Some Musings on Lance Thrale

Tomlinson should also be thinking about this:

Proudfoot's other mayoral candidate Lance Thrale entered the race in the eleventh-hour as a complete unknown, but still managed to get 329 votes! That's only 52 votes less than Tomlinson who had massive backing from at least 2 Proudfoot cottage associations, was an incumbent member of council, and is very well known.

Which begs the question: Where did Lance get his votes? Considering the division between Proudfoot and the Locals, we can safely assume that not many came from outside Proudfoot.

But isn't Tomlinson Proudfoot's champion and golden-boy? Yet apparently nearly half the ratepayers of Proudfoot preferred a virtual stranger over Paul Tomlinson.

Maybe having Sainsbury and Dingwall join his team helped Thrale, but Tomlinson is starting to look more and more like Kearney's own George W. Bush.

What Paul Tomlinson Needs to Remember

When mayor-elect Paul Tomlinson is crowing to the newspapers about his success, he should keep something in mind; While 381 votes did get him elected, 554 voters (or almost 60%) voted AGAINST him being mayor.

And while we're number crunching... with 2406 registered voters in Kearney, 381 votes is only 15.8%.

So, while you feeling mighty proud(foot) about your popularity, you really only have the support of about a SIXTH of your constituents. And we know where that sixth comes from.

And something else to consider:

Every councillor that got voted in, received far more votes than Tomlinson. Even councillors that didn't get voted in received more votes than Tomlinson.

Oh, and in 2006 Mayor Johnston received almost twice the votes at 744, and in 2003 Cliff Reeds received more than twice the votes with 779. In both cases that was over 50% of the popular vote. Kinda makes 15.8% look pretty piss-poor, eh?

So Paul, you're Kearney's new mayor, but you're not loved by all. Not by a long shot.

The Almaguin News has Tomlinson's Number

The Almaguin News published an editorial this week that really hits the nail on the head. You can read the entire article online, but here's the part the speaks directly to Tomlinson's campaign and general attitude toward the Townies of Kearney:

"...Having said that, it is with more than a little trepidation this week that we acknowledge the remarks of mayor-elect Paul Tomlinson from the Town of Kearney.

By highlighting how he built his electoral success by sowing and nurturing the seeds of anger amongst seasonal residents, Tomlinson has show a great deal of recklessness in that he is not afraid to play “us” and “them” politics in a small community. We find equally disturbing the manner in which he describes the way seasonal residents seemed determined to use the ballot box to punish local residents with a slate of their choosing.

Since Mr. Tomlinson couldn’t take the time to be gracious, we will take a moment to acknowledge the contributions made by incumbents Charlie Zummach, Mary Lesperance, Shirley Reeds and Bob Tilley. We have found all of these people to be hard workers for the betterment of the community not just in their roles with council but also in the many community groups and volunteer opportunities they have taken on and led. When we attended functions in Kearney we didn’t just find them in attendance but working hard in the kitchen, at registration tables or elsewhere to do their part to make events a success.

The newly elected members of Kearney council have some big shoes to fill and mayor-elect Tomlinson would do well to acknowledge as much.

With the start that he is off to in to his four years in office, we do not predict there will be any healing of rifts in the community of Kearney. We believe there is every reason to think that strife and fractiousness will be the hallmarks of his term.

We put it to you Mr. Tomlinson to prove us wrong."

"Us and Them politics", "punish local residents", "couldn't take the time to be gracious", "sowing and nurturing the seeds of anger"...

It's nice to see that we're not the only ones that see Paul Tomlinson for what he really is.

The Proudfoot Four Begin Plotting Strategy

Despite not having been sworn in, Paul Tomlinson has been setting up secret "council" meetings with his three cronies (Wadsworth, Sainsbury, and Dingwall) in order to plan their strategies.

So much for openness and transparency, eh?

And so the Proudfoot version of democracy begins...

Election Results

Mayor:    
Paul Tomlinson (C)     381
Lance Thrale     329
Charles Zummach (C)     202
Frank Heran     23

So even though Tomlinson only received about a THIRD of the 935 votes, the Thrale/Zummach split let him squeak in.


Council:    
Yvonne Wills     514
Arthur Murdy     483
Louise Wadsworth (I)     442
Steve Sainsbury     440
Barry Dingwall     426
Ken Ball     423
Mary Lesperance (I)     394
Shirley Reeds (I)     337
Cliff C. Reeds     290
Robert Tilley (I)     281

It wasn't a runaway, but the Proudfoot Four now control the town of Kearney.

Welcome to the Town of Proudfoot.


And remember: If you didn't vote, you don't get to bitch.