For something different, I grabbed the camera and tripod, and went to visit the Bonnechere Algonquin First Nation, or BAFN.
To be completely fair, I had no appointment, but then again, nobody needs an appointment to walk around the exterior. It’s the interior where the mystery lies.
It certainly looks like Charlene Jackson is gone as Renfrew’s treasurer.
Earlier today, I was given a heads-up about a job posting on the employment site Indeed, where sure enough, there’s a posting for a position that sure sounds like the one she’s held down until just recently.
That posting appears below.
Budget deliberations were brutal, and there’s no time in a treasurer’s annual calendar where almost every road, every request, and every question lands squarely at your door as it does at budget time.
Also, Renfrew is in the middle of some bad times, especially money-wise, and that’s something that’s not going to change any time in the near future.
So I guess I’m saying that being the treasurer of an entity that teeters on the edge of financial ruin can’t be the easiest job in the world.
Continue reading “JACKSON RESIGNS POSITION AS TREASURER”
And then there was Dave.
It’s not his real name, but it’ll have to do for the purposes of telling my story, a story that needs to be shared. I also don’t want to use his real name because I don’t want to embarrass him, and more to the point, his family. Because, Dave is no different than a lot of other Dave’s out there, so why single him out, right?
You see, Dave is a racist. Not even a little bit of one, but rather a racist with a paid-up-in-full membership to AOA, or Assholes of America, a subsidiary of ROA, or Racists of America, a family-oriented group complete with chat lines where you can spend time dumping on those goddamned immigrants you saw at Walmart earlier in the day, when you stopped in after church, the place you pretended to be a Christian for reasons unknown.
Dude, if there’s a God, he already knows you’re a racist, so you might just as well carve an extra hour for yourself on Sunday mornings rather than go to all the work of showing up and be a hypocrite. But then again, you don’t go to church for God, do you? For you, it’s mostly about the appearances you put in so that other folks think you’re a great guy. And after all, it’s not like you’re the only racist sitting in church on a Sunday morning, right? For heaven’s sake, the place is full of them. Go ahead. Tell me it’s not.
It’s like we’re going to need Jesus to come down and throw one of those money-lender freak-outs to reclaim his Father’s house from the imposters who take up space within it. No doubt I’ll get all caught up in the mayhem, but hey, I went to Confession just a little over a week ago, so how much sin could I have possibly accumulated?
However much sin I’m burdened with, I’m not a racist.
Continue reading “SMALL TOWN RACISM”
To me, John has the appearance of being a very nice man, one with an impressive resume and one who happens to be an “expert” on Strong Mayor Powers.
John appeared via video link at the last meeting of Renfrew Clown Council, where he was tasked with walking everyone through the democratic abomination of small mayor powers as handed over to any municipality with a McDonalds and a set of street lights. So Renfrew gets included, because we have those traffic lights, and even a Wendy’s, so game on.
One minor, yet annoying thing about John, though, is that neither God nor his parents apparently gave him a last name, which I’m absolutely cool with in theory, it’s just that I thought that practice was limited to Brazilian soccer stars and Indonesian dictators.
But I don’t make the rules. Small town strong mayors do. If a guy doesn’t want a last name, then he doesn’t have to have one. Unless a strong mayor comes along and makes him.
Continue reading “JOHN EXPLAINS STRONG MAYOR POWERS”
After sorting through the “carnage” of the last federal election results, Conservatives have been busy trying to figure out what exactly the hell happened.
The party won more seats, grabbed a bigger share of the popular vote, and made in-roads into areas and ridings where Tories once dared not walk.
Oh, and their leader lost his seat. Badly. No recounts needed in Carleton. The boss got bossed right out of town.
Not long ago, snagging over 40% in public opinion surveys and the popular vote would signal a Conservative majority government, something everyone, including myself, was predicting not long ago. And not just a simple majority, but a massive one. Yet even with all the gains the party posted, the Liberals got more of all of the above, in seats, vote share, and their leader actually winning his own riding, interestingly the riding next door to the Tory leader’s.
Continue reading “A KINDER, GENTLER PIERRE?”
The term “Elbow’s-Up” was made more popular by Canadian comedian Mike Myers as a response to the buffoonery being put forward by the American president, who more and more seems to be an exact representation of the American people at large.
But the Florida Panthers have made it their personal calling card, as they elbow their way through opponents without much in the way of intervention by the Department of Player Safety, also known as Look The Other Way Committee.
How many concussions will need to be meted out by the Panthers before the pointy-heads up at league headquarters make the appropriate connection?
I’m not a Leafs fan, I’m a hockey fan, and if the league and officials continue to do nothing about this kind of thing, from Florida in particular, then the only way to handle this business is to build your own team with flying elbows, and maybe go back in time to the 1970’s.
Continue reading “FLORIDA AND THE FLYING ELBOW”
Every Canadian voter is familiar with the electoral system called “First Past the Post.”
They know it because they know how it works or they know it because they can see the results of it. Both of those positions may likely involve maintaining that practice, since it happens to be all Canadians have ever known. And they’d rather keep the familiarity of a failed system than attempt to do anything about it through change or modification.
First-past-the-post refers to the idea that, in an election, the person getting the most votes wins. Pretty straight-forward, easy to understand, something accepted for as long as Adam and that freaking snake in the garden.
Continue reading “TIME TO CHANGE HOW WE VOTE?”
Sobriety is not something you ever take for granted,
I know this because I’m sober, for now anyways, and I hate the influence that alcohol has had on my life. And the pull it maintains upon me today.
Any good time, almost every good time that I’ve had in my life, is associated with drinking. Beer was my glue, my response to everything, the constant, the thing that tied everything else together.
When I drank, I wasn’t a dirty drunk, a falling down drunk, a crash into the Christmas tree kind of drunk. I never drank and then operated a motor vehicle. I didn’t fight or slur my words.
I was happy. I was content. I was funny. I was smart and articulate. I could even work while I was drinking, pounding out policy papers, directing communications for serious enterprises, and playing prominent roles in election campaigns. I taught for over thirty years. My students over that span will attest to my commitment to them.
And I drank through all of it. Maybe not every day, maybe not all day, but often enough. And every time I “quit,” which is the word often employed when we actually mean “stopped,” I came back to it stronger than ever. The cans got bigger and there were more of them.
The way it goes I guess.
Continue reading “SOBRIETY”
What a beating Canada’s military capacity seems to be taking. And it’s a beating coming at us from our erstwhile friends allies, nations with short memories who ought to know better.
These are important considerations for us to keep in mind as we spend our way to the 2% of GDP threshold we committed to as part of our membership in NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Some European countries question our reliability as an ally if we can’t seem to reach that 2% threshold, which is bonkers. Canada has a much higher GDP — Gross Domestic Product — than all but three of our European NATO allies, those nations being Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. The first we defeated in battle (twice), the second we fought to restore their territorial integrity (twice) and the the third we came to the rescue of (twice).
My point is the higher the GDP, the more money on defence spending that 2% represents. Which means that, despite spending less than that percentage, Canada spends more in real dollars than 26 of our European allies.
So stuff it.
Continue reading “CANADA’S MILITARY PROCUREMENT”
Mayor Tom Sidney and Clerk Carolynn Errett are head table pals.
That much is evident just by watching Renfrew Town Council meetings in person, as the two are in constant and consistent sidebar discussions, which I guess is completely natural and to be expected when you have a mayor who seems not to know what he’s doing and a clerk sitting as the procedural expert.
These kinds of synergies are essential in professional environments, and there’s no reason why a small-town council ought to be an exception to that. The mayor is still in his on-the-job training stint, over two years after his landslide election win back in 2022, when he prevailed over all his rivals in what can only be called a political magic carpet ride of euphoria not seen in these parts, well, ever. And no doubt ever again. Sidneymania has appeared to reach it’s end-of-use date.
With his clear mandate of 873 votes, maybe a dozen or so over his nearest competitor, Mayor Tom sits astride an empire of influence and power, especially now since our premier fell and hit his head on the barbecue and granted Strong Mayor powers to the chieftains of small municipalities across the province, including those currently swirling down the drain.
Like Renfrew. And like Mayor Tom himself.
Continue reading “CLERK ERRETT MADE DIRECTOR”
NEWSMAGRENFREW 