Surfergeeks

Okay, this deserved a separate entry. For those that live in town you may heard recently that there was a convention out in Edmonton for Canadian municipalities. The cities would send representatives in the form of mayors, councillors, etc. Well, it turns out we send the second largest delegation from across the country with 12 council members in attendance to the cost of around $20K. Toronto, a place with 10 times the population only sent 6. Okay, this alone is bad enough. The local paper has been following up on the story and asked each council member what they learned out there. Most of the responses were sincere efforts to explain (justify???) the trip. One response, however, really pissed me off. Councillor Bernie MacDonald responded with the following quote: “You guys are making too much of this. I have no comment. Goodbye.”

Who the hell does he think he is? It was the people of London that voted (obviously mistakenly) this asshat into office. The London Free Press is asking the questions that people would like to know. They are absolutely NOT “making too much of this”! Does this guy not realize that he’s accountable to the people of London? Not only does this comment make him appear to be a totally obnoxious prick who thinks he’s above accountability, it furthers the belief that the elected of our city is little more than an Old Boys Club that reports to no one. The first thing the Mayor needs to do is slap this guy’s hands for not properly responding to the sincere request. I’ve spoke before on the scandals that are plaguing our administration. Shit like this does NOT help improve the perception the city has of its elected officials. Quite possibly the best way for Councillor MacDonald to resolve this would be to apologize to his constituents and resign from his position. Of course, he won’t do this – after all, apparently he has no accountability. Of course, he’s probably never going to see this post as well – unless I can find an email address for him…

Now, Councillor MacDonald wasn’t the only one to brush off the Free Press – he just did it in the most spectacular way. Coun. Harold Usher also questioned why the Free Press was “dragging this on” He also went on to say that he was “not going to sit down and try to explain to anybody every single thing that I learned at that conference.” I wonder if he would use that exact line if one of his voters asked him to explain? Coun. Ab Chahbar laughed, then responded he was quite ill and that he can send the paper a report on what he learned. Well Mr. Usher – let me tell you the reason the Free Press is “dragging this on” – BECAUSE THE VOTERS WANT EXPLANATIONS ON WHY THEIR TAXES ARE GOING UP AND WE’RE SENDING OVER HALF OF COUNCIL TO CONVENTIONS – THAT’S WHY!!!!

Why does this council continue to have its head stuck so far up its ass that it can’t see that the public is NOT becoming any more reassured that the city knows what it is doing? These antics continue to show our city council as being nothing more than an incompetent group of buffoons who are laughing at us, the voters, for being stupid enough to vote them back into power.

I think the person I am most disappointed in is our Deputy Mayor, Tom Gosnell. When he was Mayor the city prospered and things were looking positive. I had hoped that with his election to Board of Control he would be able restore some respectability back to city hall. Unfortunately it appears that one man is not enough. (And, to be honest, I really haven’t seen much evidence that he’s even tried)

Grrr. I did NOT want this to overshadow my Riddick/Mike post but damnit, these people piss me off. I said it before, and I maintain that I wish there was a way to impeach them. (before it was just the Mayor, now I think I want the whole lot of them gone)