Councillor Pirri has given notice of a motion to create wards and reduce the size of Council as well.
Somerville is in support,. He has something to add. Term limits for Ontario's municipal Councillors. Like American Presidents.
Incumbents shouldn't be able to get re-elected just because their names are familiar.
In a previous term, Somerville had a personal interview and wrote a column on all members of Council with the exception of myself.
A person notices stuff like that.
I thought it signified a pre-occupation with his own callow years.
I couldn't have said that in the sixties. Didn't have a blog.
Timing of the motion is interesting.
Usually it comes up closer to an election.
Usually by new candidates who want elections to be easier.
They don't want to have to put in the work or the finances or compete against incumbents with reputations and experience.
Aurora is no more than the size and population of a city ward. Considerable chunks of it lie in the Oak Ridges Moraine, Flood Plain , wood lots , land under control of Ontario Heritage and other lands under control of Oak Ridges Moraine Trust.
We have seven golf courses.
Estate lot areas with an average of one house on a minimum of two acres . Some are four acres.
We are a small urban node with vast unpopulated areas which are never going to be populated.
But none of that matters to the boyos. They argue voter choice should be restricted..
It should be limited to one two at most, for a third slice of the municipality.
It's an interesting concept.
To make it easier for new candidates to displace incumbents by relieving the voter of the burden of making a wider choice.
What a burden that is having the freedom to choose?
It sort of resembles comments in response to my factual observation in a blog that Coincillor Pirri might find it easier to make decisions on spending because he doesn't pay property tax.
The Councillor's furious anonymous defenders recommended more Coucillors like himself and less of those like me ,who want to keep town business in the sixties and have never been liked by any Councillor in any previous term served.
Talk about a two-year old, in a temper tantrum. screaming and kicking his heels on the floor, because Mum won't give him a popsicle before dinner.
In the sixties, there would have been no venue for me to say things like that. Blogs did not exist.
But they do now.
Poor Stephen. His heart is clearly in Newmarket. Last election when the returns were coming in he was up there supporting a couple of friends who had been elected. He also often manages to be ' on the road ' when important events, like funerals, occur in Aurora.
ReplyDeleteThe ward system came up before. Meeting at the Town Hall to discuss. I think less than a dozen showed up. It is like hauling council to the schools. An expensive, unnecessary idea.
But, you had a venue with your "Buckshot" column in the Banner. What couldn't you say in it?
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ReplyDeleteStephen Somerville's column is usually a complete waste of paper, and thus unnecessarily a tree killer.
His predictably puerile observations are best ignored.
If Somerville and Paul Pirri are engaged on a ward hunt I hope that they become the hunted, rather than the hunters.
Just think: it might be procedurally incorrect for a person from the south end of town to ask a question concerning the north end of town to a councillor from the east side.
"Sir or madam, if you want to ask a question concerning the south end of town you must direct it to the councillor from that specific area. No other councillors are allowed to comment." So might say the Mayor or Town Clerk.
Wards. Bah! Humbug!
I think that there should be term limits for columnists - at most two years. Bye, Stevie.
WHAT??? How can The Auroran (a paper that seems to be the gold standard for Evelyn's Buckaroos) miss the mark by having Stephen Somerville write for them?
ReplyDeleteHis column is an "EDITORIAL". He is expressing an opinion - his opinion.
Who are you to say that his opinion is a waste a paper? Perhaps your opinion here on this blog is a waste of electrons.
As far as Ms Buck contention that Pirri cannot speak to taxation issues I say pish-posh. Anyone in this Country that pays income taxes ultimately pays taxes to the Town through the way higher levels flow down revenue, so your arguement that he does not pay taxes is without merit.
I think wards in Aurora is a good idea and I also think that term limits is a good idea. We need to evolve and without term limits there is no evolution.
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My opinion is that your grammar needs work.
Should be "wards are a good idea" and "term limits are a good idea."
Possibly you need to evolve further.
I am fine just as I am.
Does anyone actually read Stephen Somerville's column?
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