Who's To Blame ?
Wow! City Council members were jumping all over themselves today announcing that as of close of business this afternoon -- when Larry O'Brien leaves the building on a leave of absence -- all troubles will be over, disfunction will cease and chaos will no longer reign at City Hall.
They'd like to perpetuate the myth that everything that's gone wrong at the council level is due to one person and one person only -- Mayor Larry.
Some of them ought to take a good look in the mirror.
They're the ones who, from the day Larry O'Brien announced he was running for mayor, made no secret of the fact he was the last person they wanted to see wearing the robes and chain of office. These chardonnay socialists were, naturally, supported by the city's unionized workers -- lots of CUPE dues were spent on television ads aired during prime time on the local channels predicting gloom and doom, cutbacks to everything, disaster of the worst sort if Larry succeeded to the mayor's chair. Talk about childish behavior ! Our candidate, Alex Munter, lost; the new guy, O'Brien, won; so let's make it hard for the new guy.
They're the ones who will have difficulty, come Monday, concealing their glee as they see Larry do the perp walk outside the courthouse -- where mainstream media will crowd the entrance to record the event for the slavering citizenry.
All this stuff about disfunction disappearing, sweetness and light in the council chamber, restoring public confidence in council blah, blah,blah is a crock. It ain't gonna happen, folks. It's more mouthings from the mediocre. With all the jockeying for position that's going on among those announced and those yet- to- be- announced mayoral candidates, nothing will change.
There are a lot of smart people in Ottawa -- people who are achievers in both the public and private sectors. Unfortunately none of them are sitting on council.
The city's best and brightest are instead serving on the boards of area hospitals and hospital foundations; they're involved in volunteer leadership roles with the United Way and other charitable organizations; they contribute to the community in many ways but they won't touch municipal politics with a 10-foot pole.
Why ? The best and the brightest, having seen what's happened to Mayor Larry, recognize that sitting on city council means having to take a load of crap from a bunch of has-beens and never-weres. Take a look at who's on council. Read their biographies on the Ottawa.ca website. Pretty thin pickings. Not a deputy-minister in the bunch. Not even an EX-1. Mayor Larry (a self-made millionaire and civic builder from the tech sector) has been the first to come out of the private sector in a long, long time.
So who's to blame for the circus at city hall that's been entertaining us for the past two years ? The public is to blame. We're the ones who keep voting (that is, if we bother to vote at all) for these same councillors election after election. Too many of them are past their "best by" dates. Too many of them are tax and spend afficionados who don't give a fig for the taxpayer's ability to pay.
True reform at city hall won't occur unless some new faces step up and run as a slate: i.e. mayoral candidate and council candidates targetting specific wards with a specific platform which does not include unachievable goals such as "zero means zero." A few years back, long before amalgamation, a chap ran for mayor of the new city of Gloucester. He told the truth on the stump. He told the electors there would be tax increases if they wanted arenas, community centres, swimming pools, parks, new city hall and the like . He promised "pay as you go" management of city finances on the basis that you can't spend what you don't have -- unless you want to get into serious debt. Prior to amalgamation, in the city of Nepean it was always "pay as you go" -- Andy Haydon and the late Ben Franklin wouldn't have it any other way. Guess what ? These folks were elected and the people of Nrepean and Gloucester lived happily every after -- at least until amalgamation.
A Good Cause
Citizen Ellie's friend, Walter Robinson, is running. Now here's a guy who should be on city council. Former head of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation, writes a very thoughtful column in the Ottawa SUN, a civic builder. But Walter's run isn't for a council seat. He's participating once again in the Alterna Do It For Dad ! Run and Family Walk on Father's Day which raises funds for prostate cancer research, care and services in the Ottawa area.
Over the last decade, the run has raised over a million dollars and through the generosity of his friends, Walter himself has raised over $60,000 for the cause over the past eight years.
You can sponsor Walter by clicking on this link:
You can get more info on how YOU can participate in this event by clicking on:
Thank you for supporting regional cancer services. By the way, The Ottawa Hospital Foundation has reached the half-way mark in its "20 in 20" campaign -- to raise $20 million in 20 months for the cancer treatment centres at the hospital.
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