Cornwall Ontario – Our fair city can be a simple and complex creature on any given day. The glass can be half full or empty depending which bar you’re sitting at.
Being a long time Mill Town certain political zeitgiests were entrenched. For example for years a certain politician had say over whether someone got a job with the government or not locally at just about any level. If your loyalty wasn’t clear there was no job. Same at Domtar and other factories.
The clannish-ness was thick. It still is in many ways here in Cornwall; but its power and influence have been waning as the economy has locally.
Gone are the Domtar’s with their good wages for those that never graduated high school. Gone even are the Star Tek’s where anyone and virtually everyone could be guaranteed a job as long as they could breathe, sit, and talk on a phone while occasionally hitting a button or two.
Ed Lumley and his heart stents still carry weight and power in Cornwall; just look at our Waterfront Development public meetings a few years ago for an example.
With the Waterfront being the sole hope of bringing prosperity to our downtown core and Le Village this tragedy in the making will set back Cornwall’s growth even more. Our population has hovered for over half a century at just under 50,000 with our economy just a quarter of nearby Brockville which has half our population.
Brockville had problems itself as it grew, but that city seemed more focus on pulling together like a family.
For example here in Cornwall when the news of the tanks broke The Chamber of Commerce took the lead; however that lead included not sending a release out to all media. In fact they forgot the most read and largest; certainly not a recipe for success generally.
We created a petition with a very simple question; asking the Feds to stop the construction of the tanks. After all there has been no public consultation or safety questions answered to date. Apparently not even with the city of Cornwall itself if you believe Mayor Kilger.
[emailpetition id=”7″]
[signaturelist id=”7″]
Likewise if you view the signature list missing are the current councilors; missing are anyone on the Chamber of Commerce board or staff and even Chuck Charlebois himself! Nor do you see the President of Team Cornwall, Gilles Latour.
Nor do you see such clique rah rah people as Chris Munro, Andre Pommier, Bob Peters, Gerry Benson, Roy Perkins, Michel Dubuc, Guy Menard, Joey Gault, Denis Merkely, anyone from Seaway Tourism, Jeanette Despatie, Graham Greer, Todd Bennett, anyone from Remax Realty who make so much money off of city and waterfront construction transactions, or many other noses in the trough types, or people from other media (as if there’s a rule that media cannot come together for the better of the city in crisis), or Rick Shaver or anyone that appeared in the Cornwall Living magazine, Ettiene St. Aubin, Diane Poirier, Claude Poirier, Phil Poirier, Alyssa Blais, John Earle, Carilyne Hebert, Brian Lynch, Elaine Kennedy, John Towndrow, Pat Finucan, .. .
Nor do you see anyone from the Waterfront Acquisition Committee of Cornwall nor the Waterfront Development Committee either.
Pretty bewildering indeed as the story itself we published has been read nearly 10,000 times in two days?
At times of crisis should be the time that people put their petty silliness aside and pull together like a good family. It’s what good people do.
I myself will be attending the rally in front of the construction site tomorrow at 1 PM. I could sit and grumble and say screw Lezlie Strasser for being such a wine addled ignoramus that shouldn’t be in charge of catching mice; but my community comes first. Cornwall cannot afford Chemical tanks on its waterfront now or probably ever.
It’s not about what’s legal or not. It’s about back door deals done in the dark and it’s about politicians caught telling porkies to those that pay their salaries. It’s about them knowing weeks in advance and then trying to act surprised and concerned when they most likely consulted and gave their crooked thumbs up.
Monday is a chance for all of us to pull together. The petition is too. My goal was a reasonable 1,000 people signing by Monday, and we are a long way from doing that which is sad for our community.
I guess some people just don’t care or some care more about their petty hate of CFN than working together to stop this disaster in the making.
Hope to see you Monday at the site from noon until 1 PM and Wednesday night at the Civic Complex and hope that more of you show your Pride and Love of Cornwall by signing our petition and showing the world that you are not just about self interest and grubby clique politics.
j
I have been thinking about these chemical tanks and why the people of Cornwall were not consulted and it is like everything else where certain people in Cornwall have money invested in this scheme and they don’t give a hoot about the people. Like someone said earlier that these people do not represent us anymore but only represent the party including their own needs. Why vote when it is as corrupt as it is since things will not change putting in someone who is only going to represent a party and not the constituents. It is all a hoax, a dog and pony show by the jackals.
Leslie Stasser doesn’t drink any more. She doesn’t drink any less.
It may be that Council will examine the possibility of a by-law to restrict heavy/commercial vehicles from streets around the calcium chloride storage and transfer terminal — a filthy eyesore being built next to our waterfront ball diamonds and the children’s playground.
So since councillors read the Cornwall Free News… Let’s use this forum to float serious and practical methods to scuttle the foolishness and help out the folks around the council table. Suggestions like… no connections to city services, installing curbs and a safety rail on that dangerous stretch of roadway… you get the idea.
Give Mlle. Clément the chance to shake the dust out of her robes, let Mr. Thibeault use his knowledge of bureaucracy to tie some knots… maybe even Kilger could work his magic — though the PARIS Holdings and Canal Lands business was probably just a “one off”.
LOL LOL. You are funny 420. If she gets desperate she can drink the chemicals from the tank in Cornwall.
420 the old broad would be quite pickled. She would be a good experiment to add to the dead carcasses for the med students to practice on. LOL LOL.
I was just listening to someone who is my favorite person on the net Gerald Celente and he is so right in what he says and he said “nothing will change until the human spirit changes” and he said that one of the advices that his father gave him was “think for yourself”. People are stuck in the “Stockholm syndrome” and that is exactly what is happening from the federal level, provincial level and down to the municipal level and people are so drawn into sports on TV, etc. as well as the Trashcan family known as The Kardashians and Dancing with the Stars and what this celebrity did or didn’t do, etc. People’s minds are deteriorated and they don’t know how politicians are swindling them. Well if a person is voting for a party when they vote for mayor, etc. then they can go and you know what. There isn’t an honest person among them when they go for a party and none will do you and I any good to go out and vote for such a dirty, lowlife system. No thank you I will not vote at all for anybody. There is no difference between the cons and the fibs – they are all controlled by the same gang. They all con you out of everything that you hold dear. 420 was right we do need a revelution.
@Jules
Right on sister!
Once again Admin has turned the city towards a singularity, unappreciated and ignored by the cliquesters and the general public who hop on the bandwagon. And the smaller media follow as always. I count this as the fifth major issue you won’t get credit for exposing. Congrats James.
@Jules… Your posts are ridiculous at times (quite often) Probably mine are too LOL but I try to stay on topic…. I think what admin has exposed here is what everyone needs to know… I do find it appalling the way he is treated by the mayor when asked for comments or a little interview.. The mayor has a grudge and will not let it go not very sportsman like nor May like..If admin did not bring these topics to us we would not know about it…