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....

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.

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.

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?

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.

Are YOU a concerned citizen of Caledon?

"What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?... There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity... You can smell it. It smells like death." - Tennessee Williams, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"

Are you a concerned citizen of Caledon? I sure as hell am. The difference between me and the "Concerned Citizens of Caledon" who've been making all those 000-000-0000 phone calls all over Caledon in the last couple of days is that I really am from Caledon and not from some "paid for by the call" call centre located in Delhi, India or Akron, Ohio. I'm concerned because this election has hit an all time low, demonstrated by an act that is absolutely rife with the stench of desperation. Can't you smell that smell? Isn't this the smell of mendacity? The real, true, and decent concerned citizens of Caledon have once again been insulted and deluged by a plethora of stupid, ignorant and absolutely insulting pre-recorded phone messages about the elections.

Hey Joe....

Let's talk about gratuitous product placement. We all know what it is about and there is rarely a day that goes by in our lives where we don't have it shoved right in our face. Like last week for example, when on page three of the T.O. Sun, a columnist named Joe Warmington, or as I prefer to call him, Joe Wormington, wrote a column called "Slow Boom or Long Bust in Bolton". This was all about gratuitous product placement for the Caledon Chamber of Commerce. While this article may have appeared as the writer's regular column, it was in my opinion, nothing more than a pimped out, straight up plant of a purchased product placement in the TO Sun. The only thing missing from this article was that tiny little disclaimer that reads "Advertisement". It was a plant that I'd say was akin to the Giant Hogweed, which is noxious and can cause skin eruptions upon coming into contact with. The Hogweed, which has turned up in Peel, most recently seems to have found it's way into the newsroom down at the Sun and more specifically at the desk of Joe Wormington. Time to get the Calamine lotion out.

So how is it that just four weeks before our municipal and regional election does a gratuitous piece of product placement masked as a news article just happen by chance to turn up in a Toronto daily? C'mon peeps, think about this. A girl with a pair of ruby slippers ponders this question. Coincidence? Nope, probably not.

I'd say that Mr. Wormington's column was really the fodder of well placed greed and probably a few favour markers. You know what I mean by a favour marker right? This gets a girl wondering about how many IOU markers are going to be floating around, at Caledon's cost, after this election is over. I shudder to think. It also gets me to wondering about the true costs behind having friends in such high places. Friends who have the ability to get you placed into major dailies and on to Toronto radio talk shows. Friends with benefits. Friends who's clients have included the likes of Mike Harris, John Tory and most currently the obnoxious, racist and frightening Rob Ford. Then I get to wondering about how much a friend like this would cost in terms of a monetary perspective. After all the real estate at Dundas and Yonge is mighty pricey these days and I'm quite certain it takes more than a few pictures of Robert Borden to pay the rent in that part of town.

It got me to thinking about who picked up this tab? Is the Caledon Chamber of Commerce that flush with cash or have that many favours it can kick about? I would think that the board of directors, including their head cheese, KD, might be a bit more concerned about their rapidly diminishing credibility and their disgruntled and disillusioned membership. After all, if their AGM turnout is any indication of their membership, they've got mighty bigger problems that they need to focus on. If this Rent-A-Lobbyist was hired by the Groves campaign then it'll need to be reported in their election expenses. Stay tuned for that one. I'm betting though, the money for this horse and pony show came from a third party who just might have a vested interest in ridding Caledon of a chunk of its current council and more so, its incumbent Mayor. Oh gee, I wonder who that might be. Cannoli's anyone?

In his column, Mr. Wormington wrote "In my assessment, what is needed here is compromise. Developers are not the devil but towns have learned lessons from getting too big too fast. If the mayor and the chamber of commerce can’t see eye to eye, I suggest Premier Dalton McGuinty send in a third party to take a look at Caledon and make sure everything is being done appropriately."

In your assessment? Hey Joe who asked you for your assessment? Who even gives a Caledon cow patty about your assessment. Hey Joe do you live in Caledon? Hey Joe do you own a business here? Hey Joe do your children go to school here? Hey Joe do you shop, work or even play here? I've seen that pic of you in your fedora pal, you just don't strike me as a guy I'd bump in to on the TransCanada Trailway between Palgrave and Caledon East. Oh no wait a second, I know what it is. You wanted to come up to Caledon just for some breakfast at Cora's. Hey Joe how about instead we meet up at Kathy's Restaurant or the Riverside, which are both booming breakfast spots in Bolton and I'll buy you a real cuppa Joe. You can use it to wash down a delicious Caledon meadow muffin freshly squeezed out just for you.

Let me provide you with the coopSpeak translation of Mr. Wormington's statement. What he really meant was "Let's let the Ontario Municipal Board decide Caledon's future development." Right, right....gotcha there big fella. Assessment duly noted and thank you for your input. Now why don't you just kiss my grass and go back to pimping yourself out to the likes of the racist rant master Rob Ford and his hired gun lobbyists. Please pass me the Calamine lotion, I can feel that rash coming on.

Now here's the coopSpeak assessment of Joe Wormington's column about my community. "In my assessment, what is needed here is a good swift boot in the drawers of this writer for being so compromised and wasting the space in the newspaper on an issue that he clearly has no business putting his two cents towards.." Yup, I think that about covers off that sentiment.

While we are assessing things, let me add to that list. "In my assessment I think it is time for the Town of Caledon to look for a group of people who'd like to form a Board of Trade, that would really work cooperatively with the whole community, both urban and rural, industrial, retail and agricultural."

Bubbye Caledon Chamber of Commerce and hello to the Caledon Board of Trade.

Hey Joe, should you decide you'd like to give up pimping yourself down there on your King Street hood, where you buy your double Americano's at the Dark Horse Cafe and move uptown you might want to consider this career option. Perhaps, the now defunct Caledon Perspectives, which was owned by a developer, could be resurrected and you could find yourself a new hood to work in. Better yet, perhaps your writing winger could be former Caledon Perspectives employee, Marky Mark Pavilons and he could bring along his funky bunch from the Caledon Chamber Pot of Commerce. Who knows, maybe by that time Kelly Darnley might be looking for a career change if she hasn't moved out of town up to her Muskoka mansion yet.

Four weeks and counting. Time to click my ruby slipper heels together. I just keep telling myself....there's no place like Caledon for home. Just a word of warning, beware of the flying monkeys.

One last comment, the toilet escapades of Mr. Clean is a completely true story. I've had people say "Oh come on, you must have made that up!" The toilet tale is true. Mr. Clean, anytime you wanna check out my porcelain throne, come on over to the Beaver. I'd be happy to give you a personal tour of my low litre flusher. Perhaps you might want to consider offering up toilet inspections as part of your door knocking campaign.

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This just in....more telephones are ringing. This time it is a pollster saying "Annette Groves is running for city councillor does she have your support?"

Ummmmm....care to guess at what my response might be.