Opinion
City Hall continues to provoke the bear. “They don’t give council options they don’t support.”
The debate over masking is exposing city hall administration’s narcissistic attitude.
The administration did not offer city council any options they did not support. The administration is now provoking the bear. I predict that many candidates, especially incumbents, will campaign in the next municipal election (Oct. 2021) on shaking up city hall.
Perhaps our city councilors will take back the reins, and take control of the agenda. They give direction to the Mayor and administration not the other way around.
Remember a past blog;
The recent debate over the Molly Banister could be seen as democracy at work and possibly an expose of city hall dysfunction.
At first reading of the bylaw to remove the road alignment it seemed supported by the Mayor, by the council and by the administration. Comments from some elected officials about campaign promises made it appear inevitable.
The public reacted and it appeared that city hall was out of sync with today’s reality.
The local newspaper did an editorial on September 29, declaring in bold headline that the “Road extension must be kept”. Writing ;”It’s surprising that public workers paid to plan for the city’s growth would do the opposite; not plan for the responsible development of the region.” “ What is portrayed as an environmental concern is really just an interest in keeping neighbourhood traffic down to a minimum,”
Former city manager, Craig Curtis, waded into the debate, questioning the recommendation and reminding us of past decisions that were essential to our development that were similar.
Legal opinions on historical commitments and legal obligations.
Knowledgeable residents debunked many of the environmental issues.
The local church came out in favour of the extension.
The Mayor who championed removal, declared herself in conflict, as she lives in the area, removed herself from voting before each reading.
Councillor Wong started off questioning, after the public hearing, why the administration would bring up a 250 foot bridge when an old man like himself could hop the creek?
Councillor Lee questioned why the city would emphasize the road would cause several instances of ecological damage when the other option of building houses on the creek would have the same effect? Councillor Lee admitted that the majority wanted the extension and voted against the removal.
Councillor Hendley, questioned the city about the future changes. How, when the city administration repeated that there is no current connection to Springfield Avenue, countered, that when the neighbourhood plan is presented it could then be connected, initiating another public hearing. She didn’t claim to know what the future would bring and wanted to leave all options opened.
Councillor Buchanan mentioned that in his non-councillor life he has witnessed the short-cutting of drivers that were of concern to neighbouring communities.
Councillor Higham, took note of the less than complete information on traffic. Bringing her own detailed analyses of traffic to the table.
Together they formed the majority that paralleled the wishes of the majority.
On the face of it, democracy won, a fragile democracy but still a democracy.
2 of the opposition councillors credited the support of the administration in buoying their determined support to remove the alignment, another one used the “Green” umbrella to support her opposition to keeping the alignment.
Poll after poll showed majority support for the extension, so why did we need to go through this stressful and expensive process? Why did the same traffic study get 2 extremely different interpretations?
City hall has been put on notice. Do their jobs, leave the politics and biases out of the equation. You get paid the big bucks to give your political masters the untarnished truth, so do it.
Someone said; “The bear has been poked, do not provoke”.
The next municipal election is on the horizon, provocation could mean great change. Not just at the ballot box.
Is it time for a shake-up and renewal at city hall? Just asking.
Will city administration heed the people duly elected to represent the people?
Will city hall administration be the ballot box question? Just asking.
From the X account of Andrew Scheer
Mark Carney spent his entire life promoting the carbon tax.
Now he’s trying to scam Canadians out of billions and to do it he’s put a whole crew together.
It could be the biggest con job in Canadian history. Only YOU can stop it! pic.twitter.com/1DyywsynBN
— Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) February 22, 2025
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Newt Gingrich
In an amazing show of courage, Vice President J.D. Vance offered an intervention for some of our European allies.
That is the best way to think of the two historic speeches he made in France and Germany last week.
In Paris, Vice President Vance pledged the United States would do whatever it takes to lead the world in the development of Artificial Intelligence. He went on to assert that Europe’s automatic response to regulate technological change rather than adapt to it was doomed to fail.
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Vance warned the Europeans that the Trump administration would retaliate to protect American high-tech companies from being fined and regulated by the European community.
Then, Vance went to the Munich Security Conference. It is the annual meeting of European leaders concerned about defense and threats to peace. The Vice President shocked the Europeans by launching a frontal assault on the decay of their political system.
As Vance put it:
“But while the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, and we also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense, the threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values — values shared with the United States of America.”
He then went through a litany of specific complaints about the behavior of different European countries. They ranged from failing to control immigration, suppressing free speech, and Brussels seeking to control and define futures of independent countries such as Hungary and Romania.
The leading French newspaper, Le Monde (their equivalent of the New York Times) asserted that the American Vice President was declaring “ideological war on Europe.”
Le Monde was right. The European elites have been decaying for at least two generations. They hide behind their privileged status and take ideological positions that feel good but are destructive. Europe’s failures are devastating for most everyday Europeans.
I have personal knowledge about this. I have a Ph.D. in Modern European History – and I have lived in France, Germany, Belgium and Italy. As a young Army dependent, we were living in France when the French Army came back from Algeria, killed the French Fourth Republic and brought back General Charles de Gaulle to establish the Fifth Republic.
It is now the longest serving non-royal government in French history.
The European elites value each other’s opinions more than they value serving the people of Europe. The European elites live in a fantasy world of green policies that destroy industries and jobs, welfare policies which destroy the work ethic, and immigration policies which undermine the popular culture. They simply hope for a peaceful world without a strong military.
Meanwhile, state enforced speech codes protect Islamic extremists at the expense of local citizens.
The result has been a steady decline of European culture, economic development, and defensive capacity.
The Afghan Islamist who wounded more than two dozen people and killed a mother and her two-year-old daughter with a car two days before the supposed security conference signals the willful avoidance of reality at the heart of the elite European worldview.
To be clear, I admire European civilization. I believe America is far stronger and safer if Europe is healthy and capable of growing and defending itself.
I hope vice president Vance’s intervention at least starts European elites thinking about what must be done to revive their continent.
For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.
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