A Little Hindsight

When Barry Dingwall and Steve Sainsbury were laying the groundwork for the Proudfoot take-over of Council they began by petitioning the Ontario Municipal Board to abolish the ward system in Kearney.

It's interesting to note the following from Sainsbury's closing argument to the OMB:

"First lets[sic] analyze what was said by the Council.

It is striking how little was said by anyone except the Mayor on this critical issue. However we do have a few newspaper quotes:

Councillor Shirley Reeds was quoted as saying...”If we accept it, it gives Ward 3 [Proudfoot] the power to elect the entire Council and run it from another city” end quote (Tab 10 page 33 in the appellant Book)

“For about eight months of the year, more or less, the social culture in Kearney is made up of permanent residents” said Councillor Zummach of the possibility of summer residents being on Council. They don’t understand or care about the social culture we have here for the other 8[sic] months. (Tab 10 page 34 in the appellant Book)

Both comments reflect a clear prejudice against “those people who aren’t from around here”. Arbitrary, unfair and unreasonable statements made by Kearney Councillors."

...

[Mayor Jeff Johnston] goes on to give further evidence of his prejudice against land owners and the groups that represent them. I quote: ‘Any group that has access to the phone numbers or email addresses has an advantage which can distort the democratic process. Also to reach the absentee voters is a more costly process and will favour the better funded candidates.’ An Arbitrary, unfair and unreasonable statement."

"Arbitrary, unfair, and unreasonable"? From what we've seen in the last 6 months we'd say it was outright prophetic! But to be sure, maybe we should ask Tim Brown and the Grass and Loon Lakes Residents Group...

Sainsbury wrapped up his closing remarks with:

"[A wardless] system will bring the community together and will allow all the electors to have a say in the election of every Councillor.

Elections at large should and must be the most appropriate choice FOR DEMOCRACY in Kearney."

How's that working out for the full-time citizens of Kearney, Steve?



Oh, and did we mention that Mayor Paul Tomlinson recently pledged that there will be no more funding for Bethune. In other words, all future funding will be earmarked for Proudfoot.

Thank God the Proudfoot Four were able to bring democracy to Kearney and save us from that dictator Jeff Johnston, eh?