Vote.

Years ago I worked with a woman who had immigrated to Canada from the Philippines where she had lived during the Marcos regime. She told me that the one thing she was really looking forward to as a newly sworn in Canadian citizen was getting to freely, privately and safely vote in an election. "Have you ever had an AK47 pointed at you when you were in a voting booth?" she asked me. She shared with me that she had not ever once gotten to vote freely and unencumbered in an election. "It is a basic privilege of democracy that I look forward to." she told me. I have never forgotten what she shared with me that day. Since that time I have not ever, not even once, ever missed an opportunity to cast my vote in any election. Not federal, not provincial and especially not municipally.

I always cringe when I hear people say "Vote? Oh I can't be bothered. What's the point especially municipally." Voter turnout for local elections is a mere 35% of the eligible voting public compared to the 50+% for provincial & federal elections. Part of me is greatly saddened by this fact because when you think about it our local government is the most grassroots, the most accessible and the closest to home governance we live with on a day to day basis. I struggle with the apathy of those numbers for the privilege to responsibly elect our local representation. I abhor the chatter of those who chose to say silly things such as "what's the point...." or "why bother...." or "it's just our local council, who cares...." Well I care.

I care about recycling and composting programs. I care about protecting the water that flows from the top of the Headwaters that eventually ends up in Lake Ontario and ultimately out my kitchen tap. I care that there are books to borrow from the public library. I care that there is supportive housing for seniors and those impacted by disabilities. I care that the snowploughs safely clear Highway 50. I care that there is a large beautiful green space where fireworks can be shot off on Canada Day. I care that I live in a region that wants to invest for resilience. I care about community safety, policing, the fire department and about the animal shelter out on Coleraine Road. I care that there are pools to splash in, rinks to skate on and infields to slide in to homeplate at. I care that we are a community that has heritage and history. I care that Bolton is home to one of the oldest Agricultural fairgrounds in North America. I care that Caledon is a place where the Niagara Escarpment meets the Oak Ridges Moraine. I care that I have a local government that made it very clear that protecting the ground we live on against relentless and uncontrolled growth and ruthless developers is a priority. I care because Caledon is my home.

I know that there are some people out there who think what I prattle on about here is negative and downright mean. To those people I would say this. What I am trying to get you to do is to think. Think about this community. Think about the fundamental values of this place we call home. Ask questions. Ask hard questions. Keep my tongue in cheek rhetoric in its perspective. I'm prodding you, or in some cases, just plainly poking the stick through the fence at you, if at least just to get some sort of reaction. I'm checking to see if you have a pulse. Apathy is a terrible illness that will suck the life right out of a community and this shows up more during municipal elections than at any other time during our electoral process. Closest to home, yet furthest from our heart. This is a logic that I have struggled to understand. It's a terrible malady to realize that no vote is in fact a vote. Of course one could just prescribe to the tenet, if you don't vote then your forfeit your right to complain about your governance.

On Monday, October 25th our community will go to the polls to elect a four year term council. Four years, eight councillors and a mayor, who will represent us in what I believe will be one of the most important four years for Caledon in its history. There will be no AK47s pointed at anyone as we the people get to exercise our fundamental right to democracy and to freely chose those who represent us. Choose wisely but more importantly, choose.

Happy belated Canada Day.

Things that make me go hmmmmmm......

Don't you ever have moments where you just stop and wonder about some things. Here are a few current thoughts that I've been having that make me go "hmmmmmm"......

If Caledon is one of the safest communities in the country then can someone please explain to me why our Mayor needs to have bullet proof windows in her home? Seriously. I kid you not. I heard that every window in Mayor Marolyn Morrison's home had to be replaced with glass that had to withstand gunfire. What the hell? I wonder if they had to do the same to her cute little yellow Thunderbird? Hmmmmm......

Ward 5 Regional Councillor candidate Amanda Squire's website has a "Contract with Amanda Squire" http://www.amandasquire.com/contract-with-you.html Then I read this very same contract on a blog called Your Freedom and Ours http://yourfreedomandours.blogspot.com/2010/04/only-six-more-days-to-go-part-1.html which outlined a contract between the blog writer and the Conservative Party. Coincidence? Well I guess we now know who it is that I was referring to in my sidebar comments about plagiarizing. This makes me wonder why this candidate wouldn't at least honestly cite the source of what she seems to make appear is her own handiwork. Hmmmmmm......

Why after all these years of being open on holiday days is Piero & Rose Carbone, owners of Garden Foods, being charged, time after time after time for being open on these days. Garden Foods was most recently fined on Canada Day. It's a cash fine or 30 days in the big house. I told Piero if he goes to jail I'd bring him a double chocolate layer cake, file included. All this happening ever since John Porter left Zehr's and a new manager has taken over. Coincidence? Hmmmm.... I am now basically boycotting Zehr's as much as possible, just out of support for the Carbones.

Nepotism is alive and well down at the Chamber of Commerce. Did you know the Chamber employs its CEO's sister and the Chamber has contracted out its cleaning services to the CEO's husband's cleaning business. Optics like this never look good. It makes me beg to ask the question why is the membership of the CCoC allowing this silliness to continue. Hmmmmmmmmm.....

Well it's Friday. That means the bar will be open for cocktails this evening.
Stay cool peeps.

Peace out.

 Thanks for the notes.  No worries, all is well.
Stay tuned.
#52ReasonsToLoveCaledon

  Peace out,
  Christine

This just in....

Just when I thought things could'nt sink any lower.... read this
Who ever is behind this, I have one word for you.  Karma.
Apologies for the tech glitch, it is now fixed.

Keep Calm and Vote Responsibly

I have always held fast to the innate belief and hope that goodness and what is fundamentally right will always trump the dark side. So on this day, the last day of the municipal campaign, I will continue to hold on to that tenet. Perhaps I'm just one super hero believer over the line, but if that is the case, then I can live with that.

This will be the last post from me before the polls open tomorrow so I'm writing this post specifically with some questions to Annette Groves.  Annie, I know that you don't read this blog but lots of your minions do and as Terry Groves told me in the last election, the night he told my husband that he'd be up to see me after the election, they print out every single one of my posts.  So here's my literary last bullet in the gun response to that AK47 you fired off in the last couple of days.

Dear Annette;

On this windy Sunday afternoon my street is littered with paper blowing everywhere.  Yesterday, tossed on to my front porch, not even left at my door, were two of your door hangers and a double dose of all the photocopied vitriol that you are calling campaign material.  Mother Nature has picked up much of that unsecured literature and is blowing it about our streets. You can't even be mindful as to not end up trashing our streets and our properties with your garbage.  My neighbour, down the street, also received your literature, who by the way had a purple sign on her lawn, promptly removed it.  She told me that this kind of material was unacceptable and in good faith she could never support a candidate who resorted to this kind of campaigning. One vote less for you, one vote more for Patti Foley.  Here here.

I'm fairly certain that the flyers that aren't swirling around, littering our neighbourhoods, have in large part, made it in to most of the blue boxes around town.  I saw that for myself when I campaigned on the north hill yesterday.   This particular blue box reeked of your desperation.

Annette, what does it say about the character of a candidate who would knowingly distribute that Toronto Star article even after Canadian Tire withdrew its Hydrogen Pilot Project making that article moot and misleading.  What does your decision and your actions to utilize this election tactic teach our residents, and our youth about the qualities of the leadership of our communities? Does it demonstrate to them that to win, you will do anything at all, even if it is a highly questionable action? Tell me Annette, is this what we teach our children?  Please, tell me, I'm listening. I want to know.  How do you justify those actions and this methodology of campaigning in your community.

Speaking about our children, why would you use very young teenagers, to distribute your political propaganda? I was out in the south end of town on Thursday afternoon and I saw three young teenage girls, probably no older than 14, with no adult supervision in sight, putting your political materials on verandas. What on earth are you thinking?  Why would you put minors on a street to distribute your election materials without at least having one of your adult campaigners with them, supporting them, directing them and making sure they are safe.  Is this responsible campaigning on your part?  I would think, as a parent and a Mother, you would know better.

What do you teach our future electorate about respectful boundaries of how you engage in a political campaign?  By allowing them to distribute news articles that are stale dated and for all intent and purposes used for culling the panic vote?  Is this the kind of civics lessons they need to learn?

I had a telephone conversation with your long time supporter Sherry Brioschi yesterday afternoon and I asked her what she thought about those actions.  It was an interesting and respectful conversation.  Sherry also made it very clear to me that the filling station that is to be located on the Canadian Tire site, which you are manipulating as political fear mongering, had always been clearly marked on the site plan. So that pretty much sinks your pretzel logic argument about council's dirty little secrets. I think every single one of your supporters needs to ask the question:  Is this the kind of leadership Bolton and Caledon needs or deserves?

Win or lose, I want you, Annette, to know that Patti Foley, without question has more fortitude, more respect for her community, and eons more accountability to her constituents in her four year term than you ever did in your entire three terms at a council.  Patti has run an amazing campaign. No one, not even you, and your dirty, filthy campaign tactics, can take that from her. Patti has been respectful, honest, engaging and transparent.  Maybe you should take a note from her campaign rule book.  So on that note I will hold fast to the belief that good will prevail and the electorate will keep calm and vote responsibly and if all else fails, there are always cupcakes to be eaten.

Not so respectfully, Christine

p.s.  Patti, you are welcome to borrow my Superman sweater.  I'm pretty sure my Mum, who made that sweater for me nearly 35 years ago, would have been chuffed and proud to know that it has endured, much like my belief in what is good and what is right.  Good luck tomorrow, either way you are a Champ.

50 Shades of Gas....

I personally think the biggest combustible gas issue that we here in Bolton need to be concerned about is the gas that is spewing out of the backside of several of the candidates in the Caledon election.  I refuse to be swayed, frightened or influenced by the fear mongering tactics of a handful of people along with those clowns at Your Voice For Bolton and especially the candidates that they have highlighted in their propaganda as "friends".  I have said it before and I will say it again, they are not my voice, they never will be my voice.

How fortuitous that the Toronto Star, and in particular Urban Affairs Reporter, San Grewal, produced those stories about the Canadian Tire Hydrogen Pilot Project days before our election. Coincidence?  I think not.  I think there is money and lobbyists behind all of this.  The question is, who's is paying the lobbyists and the faux news space in the TO Star?  Think about that before you mark your ballot.

It would seem that there are some that would believe that Caledon is still up for sale, we are after all, as Toronto Life referred to us, as the Hamptons North.  I don't know about you but the only Hampton this Caledon girl knows about is the new Hampton Inn being built on Hwy. 50 in Bolton.  Some things just never change.

The hysteria, that was propagated by those adroitly timed news articles only reinforces that the Your Voice for Bolton debate was an utter farce. Just for the record, that debate was no debate.  It was a conduit for the diatribes of the likes of Kim Seipt and Shari Brioshi, who still can't get their facts straight. This dopey crew can't even properly spell the names of candidates on their endorsement flyers.  How convenient that while that fake debate was going on flyers from Your Voice For Bolton were being dropped at the doors around south Albion.

The discussions by candidates from comparisons to the propane incident in Toronto to hints of train derailments and the ideations that Bolton could be another Lac Megantic was an irresponsible attempt to attain panic votes.  Shame on those who fueled that garbage, including fools like Nancy Stewart and Gary Cascone who referred to Caledon's "dirty little secrets".  If people are so freaked out about combustible fuel then why wasn't anyone talking about Caledon Propane which is located within a kilometer of the Greenpark subdivision and has been operating in Caledon for years?  Talk about a lot of combustible gas in a small space.  It's a wonder the old legion building didn't have the roof blown off the place on Tuesday night.

As for this hysteria around hydrogen can anyone tell me that last time a bus in Mississauga or Brampton blew up?  Both of those cities use hydrogen to power their transit.  Hydrogen fuel cells have been in use for a decade and is viewed as clean technology, allowing us to move away from fossil fuels and high emission energies. Any fuel has to be handled appropriately.  When filling your car with gas do you stand there with a burning cigarette?  Is Your Voice For Bolton going to picket all the places we fill our bbq tanks? Can we please use some common sense?

I see now that Canadian Tire is withdrawing the Hydrogen Pilot Project and I for one am disappointed. Caledon has touted itself as being "clean and green" and hydrogen technology is very much a part of that landscape of thinking for a cleaner future. It's a really sad day for Caledon when that pack of wild hyenas uses hysteria to get a vote.  Is this the kind of leadership we want for our community?  Not for this girl.

Taylor Parnaby recently wrote in his column that there would be many changes at the region and he is so spot on with that observation.  We lose a good friend in the Chair of the Region with the retirement of Caledon's Emil Kolb. We lose a powerful leader in Marolyn Morrison who had the ability to build support from Brampton & Mississauga councillors.  Caledon will come under immense pressure just to hold on to and protect its precious five seats at the region.  We've got way bigger challenges than just the Canadian Tire issue.  Now is not the time to send some neophyte mayor to the region which is why I'll support Allan Thompson.

I keep seeing and hearing the rhetoric from the wannabes for change.  Here's my response to that.  Annette Groves sat on Caledon Council for 3 terms.  Ian Sinclair also has had a couple of terms under his belt as did Nancy Stewart. How is returning recycled, sour grape candidates, who the public said no to in the past, bringing change to council? When the Cupcake thought she could take the whole shooting match for Mayor in the last election she took a drubbing and rightly so.  Why in good conscious, would we turf aside decent, hard working, responsible and effective representatives like Patti Foley, Rob Mezzapelli and Allan Thompson, to return someone such as Mrs. Groves and her pals, along with all that drama and all those special friends in higher places.  That frightens me a whole lot more than a hydrogen fueling station in Caledon.  Kaboom.

My omen moment about the Bolton battle came the other day as I was tucking a pamphlet in to a mailbox at a door in the south end of Bolton.  I opened it up and much to my surprise it was like looking in to the face of ghosts from four years ago.  There in that mailbox sat that silly dvd from the last election. I kid you not.

I actually snort laughed. It was, simply for me, a defining moment and a reflection of all that had gone before.  Remnants of this rusty purple haze only served to remind me that the electorate isn't quite as gullible or easily misguided as some of candidates would like us to believe.

Keep Calm and Vote Responsibly.

Your Voice For Bolton is Not My Voice

'nuff said on that.