FACT FROM FICTION

This morning ,the question is.... "If you were American, could you decide how to vote ?" 

A song comes to mind....." We're  having a heat wave, A tropical heat wave." 

I have no idea how that happens.... whether it's lyric, melody or  rythm...a line of song or nursery rhyme always pops into my head. 

I really enjoy watching American politicians. Like somebody said ...every one is an Oscar performance. 

The Watergate Hearings with Sam Ervine in the Chair got me hooked.

Every actor is immaculately groomed. Roles are played to the hilt. Ambiguity is not an American concept. They know their audience and what's expected of them. Voices  are clear. Thoughts 

precisely articulated 

With script writers and voice coaches ,they could not perform better. 

Had I been voting in the last American election  Hillary would have been my choice. 

Barak Obama had star quality but neither the connections nor the experience necessary. Presideng Lyndon Johnstone proved how much that mattered. 

In the last four years Hillary has improved her skills. 

I do not claim to have more than a surface knowledge of the scope of the job. T.V shows are obviously not a good model. Clearly it's complicated and intricate and fraught with potential pit-falls. 

I think  it may even be impossible on occasion.  

Obama stood alongside Joe Biden when the Vice Presideng announced he would not be a candidate and at the same time took  Candidate Hillary to task for her position on a free trade deal that isn't yet.

I don't think that was presidential. 

Hillary ignored the snub and gave assurance of Joe Biden's continuing contribution. At that moment and in stark contrast,she stood head and shoulders above the pair of them. 

It's always disappointing  when a person in high office doesn't rise to the office. Such a wasted opportunity. So much more than a simple failure. 

It's what a person has to give that matters. 

Hillary took nothing away from either of them.  On that day, she gave them more than their due.

Senator Bernie Sanders is a story in himself. He puts the lie to the understanding the Democratic Party is everything it claims to be. Thousands of Americans are turning out to show their support for his message. 

I read a story once about an alliance between a police department and the criminal element  in a city.

I don't remember the name just that the alliance gave the administration  the only possible opportunity to exercise control over crime in the city. 

It was fiction of course. 

SOMETHING HAS CHANGED

I did something. I'm not sure what. But it has changed a thing or two. 

Since this  blog started it focused on town business . People from elsewhere have been viewing  and visiting. Still, comments were mostly local. Obviously, it kept the blog from growing but it seemed the cause was justified. 

This year I contemplated widening the focus then decided to let things evolve.

Then  after clicking on the publish button  I clicked on a Share button and an unexpected shift

resulted.

Visits doubled. At first Canadian visits outnumbered American visits then the situation reversed .

A couple of hundred steady visits are recorded from other countries. France and Russia are nextbut well behind Canada and America and six or seven other countries are listed in the audience. 

I'm not sure what it means. Except, we may no longer be just a little local chat group.

The  American Presidential Primaries  and all the other critical things going on with our neighbors

make it relevant. 

Hopefully we can learn something from a wider exchange. 

Since  we've shared this space together for eight years I thought I ought to share how ithe audience has changed.

In my early years, Saturday afternoon matinee at "the pictures" was a ritual for kids.  there would be the main film, a cowboy picture,  a serial, a cartoon and  either British Movietone News or British Pathe News.We would be in there for three hours. 

George Bernard Shaw was a familiar face  on the news and often quoted. There were Shavian Societies. I think they were clubs for people to gather and discuss the issues of the day. 

Think of that. People got together on a regular basis just to talk about things that mattered to them.

In our own small way maybe that's what we've been doing here for eight years. 

ONWARD AND UPWARD

We are not going to talk  any more about our election. it's over. I gather the younger generation turned out in numbers. I'm glad we have new members in our two ridings. I hope  lines of communication 

with the new members will web kept open and help them to represent the community.

i wish no harm to ousted members.  Losing is hard but that too shall pass. 

There is absolutely no point in suggesting  Justin, son of P.E.T. was not elected because of proven prowess. Though  nothing in evidence suggests he was. All that matters now is how he conducts himself going forward. A hundred and  eighty some unlikely Members of Parliament might prove hard to handle. 

Tom Mulcair will continue to do what he does  exceptionally well.

 Maybe the opportunist who bought the leadership of the Provincial Conservative will try the same stunt for the Federal Leadership. If Conservatives have any sense, considering recent experience, they will ychange the process. 

So now we can turn our attention south to the American Drama. If we listen we may learn.The second fiddle in the Republican race for the no,I nation is now first fiddle because he is leading in Iowa. aT this point j. The race it's not clear that me and much. 

The Donald is leading in Massachusetts but it's not meaningful because that State is predominantly

Democratic.

Bernie Sanders is the longest serving independent but he's a candidate for the Democratic nomination

And according to polls posted on Stephen Colbert's show is leading and pulling in massive crowds to his rallies where he keeps repeating the same mantra. iS that show business or political business. 

Only three candidates  remain for the Democratic nomination and one is an independent. 

Eleven candidates are still in the Republican race, neither of the front-runners is likely to last

which is equally  and inevitably true of eight others. 

We will continue to listen.

WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS

I watched the  last three and a half hours of Hillary being grilled.It was an interesting evening. Starting at 5pm with Seth Meyers guesting on Charlie Rose, ending with Bernie Sanders guesting on Stephen Colbert and in between CNN's Anderson Cooper with a panel critiquing Hillary's performance in the opportunity provided. 

T.V. Is not usually turned on in my house until 5p.m. But to-day I may watch the View at eleven to see what the women have  to say about Hillary. 

I did. Whoopee wasn't there. Joy Behar was at the end of the table.

I'm sure each program will impact on the presidential race.

We can watch a facet of history unfold before our very eyes. 

Following the cornucopia of views  I was in the kitchen chopping vegetables and listening to CNN. Ben Carson was talking. He was suggesting Hillary should  go to jail for what happened in Benghazi. 

I was dropping onions from the chopping board into hot fat.

It wasn't the first time my jaw dropped as well. Where does he come from?  He can't be as ignorant as he seems. Such a person does not aspire to be President. 

Hard on the heels,came a memory of Tommy Douglas at one of the first meetings of the New Democratic Party Riding Association in an old church in Richmond Hill in the mid-sixties. He told of introducing health care in Saskatchewan. Millions of dollars poured into the Province in the virulent battle  from the American medical community. 

Tommy Douglas would have instantly recognized what Ben Carson was about. 

I realized I'd  seen it before myself. When the British Government introduced  health care, the medical profession did everything they could to sabotage it by bankrupting the scheme. 

Drug coverage was provided from the beginning. Doctors prescribed everything and anything remotely 

connected to health.

Wigs were prescribed for bald heads. Bandages, cotton balls, aspirin,you name it, they prescribed it in vast quantities. 

Even today, eavesdropping on a conversation, at a bus stop, in a pub,or a group chatting on the street, the conversation is ninety-nine per cent likely to be sharing the latest surgical procedure. It 's 

the national pre-occupation. Even Margaret Thatcher wasn't able to change it.

So..here's my theory. Ben Carson is  the candidate of the medical and pharmacy industry.

He is not a politician. He has no interest in making America a better place. Every interview he gives,every time he speaks, he reveals himself. 

A serious candidate for public office he is not. 

No more than the Donald and I can't believe he takes himself seriously. 

THE JOB USED TO BE SO SIMPLE

I removed a post about fraud charges being laid against an employee of the City of Barrie.

The employee  charged was Manager of Facilities.

I had understood it to be City Manager. It makes a substantial difference. 

I wrote about authority of  the City Manager/ CAO to  spend without Council approval .

It's not the same for Manager of Facilities.  

My mistake . I apologize  to anyone in Barrie who might read the blog .I know of at least one. Marnie, sweetheart of my son Martin and mother of my grandchildren. 

Still, millions were stolen. Considering  the checks and balances, it's difficult to understand how so much  could have been drained from the city treasury under the nose of the Treasurer and or the Mayor whose signatures both have to be on city cheques and both of whom share responsibility for oversight. 

I guess the city's insurance will want an explanation of the circumstances before they indemnify the loss.

Then there's the annual audit required by the Municipal Act. How could double invoicing to the tune of $3 million pass competent audit for four years .

That's an awful lot of people with explaining to do. Including that fellow who just bought the leadership of the Provincial Conservatives. The fraud  happened during his watch in Barrie. 

Of course ,even if he  wondered how  $3 million could disappear without making a hole in a budget, he wouldn't have been able to say anything without being in contravention of a  Code of Conduct if Barrie has a Code of Conduct .

Because if the City has  a Code, it means even if he thought stuff was going on that shouldn't be going on and  even though he was elected to represent the people whose tax dollars are being used for something they should not have  been used for....he could not have  said anything  because that's against the Code ,don't you know.

Rules to live by. 

A VIRUS IN THE SYSTEM

Netenyahu  made a splash on the international stage. Yesterday he made a statement on television to suggest Muslims were responsible for The Holocaust.

Ezra Levant has apparently made a Statement  to suggest Canadians have elected an idiot for Prime Minister

There  are those who might say Israelis did the same  thing last time round. Any idiot is dangerous in a position of absolute power. 

Millions of people in the Middle east are fleeing with their families.Every day they risk their children's lives in rubber dinghies from sheer desperation to escape from their homes. It's world crisis . 

While Netenyhu throws gasoline on the flames and the west repeatedly re-avows it's friendship with Israel. Netenyahu...Israel....are those two the same.

He does not make it easy.

No doubt he  has a powerful bodyguard everywhere he goes. 

Americans could be on track to elect a monumental blockhead as president in 2016. 

Why should they be any different?

Republicans in the house can't find anyone willing to be their leader.

Vice President Joe Biden in the Rose Garden at the White House yesterday told Americans he would not be a candidate for president. The President stood along side while Biden lectured righteously, Democrats should not attack Democrats. Then proceeded to do exactly that.

The  Donald, leading -by-a-mile Republican candidate, currently vigorously denying a statement  about  the War in Afghanistan, in the face of a video of him making the statement .

The  media says he doesn't back down. 

He does so. 

We watch his ignominious performances dailyon T.V. 

it's like they're  in a time warp down there. Oblivious to their  audience. 

Of course, eighty million of them are captive...literally......and a significant  number are children sentenced by  American Justice to die in jail.

GUEST POST COMMENT FROM CHRISTOPHER WATTS

"Instinct suggests the irreverent social media had much to do with the outcome."

The 2011 was touted at Canada's first social media election. Here's the G&M's take:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadas-first-social-media-election-is-on-but-will-people-vote/article574263/

With the second all wrapped up here is Facebook's Head of Public Policy Kevin Chan's summary of traffic on their network and how it breaks down: 
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/election/tracking-elxn42-on-social-media-voters-engage-during-long-campaign-1.2616457

Here's an October 18th CBC piece on "Social media's significance oversold amid election hype": http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-social-media-1.3277007

One conclusion that arrived at is "Social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook are designed to connect people to each other. They are about two-way conversations. But politicians tend to be much more comfortable using them to pump out one-way messages than engage in genuine dialogue."

One shared by this digital journal piece:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/internet/how-social-media-influences-the-2015-canadian-election/article/447001

"judging by the feeds of the Canadian parties, whether on Facebook or Twitter, social media isn't being used to its best abilities: more often than not, the Libs, New Democrats and Tories are using social networks to bullhorn their platform messages and promote policy, instead of having that conversation the medium could engender. Sure, Trudeau had a live Q&A via Facebook, but it's a rare bright spot in a grey desert of social engagement."

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I was thinking of the exchange between unabashed,unreserved and ferociously irreverent youthful element  I thought I detected on Facebook.

The U-tube of Joe Oliver on fAcebook on Election Day went on and on, taking the P?M. apart with the force of humor,was the penultimate.

No holds were barred. Nasty Conservative ads were blown out of the water by stuff that could never otherwise have seen the light of day. 

All of it directed at the conservative leader. Deservedly so. 

Pit was involvement by a generation never before  politically active and doing it their way. 

The target was defined.,

Justin can just as easily become the focus now the surfers have found their balance. 

Political philosophy has little to do with it. 

A wild and unruly generation is mad as hell and not prepared to take it any more. 

They' re not hanging out of a window shouting their rage into the night.

They're doing it on Facebook and encouraging  each other. 

Today's  politicians will have to get real. 

A Tiger was unleashed in yesterday's election. It will not be easily coaxed back into the box. 

JUST DO THE RIGHT THING

A leaflet published by the Aurora War Memorial  Board in 1988  provides everything anyone might want to know of the history of the Aurora War memorial and  the Memorial Garden.

Details are all there, including use for the Monument, registered against title of the land.

It cannot be used for any  purpose except that for which it was acquired. 

No meetings  are allowed other than approved for the purpose of raising  funds for upkeep of the Memorial.

The use cannot be stretched to include  use of the property to display any monument other than to commemorate those who fell in battle. 

Jacqueline Stuart is the acknowledged authority of town history. Ms Stuart has informed Council

of the history of the institution and why placement of a war machines is neither legal nor appropriate use. 

Every year on November 11th, the gathering grows at the Cenotaph.The town's oldest  and youngest residents are there together. Parents clearly  intend the tradition will be passed on and memory kept fresh and meaningful.

That's respect. 

The Mayor and Council are in attendance to pay their respects.

I can't believe the intention is to disrespect an institution soon to mark a century of town history. 

Yet  that is exactly the impact of the decision to display  a facsimile of an armed military vehicle in that

place. 

It does not belong.

It is not welcome. 

It has no right to occupy that space  

ALL OVER INCLUDING THE SHOUTING

Well...well....well....I can't say I'm surprised by the outcome of the election.

I don't think  anyone should be. 

Justin is the new Wonder Boy and he has a healthy majority. 

On the morning after the night before, the media is acknowledging the obvious,voters were intent on defeating the Harper Party and they didn't choose the NDP to do it.

On  Election night, the talk is always about  success and failure of various campaigns.. 

None of the talking heads ever give voters  credit for making the choice. 

Yet obviously, as always, the decision was their's to make. 

I am looking forward to seeing what percentage of the voters actually turned out and what was the  generation bracket. 

Instinct auggests the irreverent social media had much to do with the outcome . A force was unleashed new to Canadian politics. If it impacted this election, it will have ten times  the  impact on the next.

And It will start immediately.

There is no party loyalty. No wide-eyed innocence.

What they did to Harper,they can and will do elsewhere ....and twice as hard. 

I think our local situation may have improved with the result. 

It remains to be seen. 

THE DIFFERENCE MATTERS

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "GUEST POST FROM JACQUELINE STUART": 

11:12
Sorry for the edited profanity, however I get sick and tired of the Birkenstock wearing, tree-hugging, peaceniks that first put down the Canadian Armed forces and then pooh-pooh an attempt to recognize their contribution because it is somehow a glorification of war.

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 19 October 2015 at 13:09

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Thank you for the explanation. This is a sensitive issue.

When I was fifteen,my twenty-one year old brother was killed six months before the second world war 

ended in Europe.  He was in the Royal Air Force

His tour of duty had ended but he was transferred to new crew and started over. The raid was over the German Ruhr. 

As flight-engineer, he needed to move about the plane. It meant he didn't wear a  parachute. 

The plane,still laden with explosives,was hit. Half the crew was killed and he was wounded and bleeding. 

He and another survivor wearing a parachute wrapped arms around each other and jumped from the 

blazing inferno. 

The other lad was alone when he came back to consciousness. He was taken prisoner and came home after the war ended.

The entire crew were declared missing until I informed the war office what we learned from the survivor. 

My mother's twenty-two year old brother was killed on the beaches of the Dardanelles in 1917. 

My brother had leave the week before he was killed. He shared his experience of what it's like to be inside a huge metal canister loaded with bombs. The noise inside and out, every part rattling with concussion from ack-ack shells  exploding on every side.,Dark and search lights slicing the sky and the thud of bombs a they hit the buildings below, 

During training,they'd been told about initially blacking  out in the jump and being dead before they hit the ground, if the chute didn't open. 

Then there was the laden silence in personnel carriers that brought them back to base after returning from a raid. Voices locked in throats with terror for hours after the horror ended. 

There is no glory in war. 

Only, for those who fought and survived, horror, fear, carnage, grief and a lifetime of tormented  memories of terrible  things  witnessed and comrades who never came home. 

NEVER AGAIN

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "GUEST POST FROM JACQUELINE STUART": 

This letter is pure and utter bulls**t !

This is not a "Peace Park" for crying out loud. This is a memorial to members of the area that fell while defending the country. On November 11 we have parades to this site to lay wreaths and as part of that ceremony, the firing of a salute with the honour guard. They are carrying the weapons that are used to defend the country just like the LAV was used.  

The LAV may be armed but for the most part, the weapons are defensive. The role of a LAV to transport personnel in the battlefield.  

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 19 October 2015 at 07:37

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The above comment probably illustrates thinking that went into Council's decision to place a

killing  machine at the Cenotaph and spend $15,000 of public resources on a concrete support pad. 

Jacqueline Stuart signed her name and provided a link to documentation regarding the Peace Park designation. 

It was news to me .I was not aware of initiative to  re-designate War Memorials as Peace Parks. 

It makes sense, it might have derived from awareness, as time passes, generations intervene, 

meaning is obscured and war memorials are mistaken as monuments to the glorification of war.

The name suggests as much. 

Prayers ... poppies  ....names chiseled in stone ...the Altar of Sacrifice...heads bowed for  a minute of silence at the eleventh hour,of the eleventh day ,of the eleventh month, while people world over remember the awful sacrifice and the vow never to allow it to happen again, are all part of the ceremony. 

The parade....firing a salute by an honor guard .....are centuries old military rituals to commemorate fallen comrades.

Display of a killing machine is the opposite. Placing one alongside the altar of sacrifice is an abomination. 

How does anyone  who has attended  the November 11th  Ceremony at the Cenotaph and heard the   words 

WE SHALL REMEMBER 

Fail  to understand... 

It is not about glorifying war. 

It is a reminder never to allow it to happen again. Otherwise their sacrifice was for nothing. 

War machines displayed anywhere in our community serve no useful purpose whtsoever. 

They contribute nothing to the reason we gather and solemnly vow on November 11th. at the Aurora Cenotaph never to repeat the anguish. 

I read  once of a man in his thirties being deported to the U.K. Because of  relatively   minor offence.He had been brought to Canada as  an infant and had never applied for citizenship. He knew no one in the old country and had no association. 

At the time,I was well are of  Canada's immigration rules. A person with criminal record is not eligible. 

On the face of it, it's entirely logical. So long as every country is as efficient at keeping records or creating  records or prosecuting crime. Or share a civilized view of what constitutes a crime. 

If law in a particular country can sentence a woman to be stoned to death for adultery after having been  raped. Or permits men in a family to rape and  murder  their women for what they deem to be

"Dishonour" , how does that equate with  Canadian Justice. ...how does it permit  men or women who uphold such laws, to be eligible for entry into Canada. 

Three people...a man,his wife and his son are currently in jail serving sentencing  for the murder  of  a former wife and three daughters. They are appealing the conviction.  

That is the question Canadians should be asking their government. 

GUEST POST FROM JACQUELINE STUART

Jacqueline  Stuart has left a new comment on your post "ACT NOW ......NO TIME TO WAIT": 

I sent this message to all councillors a few days ago:

I'm sorry that I did not notice that the question of placing a Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV) in the Peace Park was to come up at your last General Committee meeting, or I would have sent off this message much earlier.

The placement of an armoured vehicle in a Peace Park seems ironic, to say the least. When these parks were first designated in 1992 they were to be "Places for Peace" (to read more about them see the Peace Parks across Canada web page at http://www.iipt.org/newsletter/2007/images/PeaceParksProject.pdf ).

These vehicles are not just armoured, they are armed. They bear weapons which are there to kill people, even if only in self-defence. Do we want to commemorate the sad fact that such vehicles are needed, that we have not found a way to avoid war?

Put the LAV next to the old drill shed or armoury, if need be, although I believe this or a similar proposal was successfully opposed by neighbourhood residents some years ago.

Please reconsider placing such a strong symbol of war and of the violence of death in war in the Peace Park, near the cenotaph which is all about remembering with regret all the local lives lost to war.

But bring on the tulips

Posted by Jacqueline Stuart to  Our Town and Its Business at 18 October 2015 at 08:42

Note: Ms Stuart served twenty-five years as curator of Aurora Museum,heritage advisor to Aurora

Planning  Department and always willing to research any inquiry fro the community. Since retirement she has been continuous member of the town's Heritage Advisory Committee.

INTERESTING TIMES

 I've never been terribly confident with numbers. As I grew older and realized my memory was better than adequate,confidence grew.  Still,I was always glad for someone else to present the numbers.

Then experience taught me I had to use my own resources there as well. 

Last week-end, people voted at the advance polls and media told us the percentage each day. First day 26%, second 34%,I never caught the third but it seemed likely to have reached 40%.

It occurred to me ,since turn-out is never 100% , that high advance vote must mean the election was all over bar the shouting. The last week of campaigning is a waste of everybody's time. 

It didn't seem right.The leaders were working harder than ever. More ads being churned out. Campaign officials with fingers on the pulse twenty-four-seven. Media working itself into a gesticulating frenzy.

Trudeau's campaign co-chair got caught with fingers dabbling in the cookie jar which reminded all of sponsorship scandals in Chretien's time that brought Paul Martin down and gave us Harper's Party.

Was there still time for disaster to strike any one of the three? It seemed maybe.

Wikipedia  is like The Oracle in pagan times. Priests went in to the temple to obtain answers for problems.

In Wikipedia I found numbers entitled to vote in previous elections. Half a million increase in each election brought me to a  current figure  of almost twenty-seven million. 

3.4 million were reported to have voted already. How could the calculation have been 26% on the first day. 

26% of what? Obviously I missed something.

Since broadenung the focus of the blog, statistics have become a factor. I don't know what to make of

them

American visits now top Canadian by 3 sometimes 400. It was opposite before. 

France comes next,then Russia, Germany, Italy, Netherlands,Indonesia.  Romania and Vietnam complete the list . The U.K. and Ireland vanished from the screen then returned. . 

Totals have more than doubled . Blocking  spam changed nothing. I thought visits might include robots firing out promotions.

A particular post has been read over seventeen hundred times. The one about unknown impact of social media on the future. It had a snippet of what  life was like for my grandparents and for my great grandchildren now.  I said we can't  know how social media  might change their future.

Isla  my great-grand-daughter is not yet three. She has taught herself ballet poses from a video. I can watch her and her two younger sisters progress every day on the iPad. How great is that?

Last Sunday before I got home from the family gathering ,photos of two of them on my knees on the scooter competing for control of the controls, were waiting for me on Facebook. 

Their memories will really be photographic, amply supported with photographs of events.

It must make a difference. 

It sure does to me.

ACT NOW ......NO TIME TO WAIT

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "TELL THE WHOLE STORY, WHY DON'T YOU": 

Wow ! You are on a roll, Lady ! 

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 16 October 2015 at 18:52

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My finger hovered over the wrong line again. The above comment now heads this post. I appreciate the sentiment but I need to know y'all understood the information.  

Or was the history so tortuous you just gave up trying to follow the thread ?

It's entirely possible . Municipal business does not enjoy high ratings. 

In politics, things happen that way. There's much to think about but foremost is the need to look like you know what you're talking about. Not to make a fool of yourself. 

Most  elected representatives have good intentions but when they look around and the leader isn't leading, they start to question themselves. I've watched it up close and personal over and over. 

 

We have the finest war memorial anywhere in Ontario. Perhaps  even in Canada. Aurora, King and  Whitchurch were communities numbering hundreds when the memorial was planned. They  worked together. planned and raised the funds. They chose the site for prominence. It took years but when completed, it was everything the community intended. 

A fitting tribute...prominent . ..surrounded by green fields.... a beacon of light.... and a symbol of everything good and honorable in a small Canadian Town that rallied to the call of duty .

When the town started to close in around it, development plans were required to be least intrusive .

The Cenotaph has always been immaculate and lovingly tended. Until the mid-nineties representatives of King ,Whitchurch and Aurora were the Foundation responsible for its care and maintenance.

 Then Aurora accepted the honour and responsibility.

In or around 1972 , a tank became available for free. Queen's York Rangers had become a Tank Regiment  and some bright spark from that organization suggested it would be neat to have one. Where else to put it but the War Memorial.  Ever obliging, the  Council  of the Day were inclined to accommodate. One Councillor thought it would be nice for kids to play on. 

The Royal Canadian Legion still had its original function. There were still Members with experience of war and and significance of the Memorial.,

Being inside a fighter bomber, a submarine or a tank is to experience the full horror of machines with  no other purpose but the death and destruction of mankind. 

Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be less appropriate in a memorial set aside to remember always 

 men whose lives were taken by those monstrous weapons.

So the tank was never accepted .

That no member of Aurora Council had a question about the suggestion of placing another weapon of war at the Cenotaph speaks volumes. 

A $15,000 concrete pad is to be constructed to accommodate the monstrosity. 

When  we gather there in November with Officials from three municipalities, and children and Honour Guards, and remaining veterans,maybe release a flight of doves, to lay wreaths, listen again to the Last Post and bow our heads for a full minute of silence, 

WE SHALL REMEMBER.....

The scene this year will be dominated by an ugly replica of a war machine, cobbled together from spare parts perched on a dais of massive concrete, a crass and totally inappropriate symbol in opposition to everything the ceremony represents. 

Shame ....Shame ... on every  shallow and unthinking person responsible who gave no thought to the values of the town they represent. 

There may be time to stop this abomination. It's as close as your phone ...your iPad ...your elected representative, your Mayor.