"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 2 March 2015

"The Mouse That Roared"

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Is English Our First Language ?": 
18:12

Come on - give her a break. She was a Reeve, Councillor and Mayor.  

They fact she does not know what encumbrance accounting is - something municipalities do - is not important either

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 2 March 2015 at 09:19


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I am Queen of my castle.  V.P. of communications for The  Good Ship Lollypop.

I was also Deputy Mayor of Aurora for a bit. Then as now, the Procedure Bylaw had to be passed before any other business of a new Coincil. An  alternate had to be named to sign cheques and agreements and read the Riot Act if  the Mayor was absent.The title of Deputy was used in the Bylaw. Not otherwise.

The town operated a police department. In the absence of  real criminality, the Chief's pre-occupation was "The Mafia " and public morality.

A chain of dry-cleaners opened a branch in the shopping centre. The Chief  suspected  it was really a money-laundering operation. 

On one occasion, he decided  a  movie at the George Theatre was  pornographic. " Box Car Bertha'' was the title. The chief ordered it shut down.The  Riot Act did not have to be called to deal with 
public outrage .The theatre complied and anyway, it was in the Northern Town of  Nefarious Newmarket.

If anything seamy happened the blame was assigned to the denizens of that community.

Aurora was a righteous and severe Scottish  Presbyterian town. Newmarket was an Irish Catholic
community with all known and  recognizable traits and a few more besides.o

Come to think of it, I'm  not sure Aurora's chief had any power in Newmarket..Maybe their Chief  let him assume the Mantle of Authority considering the seriousness of the matter.Anyway it's all  in the Annals of History  if anyone at all has been  paying attention.

The  Regional Police Department  is forty-four years old now. In Aurora a person struts about
with the  title of Deputy- Mayor.

The Prime Minister of Canada  dropped into York Region Police Central Command in Aurora to alert the community to terrorist risks.

Canada's  world-wide reputation of  peace-keepers and mediators.is abandoned in favour of tough
guys intent on whipping bad guy Russian President Vladimir Putin into submission.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your stories. One of them reminded me of when we lived in a town north of here & everyone was convinced that the shoe repair guy was running numbers out of his tiny little place. They focused on that & failed to notice the drywall mob in the housing industry.

Anonymous said...

The Deputy acts like a bully.Just ask committee members about his antics.

Anonymous said...

The PM might roar like a lion at home but the other leaders have nothing to do with him.

Anonymous said...

05:56, especially if it has anything to do with music.

Anonymous said...

20:58 if you are talking about the Jazz Festival you are dead wrong.The Farmers Market got screwed and in the founders own words, half of that festival belongs to the AFM.

Anonymous said...

@5:56
Simply go around him. There are other councillors. You deal with a bully by refusing to see him/her.

Anonymous said...

No, 05:10, I wasn't referring to that. Just anything music-related, really, particularly if it involves him getting a chance to play his guitar.