Cornwall Ontario – I stopped going to the Team Cornwall Year in Review two years ago when I resigned from the group until they cleaned house. The group, which does almost nothing but a few rah rah events essentially should be an arm of the City’s Economic Development Department. They even give out hockey cards for its members to pass out.
There I am having current Leader of the Opposition Thomas Mulcair hold mine up at Parliament. Below Green Party Leader Elizabeth May holds my card while I was a local candidate briefly; before I resigned from all political parties and chose to become Hyper Non Partisan (that’s for a whole other story)
If you read tweets you’ll see a lot of sycophants, brown nosers and sucks up tweeting away the party line.
From Alison Hudson or whatever she calls herself from day to day; one of the biggest toadies in Cornwall History.
$79M new bridge almost ready for traffic! #CornwallYIR
— Alison Hudson (@Alison_Hudson) December 18, 2013
And from Alyssa Blais who doesn’t mention net job loss or gain or the comparative dollar values. IE Lose Parks Canada jobs at over $30 per hour vs new minimum wage jobs.
Big picture of Cornwall, strong activity and over 500 jobs created #CornwallYIR 2013 pic.twitter.com/qudoWhamD1
— Alyssa Blais (@AgapeCornwall) December 18, 2013
Here’s another gem from Ms Hudson
@ChooseCornwall @TeamCornwall #CornwallYIR This is absolutely worth getting up this early in the morning for! pic.twitter.com/TyOynLh5tY
— Alison Hudson (@Alison_Hudson) December 18, 2013
And a farcical media spin;
Mayor Bob Kilger speaking at a “very, real success story” that is Cornwall @TeamCornwall#CornwallYIRpic.twitter.com/aVNvrtFt53
— TheCornwallDaily.com (@tcd_news) December 18, 2013
It’s like The Stepford Wives, but really it’s pretty simple. You have a core group of people whose livelihoods, or hoped for livelihoods rely on favored droppings from those above them in the feed chain. Cronyism at its utter worst. Does anyone really expect Alyssa Blais to rock a boat when her entire life is essentially at the behest and favour of people like Bob Peters and Gilles Latour; not too mention her political mentor Elaine MacDonald (no stranger to sucking off the public pension teet) while fumbling to run the city’s largest foodbank? (Agape junk shop Food Bank by their own numbers have cut services while raising costs and deliver a sliver of the percentage of dollars given to them to the hungry as well as having legal issues with employees past and present)
Yes, Cornwall has given away a lot this year. Should we really be proud of giving away $3.5M in Corporate Welfare to Billionaire Mitch Goldhar and Smart Centres (Wal-Mart) ? To Seniors struggling to keep their modest homes heated while under huge tax burdens is this good news or something to clap about?
Spending most likely over $3M in various scandal costs and destroying the careers of multiple long serving City Managers; is that something to be celebrating? Are these people celebrating the assertions from former Deputy Fire Chief Rob Hickley who was forced into retirement when the judge refused to cover court costs in his case that alleged Conflict of Interest over the Mayor’s hiring of his son to the Fire Department?
Drive down Pitt Street and Montreal Road. All those empty stores; is that something to celebrate? Cornwall Square being propped up by emergency pillars since about May of this year with no apparent repair work done. Again, pride?
Killing beavers, gassing pigeons, fighting 3 month campaigns to have the public write in about how great Cornwall is; is that what we’re proud of? Is that what we are celebrating? The new bridge is not a new project. It’s been celebrated now how many years at this gathering?
Should we be proud of Cornwall Kinsmen Lift Off which has lost over half of its crowd in less than 3 years, and where are the mentions for the Sylvain family that are trying their darndest to save the Port Theatre which btw, would be a great venue to hold next year’s YIR as it seats more. What about some of the other small businesses that are seeing successes but aren’t connected to the Kilger cliques?
We’ve had two strip malls open recently; one with traffic issues now costing taxpayers extra monies and one that apparently has floors cracking in less than one year because it was built on a swamp. Even our new bridge has reports that one of the pylons from the old bridge has to remain because of an engineering oopsie.
And of course our crowing item of pride this year is the Mayor and his Economic Development department not bringing the fact to council in June that the Federal Government was going to allow tanks to be built on our waterfront sabotaging essentially the community’s plan for revitalization. An act that Mayor Kilger has yet to actually condemn or show leadership in fighting.
There are some things for our city to take pride in but sadly this group; this event that excludes the genuine successes of people in our community who don’t cow tow to them, are not.
And even more sadly most of the public gets it too. Do we really want to live in a community of fear and suck ups?
If you want a full glass of the Kool Aid check out hashtag #cornwallYIR on Twitter!
What do you think Cornwall? You can post your comments below.
(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of this site, their staff, or sponsors.)
That’s it Jamie, stay positive.
I attended. It was a fine brew of what Jamie stated above. Alison Changinglastname served me a terrible piece of quiche. The crown fawned over Mrs. Lecky, Gilles Latour calling her “Supermodel” and asking everyone to twit or twat that they were in attendance, sounding more MLM guru than anything else. And the crowning jewel of Dominion Place mentioned as if here is a chance it will be anything other than Dominion Slab. An eye opener for sure. The perfect cross section of interwoven lives, nepotism, and narcissism.
Gassing pidgeons, having some steel beam from the old bridge to help hold up the new, a store built on a swam and may I go more. LOL LOL. ROLF! What a screw up. Things are getting worse every time I read and Bare Ass is at the top along with his shister gang of crooks. I would never step food on the new bridge not even t walk across. When that gang of Bare Ass and company has anything to do with construction or planning everything goes to pot.
alright let me say this..if we want anything good or constructive to ever happen to this city there is a thing called positive thinking..Openly disrespecting anything new or “in the works” to this mass media of the internet is just disrespectful and backwater thinking.. It makes me think of “ahem” rednecks .. we are trying to put a positive outlook of what Cornwall can be. To hear such crap coming from anyone who wants nothing but the worse for us as a whole makes me give a head a shake.. Do you honestly think that any company that wants to invest in a city wants to hear only negative and bashing from it”s citizens?? would you invest in any situation where you only heard the gossipers saying the worst?, hell only the gossip? or would you like to hear from those who have seen changes for the good ? This is coming from someone who only wanted to ” get out of dodge city ” a few years ago.. Things have been brought to my attention that it will get better..Yes the Mills are gone with the high pay but so what? I can breath better.. it dosent stink and my car or house is not dusted with “yellow crap” A step up? i think so.. Do we want a select few to make amazing amounts of money at the health of the rest of the city and our farms which are the backbone of our community??? i say NO!!! disrespecting those who only want the best for us is nothing but cowardly?? do you want more for yourself?? work hard and accept nothing else from anyone in return.You may not like what I say but it is from someone who wanted to turn their back from this community.. Not Anymore..
I had to have a little laugh and 420 said it well and I am laughing. I need that laugh. I screwed up the words because I haven’t slept for some days folks. My eldest sister in law passed away and I can’t stop thinking about her and our whole family is upside down here. Live life fully and pray and believe me the power of God is something that nobody could ever defeat. All I am doing is feeling mighty down but I will say this that life goes on and Jamie’s paper is the greatest of all. I get mighty angry and sad and at the same time I enjoy a barrel of laughs. Thank you Jamie for all you do.
Kris I think you may miss a point that those that work hard should benefit from this city as well. Not just a small clique with snouts buried deep into the trough with their friends and family in key positions at city agencies and charities propping them up.
I have worked very hard creating something very special. In 5 years we’ve become the most read newspaper in this city with over 7400 published pieces, 1400 videos on our you tube channel, and over 40,000 pre manually moderated comments.
Are we perfect? Are we even great? Maybe not; but we like many other survivors in the small biz game deserve equal access to what’s in our community instead of boycotts and bullying of some of our clients.
There was a lot to celebrate about Cornwall for 2013, but very little of it was shown at the YIR and instead it was a big circle jerk, again.
Luckily most of the public gets it even if they say little publicly….
@Kris
With all due respect for your heartfelt comment, playing along with a bunch of bad ideas and accepting bad governance doesn’t make one a better citizen. An informed critical eye is a valuable asset to any community and shining a light on questionable gestures from local government is a healthy thing. This is not about clan warfare. No one should ever have to fear speaking up about local issues. Right or wrong.
Or is Cornwall the only community in this country that has a “no complaints” law?
Jamie…it seems odd that any comment(s) that are critical of you personally and your vendetta against most everyone are never published.
I made comments last evening and since that time 3 posts have be made.
This is not the first time that this has happened to myself and others.
So much for being an open responsible forum.
Your comments were deleted because we do not allow personal attacks from anonymous posters. It’s that simple. Anyone that’s ever read CFN knows that there is plenty of criticism and attacks on me. I have very thick skin and take it from whom it comes. Thank you for reading and posting to your community’s largest and most read Newspaper!
One short clarification on the new North Channel Bridge….The use of the old bridge pier has been planned from day 1. It is “intended” to become a public tourist lookout over the River and has absolutely nothing to do with supporting the new bridge. See the preliminary drawing (showing the old pier) posted on my blog in June 2012 at http://www.pontcornwallbridge.ca/eng/?p=250 André 😉
Hi Andre and thanks for the link, but nobody mentioned the pier as a “support” of the new bridge.
Under the brilliant diection of would be cheerleader Alyssa, the Agape centre recently mailed out requests for donations… a real marketing brain fart for sure.
You could supply Christmas to a family — dinner, toys and even chocolate and cookies for Santa — for only $187 dollars.
Here you go… a nice, impersonal, no mess chance to Christmasize an imaginary little family. It certainly makes sure you don’t get your hands dirty, and although the response has been next to nil, the printer (we wonder who) and stationers did quit well.
The biggest problem that Cornwall has and had are people who suck up to the powers that be and there are certain people who get work and others do not. If you do not suck up and brown nose then you get nowhere even if you are self employed the mayor and council and the business bunch can refuse you. Why would anyone want to invest in a town that is like Boss Hogg on the Dukes of Hazard. People want to invest in a place that has a future and does not have this brown nosing and sucking up and everything falls to pieces. It is mighty dangerous to cross on a bridge that cannot hold itself up well because of engineering gone wrong. I wouldn’t even put a foot across the bridge wondering if it will all collapse. So much has gone wrong with Cornwall that it is a joke of the country and beyond. People have to smarten up and look well beyond themselves and see the insanity going on around them and to stand up and fight to have better changes. I stand up for André and always have and I have always said that he is the number 1 councellor around that table (should be an alderman) who works hard and makes sense. The other man that I like is Leslie O’Shaughnessey and he had the good nerves to resign and leave such nonsense behind him. The other one that works partially enough for a good mention is the former cop of the Barney Fife PD Gerry Samson. The rest of them are complete and utter failures and liars to the hilt. In order for Cornwall to get ahead you need new people in with good ideas and not let the powers that be dictate to you. Business + government = fascism. For God sake don’t let this happen because this has been happening far too long and it is about time that if is finished for good.
KEEP VOTING FOR LIBERAL LEANING CANDIDATES!
I guess you haven’t had enough of the Liberal McGuilty or the NDP Andrea Horwath
that supported his criminal activities involving BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars by allowing them to stay in power! Real honesty there I tell you!
Nothing to see here. OH look a 90 thousand dollar federal scandal. Way more important than the BILLIONS stolen by the Ontario Liberals. Yea the uneducated voters just listen to the Left leaning media.
As for team Cornwall, these are the crooks your father warned you about.
You know the people who wouldn’t amount to a wart on a frog’s a s s without
robbing taxpayers. Dishonest crooks. They play by the same rules as the Ontario Liberals.
Cheats and crooks, and when I see them in public, I let them know what they are.
You should too!
Um, Xscrambler, why not post with your real name instead of taking an anonymous dump?