Patrick Brown prorogues democracy

From Simcoe County Citizens Engaging Democracy (Facebook) April 19 2011

Simcoe County Citizens Engaging Democracy attended the debate Monday April 18th at Grace United Church. We believe that debates are an important part of engaging in the democratic process. No other part of the election procedure allows the public to see the candidates interact with and challenge one another. They must defend their views in a debate and we get to see if they pass muster. 

However, the debate at Grace United Church was not as informative as it should have been, because one vital member of the panel did not attend, possibly the most important person, as he is charged with explaining why his party was held in contempt of Parliament. Patrick Brown decided not to present his view to those he hopes to govern. The host of the debate explained to the crowd that he’d received a phone call at around 5:30 p.m. on the day of the debate from Brown, claiming that he had a problem with the moderator. When one person asked what the problem was, the reason the host relayed was that Brown felt that the moderator “has an opinion.”

Patrick Brown should know by now that everyone has an opinion.

The moderator was Michael Johns, a political science professor at Laurentian University. Interestingly, Johns was quoted in the Barrie Examiner before the writ dropped, saying, “You never know when someone is going to say something that will either resonate with people, or turn people off, that could sway the results.”

Patrick Brown apparently wants to prove him correct.

So, where was Patrick Brown as his chair stood with an “absent” sign on it? What was he doing instead of speaking to the electorate? He was at Manhattan ’s on Dunlop street with his friends from City Council, Strachan, Nutall, Brassard, and the Mayor – as per his @brownbarrie twitter account. That’s something the people who showed up to hear him speak can appreciate, Bev Oda style. The Kairos affair did come up, unfortunately, Bev remains undefended because her comrade was busy playing with his friends instead of debating with his peers.

Professor Johns read questions from cue cards and told the speakers when they had reached their time limit. At no point did he express any opinion at all, for that matter, he didn’t say anything else. What this demonstrates is that if you have an opinion that does not match Patrick Brown’s he will not show up for you. He’s not here for Barrie. We have an MP that does not represent all the people, but only those that follow him. We can change that. Six candidates did show up and they shared their platforms and opinions and asked that the people consider electing them to do the job that Brown obviously does not want to do. There are good choices; most are solid candidates and they are worth looking at to represent Barrie in Parliament. 

Darren Roscam did give an endorsement for Brown in his absence, but he was the only fan left in the room at the end of the night.