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.