"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday 8 July 2013

The Way We Were...and Are

Five  by-elections on August 1st.

What  chance the  cost of canceling the second  natural gas fired generator plant will not yet be public?

It won't make much difference. It's  not hard to take the figure from $640 million to $1 billion. 

Every timne we see a flashback. the  Premier's hands   are  spread in submission that the decision was political.

I wondered this morning  about the impact will be on the short campaign. 

Then I thought, probably not much. After all, in a lesser sense ,we are currently doing the  same messing about  in Aurora.

At  the last Council  meeting , residents in the neighborhood of  the neat little cell tower on Bathurst Street demanded a judicial review  of the town's part in the project.

Councillor Gaertner  previously proclaimed the town's planning staff to be at fault. The CAO expressed profound apologies  which provided the cue. 

I have never heard of a judicial review that didn't cost millions and wasn't justified by  the  acrid smell of corruption. 

Yet  some Councillors were eager  to support  it. The same who were ready to spend $150.000
for a court injunction to stop construction of a tower already constructed. that complied with all the required  regulations.

Whatever it costs to satisfy the residents, however futile ,no matter what the rest of the community thinks, that's what the  entitlement brigade  demand and the council caballeros are ready to spend. 

And the other half are unwilling to risk anything  either

So,  the legal department  is tasked with sussing out ianswers to irrelevant questions to avoid the inevitable  decision that has to be made. 

Once there  were Neanderthalls,  then Hunter -Gatherers, the  Stone Age, the Iron Age, the  Age of Enlightenment, The Renaissance, Feudalism and Slavery, Depressions ,Oppressions and Recessions.

Now we have Generation X and  the Age of Entitlement and a bunch of  limp-wristed liberals in charge. 

It's no way to run a railroad. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...


How can you leave your commentators hanging?

Anonymous said...

this topic heading is still valid despite the time lapse. .Looks like councillor Ballard has found another target. Could be fun to watch. It would have been amusing to see the offenders tow that Region truck out of the ' illicit ' driveway.
The weather is great, Hope you are also doing well.

Anonymous said...


There may be one further avenue to avoid making the "inevitable decision". When the Town solicitor is finished researching all the silly questions it could be time to call in outside counsel to provide further legal assessments. It will be expensive and the opinions may not be definitive - but Bell and King need to know where Aurora stands - why should we roll over for an approved and constructed federally regulated tower in another municipality that is of concern to less than one percent of our citizens. And forget we ever said we have no concerns/comments prior to construction.

Anonymous said...

Some woman councillor from Newmarket is twitting to Councillor Ballard that those who voted against him on the refurbishment of the Leisure Centre are all ' conservatives . ' I had hoped we could avoid labels but would point out that he is the one who referred to fellow Aurorans as ' rubes .'
I am neither conservative, nor a rube.

Anonymous said...

Canadian Press
" Montreal Mayor gets arrested, quits, collects $267,923.90 in severance "