Cornwall ON – You can add four more names to the ranks of nominees for City Council in Cornwall Ontario.
Thursday was a busy day at City Hall as Jim Marshall (pictured left) former councilor and Liberal Riding President Claude Poirier, Todd Bennett, and another former councilor Leslie O’Shaughnessy threw their hats into the race.
People have until today to put their names forward to run for city council, school board trustee, or mayor for the October 25th elections.
It should be interesting to see which names are added to the list today. We will be resetting our poll tonight and you’ll be able to cast your opinions. We will also be doing profiles of all the candidates and inviting them to participate in our mini debates on our Political Round Table radio show Tuesday mornings from 9AM on Seawayradio.com
Good luck Mr Bennet.
There is one candidate I can speak highly for!
There will definitely be an interesting round of debates this time around.
I am pleased to have my name stand for election to Cornwall City Council.
I am a property owner and resident of Cornwall, debt and favour free, beholding only to the electors of Cornwall. I ask nothing from the city – not a new chair, not a laptop, not a Blackberry, nothing – and should I gain a seat on council, I will return my salary to a charitable group in the community.
I am not running for office in traditional fashion, and will not be campaigning or spending to sway voters. I offer only to represent the best intentions of Cornwall residents, and to promote health, education and welfare in our community.
Current city government and administration – by overruling even the conscientious among themselves – earned a “FAIL” last term. It is with thanks to skewed priorities and negligence that the city’s social, financial and environmental well being is now at risk.
Let’s turn our situation around…
• Establish a social and economic environment that encourages clean and green business to locate centrally, invigorate the downtown with foot traffic, and spur urban renewal.
• Preserve our riverfront to the benefit of all – not a few developers, politicians and associates.
• Develop quality education facilities, meaningful jobs, a healthy environment, and people friendly mix of residential, commercial and industrial property that doesn’t surrender greenspace or riverfront – a cityscape and community that welcomes people and commerce.
• Initiate a code of conduct to impede corruption and deter city governance and city administration from serving associates and self interests – insist that the community be served instead.
And, it may well be time to address the growing number of individuals not even residing in our city, who govern, manage and manipulate the community we live in – with too little regard to the people and community they live off.
Yours sincerely,
Jim Marshall
Perhaps the readership of the Cornwall Free News could look over this draft of answers to questions posed by the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce and give a critique …go ahead I can take it.
1. Why do you want to be Councillor for the City of Cornwall?
The City of Cornwall doesn’t need another councillor but, the People of Cornwall do. That councillor could be me.
The City of Cornwall has been serving itself, to the detriment of city residents and business. The sale of outlying city owned land for a government call centre despite the availability of privately offered and centrally located property – far more suited to revitalizing the downtown – is a clear example of a city government offering only lip service to downtown business and commerce, and far more interested in its own keeping.
With the imprudent personal spending of public money, clamor for a raise, and even a cry for more comfy chairs …it appears there is more concern for council’s “hindquarters”, than its role as “headquarters” for good governance. As such, one can be forgiven for viewing council with the same regard it has shown for those it is sworn to serve.
None of this nonsense will continue on my watch.
2. What do you believe the role of Councillor to be?
A councillor is an individual acting in the best interest of the many, a steward in the provision of government services and the management of community assets, for the welfare and mutual benefit of all of its shareholders.
A councillor is aware of community needs and issues by being accessible, listening, asking, and investigating matters that are relevant to municipal government and the common good.
A councillor focuses attention and effort fairly on those matters, and is not swayed from civic duty by self service from any quarter.
3. In your view, what is the most important issue facing the City over the next three years and how would you address the issue?
We in Cornwall, and generations to come, are about to lose our riverfront even as it is being returned to us. The looming selloff of our shoreline and the kind of development that squanders the opportunity to reclaim and rehabilitate the riverfront – held from us for well over a hundred years – is the most important issue for the people of Cornwall.
Developers and politicians are aching to take this property, and when they do, we can kiss it goodbye for another hundred and more years. It is about to be severed even now by an ill-conceived bridge and roadway. And given the less than stellar conduct apparent in other lands development, the blind eye that council and administration have turned bodes ill for our future, and for our children’s.
Let’s turn our resources instead against blight, not beauty. Cornwall has far better opportunities for development. There are plenty of brownfields, and plenty of housing stock in decay in Cornwall …
Urban Renewal not destruction of greenspace!
4. What would you do to competitively position Cornwall with respect to attracting new business?
Providing an educated and motivated workforce, and intelligent municipal governance with foresight, would go some way to attracting business – by providing a stable and effective environment for growth and development of an enterprise.
Establishing Cornwall as friendly, secure, and forward looking community, by insisting and compelling authorities to address the ridiculous reign of smuggling, money laundering, and cultural conflicts that make our community a gritty and sketchy looking prospect.
5. What three key strengths do you believe you can bring to the Council Chamber?
I can bring:
– critical thinking and planning
– responsibility for city assets and the resources of residents and business
– untiring attention to the community and its wellbeing
Jim Marshall, you have my vote any day! Finally, someone well spoken, that stands for something, and critical thinking involved.. I still say they should start teaching critical thinking at a much earlier age then they do, but all for you! Finally someone putting it down the way I want to see it! It’s a breath of relief, I just hope you hold up to it all! 😉
Thank you, and to any and all that see me out and about, don’t be shy to introduce yourself. If you have a number one gripe, or even better (much much better), a suggestion or solution that addresses a community issue, I’d like to hear it, and I’d like to see where it’s coming from.
And that’s not politicking. So often on the CFN forum, and even on the S-F’s, I’ll see a point of view or angle that never occurred to me — that changes my own perspective, and reminds me not just that there is more than one side to a story or an issue, but it helps me see things from another’s point of view …and admittedly, some people have better ideas than me.
BTW, giving my salary to a local charitable group is no hollow promise. I’ll be changing up the beneficiary from year to year, and I already have a shortlist, but I welcome worthy suggestions.
I would prefer that the agency or organization match my donation, and they should be able to demonstrate that they can successfully carry-on afterward without my assistance. I would prefer also, that it be youth or young-adult oriented and physically and/or intellectually engaging.
See you around.
The Agape Centre reaches many people….a worthy charity.
You can’t miss with the United way which works with several different charities.
http://www.unitedwaysdg.com/agencies.htm
smee says:
September 10, 2010 at 8:37 am
Good luck Mr Bennet. (sic)
There is one candidate I can speak highly for!
Good luck indeed, Mr. Bennett. With Smee endorsing your campaign… what can one say?