Avid Blog Fan Jim Skelton Writes In

 Good morning Blog Master Supremo,

 Throw the attached to the ‘mob’…

 Then have Jr. turn up the “ridicule” machine!

 Not “anonymous” and oh yeah…there are no bcc’d versions

 PS: Intriguing choice of words you employ…clearly runs (no pun intended) in the Family. [???]

 Dear ‘New’ Council…

 Congratulations on your election wins!!

 It seems, however, that some still don’t really know what happened…

 Mary was not running for Mayor! [Mary who? Running for mayor when?]

 Paul won a solid plurality at 40%... [Paul won 40% of the votes cast, but less than 16% of the popular vote. Popular votes are the total possible votes of the population. In 2010 there were 2406 registered voters in Kearney, so 381 votes is only 15.8%. Is the math getting confusing, Jim?]

 In speaking with folks around town there still appears confusion!

 No person or group assisted Paul...he did it all by himself! In fact he rejected all offers of help!

 As far as I am aware…neither the SLAPOA nor the GLLRG campaigned on behalf of any candidate! [You weren't at the July 10, 2010 GLLRG meeting so you missed the part where member Tim Brown canvassed for donations for fellow members Steve Sainsbury and Barry Dingwall.]

 Imagine if they had done so! [No need to imagine] Would the results be any different? Does it matter?

 A WIN is a WIN is a WIN…

 Always fun to replay the tape and play the speculation game but can you really do that? NO!! [But Jim's about to anyway]

 WHY? Because as circumstances change so too do the strategies behind each candidate!

 Accept the results…move on and celebrate the future not the past!!

Barry and Steve managed their own campaigns…[Actually, according to their campaign brochures, and other mailings, Tim Brown was their manager] they worked hard for every vote they received! They are heroes! ["Heroes"? Really? Like Mother Theresa, or Oscar Schindler, or rescue workers at 9-11? That's how you see them?]

Yvonne garnered votes from across the entire town…Wow! Good going!

Ken stayed out of sight and we hope he’s not being mentored by other Clam Lake parties…but we do wonder! [We have no idea what that means.]

Art amazed us all…great vote count! I’m told B & S loaned him some coattails; but so what…nice WIN Art!

Louise fashioned an impressive WIN and she did it in spite of spiteful and relentless personal attacks! What’s wrong with some people?

 Speaking of which…have you ever seen such ‘fuzzy’ math or at least such a pathetic version of it?

 Try this for sensibility…

 In 2003 Lynn Godfrey received 560 votes in Ward 3…318 more than her nearest second place rival! Now that was a WIN!

Jeff Johnston finished second to Paul Schaefer in Ward 2 by only 11 votes…but he was still SECOND not first!!

Oh yeah Tilley received just one vote less than half of Jeff’s total in 2003 and he still remains NEVER elected! [Bob Tilley? Who was elected to Council in 2006?]

That means Jeff received twice as many votes as Tilley but he was still SECOND.

Now for the clincher…and this is really very basic math and not even ‘fuzzy’!!

Wait for it…

In 2003 the winner for council in each Ward received more votes than the winning candidate for Mayor! [Okay... Still waiting for the clincher...]

And another very pleasant fact from 2003…Earl Herron came fourth in Ward 1 and barely polled half the votes of the winner Rick Philip….remember Earl was parachuted into the previous council to replace the resigning Rob Rickward. So Earl had been on the previous council and still lost! Remember the same guys tried to do the same for Earl with Sadie’s passing! So who says cronyism is dead in Kearney!?

Charlie had every right to ask for our votes…he’d definitely served his time! But Thrale…come on Kearney he doesn’t even know where the council chambers are…how gullible are we? [Well, you did vote for Tomlinson and look at how well that turned out.]

Oh! You didn’t want Paul…or was it you didn’t want Charlie?

Remember Paul barely campaigned and that other guy (soon to be our previous Mayor) campaigned relentlessly against him! So why have we not heard from that other guy except with his ‘fuzzy’ math? [If you're referring to former mayor Johnston, Council heard from him recently when he was delegated by the ratepayers of Kearney to deliver the petition for Tomlinson's resignation.] Do you think ‘congratulations’ just might be in order?

Congratulations Paul…in case you haven’t heard you’ve been ELECTED Mayor of Kearney! Yeah three cheeeeeers!!! [And now hundreds of ratepayers have signed their names an a petition for his resignation. Yeah three cheeeeeers!!! And Council had to censure him for harassing town staff again. Yeah three cheeeeeers!!! And now Council wants his resignation. Yeah three cheeeeeers!!! Our Reserves are being sucked dry and will be gone by the end of Tomlinson's term. Yeah three cheeeeeers!!! Tomlinson's critics are being beaten in the street in front of their families. Yeah three cheeeeeers!!!]

So you think if Thrale had pulled out Charlie might have Won? Not a snow ball’s chance…Charlie is restricted to no more than 290 votes! Why? It’s just the way it is! Fuzzy math? No it’s simply a well known Kearney factoid! [Gee Jim, if your astrologer says it would have been so, who are we to argue?]

 So if Charlie had pulled out? Well then there wouldn’t have been any need to cast a “not for Charlie” vote! Right? Of course and Paul would’ve WON in a veritable landslide…so much for the pundits…Kearney really is a strange place at Election Time!

And now for the ‘real time’ quiz…

How many envelopes with Bob Goodings greetings and the Proxy Form did the SLAPOA send out?

Well, I have it on good authority that they reached more voters than actually turned out….the object of the exercise (aside from recruiting new members) was to provide a ‘community service’ and “get-the-vote-out”!! Did it work? Was it helpful?

And, this may surprise you…almost twice as many were sent to ‘Local’ residents than were sent to seasonals! [No point in preaching to the converted.] And, of those sent to seasonals 10% of the number sent to locals were sent to seasonals living north of Barrie. Is the math getting confusing? [We're okay on the math, but we're having trouble figuring out your point.]

None were sent to the Loon Grass Lake seasonals…we really don’t like them folks!! Just kidding they were doing their own bit to get the vote out [And donating money to Dingwall and Sainsbury's campaign]…how we doing so far? Complicated stuff these elections Eh? 

Enjoy you evening…watch the USA election results…they just might affect your future!!

Thanks again for standing up for Kearney and good luck and much success in your upcoming term!

Kearney really does need you all…but actually four would probably do just fine!

And, that reminds me the average number of votes cast per elector for council was 4…prophetic??

Cheers,

Jim Skelton jskelton@caseworks.ca

Another nice rant, Jim. Must have pulled an all-nighter on that one.

And the never-ending history lessons are terrific! But Paul Tomlinson is still a bully and serial harasser, not that that's a problem for you. You clearly enjoy the mayor's schoolyard bully antics. But, Tomlinson has made himself a public laughingstock and a liability and now the Council and the people of Kearney want him gone. You might still be madly in love with your hero, Jim, but the Council and ratepayers of Kearney are not.

And we don't think there will be any need to "have Jr. turn up the 'ridicule' machine". First, the Johnstons don't run the blog and their contributions are always signed. Tomlinson took a shot in the dark and missed, but he and his sycophants need a target for their anger (and violence) so none of you can let go because it would leave you without a tangible target for your hate. Second, we really never need to ridicule the obviously ridiculous, we just do it for fun. Keep those cards and letters coming, Jim!