It's All Relative

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What Other People Think":

Should we judge Mayor Dawe by the Tuesday night telecasts of Council meetings, or judge him by different atmosphere around Town Hall and it's staff.

Maybe we should be judging him and the rest of Council by the amazing decrease in contentious issues that no longer fill the blogs and local media.

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"We" will not be judging the Mayor's performance. When it comes to the  ballot, an election is won by one vote at a time. It will not happen for another three years. When it does and the separate votes are counted, we will know then how the Mayor's performance has  been perceived.

But only  if the Mayor decides to be a candidate in the next election.

Becoming a Mayor without experience of what is expected is not an easy row to hoe.

Being a mayor with a pre-conceived notion of  what a Mayor should be, is fraught with potential pit-falls.

Nothing, except having been the Mayor, prepares a person  to be a Mayor .

I doubt Aurora has ever elected a  Mayor without a  record of performance on Council.

It never happened during my time .

We would be disregarding the obvious,  if we did not acknowledge it happened this time because the  community was focused  on the former Mayor and  overwhelming need  for replacement.

This Mayor won solid  support at the polls.  The campaign was unlike any other because  it needed to be.The community rallied to the cause. 

We elected a Mayor  without necessary experience. We knew that. It is completely fair that we recognise the disadvantage we all share because of it.

But politics is a harsh taskmaster. You only get to take a certain  number of false steps. Every one counts. Every person at the table  is a possible contender for the office; Each one  measuring  the Mayor's performance and the chances  of taking him on  in the next round.

There's time to fantasize while awaiting one's turn to speak.

I have noted previously, there are no shrinking violets in politics. If it looks that way...it's a lie, I tell you.

See  how quickly the American public have forgotten. President Obama did not create the current economic disaster.  All that counts now are   millions of  lives ruined. No hope. Only despair.

The rich become richer, the middle class vanishes and the ranks of the poor  swell commensurately.

The same thing  is  happening here   in Canada.

The public service sector continues to grow disproportionate to the private sector or any other factor.

Not just federally or provincially but at the municipal level as well.  

Salaries and benefits continue to climb without checks or balances or regard for ability to pay.

Municipal  tax revenues are down because of inability to pay, building permit revenues reduced. Budgets and spending  continue to increase.

The burden of expenditures tips disproportionately to the ability to pay.

Is the public service expected to acknowledge the problem? Not likely.

Is the situation relative?

I think so.