Your Voice For Bolton is Not My Voice

'nuff said on that.

Dear Bolton.....

"Make the best choice for you, your city, for us all" 
- Annette Groves

With less than two weeks to go until this municipal election, I wanted to take a minute to reach out to my friends, neighbours, colleagues, associates and residents, to encourage you to please make an effort to cast your votes.  I am making no bones about who I have decided to support here in Bolton.

I took the opening quote on this post directly off the landing page of Mrs. Groves website. When did Caledon become a city? I was pretty darned certain that Caledon was still a town, not a city, located in the Region of Peel.  Did anyone over on the Groves campaign team even take time to properly proof read this website?  Did they not realize this glaring error? Why am I so not surprised about this. Guess this is what you get when you buy a canned website and insert the boxes.  Want an arts centre in Bolton? Insert a box. Want a new sports facilities?  Insert a box. Want another 10,000 houses out on Coleraine Road instead of Canadian Tire?  Insert a REALLY big box.  Oh wait, that explains the vote for your city comment.
                                                                                   
I've listened to a lot of rhetoric from the wannabes about the need for change. Why can't candidates be honest and say "I have strong skills and I have a contribution to make."  Why does it always have to be about fixing broken things or things that aren't working? Before we know it candidates will be getting endorsements from Mike Holmes as the fix it up candidate.

Side note:  Just a small word of advice to Ward 5 Area candidate, Andrei Belooussov, if you want change, you might want to start by correcting the spelling of the word councillor on your webpage. How's that for change?

In the 2010 election, Ward 5 residents voted in two new councillors, so I'm thinking that as far as I'm concerned, Bolton doesn't need a change in this election.  Bolton made it very clear they wanted a council that would control the residential development in Bolton and that's what they got.  I believe that both Patti Foley & Rob Mezzapelli have served our community in a respectful and responsible manner. They have worked cohesively and they deserve to  be returned to those seats so that they can continue to serve the residents of Bolton.  Patti, in particular, has worked very hard at making sure she developed a constant stream of open communication with her constituents.  I for one, appreciated that effort.

I think about those 8 years preceding this term and I ask myself do we really want to return the toxicity and the anarchy that comes with the likes of Annette Groves and her ilk?  Was there ever a week when you'd pick up the local paper where you weren't reading about council that looked more like the Roman Senate in a Gladiator movie. What's your poison?  Hemlock or Purple Kool-Aid?  Either way, there's not much difference.  I say no thanks to the next four years being a worse version of that.

Interestingly, I heard from one of the Minions of the Purple Haze who told me "We need to get Annette back on council so she can get rid of that horrid Mayor Morrison and Annette can finally be mayor."  Great to know that her voters are so well informed as to the fact that Marolyn Morrison isn't even running in this election. It just boggles the mind.

That comment though did serve to remind me that we all know that our stale dated confectionary wants to be the mayor. Girlfriend hasn't even won the election yet and her Jimmy Jones followers are already mixing up a new batch of Kool Aid and talking about the mayor's seat.  Here's hoping the voters of Bolton put on their common sense caps when they vote, do the right thing and return Patti Foley to council.

As for supporting Rob Mezzapelli, I have maintained all along, that in my opinion, Rob is the smartest guy out there on that council bench.  What makes Rob so smart is his ability to genuinely listen to people when they are speaking.  It's a rare quality but he's got it in spades.  The other thing that struck me was a comment Rob made during the Chamber debate, when questioned about his decisions and the budget, he responded "Every day is budget day to me."  This is a person I want representing me at council.

Do we need a few changes on council?  Absolutely.  All due respect to Richard Whitehead, the community has been well served by his tenure but it's time to hang it up. Here's hoping that some of the young bloods like Jennifer Innis (running in Ward 3&4) and Joanna Downey (running in Ward 2) will collect enough votes to get their feet in the door and bring their energy and their smarts out to Old Church Road.  It is definitely time to build a succession plan for a couple of seats on this council.

Disingenuous

I have been quiet.  Very quiet.  Not because I don't have things to say, because I always have things to say, but rather more out of sitting back and watching the general malaise that seems to have settled in over my community.  It's been an eerie kind of quiet which begs one to ask the question about what these last few weeks of campaigning will be about and what tactics we will get to watch unfold like an episode of House of Cards.  #TheUnderwoods #PureEvil #HOC

The predictable wannabes have been a'boot town rumbling on about just how broken Caledon Council is. Is it perfect?  No, I think not. Then again, I work in mental health, in a world where most things are not perfect. We live in Caledon, not Utopia.  Apparently life in Caledon is just an utter fiasco. Yeah, it's gotten so bad that I lie awake at night and worry about what disaster shall befall my community next.  Please. Tomorrow morning, like many other hard working women in this community I'll wiggle in to my work frock, rev up my ride, make my daily commute and earn my living.  Frankly I'd prefer to dwell on some of the more positive things about why I have spent the last 30 years of my life living here. #WoeIsMe

Blurred Lines

I have been ruminating.  I can't think of any other way to put it. Very quietly over dinner last weekend I said to my best friend that I was considering retiring coopSpeak.  That got an eyebrow raised and a response of "You are kidding right?  It's an election year."  With multi-leveled elections just around the corner one would expect me to be salivating at the political fodder that could keep me busy writing for months on end. For a girl like me, that is right up there with non stop shoe shopping on Rodeo Drive with my Platinum Amex Card in hand.

Seipt Tripe

My my, it would appear that someone's got their Lulu Lemons in a big 'ol knot this week as I noted the diatribe spewed by Kim Seipt in her response to Taylor Parnaby's column in the Caledon Enterprise.  Is it just me or does Kim have a propensity of accusing people of being liars?  I recall being out at a Council meeting one evening when during the Chip'n Dale Show (that would be Kimmy and Kelly of the Chamber of Commerce displaying their WWF tag team action) actually called the Mayor a liar, right there on the council floor. Well Taylor, for what it's worth, you are in good company. So do me a favour and save the chair next to you because according to Kim Seipt there seems to be no shortage of liars in the town of Caledon.

This post has been brought to you by the hashtag #CanadianTired

9-0. 
It was a unanimous, recorded vote by the Caledon Council, in favour of supporting the Canadian Tire application.  So it would seem, that is that.  Or is it?  After all the shenanigans I've watched over the past few years, the common sense side of my head would say that the Canadian Tire proposal is far from over.  What are the chances that the Town will now find themselves, sitting at the OMB, hauled there by a developer, tied up for months, which means more than likely CT will take a walk.  What does this developer want so bad that they'd take Caledon to the OMB?  Would it be a re-designation on that parcel of land to allow for residential subdivisions?  Oh the soap opera continues.  #OMB #CostsTheTaxpayersTonsOfMoney #Greed

I sat through the last meeting on the CT decision.  It was Caledon at its best and Caledon at its worst.  It felt like I was watching one of those really bad run on and on award shows, just counting for the moments to end and praying there wasn't going to be a Justin Bieber performance. I knew I should have brought a flask. Here are a few highlights....

Say it ain't so....

Do you ever feel like you are trapped in a rerun of the film Poltergeist and find yourself saying "They're baaaaackkkkk!".  Here, let me show you what I'm talking about.

This stupidness was actually wandering around the Garage Sale circuit last weekend in Bolton.  Oh lawd.  The lunacy behind this should just start up a business called "Douches R Us" and rent themselves out.  As a side business they could sell tickets to their Jimmy Jones Tail Gate Party featuring their signature purple cocktails.  Drink up folks because the fun and games are only just beginning.  

This is the start of the 18 month campaign that will see Bolton beleaguered and battered as a handful of mutts will take on a sleazy, ugly, Perez Hilton meets the National Inquirer kind of behaviour right up to the next local election.  The rodents are raising their confectionery covered noggins in their ongoing efforts to parlay a one trick issue into a campaign platform.  It's gonna be one long, hot, miserable summer.    

Time to get the martini shaker out.