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Lies, damned lies…and politics?

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In Bradford West Gwillimbury
Oct 23rd, 2010
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By Miriam King Editor Bradford Times October 21 2010
The Germans have a word for it: Zeitgeist, the spirit of the times.
Back in the 1960s, the Zeitgeist was a volatile combination of peace and love, war and protest – yet there was a sense of optimism.
The Zeitgeist of today, unfortunately, seems to be an angry, mean-spirited nastiness.
That certainly has been apparent in this municipal election. Never have we seen such venom, and such deliberate misinformation. Sign theft and vandalism have always been an annoyance during municipal elections; never on this scale. Some of the rumours out there?
Rumour: The Town is going to shut down the Danube Seniors Leisure Centre as soon as the Leisure Centre opens. Totally untrue. The Leisure Centre will have absolutely no impact on the operation of the Danube Centre, which was a generous gift to the Town by the Danube Countries German Club, to be used for all senior residents. However, there are meeting rooms in the new Leisure Centre which will be available to everyone – including Seniors’ groups.
Rumour: Doug White received $25,000 from a developer and used the money to hire people to put up his signs. Not only is this completely false, it is actionable. “It’s complete nonsense,” says Doug White. On September 25, he did have 50 volunteers – friends, acquaintances and co-workers from the post office – put up 600 signs in one day. “Every sign that went up was a door I had knocked on and got permission.” Not only did he NOT receive $25,000 from a developer – which would have been in direct contravention of the Elections Act, which restricts contributions to $750 – this time around, he says he has not accepted any developer contributions.
Rumour: Jim Corneau will fire Senior Town staff, and hire them back at half-salary. “The rumour is bunk,” says Jim Corneau. “We have some excellent members of staff… I never heard that rumour. First of all, you couldn’t do it under the labour laws.”
Rumour: Dissette St will be lowered so much that the connection to Artesian Industrial Parkway will be severed, harming businesses already struggling with construction. No, says Director of Engineering Debbie Korolnek. “The grade change will be no more than 0.3 metres (1′). We have placed a notice in this regard in The Times… The intersection will remain open,” although lane closures “will continue to the end of this construction season.”
Rumour: “This Council is a dictatorship.” It’s not. It’s a democracy. Council can only act by passing Motions, and each member of council has only one vote on any issue. If an issue is defeated, it’s because not enough councillors agreed, and the proponents were not persuasive enough – not that they were browbeaten or told to vote a certain way. In a related issue, of course Council “let” the banks move out of the downtown; to do anything else really would be a dictatorship.
And while we’re at it, let’s clarify something about the 400-404 Bradford Bypass: This provincial government has made it clear that it is supremely uninterested in building a multi-billion dollar highway in a Conservative riding. Even if the next provincial government, elected in 2011, moves the Bypass back on the table, it will still take years to engineer and build – even if the Environmental Assessment for the project has not expired. To say that downtown revitalization depends on the Bypass is to say that it will be years before the problems of the downtown can be addressed. In fact, the Dissette St.-8th Line widening, unpopular as it is, will provide the function of a bypass in 2011 – opening the door to restoring on-street parking and making pedestrian-friendly improvements to Bradford’s Downtown.

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