And Good Riddance....2009

TUMULTUOUS AND TRYING YEAR FOR CANADIANS AND US HERE IN WOODSTOCK

 To me Woodstock is symbolic of a national crisis that has been persistently gaining ground. The greatest threat to our national and civic security is the utter and sheer lack of respect for the democratic functions and institutions that we developed and built over the course of many years.

 Throughout just about every tier of government that we encounter in our daily lives there seems to be a tragic disconnect between the people and the bureacracy. We break open the daily news and read of tyrannical decisions, improper political processes and backroom meetings with regular certainty. This over-exposure to these political melodramas has resulted in the wholesale fleeing from the polls of nearly 50 % of Canadas' voting population. The diaspora of people from elections has reduced democracy to a bitter joke.

 Here in Woodstock, the numbers are close to the national numbers, perhaps a bit better, but not by much. This leads me to believe that people have lost faith in our local leaders, lost faith in the local decision making process,and have lost control of the very thing that was designed to protect them when all else fails.

The key is, we have lost control of our local council and mayor, just as much as we've lost control of our federal government when it shuts down democracy through an act of sheer dictatorship;the proroguing of parliament.

 Locally, our council acts in a similar fashion. Defying all ethical logic, this council and mayor have driven taxes through the roof, failed to protect the people from the belligerent actions of the county on the issue of water rates that are disproportionately high compared to neighbouring communities and have failed to deliver a safe community in return for our support. We have been subjected to years of abuse. This cycle has got to end.

 There are a few councillors who might be prepared to work in your best interests, and then there are a few who need to go.(this idea seems to work on all levels of government.)

 Picking and choosing the right ones will be difficult to do. They kind of look good, nice clothes and clean teeth, but what is in their hearts is yet to be decided, and in some cases, some folks wear their hearts on their sleeves.

You can identify some of them easily by looking at their voting records, and deciding for yourself if what they have done has been in your best interests, or in the interests of a community.

 What I am recommending to everyone today is this...

 Pick one councillor that you support. The ballott will ask you to pick four. DO NOT PICK FOUR. Each and every vote that you cast for another councillor aside from your personal favourite, cancels out your vote for your favourite.The odds are against your personal choice. The council vote is RIGGED to ensure the survival of the incumbent council. It is RARE that anyone wins a seat on council anywhere when this system of voting is used. The present council has the legal right to change this by ordering the City Clerk to redesign this voting system, but have FAILED to do so as it would result in them LOSING THEIR POSTS.(most likely!)

 After analysing polling results over the past several elections I have realized that if people had only picked one person, then most of them would NEVER HAVE BEEN RE-ELECTED AGAIN.

 So that's my hope for 2010.

 We can stop the madness with a little bit of savviness. All it takes is the will to check only ONE NAME. Your ONE VOTE FOR ONE COUNCILLOR will result in your vote wielding more clout. This will entice whoever is running to work harder for YOU.

 I will do the rest.

 If I am elected as Head of Woodstock Council, as Mayor, I will ensure that all councillors respond to your requests. If they do not, I WILL PERSONALLY AND PUBLICLY CENSURE them on your behalf. I care nothing about an activist council, but I do care that the council PAYS HEED TO THE RATEPAYER in no uncertain terms. This will be a no BS system that keeps you the ratepayer on the top.They are indebted to you...they ought to respond or be criticized for their inaction.

  I will during a swearing in ceremony make a community and personal pledge to enact a recall mechanism no matter how hard it is to enact. I will work unwaveringly towards that end. This will always remain the focal point. It is the only way to ensure that effective accountable government can be had. I will enact whislteblower protections in our municipality. People have come forward who are employed by the city in various capacities citing irregularities in processes. Their concerns should be met with action, not inaction.(hmmm, i wonder if anyone remembers sending a city staffer down to my shop to pick up a stack of FD paperwork that ended up in my mailbox one evening? I wonder what ever happened to those serious concerns? Have they ever been addressed? They should be!)

 I believe in the power of the people. We were born into a system of inherent democratic principles that I will always uphold. I will always defer to the people.This is all that matters.

 This is always all that matters. The people are the sum of the city. Without us, there is no city. Without us, there is nothing.

 We demand accountable government for the people and by the people.

  That's my hope for 2010. That's our only hope.

  

  

And Canada Contributes Four More Bodies, Plus One Reporter To The War Of Attrition

DEAR CANADA...BREED QUICKLY, WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF FRESH BODIES TO SEND

 One Canadian soldier fresh off the plane from Afghanistan for a few weeks of well deserved holidays had this to say to me yesterday in my shop...Thanks for the comments CC. Good luck on your flight back to Gagetown today. Thanks for standing up for democracy in a place where democracy is a bad word.

 "The place is a mess.The country is a piece of barbed wire dirt. The people all seem to hate us no matter what we do. We are all frightened. There is no difference between the good people and the bad. They all dress the same, talk the same and have the same ideals." "The only way we will win is to destroy all of them." "There is nothing left to defend aside from an airport.""I have to go back because my friends are there dying.""We need more bodies behind guns".

 That is sad. The very last thing he had to say. He wouldn't go back if it weren't for his friends.

 And then yesterday after he left I heard the news, four more dead in Ohio Afghanistan. And I realized that even though we may think we are doing justice in this distant dusty land, we are doing nothing but staving off the inevitable loss that we are about to face at the hands of a tribal force. Damn the monkees, they've learned to use sticks as weapons.

 Afghanistan is lost. Revolution should have only come through the people, not a foreign military. It's time to bring our troops home and to reinvest our military strength in tightening Canadas' borders. If we want to keep our nation safe, the best way is to start at home with tighter security and tighter immigration rules.

Frankly...

 There is something to be feared in a man who claims he has never errored. For the rest of us who have made some sort of mistake, it becomes quite clear that we are staring into the face of a liar when we hear someone state they have never done any wrong.
 It's whether or not one learns from their errors that sets one apart from the rest.

Harper Turns out The Lights In Ottawa...Again

HARPER SHUTS DOWN PARLIAMENT, AVOIDS TORTURE PROBE

 The Prime Minister of Canada has shut down the House of Commons for the second time in a year after making the request to the governor general(no, that one is not worth placing capitols on anymore...her importance has waned)to do just that. The governor general naturally rubber stamped the request without any thought for Canadas' fledgling economic recovery or the fact that most Canadians would like to see their parlimentarians actually working at some point throughout the year.

 Harper has once more reduced the idea of accountability to a joke with his latest action. This is nothing short of a national work stoppage.

 This pororoguing will result in the shut down of all inquiries into the Afghanistan issue in specific the issue regarding torture of detainees and the complicity of our federal conservative government in that matter. This is not good for Canadians as we all deserved an answer to the issue. Closing down parliament will prevent the Conservatives from having to provide uncensored documents to the committee of inquiry into the Afghan affair...this is purely an avoidance tactic.

 Closing down parliament will deep six all crime bills that the Tories have pushed for the past few years. Harper has constantly stated that the opposition Liberals have stymied those bills when in fact the bills are being stymied by Harpers' own actions, through the proroguing of parliament.

 Preventing those we elect from going to work through this manner stands in stark contrast to the basic prinicples of any democratic theory.

 Can Canadians afford another year of the secretive and combative Mr Harper at the wheel? Do Canadians stand for this lack of accountability and transparency at the hands of one who claimed he would return Canadas parliament to the people?

 I doubt they do, but I also feel that many Canadians just don't care about who sits in parliament or for how long, or even what they do while they are there...most Canadians just don't give a damn and the reasons for that are quite apparent when you look at the assinine politics being played out on the national stage.

 Go back to work you fools, we are paying you the big bucks to be there working for us, and frankly it feels as though you are robbing us of our government, and robbing us of resources in order to prop up your silly parties and their equally silly ideologies.

  I still think that the only answer for Canada would have came through the formation of a coalition government comprised of willing partners from all the parties who have the will to work for the people who elected them. Shame on Stephen Harper for reducing Canadas' democracy to a joke.

And Mister Harding Says...

Every Year he tries To Learn Something New

I spotted a Michael Harding year end interview in the paper yesterday and was kind of amused that he said he likes to learn something new every year.That's pretty special.

There really is only one thing that most Woodstonians would like him to learn and that is the basics of democratic prinicples. Unfortunately, many of us believe in the old adage, that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

If you are reading a book this year Mike, I would suggest reading The Social Contract. It contains all those key elements that you seem to be missing.