For the record, I have not been fitted for a pair of customized cement shoes and I'm not on the bottom of the Palgrave pond. I'm alive, kicking and doing just fine. I've had quite a few inquiries as to my health, my state of mind and if I'm ok. I'm ok. It's actually quite comforting to get so many notes from people asking about me and wondering if coopSpeak will ever fire up again. I can tell by the metrics bar that the blog is constantly opened so I know people have wondered where I've gotten off to.
My hiatus from coopSpeak is really about two things, neither of which has anything to do with politics, elections or being afraid of that late night call. Rather it has a lot more to do with actually writing about something I truly love, which is just simply food. Long before I started coopSpeak I'd been an active social media food blogger with my coopspeak Eats blog. Writing about food and looking at the world of food through a camera lens is just a whole lot more fun than writing about local politics and the mediocrity and more so the hypocrisy that seem to be the circus here in Caledon.
I'm busy working on a photo journal about Farmer's Market's all across this province and have been from Leamington to Ottawa, snapping happies, meeting people who bring food from earth to table and just having a great time. My goal is to photograph every single Farmer's Market in the province. It's a lofty goal but it is a worthwhile effort. I'm considering dedicating the book to Galen Weston and calling it "Flock Ewe". :) Since according to him one of these days Farmer's Markets are going to kill someone. Has anyone reminded Galen this week that there was a recall on Loblaws hamburgers for tainted meat. Wonder if the Junior Weston would be interested in coming over for a bbq.
The second reason I took a hiatus from coopSpeak was also in part because of a clandestine meeting with a woman who I'll just affectionately refer to as Dizzy Lizzy. She'll know who she is. It was actually Dizzy Lizzy who asked me for the meeting because as she put it "I'd just really like to get to know the woman behind the blog". Which as it turns out was really code language for I'm just going to see if I can bully you in to not writing coopSpeak. Darling Dizzy Lizzy tried so hard to infantilize me throughout the whole meeting, it was like the Theatre of the Absurd. I remembering thinking to myself what a shame it was that the Second Cup wasn't licensed because ordering up a double double would have come in very handy during those 45 minutes of my life that I'll never be able to get back.
Later that evening as I sat with a friend sharing some wine and recounting to her about this silly woman I couldn't shake the sense of how serreptitious, caustic and virulent those 45 minutes had really been. In hindsight now I realize that those 45 minutes were probably one of the best things that I could have experienced because it made me understand how I just would never want to be like this person and somewhere along the line, in my own coopSpeak kinda way, I had in fact become just like her. It shook me to my core. The only difference between us was that I have far better taste in boots and I unlike her I would never qualify as a candidate for a What Not To Wear episode. Thank goodness for small mercies and good fashion sense. So I turned to food, not to eat it, but to glorify it, in script and through my camera lens and on my foodblog.
So here I am. I still here and I'm still full of piss and vinegar. I would like to weigh in on a few things, not only on the political scenery in Caledon but also what's happening at both the provincial and federal level. These are scary times and I wonder why people continue to sit complacently by and not speak up. There is so much going on. Let's start with the whole Robocalling fiasco. Has it occured to anyone that our Federal Government may have actually broken the law in getting themselves elected. Then there's the Drummond Report, get ready Ontario the cuts are coming, they will be deep and there will be blood. Then we come to Caledon. There are 18 parties recognized at the Ontario Municipal Board who are stalking Caledon and hounding for changes to our OPA. Hello, is anyone paying any attention here? Do I need to bang the drum on the apathy is boring tenet again?
Oh by the way, Matthew Strader (aka Darth Strader), you suck as a journalist and haven't you just become Mister Pro-Growth and the developers best buddy. It makes me wonder who you've been eating lunch with lately. And I don't give a rat's ass what a bunch of 3rd year university Planning students have to say about Bolton's growth. Like I'm prepared to handover the OPA for Peel to a bunch of post-pubescent kids who have absolutely no real time experience in planning other than schooling exercises. Hey while we are at it why don't we get a bunch of MBA students together to see if they can fix the financial deficit of this province. Thank goodness that piece of trash flyer disguised as a newspaper that you write for has some credible writers otherwise the Caledon Enterprise would be nothing more than a bluebox filler. I'm so crushing on my fave column curmudgeon, Bill Whitbread. He is still my most favorite old fart in Bolton. You Darth Strader could take an old school lesson from him.
So stay tuned....the girl is back in the saddle. Oh, and Suzanne, thanks.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
A Fork in the Road....Some Food for Thought
"One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised." - Chinua Achebe
It has felt like an eternity since I’ve posted anything here at CoopSpeak. My absenteeism extended out of the pre-election day threat and that ominous anonymous “We’re gonna deal with you after the election” telephone call to my home late one evening. After conferring with the local law enforcement and my family, we thought we’d just wait and see what, if anything at all, would ever materialize out of that cowardly, blocked number telephone phone call. I figured it would only be a matter of time until the human versions of Whiarton Willie stuck their heads up out of the ground; they are after all, rodents. Well it looks like that day has finally arrived.
I'm fairly certain, that somewhere in a dark, dank little corner of Caledon there are a small handful of people huddled together, cackling in laughter, guffawing aloud, espousing in their irreverent indifference “Hey Coop...payback’s a bitch, isn’t it!” They wear their gloat like cheap knock off designer duds bought down on the back alley of Canal Street in NYC. Clothing that is ill fitted and two sizes too small for their over bloated egos, not to mention they have really bad taste in garishly decorated shit kicker cowboy boots. Boots, which I'm quite sure, have most likely been designed specifically to do a little two step CoopSpeak stomping. I would probably even expect a little Jersey shore fist pumping going on. Just a bunch of regular Snookie Snickers is this crowd. That is about the level of mentality that we are dealing with.
I find their egotistical flatulence almost comical, only to be overpowered by the wafting stench of their cowardice because they choose to “put it to this girl” as it were, by hiding behind coerced promises of protection of their anonymity by threatening a local business of depleting and interfering in their revenue sources. I’m betting if you threw back the curtains in that dark, small world of theirs, exposing the light of day, those people would quickly scatter like the cockroaches they truly are.
Oh such high drama in a small town. Where’s my martini shaker? I’m just getting warmed up. Cocktails anyone?
I have been writing in the forum of social media for the better part of four years now. Web 2.0 is just an everyday part of my world. Over those years I have maintained four different blogs. I adore and utilize the power of the 140 characters that is Twitter. I have Skype’d, You Tube’d, Wiki’d, Flickr’d, Four Squared, MySpace’d and Digg’d. I salivate over the thought of the acquisition of my new iPad and get Google giddiness over the ideas of the limitless web applications that are constantly changing our world. I have embraced this social technology like a kid let loose in a candy store. It is the world at my feet, with a click of a button and then I can slip it into my coat pocket and be on my way. God bless Wi-Fi.
Social media has changed the landscape of communication as we know it. This virtual platform has empowered a whole lot of people with the ability and the mechanisms to do things such as self publish their writing, their art, their music, their film or any other of their interests they want to express or opine about. Heck, statistics say 1 in 5 relationships begin online. Virtual love is alive and doing quite well, not to mention it’s a billion dollar industry. It allows a soldier stationed overseas to post a note of love to his wife and family right at the moment they all need it. It allowed me to see a picture of my newest family member 10 minutes after he made his entrance into the world. And as we saw during the last U.S. election a social media movement for change can help you win an election. Just look at the Obama-lama bloggers who mobilized a nation of twenty-somethings to practice their civic rights and vote.
At the end of 2010 there were more than 150 million blogs online, making mine just a speck of dust on the virtual and viral blog landscape. Last week Ariana Huffington sold her online newspaper for a mind blowing $315 million dollars. That ain’t exactly chump change. Not bad for a chick who started off on her own. If you don’t think that social media is a powerful tool for the solitary man, then think again. It is a tsunami, in of itself.
Over the past three years, two of my blogs, CoopSpeak and CoopSpeak Eats have developed a faithful and interested following. While controversial and sarcastic in its political nature, CoopSpeak, was heavily trafficked and hardly a day would go by over the past two years where I wouldn’t get stopped in my hood by a local who wanted to talk to me about CoopSpeak. It was funny to be known as “hey…you are that girl.....I recognize those glasses!” My e-inbox was often filled with comments in response to a posting, some good, some not, either way I was ok with whatever turned up.
A small part of me would like to think that perhaps I had some tiny little impact on the political future of a community that I hold so dear to my heart. I achieved what I set out to do which was to get the voters off their rumps and in to the voting stations. Voter turnout in Caledon’s recent municipal/regional election had increased by about 12%. Apathy had clearly taken a small nip on the ass. The people of Caledon spoke loud and clear. I was one of them. I have never, for even a second, ever regretted taking my stand or using social media as the conduit for my message. More importantly though, I have never, ever hidden behind an avatar or a pseudonym and my readers always knew the source of every word that ever turned up on any of my blogs. Otherwise how would anything I had to say and write have any credibility? I am a prideful woman. You won't find me hiding under a virtual burqua. Knowing what I know now, even in hindsight, I would not do one thing differently.
Truth be known, it’s my food blog, CoopSpeak Eats that is really my first true writing love, not the political blather of CoopSpeak. Over the past few years I’ve posted up over 200 online reviews and more than a 1,000 photographs on everything from cookbooks to wine to restaurants to farmers markets. CoopSpeak Eats opened the door for me to join the locavore/locapour moment amidst the GTA and enabled me to become a part of a really fun social media scene that has developed in to an intrinsic cornerstone of the fabric of social media that influences all things culinary. How could I not love this?
It is so much more fun to actually eat the cupcake rather than to politically pander about it.
Over the past couple of years I’d been approached by some local media sources to talk about writing “opinion” for them but in the end I always declined. I abhorred the thought of an editor red penciling my work or being at the whim of the advertisers who my written canoodling might offend. I have lost count of how many times people asked me if they could buy an ad banner on my blog and I always said no. I write because I love it not because I wanted to turn it into an ad site. I have never ever even put one of those insidious Google ads on any of my blogs. I have a day job and a very satisfying career. I don’t depend upon writing for income of any sort. People always ask me where I find the time. My pat response is simply this “I don’t watch television and I just love to write.” There you have it.
Then last December I was approached by Shelly Sargent, Editor of The Regional, she asked if we could meet. I liked the Sargents and I knew they were working hard to build their small local business. I had constantly bumped in to them up at the Bolton Farmer’s Market. Shelly and her husband Rick, are the proprietors of the Caledon Media Company, which also own the local radio station. The Regional is a monthly hard copy print paper, distributed through our postboxes. Shelly spoke to me about writing for The Regional and my first comment to her was that I wasn’t interested in writing anything political because the atmosphere in Caledon was toxic and it was tiresome.
Shelly had discovered my food writings and was really more interested in having me develop a food column for the paper. I warmed to this idea so we came up with a column called “A Fork In The Regional Road” and it felt like a natural fit. I would provide The Regional with approximately 800 words a month, along with the appropriate photography and in turn they would cross pollinate the column to my online food blog. My established online food blog would ultimately bring them more readers. The first column was slated to appear in the February print & online edition, which it did. In the February edition you’ll see the inaugural column, along with a warm welcome from the Editor herself as she introduces new writers to their paper.
Enter Whiarton Willie and the entourage of vermin. Did you see their shadows? If you didn't see them just draw in a slow, deep breath. Their stench is unmistakable.
Only days after The Regional turned up in Caledon mailboxes I received a very cryptic email from The Sargent’s asking me for a face to face meeting in their office and that it was serious. Holy cow patties Batman that sounded ominous. I finally managed to get Shelly Sargent on the phone. What was up I asked? Someone call you guys up and accuse me of plagiarism or using unsolicited photographs? Nope. It was nothing like that at all. What then? Silence on the other end. Finally I said “Shelly, if you don’t want the column, don’t print it.” Then came her tears. Shelly burst in to tears as the floodgates of her emotions went off like a fountain at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. She kept apologizing to me and I told her that I didn’t give a shit about the column but that there was something bigger, more troubling here.
Apparently the Sargent’s had been approached by several people who basically told them that if they printed anything written by me that they would work at putting a dent into Caledon Media revenues through their advertisers. Nice extortion move dudes, that took real class. I asked Shelly who did this to them. No answer was forth coming. I asked her again. Again, no answer, just more tears. That evening, on some very good advice, I wrote the Detective who I had previously been working with from the Caledon OPP in addressing the prior threats and let the OPP know what had just transpired.
I was never quite sure how these people thought by pressuring the Sargent’s they would be leveraging their “payback” on to me. Then again when I consider who that source probably was, I shouldn’t be all that surprised. C’mon let’s think about this. The column I wrote for The Regional was gratis. It was a freebie. They don’t pay their writers so it wasn’t like I was taking a whack in the wallet. All those silly goofballs did was save me the time and work of having to type out 800 words a month and fork over a few free photographs. The Sargent’s would be getting 800 free words & photographs every month of which they were quite sure would up their readership and ultimately cultivate a larger advertising base. The Sargeant’s were counting on cashing in on the notoriety of my name to draw some attention to their publications. That was obviously a no brainer. So the only people that this lowlife bunch of hide and seek rodents have really hurt is a local community minded business and a local couple just trying to make a living in the place that they live. Geez, they even made Shelly cry. Is this is your idea of payback or getting some sort of revenge?
Wait, there is more to this tale.
For three days last week someone phone spammed every single telephone message box in my place of work. The phone would start ringing about 7:30 p.m. at night and fill every single message box in our office with a hang up call until all the message boxes were filled and couldn’t take any more. Coincidence that this all started right at the same time as the high drama of The Fork in The Regional Road unfolded? Maybe, then again, maybe not. Wonder what the odds by the bookmakers would be on that if we were betting. Again, more reporting to the police. Was this another attempt to harass or punish me?
Let me tell you big dumb ass galoots who you really hurt with this act of inane stupidity. A client called my office on Friday morning in tears. She had tried desperately to get through to leave a message to her Family Outreach Worker. They were in crisis, needed help but she couldn’t leave a message because all our message centres had been spam filled. So that action, you ignorant, small minded, purveyors of attempted payback hurt a family in need of support. This was absolutely unacceptable and so I got on the phone with the police. Then I emailed Rick Sargent asking for a face to face meeting with them so I could make them aware of my filing a police report, also fill them in on the latest turn of events involving my work place and finally to look them directly in the eye and ask them once again, who put this pressure on them.
That meeting never took place. However there was an interesting and very insightful telephone conversation that did. Rick Sargent told me that they had expected to get some push back from people when they saw my name in their paper. He thought it could be deflected by saying “it’s not political, it’s about food”. Apparently that tact didn’t work as he had hoped. I asked him who did this. He wouldn’t tell me. I couldn’t fathom why on earth he wouldn’t share this information especially in light of the fact I’d filed a police report combined with the recent incidents at my office. I wasn’t interested in confronting anybody but rather we just wanted to know who the monsters in the room were. In large part it was about safety, primarily the safety of my family. The Sargent’s damn well knew I had been threatened last year.
The rules of engagement were about to change as was my sympathy for the small business interests of the Caledon Media Company and their proprietors.
I reminded Rick that it was his company who came to me and that the minute the heat in the kitchen got a little warm they were pretty fast to throw me under the wheels of the bus. I then laughingly said to him “So Rick, what’d ya do....make a promise to these people you wouldn’t tell me who was behind this?” and in his dulcet tone he quietly responded, “Yes”. Whoa. Talk about an eye opening Judas moment. Every iota of sympathy I had held for these people made a mach speed U turn for the nearest exit and was promptly replaced by contempt for their decision to put their personal greed ahead of my family's personal safety and allowing himself to be manipulated by such evil people. Either he was really, really stupid or really, really frightened of these people. He made an agreement with the devil. I hope Rick sleeps with one eye open. I could never imagine having to be so compromised.
Shame on you, I told him. Any integrity he had, had been twisted around like a slinky toy. He should have told those people to go pound some salt but he couldn’t. I guess sometimes you do what you feel you just have to do to survive. All you haters did was drop Caledon Media’s balls in to a vice grip and cheated them out of having a free columnist. Are you feeling the power now?
Oh by the way, just thought I’d mention this. During her tearful conversation, Shelly Sargent gave up a name. Yup, a name. I got a name on one of those cloak and dagger, now you see me, now you don’t, haters.
So that’s it folks. Before I sign off there are just few people I’d like to mention. Don’t hold your breath, I’m not giving that one name up....yet.In the meantime there are some people who I definitely need to give a shout out to.
To the Sisters of the Apocalypse (or as I like to say the Apocalypso….it sounds so much more fun!) thank you for your support and all the offers of help that you reached out to me with. This gal really appreciates knowing if I have to reach back, you are there.
To the group of school children who pass by my house every morning. Thank you for the wave. You have no idea of how that buoys me and reminds me of the reasons that I stuck up for the right things for Caledon even when it wasn't the safest thing to do. This is your home and your future.
To my family, in particular to my late father, Johnny, I love you all very much. Please forgive me for ever putting you in harm’s way, that was never my intention. I will do everything in my power to always keep you safe. Just a word to the vermin who think they are so invisible, if any harm ever comes to my child, there will be no place that you could ever hide where I couldn't find you. Rocks can be turned over, sewers and septics, can always be flushed out. Just scroll down to the very bottom of this blog page. I think the Scrabble tiles perfectly express my sentiments to every single one of you. Just for the hell of it, toss in a fist pump. I'm feeling especially empowered this evening. Thank you all for reminding why it is important to stick to my principals especially since you all seem to be lacking in this area.
Finally, to those reading this latest, long winded, verbose installment of CoopSpeak I would say this....just remember this.....there is no place like home.
Respectfully,
That Girl.
It has felt like an eternity since I’ve posted anything here at CoopSpeak. My absenteeism extended out of the pre-election day threat and that ominous anonymous “We’re gonna deal with you after the election” telephone call to my home late one evening. After conferring with the local law enforcement and my family, we thought we’d just wait and see what, if anything at all, would ever materialize out of that cowardly, blocked number telephone phone call. I figured it would only be a matter of time until the human versions of Whiarton Willie stuck their heads up out of the ground; they are after all, rodents. Well it looks like that day has finally arrived.
I'm fairly certain, that somewhere in a dark, dank little corner of Caledon there are a small handful of people huddled together, cackling in laughter, guffawing aloud, espousing in their irreverent indifference “Hey Coop...payback’s a bitch, isn’t it!” They wear their gloat like cheap knock off designer duds bought down on the back alley of Canal Street in NYC. Clothing that is ill fitted and two sizes too small for their over bloated egos, not to mention they have really bad taste in garishly decorated shit kicker cowboy boots. Boots, which I'm quite sure, have most likely been designed specifically to do a little two step CoopSpeak stomping. I would probably even expect a little Jersey shore fist pumping going on. Just a bunch of regular Snookie Snickers is this crowd. That is about the level of mentality that we are dealing with.
I find their egotistical flatulence almost comical, only to be overpowered by the wafting stench of their cowardice because they choose to “put it to this girl” as it were, by hiding behind coerced promises of protection of their anonymity by threatening a local business of depleting and interfering in their revenue sources. I’m betting if you threw back the curtains in that dark, small world of theirs, exposing the light of day, those people would quickly scatter like the cockroaches they truly are. Oh such high drama in a small town. Where’s my martini shaker? I’m just getting warmed up. Cocktails anyone?
I have been writing in the forum of social media for the better part of four years now. Web 2.0 is just an everyday part of my world. Over those years I have maintained four different blogs. I adore and utilize the power of the 140 characters that is Twitter. I have Skype’d, You Tube’d, Wiki’d, Flickr’d, Four Squared, MySpace’d and Digg’d. I salivate over the thought of the acquisition of my new iPad and get Google giddiness over the ideas of the limitless web applications that are constantly changing our world. I have embraced this social technology like a kid let loose in a candy store. It is the world at my feet, with a click of a button and then I can slip it into my coat pocket and be on my way. God bless Wi-Fi.
Social media has changed the landscape of communication as we know it. This virtual platform has empowered a whole lot of people with the ability and the mechanisms to do things such as self publish their writing, their art, their music, their film or any other of their interests they want to express or opine about. Heck, statistics say 1 in 5 relationships begin online. Virtual love is alive and doing quite well, not to mention it’s a billion dollar industry. It allows a soldier stationed overseas to post a note of love to his wife and family right at the moment they all need it. It allowed me to see a picture of my newest family member 10 minutes after he made his entrance into the world. And as we saw during the last U.S. election a social media movement for change can help you win an election. Just look at the Obama-lama bloggers who mobilized a nation of twenty-somethings to practice their civic rights and vote.
At the end of 2010 there were more than 150 million blogs online, making mine just a speck of dust on the virtual and viral blog landscape. Last week Ariana Huffington sold her online newspaper for a mind blowing $315 million dollars. That ain’t exactly chump change. Not bad for a chick who started off on her own. If you don’t think that social media is a powerful tool for the solitary man, then think again. It is a tsunami, in of itself.
Over the past three years, two of my blogs, CoopSpeak and CoopSpeak Eats have developed a faithful and interested following. While controversial and sarcastic in its political nature, CoopSpeak, was heavily trafficked and hardly a day would go by over the past two years where I wouldn’t get stopped in my hood by a local who wanted to talk to me about CoopSpeak. It was funny to be known as “hey…you are that girl.....I recognize those glasses!” My e-inbox was often filled with comments in response to a posting, some good, some not, either way I was ok with whatever turned up.
A small part of me would like to think that perhaps I had some tiny little impact on the political future of a community that I hold so dear to my heart. I achieved what I set out to do which was to get the voters off their rumps and in to the voting stations. Voter turnout in Caledon’s recent municipal/regional election had increased by about 12%. Apathy had clearly taken a small nip on the ass. The people of Caledon spoke loud and clear. I was one of them. I have never, for even a second, ever regretted taking my stand or using social media as the conduit for my message. More importantly though, I have never, ever hidden behind an avatar or a pseudonym and my readers always knew the source of every word that ever turned up on any of my blogs. Otherwise how would anything I had to say and write have any credibility? I am a prideful woman. You won't find me hiding under a virtual burqua. Knowing what I know now, even in hindsight, I would not do one thing differently.
Truth be known, it’s my food blog, CoopSpeak Eats that is really my first true writing love, not the political blather of CoopSpeak. Over the past few years I’ve posted up over 200 online reviews and more than a 1,000 photographs on everything from cookbooks to wine to restaurants to farmers markets. CoopSpeak Eats opened the door for me to join the locavore/locapour moment amidst the GTA and enabled me to become a part of a really fun social media scene that has developed in to an intrinsic cornerstone of the fabric of social media that influences all things culinary. How could I not love this?
It is so much more fun to actually eat the cupcake rather than to politically pander about it. Over the past couple of years I’d been approached by some local media sources to talk about writing “opinion” for them but in the end I always declined. I abhorred the thought of an editor red penciling my work or being at the whim of the advertisers who my written canoodling might offend. I have lost count of how many times people asked me if they could buy an ad banner on my blog and I always said no. I write because I love it not because I wanted to turn it into an ad site. I have never ever even put one of those insidious Google ads on any of my blogs. I have a day job and a very satisfying career. I don’t depend upon writing for income of any sort. People always ask me where I find the time. My pat response is simply this “I don’t watch television and I just love to write.” There you have it.
Then last December I was approached by Shelly Sargent, Editor of The Regional, she asked if we could meet. I liked the Sargents and I knew they were working hard to build their small local business. I had constantly bumped in to them up at the Bolton Farmer’s Market. Shelly and her husband Rick, are the proprietors of the Caledon Media Company, which also own the local radio station. The Regional is a monthly hard copy print paper, distributed through our postboxes. Shelly spoke to me about writing for The Regional and my first comment to her was that I wasn’t interested in writing anything political because the atmosphere in Caledon was toxic and it was tiresome.
Shelly had discovered my food writings and was really more interested in having me develop a food column for the paper. I warmed to this idea so we came up with a column called “A Fork In The Regional Road” and it felt like a natural fit. I would provide The Regional with approximately 800 words a month, along with the appropriate photography and in turn they would cross pollinate the column to my online food blog. My established online food blog would ultimately bring them more readers. The first column was slated to appear in the February print & online edition, which it did. In the February edition you’ll see the inaugural column, along with a warm welcome from the Editor herself as she introduces new writers to their paper.
Enter Whiarton Willie and the entourage of vermin. Did you see their shadows? If you didn't see them just draw in a slow, deep breath. Their stench is unmistakable.
Only days after The Regional turned up in Caledon mailboxes I received a very cryptic email from The Sargent’s asking me for a face to face meeting in their office and that it was serious. Holy cow patties Batman that sounded ominous. I finally managed to get Shelly Sargent on the phone. What was up I asked? Someone call you guys up and accuse me of plagiarism or using unsolicited photographs? Nope. It was nothing like that at all. What then? Silence on the other end. Finally I said “Shelly, if you don’t want the column, don’t print it.” Then came her tears. Shelly burst in to tears as the floodgates of her emotions went off like a fountain at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. She kept apologizing to me and I told her that I didn’t give a shit about the column but that there was something bigger, more troubling here.
Apparently the Sargent’s had been approached by several people who basically told them that if they printed anything written by me that they would work at putting a dent into Caledon Media revenues through their advertisers. Nice extortion move dudes, that took real class. I asked Shelly who did this to them. No answer was forth coming. I asked her again. Again, no answer, just more tears. That evening, on some very good advice, I wrote the Detective who I had previously been working with from the Caledon OPP in addressing the prior threats and let the OPP know what had just transpired.
I was never quite sure how these people thought by pressuring the Sargent’s they would be leveraging their “payback” on to me. Then again when I consider who that source probably was, I shouldn’t be all that surprised. C’mon let’s think about this. The column I wrote for The Regional was gratis. It was a freebie. They don’t pay their writers so it wasn’t like I was taking a whack in the wallet. All those silly goofballs did was save me the time and work of having to type out 800 words a month and fork over a few free photographs. The Sargent’s would be getting 800 free words & photographs every month of which they were quite sure would up their readership and ultimately cultivate a larger advertising base. The Sargeant’s were counting on cashing in on the notoriety of my name to draw some attention to their publications. That was obviously a no brainer. So the only people that this lowlife bunch of hide and seek rodents have really hurt is a local community minded business and a local couple just trying to make a living in the place that they live. Geez, they even made Shelly cry. Is this is your idea of payback or getting some sort of revenge?
Wait, there is more to this tale.
For three days last week someone phone spammed every single telephone message box in my place of work. The phone would start ringing about 7:30 p.m. at night and fill every single message box in our office with a hang up call until all the message boxes were filled and couldn’t take any more. Coincidence that this all started right at the same time as the high drama of The Fork in The Regional Road unfolded? Maybe, then again, maybe not. Wonder what the odds by the bookmakers would be on that if we were betting. Again, more reporting to the police. Was this another attempt to harass or punish me?
Let me tell you big dumb ass galoots who you really hurt with this act of inane stupidity. A client called my office on Friday morning in tears. She had tried desperately to get through to leave a message to her Family Outreach Worker. They were in crisis, needed help but she couldn’t leave a message because all our message centres had been spam filled. So that action, you ignorant, small minded, purveyors of attempted payback hurt a family in need of support. This was absolutely unacceptable and so I got on the phone with the police. Then I emailed Rick Sargent asking for a face to face meeting with them so I could make them aware of my filing a police report, also fill them in on the latest turn of events involving my work place and finally to look them directly in the eye and ask them once again, who put this pressure on them.
That meeting never took place. However there was an interesting and very insightful telephone conversation that did. Rick Sargent told me that they had expected to get some push back from people when they saw my name in their paper. He thought it could be deflected by saying “it’s not political, it’s about food”. Apparently that tact didn’t work as he had hoped. I asked him who did this. He wouldn’t tell me. I couldn’t fathom why on earth he wouldn’t share this information especially in light of the fact I’d filed a police report combined with the recent incidents at my office. I wasn’t interested in confronting anybody but rather we just wanted to know who the monsters in the room were. In large part it was about safety, primarily the safety of my family. The Sargent’s damn well knew I had been threatened last year.
The rules of engagement were about to change as was my sympathy for the small business interests of the Caledon Media Company and their proprietors.
I reminded Rick that it was his company who came to me and that the minute the heat in the kitchen got a little warm they were pretty fast to throw me under the wheels of the bus. I then laughingly said to him “So Rick, what’d ya do....make a promise to these people you wouldn’t tell me who was behind this?” and in his dulcet tone he quietly responded, “Yes”. Whoa. Talk about an eye opening Judas moment. Every iota of sympathy I had held for these people made a mach speed U turn for the nearest exit and was promptly replaced by contempt for their decision to put their personal greed ahead of my family's personal safety and allowing himself to be manipulated by such evil people. Either he was really, really stupid or really, really frightened of these people. He made an agreement with the devil. I hope Rick sleeps with one eye open. I could never imagine having to be so compromised.
Shame on you, I told him. Any integrity he had, had been twisted around like a slinky toy. He should have told those people to go pound some salt but he couldn’t. I guess sometimes you do what you feel you just have to do to survive. All you haters did was drop Caledon Media’s balls in to a vice grip and cheated them out of having a free columnist. Are you feeling the power now?
Oh by the way, just thought I’d mention this. During her tearful conversation, Shelly Sargent gave up a name. Yup, a name. I got a name on one of those cloak and dagger, now you see me, now you don’t, haters.
So that’s it folks. Before I sign off there are just few people I’d like to mention. Don’t hold your breath, I’m not giving that one name up....yet.In the meantime there are some people who I definitely need to give a shout out to.
To the Sisters of the Apocalypse (or as I like to say the Apocalypso….it sounds so much more fun!) thank you for your support and all the offers of help that you reached out to me with. This gal really appreciates knowing if I have to reach back, you are there.
To the group of school children who pass by my house every morning. Thank you for the wave. You have no idea of how that buoys me and reminds me of the reasons that I stuck up for the right things for Caledon even when it wasn't the safest thing to do. This is your home and your future.
To my family, in particular to my late father, Johnny, I love you all very much. Please forgive me for ever putting you in harm’s way, that was never my intention. I will do everything in my power to always keep you safe. Just a word to the vermin who think they are so invisible, if any harm ever comes to my child, there will be no place that you could ever hide where I couldn't find you. Rocks can be turned over, sewers and septics, can always be flushed out. Just scroll down to the very bottom of this blog page. I think the Scrabble tiles perfectly express my sentiments to every single one of you. Just for the hell of it, toss in a fist pump. I'm feeling especially empowered this evening. Thank you all for reminding why it is important to stick to my principals especially since you all seem to be lacking in this area.
Finally, to those reading this latest, long winded, verbose installment of CoopSpeak I would say this....just remember this.....there is no place like home. Respectfully,
That Girl.
Friday, November 12, 2010
1....2....3....4....5....6....7....8....9.....
Nine votes.
Today at 1:00 p.m. an official recount will be taken out at the Town of Caledon for the Ward 5 Area Councillor position. In all my years of living here in Caledon I can't ever remember there having to be a recount. Nine votes stand between being a winner or a loser. I'm quite certain, for both of those candidates, this will be a long morning. I wish both of these candidates the best of luck but in the end I am confident that the results shall remain the same.
Now here's some food for thought. If the results remain the same then Bolton will have just elected the former primary leaders of the community grassroots organization, Our Caledon Our Choice, as their area and regional representation. That coupled with the increase in voter turnout sends a very clear message to this new council about the intrinsic values of the residents of Bolton.
Let the count begin....1....2....3....4....5....
Today at 1:00 p.m. an official recount will be taken out at the Town of Caledon for the Ward 5 Area Councillor position. In all my years of living here in Caledon I can't ever remember there having to be a recount. Nine votes stand between being a winner or a loser. I'm quite certain, for both of those candidates, this will be a long morning. I wish both of these candidates the best of luck but in the end I am confident that the results shall remain the same.
Now here's some food for thought. If the results remain the same then Bolton will have just elected the former primary leaders of the community grassroots organization, Our Caledon Our Choice, as their area and regional representation. That coupled with the increase in voter turnout sends a very clear message to this new council about the intrinsic values of the residents of Bolton.
Let the count begin....1....2....3....4....5....
Saturday, October 30, 2010
The Reflection of the Election
The purple haze that had filled my brain has slowly subsided from the landscapes of Caledon. Election signs have been picked up, blue boxes are filled with leftover brochures and those pricy little purple discs I'm quite sure have been turned in to some sort of useful household item such as drink coasters or 
better yet turned in to pretty little Christmas ornaments to be hung up on our holiday trees. The twinkle lights would catch the silver side of them so beautifully. This is the reflection of the election we've just survived.
The positive in this election was that voter turnout was up. Yup, apathy took a small kick in the ass and the electorate increased the voter turnout by about 12%. That's the good news. The other good news was that the people told its council that they wanted them to stick to the plan. The plan that Mrs. Groves continually insisted didn't really exist or at least, in her mind, needed to be taken back to square one. I for one am grateful that cooler heads prevailed on this. I do believe, though, that protecting the growth plans for Caledon, both residential & commercial, will be an ongoing battle. With highways such as the 410 and the 413 cutting their swaths into Caledon, and with Brampton heavily leaning up against the precious Mayfield Road divider, there will be constant pressure for development.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying slam the door shut because that is a completely unrealistic pipe dream. What I am saying is that those who develop here should do so, respecting our official plan and the residents who chose to stand by it. In Caledon we have the best of both worlds, the mix of urban and rural, each must learn to value the other. The next four years will be interesting and important for the future generations of Caledon to come.
So what now?
Well first off, it'd be great to see this council pass a bylaw with respect to election signage. Election signage is a blight. There must be a way to bring this sign silliness under control. This would also level the election playing field more as the signage is one of the single largest election expenses. Expecting to ban all election signage is an unrealistic expectation on my part. I think though, this suggestion I have made is practical and should be given serious consideration by this incoming council.
Next, in an earlier blog I had made the suggestion about the inception of a Caledon Board of Trade. The Caledon Chamber of Commerce is so dysfunctional and their relationship with the town is undoubtedly compromised. When Caledon chose to give the Small Business Centre contract over to the Caledon Community Services (which was a brilliant decision), that to me, was the beginning of the end of any viable relationship between the town and the Caledon Chamber Pot. I had a good look over the membership list of the chamber and I was surprised to see how many of their members actually aren't even businesses located here in Caledon. I truly believe that the Chamber needs desperately to clean out its closets and morph itself into something more useful and functional, not only in their partnership with the town but also for its membership and do what it is intended to do.
We'll also wait patiently for the recount in my home Ward 5 between Kevin Junor and Rob Mezzapelli. I believe though that the count will stand firm and Bolton will have the representation it is supposed to finally have and very much deserves. As for the interview Mister Junior gave in the Enterprise I have a couple of comments to make. Character assassination sounds so James Bond meets Maxwell Smart. Then again KJ is a military kinda dude so I guess its a natural reaction on his part to think there was subversive activities on election day. Anyone who actually believes that some subterfuge organization like KAOS or MI6 managed to swoop down on election day and in a matter of a couple of hours managed to change the vote outcome is just one purple disc over the line. Perhaps KJ should have spent his lunch money eating in Baffo's here in Bolton where he was running in and not over in Caledon East on election day.
And what's up with that Tom Dolson? The guys been swinging his proverbial election machete on Allan Thompson since January and now in his blog he writes "First and foremost I would like to congratulate Councillor Allan Thompson on his re-election. Allan and his family have been long time friends of the Dolson family. I am sure that for the good of Ward 2, and all of Caledon for that matter, we will be able to set aside our differences and work collaboratively." This is coming from a guy who sends his Mother-in-law out to check traffic at the 410 & Valleywood off ramps. A real charmer.
So now I wait to see who it is that told me they were going to deal with me after the election. After all Mr. Clean said he was coming for me, win or lose. Funnily enough I haven't heard much from him but my email box has been filled with some real heart warming words from the stale dated Cupcake who is none to happy with me. Oh these emails are just beauts! Her scribing are words that truly come from the heart kind of sentiments. Perhaps Mrs. Groves should consider a post political career in writing Hallmark cards. Her first customer could be Tom Dolson who will be in need of some lovely Mother's Day cards.
Things will settle down soon enough. Most importantly though the people of Caledon made it very clear to their council that they are to stay the course. Thank you Caledon. Ok, time to get the craft box out. There are Christmas decorations to be made and cupcake icing to scrape up off the landscape.
better yet turned in to pretty little Christmas ornaments to be hung up on our holiday trees. The twinkle lights would catch the silver side of them so beautifully. This is the reflection of the election we've just survived.The positive in this election was that voter turnout was up. Yup, apathy took a small kick in the ass and the electorate increased the voter turnout by about 12%. That's the good news. The other good news was that the people told its council that they wanted them to stick to the plan. The plan that Mrs. Groves continually insisted didn't really exist or at least, in her mind, needed to be taken back to square one. I for one am grateful that cooler heads prevailed on this. I do believe, though, that protecting the growth plans for Caledon, both residential & commercial, will be an ongoing battle. With highways such as the 410 and the 413 cutting their swaths into Caledon, and with Brampton heavily leaning up against the precious Mayfield Road divider, there will be constant pressure for development.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying slam the door shut because that is a completely unrealistic pipe dream. What I am saying is that those who develop here should do so, respecting our official plan and the residents who chose to stand by it. In Caledon we have the best of both worlds, the mix of urban and rural, each must learn to value the other. The next four years will be interesting and important for the future generations of Caledon to come.
So what now?
Well first off, it'd be great to see this council pass a bylaw with respect to election signage. Election signage is a blight. There must be a way to bring this sign silliness under control. This would also level the election playing field more as the signage is one of the single largest election expenses. Expecting to ban all election signage is an unrealistic expectation on my part. I think though, this suggestion I have made is practical and should be given serious consideration by this incoming council.
Next, in an earlier blog I had made the suggestion about the inception of a Caledon Board of Trade. The Caledon Chamber of Commerce is so dysfunctional and their relationship with the town is undoubtedly compromised. When Caledon chose to give the Small Business Centre contract over to the Caledon Community Services (which was a brilliant decision), that to me, was the beginning of the end of any viable relationship between the town and the Caledon Chamber Pot. I had a good look over the membership list of the chamber and I was surprised to see how many of their members actually aren't even businesses located here in Caledon. I truly believe that the Chamber needs desperately to clean out its closets and morph itself into something more useful and functional, not only in their partnership with the town but also for its membership and do what it is intended to do.
We'll also wait patiently for the recount in my home Ward 5 between Kevin Junor and Rob Mezzapelli. I believe though that the count will stand firm and Bolton will have the representation it is supposed to finally have and very much deserves. As for the interview Mister Junior gave in the Enterprise I have a couple of comments to make. Character assassination sounds so James Bond meets Maxwell Smart. Then again KJ is a military kinda dude so I guess its a natural reaction on his part to think there was subversive activities on election day. Anyone who actually believes that some subterfuge organization like KAOS or MI6 managed to swoop down on election day and in a matter of a couple of hours managed to change the vote outcome is just one purple disc over the line. Perhaps KJ should have spent his lunch money eating in Baffo's here in Bolton where he was running in and not over in Caledon East on election day.
And what's up with that Tom Dolson? The guys been swinging his proverbial election machete on Allan Thompson since January and now in his blog he writes "First and foremost I would like to congratulate Councillor Allan Thompson on his re-election. Allan and his family have been long time friends of the Dolson family. I am sure that for the good of Ward 2, and all of Caledon for that matter, we will be able to set aside our differences and work collaboratively." This is coming from a guy who sends his Mother-in-law out to check traffic at the 410 & Valleywood off ramps. A real charmer.
So now I wait to see who it is that told me they were going to deal with me after the election. After all Mr. Clean said he was coming for me, win or lose. Funnily enough I haven't heard much from him but my email box has been filled with some real heart warming words from the stale dated Cupcake who is none to happy with me. Oh these emails are just beauts! Her scribing are words that truly come from the heart kind of sentiments. Perhaps Mrs. Groves should consider a post political career in writing Hallmark cards. Her first customer could be Tom Dolson who will be in need of some lovely Mother's Day cards.
Things will settle down soon enough. Most importantly though the people of Caledon made it very clear to their council that they are to stay the course. Thank you Caledon. Ok, time to get the craft box out. There are Christmas decorations to be made and cupcake icing to scrape up off the landscape.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Do The Right Thing
“Win or lose, we go shopping after the election.” -Imelda Marcos
Today we vote, we cast our x's and tomorrow morning, we'll all get up and go about living our lives. Regardless of what happens with our local election our lives will still go on. We'll do our jobs, raise our families, keep on complaining about one thing or another but at the end of the day, life goes on. After all, there are shoes to be bought. :)
I've been writing away at this little blog for almost three years now and before votes get casted and counted I have a few last things I'd like to say about what has happened over the past six months during this electoral process.
Firstly, I truly believe that Caledon has been forever changed by what we watched unfold in front of us during this campaign. We have always been Caledon the good, the safest and the greenest place to live, work or play. Somehow that all feels a bit tainted and sullied but I'm hopeful that as the weeks pass that somehow we'll be able to regain our composure and get back to being what makes this community among communities such a special place to call home.
To all those who chose to enter the election ring, I wish you all the very best of luck. While I haven't been particularly kind to some of you, I have immense respect for those who are willing to hang their asses on the flagpole. You put your lives on hold, you spend your days pounding pavement, shaking hands, smiling at people, talking so much that you lose your voices, all in hopes of garnering that one vote that will carry you to victory. Elections and all their trimmings can become such public smack downs and there can be very scary, stressful moments. So to all of you, I tip my hat.
Then late last week evil reached right in to my home and threatened us. Initially it shook me but then as the hours passed it just made me downright angry. I live in a country where under this constitution I'm entitled to express my opinion. I'd like to thank Heidi & Jennifer (you guys know who you are) for helping me get a grip and some focus on this stupid act against me. It also gave me a chilling insight in to what our Mayor, Marolyn Morrison, and her family have lived with day after day.
In a recently printed piece of poison vitriol that was hastily shoved in to doors all over Bolton last Wednesday afternoon, allegedly penned, produced, paid for and distributed by local resident Kay Blacklock, there was a sentence that really resonated with me. She wrote (although I doubt very much she penned that piece of crap) "Our Freedom of Speech is being restricted." Let's see Kay, you distributed this letter, that was filled with nothing but lies, hate and innuendo. Tell me, did anybody call your home, where your grandchildren play and threaten you with a "we'll deal with you after the election?" comment. No, I think probably not.
In my heart, I believe that righteousness will prevail in this election. In particular, over this past week, Bolton, more than any other part of Caledon, has been absolutely battered, littered and trashed by the pure ugliness of it's Mayoral campaign. To those of you who have blighted this campaign with your garbage and filled our blue boxes and our landfill with your trash and filth, I remain eternally optimistic that good will champion evil.
Thank you to all who have picked up this blog. I am absolutely awed by the amount of traffic and opens that coopSpeak has garnered. I have been appreciative of your time and your interest. It's been great receiving so much input, emails, phone calls and encouragement. I have nothing to gain by writing this blog. There is nothing in this for me other than me getting to exercise my constitutional rights as a citizen of this great country and in particular of our home here in Caledon.
I am signing off so we can head to the polls to vote and I hope you are doing the same. No matter where this election goes, no matter how and where the proverbial chips fall, this diva blog girl will live and respect whatever the Caledon electorate decide. To that end I can only say this....c'mon Caledon, just do the right thing.
Anyone up for some shoe shopping tomorrow? Cosmos after five?
Happy election day Caledon.
Respectfully,
Christine
Today we vote, we cast our x's and tomorrow morning, we'll all get up and go about living our lives. Regardless of what happens with our local election our lives will still go on. We'll do our jobs, raise our families, keep on complaining about one thing or another but at the end of the day, life goes on. After all, there are shoes to be bought. :)
I've been writing away at this little blog for almost three years now and before votes get casted and counted I have a few last things I'd like to say about what has happened over the past six months during this electoral process.
Firstly, I truly believe that Caledon has been forever changed by what we watched unfold in front of us during this campaign. We have always been Caledon the good, the safest and the greenest place to live, work or play. Somehow that all feels a bit tainted and sullied but I'm hopeful that as the weeks pass that somehow we'll be able to regain our composure and get back to being what makes this community among communities such a special place to call home.
To all those who chose to enter the election ring, I wish you all the very best of luck. While I haven't been particularly kind to some of you, I have immense respect for those who are willing to hang their asses on the flagpole. You put your lives on hold, you spend your days pounding pavement, shaking hands, smiling at people, talking so much that you lose your voices, all in hopes of garnering that one vote that will carry you to victory. Elections and all their trimmings can become such public smack downs and there can be very scary, stressful moments. So to all of you, I tip my hat.
Then late last week evil reached right in to my home and threatened us. Initially it shook me but then as the hours passed it just made me downright angry. I live in a country where under this constitution I'm entitled to express my opinion. I'd like to thank Heidi & Jennifer (you guys know who you are) for helping me get a grip and some focus on this stupid act against me. It also gave me a chilling insight in to what our Mayor, Marolyn Morrison, and her family have lived with day after day.
In a recently printed piece of poison vitriol that was hastily shoved in to doors all over Bolton last Wednesday afternoon, allegedly penned, produced, paid for and distributed by local resident Kay Blacklock, there was a sentence that really resonated with me. She wrote (although I doubt very much she penned that piece of crap) "Our Freedom of Speech is being restricted." Let's see Kay, you distributed this letter, that was filled with nothing but lies, hate and innuendo. Tell me, did anybody call your home, where your grandchildren play and threaten you with a "we'll deal with you after the election?" comment. No, I think probably not.
In my heart, I believe that righteousness will prevail in this election. In particular, over this past week, Bolton, more than any other part of Caledon, has been absolutely battered, littered and trashed by the pure ugliness of it's Mayoral campaign. To those of you who have blighted this campaign with your garbage and filled our blue boxes and our landfill with your trash and filth, I remain eternally optimistic that good will champion evil.
Thank you to all who have picked up this blog. I am absolutely awed by the amount of traffic and opens that coopSpeak has garnered. I have been appreciative of your time and your interest. It's been great receiving so much input, emails, phone calls and encouragement. I have nothing to gain by writing this blog. There is nothing in this for me other than me getting to exercise my constitutional rights as a citizen of this great country and in particular of our home here in Caledon.
I am signing off so we can head to the polls to vote and I hope you are doing the same. No matter where this election goes, no matter how and where the proverbial chips fall, this diva blog girl will live and respect whatever the Caledon electorate decide. To that end I can only say this....c'mon Caledon, just do the right thing.
Anyone up for some shoe shopping tomorrow? Cosmos after five?
Happy election day Caledon.
Respectfully,
Christine
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Christine, we'll deal with you after the election.......
That was what the voice on the other end of the telephone had to say to me this evening at 11:45 p.m. when I answered my phone.
You call me at my home, where my child lives, and you basically threaten me. You do this anonymously, calling with a private number and make this threat. You are nothing but a coward. A COWARD. How dare you. Oh you big tough guys, you can find me. So now I know you can read the phonebook. Uh huh.
I have forwarded all information to the Caledon OPP, including my cooperation to search my phone records.
Tell me, why a girl with a small town blog and a small town opinion gets a call like this? I damn well have a good idea of where this has come from and if you think, for a minute, that you can intimidate me you are sadly mistaken. Ask yourself who has the most to lose in this election?
For those of you who are sitting back chuckling to yourself smugly thinking that you've shut down this girl's blog, then you might want to-rethink that strategy. All roads lead somewhere and if they lead to you then you'd better watch out. Like I said, you call my home where my child lives then this is a whole different kind of ball game. The worst thing you could ever do is to slap at a Momma Bear.
To the coward who called my home I say this. If you were a real man you'd "man up" and bring your threat directly to me but oh no, you choose to try blindly call my home at quarter of midnight. COWARD. COWARD. COWARD.
Kiss my grass.
You call me at my home, where my child lives, and you basically threaten me. You do this anonymously, calling with a private number and make this threat. You are nothing but a coward. A COWARD. How dare you. Oh you big tough guys, you can find me. So now I know you can read the phonebook. Uh huh.
I have forwarded all information to the Caledon OPP, including my cooperation to search my phone records.
Tell me, why a girl with a small town blog and a small town opinion gets a call like this? I damn well have a good idea of where this has come from and if you think, for a minute, that you can intimidate me you are sadly mistaken. Ask yourself who has the most to lose in this election?
For those of you who are sitting back chuckling to yourself smugly thinking that you've shut down this girl's blog, then you might want to-rethink that strategy. All roads lead somewhere and if they lead to you then you'd better watch out. Like I said, you call my home where my child lives then this is a whole different kind of ball game. The worst thing you could ever do is to slap at a Momma Bear.
To the coward who called my home I say this. If you were a real man you'd "man up" and bring your threat directly to me but oh no, you choose to try blindly call my home at quarter of midnight. COWARD. COWARD. COWARD.
Kiss my grass.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Purple Haze
"Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don't seem the same
Actin' funny, but I don't know why
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky." - Jimi Hendrix
For years I have always wondered how cult leader Jim Jones ever managed to get 909 people in Jonestown, Guyana to drink that cyanide laced purple kool-aid leading to one of modern history's largest mass suicides on record. Then I sat down with the purple disc that turned up in some Caledon mailboxes yesterday, packaged up like a Mission Impossible envelope, that told us to be sure to watch before election day. I slid it in to my DVD player and at the pressing of the Play button there is Annette Groves smiling at me like a Stepford Wife, sprawled across our 50" plasma flat screen. Let the show begin.....
At about the 2 minute, 35 second mark in to watching this piece of high priced, pan in, pan out, pan in, pan out production, if you had told me to drink the purple kool-aid I would actually have done so quite willingly. I probably would have asked for an extra large glass with some crushed ice. Vodka always is a good mixer too.
All my personal feelings and contempt aside, something just isn't jiving here with this latest piece of electioneering promotional materials by the Groves campaign. Take away the teleprompter and the 8 & 1/2 minutes of scripting written by a hired gun, because we all know that Ms. Groves isn't a girl who can actually string together three of her own sentences or her own thoughts, without her human GPS. Something feels completely off about all of this. To coin an old adage, "something is rotten in Denmark".
The numbers Annette Grove's babbling on about just doesn't add up. Time to get out the abacus. I've been reading the recent auditor's report on the town and their numbers and your numbers just don't jive. Oh wait, you would be using the Groves Mathematical system of Accounting now wouldn't you.
Toss out the absolute silliness of the chatter of the Morrison Myth and what are we really watching here? Therein lays the problem.
Ms. Groves tells us that Caledon has absolutely no Planning plan whatsoever and that as our leader she'll take us back to square one and start all over. WTF? Ok, quick coopSpeak translation....let's hand Caledon's planning direction over to a whole new batch of people, consultants, players and all around developers. Oh as an after thought Mayor Grove's legacy to Caledon will be to begin to erode the protected biosphere of the Niagara Escarpment. At least that's what I heard her say at the Caesar's Palace parody of a debate.
The fact is that the town has just completed a full town wide review of our official plan and after several years of public input and studies have passed a comprehensive official plan amendment (O.P.A. 226) that conforms to the provincial policy under “Places to Grow”. In addition, the town approved Caledon’s first strategic plan, a newly updated parks and recreation master plan, a new development charges by-law, a long range capital plan, a new comprehensive zoning by-law including conformity to the Oak Ridge’s Moraine Plan and the provincial greenbelt strategy. Next term they will be implementing this body of work including a residential urban boundary expansion for Bolton. Funny, how Annette neglects to mention any of this in her blather.
Is she suggesting that we should start over or has she just forgotten what she generally voted against! Oh wait, maybe she didn't quite "understand" that vote, after all, we've seen this before from her.
Like her previous "Dialing for Votes" phone polls and that acrid pre-recorded message about what a bad mayor we've had over the past term, Annette Groves has never taken a positive step forward and actually offered us, the Caledon residents and electorate, a concrete plan or HER own true vision of what Caledon should be. Not once. Not ever. All Annette Groves has done has told us what is wrong, never once, not even pausing for a second, has she taken the time to tell us what we've, Caledon the beautiful, has done right. We must have done something right because if we hadn't why would so many developers want to build their houses in our community?
There's never been any talk about how we've been the safest or the greenest community in the province. Annette has never stopped to talk about how the Town of Caledon Economic Dept. has recently been awarded a GTAA marketing award and she's never ever given credit to the town staff for the recent successful and glowing audit for how they've managed the municipality's business. During the election process the staff and their salaries are always an easy target for the venom of the candidates and the taxpayers. That is for lazy candidates. Always an easy way to try and find an issue.
While we are counting up the dollars has anyone given any thought to the money meter that has been running on the Groves campaign? There is no way that the Groves campaign hasn't smashed open the election spending cap. Just the large signage and all those trees they used to prop them up must have cost a fortune. Plus two print pieces (with the rumour of one more to come), distribution costs, a door knocker hanger, numerous telephone solicitations, office rental, video productions, air brushing costs, dvd reproduction, news paper ads, radio blurbs oh and let's not forget about the porcetta for your office opening. We aren't even going to talk about the carbon footprint and the garbage for landfill you just created with those little purple dvd's.
As a Bolton resident, and I rarely refer to myself as a Bolton resident, as I usually say I'm a citizen of Caledon, I am very much looking forward to the Kinsmen's Debate. As far as I'm concerned this is going to be the Show Down at the OK Corral. This is an election that can be won or lost in Bolton. So to my local Boltonites I say snap out of your haze and come out to this debate. It is the one legitimate local debate for us to see what substance our local candidates can bring to us. I am looking forward to hearing from a couple of veteran incumbents, including our Mayor, on the numbers that Ms. Groves has spewed out at us in her YouTube channel.
Finally, I've just put a mention in my sidebar about the latest silliness that has defined this campaign. Playing the race card, in my opinion, is not only stupid but an absolute act of cowardice. Can't you just smell the mendacity of that act.
One week to go. Let the people speak.
___________________________________________________
Post Blog PS. You know you are doing something right when people start to
post nasty little comments. For the record, those last couple of comments have come people who've never opened up this blog before and are more than likely
just plants of a certain candidates team. Also for the record, on the Annette Groves YouTube Channel, when logged in, you can post comments or hit the thumbs up or thumbs down rating. I have been emailed by several younger members of the voting community who have told me that their comments are always removed.
Lately things just don't seem the same
Actin' funny, but I don't know why
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky." - Jimi Hendrix
For years I have always wondered how cult leader Jim Jones ever managed to get 909 people in Jonestown, Guyana to drink that cyanide laced purple kool-aid leading to one of modern history's largest mass suicides on record. Then I sat down with the purple disc that turned up in some Caledon mailboxes yesterday, packaged up like a Mission Impossible envelope, that told us to be sure to watch before election day. I slid it in to my DVD player and at the pressing of the Play button there is Annette Groves smiling at me like a Stepford Wife, sprawled across our 50" plasma flat screen. Let the show begin.....At about the 2 minute, 35 second mark in to watching this piece of high priced, pan in, pan out, pan in, pan out production, if you had told me to drink the purple kool-aid I would actually have done so quite willingly. I probably would have asked for an extra large glass with some crushed ice. Vodka always is a good mixer too.
All my personal feelings and contempt aside, something just isn't jiving here with this latest piece of electioneering promotional materials by the Groves campaign. Take away the teleprompter and the 8 & 1/2 minutes of scripting written by a hired gun, because we all know that Ms. Groves isn't a girl who can actually string together three of her own sentences or her own thoughts, without her human GPS. Something feels completely off about all of this. To coin an old adage, "something is rotten in Denmark".
The numbers Annette Grove's babbling on about just doesn't add up. Time to get out the abacus. I've been reading the recent auditor's report on the town and their numbers and your numbers just don't jive. Oh wait, you would be using the Groves Mathematical system of Accounting now wouldn't you.
Toss out the absolute silliness of the chatter of the Morrison Myth and what are we really watching here? Therein lays the problem.
Ms. Groves tells us that Caledon has absolutely no Planning plan whatsoever and that as our leader she'll take us back to square one and start all over. WTF? Ok, quick coopSpeak translation....let's hand Caledon's planning direction over to a whole new batch of people, consultants, players and all around developers. Oh as an after thought Mayor Grove's legacy to Caledon will be to begin to erode the protected biosphere of the Niagara Escarpment. At least that's what I heard her say at the Caesar's Palace parody of a debate.
The fact is that the town has just completed a full town wide review of our official plan and after several years of public input and studies have passed a comprehensive official plan amendment (O.P.A. 226) that conforms to the provincial policy under “Places to Grow”. In addition, the town approved Caledon’s first strategic plan, a newly updated parks and recreation master plan, a new development charges by-law, a long range capital plan, a new comprehensive zoning by-law including conformity to the Oak Ridge’s Moraine Plan and the provincial greenbelt strategy. Next term they will be implementing this body of work including a residential urban boundary expansion for Bolton. Funny, how Annette neglects to mention any of this in her blather.
Is she suggesting that we should start over or has she just forgotten what she generally voted against! Oh wait, maybe she didn't quite "understand" that vote, after all, we've seen this before from her.
Like her previous "Dialing for Votes" phone polls and that acrid pre-recorded message about what a bad mayor we've had over the past term, Annette Groves has never taken a positive step forward and actually offered us, the Caledon residents and electorate, a concrete plan or HER own true vision of what Caledon should be. Not once. Not ever. All Annette Groves has done has told us what is wrong, never once, not even pausing for a second, has she taken the time to tell us what we've, Caledon the beautiful, has done right. We must have done something right because if we hadn't why would so many developers want to build their houses in our community?
There's never been any talk about how we've been the safest or the greenest community in the province. Annette has never stopped to talk about how the Town of Caledon Economic Dept. has recently been awarded a GTAA marketing award and she's never ever given credit to the town staff for the recent successful and glowing audit for how they've managed the municipality's business. During the election process the staff and their salaries are always an easy target for the venom of the candidates and the taxpayers. That is for lazy candidates. Always an easy way to try and find an issue.
While we are counting up the dollars has anyone given any thought to the money meter that has been running on the Groves campaign? There is no way that the Groves campaign hasn't smashed open the election spending cap. Just the large signage and all those trees they used to prop them up must have cost a fortune. Plus two print pieces (with the rumour of one more to come), distribution costs, a door knocker hanger, numerous telephone solicitations, office rental, video productions, air brushing costs, dvd reproduction, news paper ads, radio blurbs oh and let's not forget about the porcetta for your office opening. We aren't even going to talk about the carbon footprint and the garbage for landfill you just created with those little purple dvd's.
As a Bolton resident, and I rarely refer to myself as a Bolton resident, as I usually say I'm a citizen of Caledon, I am very much looking forward to the Kinsmen's Debate. As far as I'm concerned this is going to be the Show Down at the OK Corral. This is an election that can be won or lost in Bolton. So to my local Boltonites I say snap out of your haze and come out to this debate. It is the one legitimate local debate for us to see what substance our local candidates can bring to us. I am looking forward to hearing from a couple of veteran incumbents, including our Mayor, on the numbers that Ms. Groves has spewed out at us in her YouTube channel.
Finally, I've just put a mention in my sidebar about the latest silliness that has defined this campaign. Playing the race card, in my opinion, is not only stupid but an absolute act of cowardice. Can't you just smell the mendacity of that act.
One week to go. Let the people speak.
___________________________________________________
Post Blog PS. You know you are doing something right when people start to
post nasty little comments. For the record, those last couple of comments have come people who've never opened up this blog before and are more than likely
just plants of a certain candidates team. Also for the record, on the Annette Groves YouTube Channel, when logged in, you can post comments or hit the thumbs up or thumbs down rating. I have been emailed by several younger members of the voting community who have told me that their comments are always removed.
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