CFN – As myself and Reg Coffey are both running in this election I have decided to simply review & rate candidates this election locally instead of the standard endorsements or endorsenots.
Up first today for Cornwall is incumbent Syd Gardiner for Cornwall and Dave “Grumpy” Smith for South Stormont.
Syd Gardiner has been on rocky ground since the last election. Viewed mostly as a yes man for Mayor 
Bob Kilger he’s been a source of controversy himself due to his actions after trying to destroy protest signs at a meeting that ended up being hidden from police for nearly a week.
It turned out they were in the Mayor’s office all along.
While protected by police and the crown and not charged for mischief under $5,000 he clearly is part of the machinery that has inflicted millions of dollars via scandal on Cornwall taxpayers.
He also after the last election defamed this newspaper by claiming that we endorsed candidates that paid for advertising which we clearly did not.
Some that paid were not endorsed and some were endorsed that did not purchase advertising.
Ratings are for Perceived Honesty & Integrity, Vision and Action, Accessibility & Accountability, Leadership & Strength, and Win#
All are on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.
PH&I 3
V&A 4
A&A 2
L&S 1
W# 2
Total points 12
Dave “Grumpy” Smith is running for his first time for council in South Stormont. He has been a part of the Tammy Hart slate who’s sole purpose seems to be to kill the South Stormont News and defeat Mayor Bryan McGillis. Mr. Smith, who now owns Grumpy’s again started a Coffee News type flyer that he distributes in businesses to compete with the SSN. He claims in his advertising to represent local small business; but it’s pretty clear that he means most likely his own small business.
He also made a totally false and defamatory statement on facebook during the election.
The fact that he has to use his wife’s facebook account to communicate is another white flag. As for community Mr. Smith refused to have SSN cover his Bun Fest event which was charity as well as participate in the Celebrate South Stormont program which was sponsored by the township to help promote local business. He also attacks an actual newspaper which is delivered mostly by Canada Post to his own product which is dropped off at stores and is simply a copy of the Coffee News, another locally owned franchise.
Sadly the election in South Stormont has become so riddled with falsehoods he might actually have a chance of being elected.
Ratings are for Perceived Honesty & Integrity, Vision and Action, Accessibility & Accountability, Leadership & Strength, and Win#
All are on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.
PH&I 1
V&A 3
A&A 3
L&S 1
W# 4
Total points 12
What do you think voters? 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.)
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Why bother giving them any further publicity?
Hugger if you review one candidate you have to review them all. It’s important to be fair.
@Hugger1…the best reason that I can think of, is that publicity can be a double edged sword. I strongly suspect that Admin would agree with that.
Admin; I guess you’re right. But some “candidates” don’t seem to be worth the time or space.
Hugger and that’s where the court of public appeal comes into play including viewer comments.
Agreed Admin.
Amen for this forum!
Jamie, you are about the most insecure person that I know. You hav’nt stopped slamming” The Know It All news ” since it started which was before your SSN. I never set out to damage your paper, in fact, if you talk to the right people you would find that I had applauded you and Reg for striking the deal that you did. I don’t like the deal as a taxpayer but good for you. What makes me laugh is your insecurity. I expect that with your “talent with pen “and your experience in journalism, you would’nt need to worry about the likes of my “white rag”, as you refer to it. I’m having some fun, some people look forward to reading my Rag, I,m not using any township money as some people were led to believe, and I’m not forcing my paper on anyone. You must have been getting bored with your other foes to come after me. Ha! So for those that have been following let me refute some of the remarks that I’ve seen or heard so far. I print this with such a huge grin on my face. To start…I tried to rejuvenate the Chamber of Commerce in Long Sault, NOT move it to Cornwall, see Leslie Strasser. I did NOT do time in Kingston Pen therefor I am not on parole or probation. I do NOT own Grumpy’s, I sold it over 1year ago. I have No affiliation with any other candidates, and as far as Bryan McGillis and Tammy Hart are concerned I hope that I can say That I have a good relationship with both. I had dinner with both parties lately and no bashing took place. (Must sound boring to you). I sold your partner an ad in my RAG for political purposes and we were both very professional about it. Reg and I have shown mutual respect for each other since we met. all crap aside I think that him and his wife are nice people. (I omit her name so not to involve her in this little rant). Jamie, and anyone else who finds this Worth reading, you should use your talents for the good of people and you may find some respect from them that you lack. I wish you all the best in whatever you do next hoping that you use your God given talent in a more positive approach. Have a nice day😊
Mr. Smith. I have never disparaged or mentioned your media to clients in the fashion you stated publicly. It is what it is; a direct competitor to the Coffee News. You told me to my face that you met with Lezlie Strasser to fold the SS Chamber into Cornwall so we’ll have to call you a liar on this one. You also did not join the SS Chamber of Commerce, even at our discounted membership. I think a reasonable person would have a problem accepting that you were trying to “save it” especially as you made no public statements to that effect.
I have no idea about the aspersions you’ve made as I nor Reg have never shared anything about your KIA in that fashion. I do note that I reached out to work with you and you refused. You also refused for us to promote Bunfest which was an utter failure. You also refused to participate in Celebrate South Stormont.
I don’t focus on what I may or may not think about someone. I have no idea why you would suggest I’m “insecure” other than to take a shot at me. As you don’t know me I can’t imagine you being psychic enough to “know me” enough to make any such statements or otherwise.
Reg and I have treated you respectfully to your face and when not facing you. I’m not sure based on what you’ve posted that you can say the same, right? Reg’s decision to advertise with you for the election was based on several positive factors. Can you say the same for the ones you’ve sanctioned?
And as you can see you have been given an opportunity to post here again showing you more consideration that you have ever shown for SSN whose only apparent crime was selling the township an ad for 20% less than its paying Quebec based TC Media. And while doing that we offer more value and extra services.
Yet there you are in the video posted by Jim Bancroft of you clapping at the prospect of killing our ad deal. As the owner of an Ingleside corporation; IE a local small company, how would you think that we would feel; but more importantly how do you think those in South Stormont that like getting SSN in their mailbox would feel?
Again, full colour, high quality, and local. And you sir are against that? And you talk about local yet at the Lion’s club event you were wearing a US/Canada pin. Methinks you pick and choose your spots; but you are asking voters to support you and that would include all voters in South Stormont and all businesses.
Your actions to date certainly do not instill confidence or any real support for local business who would benefit from having a local newspaper.
It’s too bad that all of your thoughts are in the bottom of the glass that’s half empty
Actually Dave; someone that thought enough of South Stormont to spend a year developing a high quality newspaper for the community might actually be thought of as quite positive as opposed to someone, who when they heard about the project, seems to have done their best to kill it. But perspective is in the eye of the beholder.
I have never read the SS News as yet but I can say one thing here is that I like and respect Mayor McGillis and I live in Ottawa and formerly of Cornwall. This small town bickering is horrible and always thought that Long Sault, Ingleside, Morrisburg were nice places to live and raise a family. This kind of bickering is crazy. I have issues with this Tammy Hart and Richard Currier and see the hate on their faces and their souls show just who they really are. Jamie has made two good papers while in Cornwall and one is CFN and the other is SSN. In order to have people to look up to all of you then you have to act like grown ups and not like bullies in the school yard and we have enough of them in Cornwall. My family and I like to go to Long Sault and other little towns and enjoy the peaceful tranquility to get away from this rat race in Ottawa but there is so much stress involved in this mayor and council race that is unbelievable and unbecoming.