Tag: news

COUNCILLOR ASKS FOR BAFN REPORT

Props and bravo to John McDonald.

The Renfrew councillor introduced a motion whereby town staff is to identify and and provide all relevant documentation outlining the relationship existing between the Town of Renfrew and the Bonnechere Algonquin First Nation, especially as it pertains to the BAFN presence at Ma-Te-Way.

This is one of two items I requested information on last October, but was told to go stuff myself by Clerk Carolynn Errett and former Acting CAO Kelly Latendresse on the grounds that the request was “political” in nature.  And staff doesn’t do political.  They told me to direct the question to Council instead.  Which was really cool because that was the very body that refused to even acknowledge my request in the first place, much less respond to it.

But now, after eight months, a real live councillor, John McDonald, is going to take a crack at it.

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FLOODING ON HAIG

Just imagine.

A house that’s been there for decades, right here in Renfrew.  Property taxes paid diligently and on time, same thing with the water bill.  Never, ever, in all that time, has there ever had a problem with water in the basement.  Never.

Along comes the year 2023, and the Town of Renfrew has undertaken to pave the road outside this home.  It’s absolutely thrilling.  The street the house is on, Haig Avenue, hasn’t been a safe coffee-drinking road in a long time with all the hills, valleys, and moguls.  But now, the town in going to put down some fresh asphalt, sprucing up the entire neighbourhood, and likely having a positive impact on property values. 

Honestly, what’s not to like?

The engineering, that’s what.

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INDISPENSABLE? INDEFENSIBLE?

The first thing I noticed was the seating plan. 

As a former teacher, changes to seating plans were almost traumatic events for students since they had no idea what neighbourhood of the classroom they may be calling their new home, and, of course, had no idea of who their new neighbours might be.  No matter the intent behind the seating shift, it was inevitable that some students would be delighted by the change, with others less so.  And the major determining factor as to whether you were a “winner” or a “loser” was entirely social, and having to do with friends, or possibly a lack thereof.

I tuned in to the Renfrew Town Council live-feed after-the-fact, viewing it this morning rather than putting myself through the whole death by a thousand cuts experience you get when you attend in person.  And the first thing I noticed was what I call the head table, the one where the big cheeses sit, the mayor — Head of Council — the CAO, and the Clerk.

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STRONG MAYOR + WEAK MEDIA

What do you get when you simultaneously have a strong mayor and a weak or non-existent media?

This isn’t a joke, where there’s some amusing punchline to follow that question.  This is a joke because this is what happens when the wool is being thrown over our collective eyes.

I’ve already written about strong mayors, about that senseless move by Premier Doug Ford to empower mayors unnecessarily, while at the same time seriously undermining local and municipal democracy.

This comes from a populist premier who champions things like “a buck a beer” and drinking alcohol in public parks.  He’s the guy that allowed alcohol sales in corner and grocery stores, without fully mapping out how all those empties are going to be collected and processed.  He spent millions in penalties to the Beer Store to break an agreement already on place just to get that booze into those stores.  All this from a guy who doesn’t drink himself.

Ford is a guy who moves based upon whatever the last horoscope might have said, or whatever the last lobbyist may have promised.  He’ll bash ahead with his newly-discovered mission until we make him stop.  Then he apologizes, gives us the patented “Gee, golly, shucks,” and we forgive him for it, even giving him credit for having the political courage to admit when he’s wrong.

He is the quintessential ask for forgiveness rather than ask for permission kind of fellow.

And full disclosure, I’ve voted for him.  Not every time, mind you, but I have.

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CHARLES III COMES TO CANADA

Something will happen today that doesn’t happen very often, if at all.

Parliament re-opens today, or at least that part of it known as the House of Commons, and all the recently elected MPs, or Members of Parliament, will take their seats and ready themselves for the Throne Speech, or Speech From the Throne, an event that officially opens any new session of Parliament.

The Throne Speech is usually a task undertaken by the Governor-General, in this case the Right Honourable Mary Simon, on behalf of the sitting monarch.

But today, Governor-General Simon will yield that privilege to the monarch himself, in this case King Charles III, King of England and Great Britain, and also King of Canada.

To my knowledge, a reigning monarch has read the Throne Speech twice in our nation’s history, with Charles’ mother Elizabeth II having done so both times, once shortly after taking the throne, and the second in 1977.

So why now?

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A NIGHT WITH DEF LEPPARD

I’ve listened to all kinds of music in my time, and my interest crosses multiple boundaries of multiple genres.  But for whatever reason, the head-banging screamer-rock of the late eighties and early nineties sort of escaped me.

I was once a head-banger, in the late seventies, but I had obviously mellowed out a decade later, and preferred to stick to my Phil Collins, Genesis, and Stevie Nicks, among many others.

And then, suddenly, 2019 was upon me, and my music interests were unexpectedly added to with the emergence of one of those same long-haired screamer bands onto my music radar, in the form of a live concert.

You see, Def Leppard was making a cross-Canada tour, and one of the stops was at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa.  Normally, something like this would come and go without catching my attention.  I mean, I had heard of Def Leppard and everything, but they’d never been a band that grabbed too much of my entertainment attention or dollars.

This is where my daughter, Avery, enters the story.

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JOHN EXPLAINS STRONG MAYOR POWERS

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.

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A KINDER, GENTLER PIERRE?

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.

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TIME TO CHANGE HOW WE VOTE?

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.

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POILIEVRE, BY-ELECTIONS, AND OFFICIAL RESIDENCES

Rideau Cottage, Stornaway, and 24 Sussex Drive.

Three of Canada’s official residences, two in stages of disrepair, while the third is, well, a cottage.

The Americans have their White House, the South Koreans have their Blue House, and most of the world’s nations have some form of presidential palace, although the word palace doesn’t really have a good Canadian feel to it.  That said, the point is that most countries have an official residence for their head of state, although I’m not counting Hitler’s Führerbunker, since that place wasn’t really big on splashy amenities and I don’t recall any elaborate state dinners being held at the place that served as home for the Nazi dictator’s final days.  To fit into my discussion, I’d prefer there not be bullet-hole pockmarks in the brickwork, bomb damage to the exterior and the grounds, and the torched remains of the owners in the front court.  Decidedly not the look and feel I’m going after here.

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