CORNWALL Ontario – One of the reasons I didn’t run for office last term is that CFN was still in its infancy and frankly the other media have been less than civil. Note in question is that the two that covered my announcement yesterday both went yellow bringing up the political smear of last week. Corus Radio ignored the first mayoralty candidate announcement even though I talked to their News Director, Bill Kingston in advance.
Fast forward four years and things have changed. CFN is number one in Cornwall and the ills at 360 Pitt are much more apparent to me.
I have to apologize to the public for endorsing Mayor Kilger; something I will have to live with; but its said that any apology has to have action to back that up and yesterday after much prodding, I took that action by filing my papers to run for Mayor of Cornwall Ontario.
I had earlier stated that I would only do so if the Mayor filed; but frankly with the pouring of the concrete at the Chemical Tanks and the Political and Personal smear I was given last week along with the urging of the public, I decided to take this step.
I also announced yesterday that I will be putting my stake in CFN on the open market because frankly there are not enough hours in the day, and when elected I could not handle all of my duties at CFN. We have had three asks in the last 12 months and each wanted me to stay on in some capacity. Nothing will change in the day to day workings although we do have some new talent about to start to show up and take some of the burden off of me as my campaign evolves.
Cornwall is at a critical point in its history. Change is coming whether people want it or not. As many of you reading this know I was not born here in Cornwall. I chose to live here and have now for ten years.
I am Cornwall’s Canary in the Coal mine. I don’t want others to experience some of the behaviour that I have endured. I want us to be able to honestly invite investment and talent, and not be embarrassed after. My neighbours, also a Montreal transplant that invested heavily in their retirement home, have expressed regrets at moving to Cornwall as have others. I want to help change that.
Same for young people. It’s time to keep our people home.
How do we do that? Well there’s not one simple answer, but there is one simple step and that’s for us to stop trashing Cornwall and building our brand. That starts with our elected officials and management to stop selling us cheap as though something is wrong with us; there isn’t other than we, like some other communities, failed to elect leaders.
We don’t need to freeze taxes, we need to cut them and I feel that a proper audit of the budget by true leaders will show that we can cut taxes without cutting services. This is something I am committed to.
Corporate welfare is not the solution. We need to invest in our people first. No more 12 months waiting for permits to open a business in Cornwall as one new restaurant owner shared with me. Can you imagine paying rent and overhead for a year while being jerked around by officials who instead of providing clear lists keep returning piece meal sometimes even having previous work demanded ripped down? Do we not realize that people talk and it discourages small business from coming to Cornwall?
At a recent meeting it was mentioned that there are 17 available storefronts on Montreal Road. Le Village has issues that can only be dealt with by taking some honest looks in the mirror and realizing that we have to do better. Look what Brockville did with King Street? Look at Westboro. We have to start the Gentrification process sooner rather than later. We need to start or assist in the creation of business and cultural incubators.
We can change. We can do better, but one person will not be that change. We all have to be that change. We can make the difference, but only if we put petty past grievances aside and work together. We need to hold those responsible accountable and heal.
And we need to fix our house. And once we’ve fixed our house we need to go to our neighbours and say it’s time to amalgamate and create an Eastern Ontario powerhouse of Economic Development; especially with the ways things are going with our neighbours in Quebec.
Remember, one step at a time. The first step is for you; the voters of Cornwall, to start to focus on the issues that matter to you and to get involved in the process. We have seven months to harvest these first seeds. We have seven months to create the new Cornwall. I’m ready if you are.
You can email me at jamie@cornwallfreenews.com
Well look at that, they spelled your name correctly. Best of luck with the new adventure.
http://www.cornwall.ca/en/cao/Nominated-Candidates.asp
List of Candidates
Nominations for municipal and/or school board offices for the 2014 Municipal Election have been received from the following persons:
Mayor
Jamie Gilcig
Councillor
Todd Bennett
Brock Frost
Carilyne Hébert
Gary W. Samler
Gerald E. Samson
Guy St-Jean
Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario
Upper Canada District School Board
Conseil scolaire de district catholique de l’Est ontarien
Michel Pilon
Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario
Jules Bourdon
Could you not get up enough ambition to wear something a little more presentable? You have a careless look about you that may interfer with some votes. Be classy, not trashy.
Well done Jaime, Kudos to you for taking a position…
Whats up readers, no comments??? The cat got your tongue???
Or are the people of Cornwall really this apathetic?
Prove me wrong.
Jamie you would make an excellent mayor,you care more about this city than most,You have tried to have a letter writing campaign about why we love Cornwall only to have council work against you & then fail in their attempt at doing their own, those tanks would probably not be here under your watch,I can,t believe the rude comment from Melissa,pretty sleazy.I would prefer someone who is casual dressed that is honest rather than a scumbag in a suit with conflicts of interests
Melissa please do not push any buttons or call the police because you have an issue with Mr Gilcig’s choice of attire for this occasion the trashy is hiding behind closed doors upstairs inside this building. Jamie last night meeting at the RCAF wing hosted by Mark A MacDonald was a great start by our nominated candidates for the next election that you are not alone. Differences apart they all were agreed that it is now time for change and work to fix the mess left by Kilger and the Gong Show. Good Luck Mr. Gilcig.
Gerry
I did try but it appears to be missing
Jamie all the very best to you in the world and I am going “HIP HIP HOORAY” over and over again for you. You are the best out there. One thing is when you do campaign put on a suit even though it means nothing but to the public it has a better reflection about yourself. You are the best newspaper in town and you are the best man for the job as mayor because you can see all the things wrong with the town. Many people who have lived in Cornwall for almost a lifetime left for Brockville and other places to retire. Cornwall is going to be a real challenge to clean it up in more ways than one. Yes many people who moved to Cornwall whether to retire or do business have regretted every moment. It is time for a major cleanup. All the very best to you and that is always. Bare Ass is absolutely no match for you at all. He is a joke.
Dear Jamie
I saw your comment on SF site where you talk of defamation
I don’t think it right that people can post anything over there under fake names
On the other hand it deeply trouble me that you allow Jules to post her claim about the Mayor
and a Cornwall Restaurant staff.
In my view this is slander with a few LOL LOL’s stuck in the paragraph
Sorry I just think this is sordid and wrong and reflects poorly on you while u run for Mayor.
The guy running for governor of Texas allowed Ted Nuggent to call President Oboma a mongrel dog during one of his rallies. Now he is facing a big backlash for allowing this racist and stupid comment at one of his political events. While you want to debate Mayor Kilger I wouldn;t want a voter to stand up and ask if you stood by comments made on your site
respectfully
Peter
Sixty-odd comments (mostly deleted) on this story on the Freeholder.
Seven comments here. What’s with that?
Furtz some of your Freeholder friends are unhappy with our new pseudonym policy. It’s kinda ironic that the city boycotts CFN over anonymous posts and compare what’s there to here 🙂
Peter Jenkin you have to be a Bare Ass supporter and you are not a supporter of Jamie Gilcig. I can say what I wish to say and the vast majority of what I say is not published but I say what I feel and it is up to Jamie whether he wishes to publish it or not. Bare Ass has hurt Jamie a great deal since he has been in Cornwall and if I were Jamie I would not have moved to Cornwall but it is Jamie’s wish why he is living in Cornwall and running for mayor. Jamie would make a very good mayor indeed and that is the truth because Jamie cares for Cornwall – why? I don’t know but that is Jamie. Bare Ass doesn’t give a rat’s behind for the people of Cornwall and that is the truth and I swear to God that is the truth but Jamie does care about the people and that is the truth. I want what is best for Jamie and hope that he gets what he wants in life that is good. I for one am not Jamie. I have read plenty about Bare Ass and his antics and he should have his head down low in the community for all what he has done. You Mr. Jenkins do not know who is good and people like you have to belong to Bare Ass clique but not me I am not anybody’s rag that they can step on and never have been as long as I have lived.
Jamie you are so right..two minutes ago they finally closed the SF comments under
the story of your run for Mayor
And @Furtz you point out the low comment count here and I truly believe its all part of the big clique plan of trying to make it so hard for Mr Gilcig to become Mayor and clean up the mess this town is in.
Its not hard to see that by making the crazy charges against the owner of this newspaper that people will be too afraid to post on here worried their private information might be seized by police to justify this wacko 31 yr old complainer
But it isn’t going to work..people realize it was cfn that has reported all the hanky panky in this city while other news organizations hid there heads in the sand or were bought off with some advertizing bucks
JAMIE FOR MAYOR 2014…FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN!!!!!!
Mel I ran a story a few years ago when we caught one of the Freeholder staffers posting using a fake id. I’d love to know if some of those posting on the Freeholder are simply current scribblers or Claude McIntosh who many thought was “Itinerant”?
Jules we don’t need Jamie or Bob supporters. We need Cornwall Ontario supporters. If we take all the bs out of the rhetoric and put our city first we will have a much better place to live.
Melman I think you told the story oh so well
If the Freeholder runs a story its usually days after its on CFN
SeawayNews is currently running some propaganda piece by clique of Cornwall
The Mayor drones on and on Ignoring the issues facing this town while the video takes
you on a car tour through the city. In the opening five minutes they show the harbour area and it
sure isn’t pretty Then the News Editor asks people to send the video on to friends and family
Its suppose to be a newspaper…not the Cornwall booster club
The Mayor seems worn out and tired.Elaine Kennedy and chuck charlebois seem to be living in a different town. Seventeen empty stores on Montreal road…but thats okay…Pitt and Second area not fit for tourists…would like to comment on the rest of the video but i could only stomach five minutes of it
Even Rob Ford has enough sense to wear a tie.
@ Peter Jenkin. Yup. Being sued for libel is no fun. Could have fought it and probably won, but my pockets aren’t that deep. Took many years to pay off that nightmare.
Jamie you are right about putting Cornwall first. Bare Ass will not debate you and like someone said here that he would need to have all the questions ahead of time and have someone give him the answers. It will take a humoungous clean up to change Cornwall for the better. Too many people were badly hurt and most of the town has left a long time ago. Some people had high hopes for Cornwall and everything fell apart. Jamie you will find out about Cornwall’s situation if you become mayor and take a good look at the books. There may be tax increases like what is happening everywhere and in order to keep the necessities going there may be no choice since Bare Ass dipped his grubby paws into the till for his fancy lawyers. I sure do hope that the people wake up and change their ways because in order for the town to go forward the people have to change in a drastic way. As long as people are stuck in the Stockholm Syndrome then nothing will change at all. I said it so many times before for people to stop thinking that wealthy people are better than themselves because they are not at all. Have self respect and self worth and in that way you overcome those scumbags and look at them as doo doo. If you do not do that then you are stuck in limbo without a life and believe me they belong to these societies where they teach them how to control the masses. Well if people have any self respect in them they would not let this happen to them.
Jamie I remember that sudonym “Itinerant” and that was possibly Claude MacIntosh? I used to blog with this man and thought that he was ligit. OMG who knows who some people really are. Mac&Cheese used to have good stories about Cornwall’s past when things were in the “good Cornwall” unlike the way Cornwall has become a place that nobody wants to live in anymore. The biggest problem that Cornwall has is that dirty clique and it is they who say whether you can do business in Cornwall or not. They chase businesses away and we have heard that from many people in Cornwall when we lived there and never again. When I said a “clean up” that is exactly what I am talking about and if that clique is not gone believe me you can make a funeral for Cornwall since nobody good will live there at all. The toilet paper of record – SF is controlled by them along with everything in that town. There is too much poop to get rid of and the good people will never return to such a place because everyone has been badly hurt in more ways than one.
Mr Furtz
Very glad my memory was correct. In NO WAY was this an attempt to be rude or negative towards you and it seems you didn’t take it that way…for that I am grateful.
Was just trying to point out to Jules..or anybody else…that you can say anything you want..BUT..sometimes that can come at a very steep price to the pocketbook.
Jules..Still await your “Proof” about the Mayor and St Hubert…cat got your tongue?????
It was very easy for you to label me an enemy of Jamie and part of the clique…anybody doing a google search of my comments will soon realize your claims have no basis is fact. Just because I feel you shouldn’t slander people doesn’t make me on one side or the other. I just want a better town for my kids
Hope for your sake you don’t end up in court having to provide proof to your charge
Peter
@ Peter Jenkin. No offense taken at all. Just a cautionary story about how expensive it can be to state something publicly (true or not) about anyone. In my case, it was a letter to the editor in a local paper with my real name attached. People should also be aware that there is no such thing as anonymity when posting comments on any internet site.
Congradulation on running for mayor. Alot of people will tell you what is wrong with government but it takes a MAN to do something about it. Proud to know you.
Stan
For those interested in supporting Jamie & CFN, please join my new Facebook group called; Support CornwallFree News. This is a positive, respectful group for like minded individuals.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/515885625187566/