’s above all that, and will stay in office. I’ve already written that I see his resignation as the only honourable and ethical acrion. Imagine, too, you’re an employer. A worker comes to you, says his job sucks, and boasts ……… click below for more ↓

Saunderson’s Role in Blocking the Hospital Redevelopment

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Development & Growth / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Hospital / Planning & Policies6 Comments

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During the previous council’s four years (2014-18), I documented the aggressive efforts to stall the local hospital’s desperately-needed redevelopment by a group of those on council (aka The Block*). Every other municipality in the region enthusiastically supported the hospital’s plan; only this group on Collingwood council put up roadblocks. And they were significant roadblocks raised at great expense to the taxpayer. Collingwood council SHOULD have taken the lead to promote their own hospital, but couldn’t get past their self-importance. As a result of the former council’s pettiness and negative interference, the hospital’s plans were set back as much as a ……… click below for more ↓

An Honourable Mayor?

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Staff and administration8 Comments

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Mayor Brian Saunderson has announced he is running for nomination to the provincial Progressive Conservative party in our riding to be able to stand as the candidate for MPP. According  to a story in Collingwood Today, he is not stepping down from his role as mayor, and will not do so even if he wins the nomination: Should Saunderson receive the nomination, he said he would not be stepping back from his duties as mayor of Collingwood unless he were to be successful and elected in 2022. I believe that this poses a threat of both real and perceived conflicts ……… click below for more ↓

Striving for Mediocrity

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Local media / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / Staff and administration3 Comments

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On a council laden with dunces, deadwood, and dullards, it must be some consolation to our elected representatives, that they can at least claim to be less mediocre than Councillor Steve Berman. We all need someone to measure ourselves against, I suppose, and a low bar is so much easier to rise above. Berman’s first year in office was spent mostly consuming oxygen at the table and saying nothing of consequence. Of so little consequence were his words that even the normally sycophantic local media hardly ever bothered to reprint them. But when the pandemic struck and council retreated into ……… click below for more ↓

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