"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

Tuesday 31 March 2015

SHELL GAME

This morning  a notice from the Town Clerk informs me that because  I failed to file Documents before 2.00pm on Friday
I am in default of the Elections Act  and will not be eligible to be a candidate again until the election of 2022.

Drat.

To be precise,documents were filed  in time with Elections Officer. I  failed to present myself  in person  to swear an oath that everything in the document was true and correct. I offer no excuse. I intended to do the thing. I left it too late and  now fate has befallen me.

Yesterday a news item noted two B of E  trustees already 
sworn into office have been unseated and byelections will be
because the dreaded deadline was not met.

How silly is that? 

Think of extravagant decisions made by incumbent Mayors and Councillors and Premiers and M.P.Ps  for no other reasons than to be re-elected Most prominent  among them by former Premier Dalton McGuinty to cancel contracts at a
cost of $1.2 billion  for projects already under construction.

Mr McGuinty said he did it because the neighbours didn't want the plants which co-incidentally does not explain why opposition was not discovered until the eve of an election.

On Sunday I watched a disturbing documentary of distressed
residents in south-western Ontario. Private  enterprise Wind Farms receive millions in subsidy from the Ontario Government.

A flash back  during the program shows the former Premier firmly and sternly declaring "the days of NIMBYISM in Ontario are over"

It was before he cancelled contracts in Burlington and Missuassaga because "people" didn't  want them. 

The cost of stuff  like that never appears in any candidate's
Statement of Financial expenses. Rightly so. They were not
paid for by the candidates or their political parties. 


But paid for they were. And the prize was winning an election 

Ontario has meaningless Conflict of Interest legislation . 

Codes of Conduct are used and ill-used for anything but noble purpose.
Recently the  Ontario Ombudsman has been given jurisdiction over Municipal Councils. His office will be open to receive complaints about Councils meeting in private when they should be meeting in public. 

Such a fervour on all sides for integrity in public office. 


Such a show.

"a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury,signifying nothing"

But costing plenty. Oh dear me yes. The price is high. 


19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aw, shucks. You missed your dead-line. Join the line. I missed Earth Hour this year because no one drew my attention to it. Turned out to be a good thing - much better than running around like an idiot turning off lights like I did last year. Like using tissues from a pink box is going to stop cancer ?
We do get hung-uo on the superficial, don't we >

Anonymous said...

Mr Gallo's Numbers are interesting. I'm waiting for Christopher to crunch them for me. - That Jazz outfit are a pricey lot.

Christopher Watts said...

14:28

If you've taken the time to read John Gallo's campaign expenses by all means share what it is that is so interesting that would convince me I should spend my time crunching numbers for you.

Anonymous said...


It's too bad you can't expand your horizon to provincial or national - simply for a change of scale as well as subject.

While I realize you are emotionally bound up with "Our Town" and there are lots of things wrong that should be corrected, neither you nor I will live to see this simply because they will never be corrected. Some will disappear only to be replaced by others.

That appears to be the nature of how we as a species conducts our affairs, certainly our governmental affairs.

Anonymous said...

I see no penalty for over-spending your limit. Only the rule that a surplus should/must be paid to the clerk.

Anonymous said...

15:51
I have grown to rely upon your cost per vote received. Last time, I think Mr Ballard was the worst and he did manage to get elected. My math is abysmal.

Anonymous said...


Christopher Watts:

Am a bit disappointed that you did not at least show the two mayoral candidates' total expenditures stated as a dollar figure per vote received. This is always interesting, especially as an expression of "Mayor" Gallo's approach to his defunct campaign.

But he did have a lot of ethnic support.

Anonymous said...

@15:58
All that IS covered if you are paying attention.
Do you really think no one has noticed that Canada's war has been extended by a measly vote with a difference of 13 votes ?

Christopher Watts said...

Sorry to disappoint 18:54 but if it is that much of interest to you then the very least you could do is your own comparison and share your findings.

Aside from spending $10,000 more than he made there's as much substance in Gallo's expenses as there was in his entire term (and a half) of office.

Not nearly as interesting as what can be found when scrutinizing Mayor Dawe's filing, something that is leaving me more than a bit disappointed.

Anonymous said...

21:11
Why don't you get your own blog?

Anonymous said...

Do we honestly think that a $100 donation from a company would sway a person to promote their company and make bylaw changes to use clear bags?

Anonymous said...

Very good Christopher, here are some number crunchings I can share.

For the Councillors, I took the total expenses ( From line C4 ) and divided by the number of votes, to arrive at cost per vote

5) Wendy Gaertner $0.45 / vote
2) Sandra Humfryes $0.63

6) Harold Kim $1.19
1) John Abel $1.20

8) Paul Pirri $1.41
4) Jeff Thom $1.71

3) Michael Thompson $2.47
7) Tom Mrakas $2.60

For the Mayoral Race, I took expenses, and omitted the fund raising expense.

Geoff Dawe $3.24 ( $28,874/ 8903 )
John Gallo $5.52 ( $22,649 / 4106 )

Runner ups, 9th - 14th placing
9) Evelyn Buck Not Available
10) Jim Abram $1.71
11) Arshad Desai $3.60
12) Linda Stephens Not Available
13) Anthoney Pollano $3.40
14) Bob Chapman $ 1.52

Anonymous said...

21:11

He does appear to solve the moral problem over accepting money from a developer by taking it from the pack of them, doesn't he ?

Anonymous said...


Absolutely right, Christopher. Didn't need you


DAWE TOTAL EXPENSES $35,389 VOTES 8,903 COST/VOTE $3.97

GALLO TOTAL EXPENSES $42,931 VOTES 4,106 COST/VOTE $10.45

TOTAL VOTE 13,009 DAWE 68.4%
GALLO 31.6%

Gallo outspent Dawe on a cost per vote basis of 263%.

Did Gallo learn anything from this exercise in futility? Doubt it.

This it on my part, Christopher. If you have some other interesting information I look forward to reading it.

CIAO!

Anonymous said...

10:45
But you said nothing until someone else raised the subject. Typical.

Anonymous said...

Obviously the way to obtain information is to irritate the troll & mentioning Christopher does it beautifully.

Anonymous said...

Obviously, Christopher has more than one critic, much like our moderator.

Anonymous said...


Any idiot can find information One simply has to know where to look.

But finding information is by itself meaningless.

It's what one does with the information that matters.

There are very who can see the future, even though it's all there before us.

Anonymous said...

That $100 was just like planting a seed, the seed no body wanted. For the Mayor to completely ignore resident's concerns, perhaps there was a relationship between them. Friends help friends, and it's easy when it's tax payers money.