CORNWALL Ontario – Politicians have a funny trait of saying one thing and doing another. Many in Ontario for example were shocked and bewildered when former Premier Mike Harris actually kept some of his campaign promises.
New Cornwall Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy took the chain of command tonight. There’s a lot of interesting catch phrases and buzz words being bandied about.
It was a sad and sombre occasion at the Civic Complex. The event wasn’t really advertised. The room had a hollow feel to it with mostly families and hanger ons attending.
MP Lauzon took a pass as did Grand Chief Mike Mitchell. Mostly what was missing were most of those that ran for office. There was no Glen Grant, no Bob Kilger, Syd Gardiner, Denis Carr, Denis Thibault. There was no sense of a community coming together.
For a community that seemed to want change it felt like a hollow victory and the buzz is that many feel that not much will change. Watching how some of the councilors worked the room certainly didn’t feel like much had changed.
Many key community leaders passed on this event. Many in the community are still stunned that such change occurred.
Mayor O’Shaughnessy was quoted as saying;
I repeatedly heard (during my campaign) the City of Cornwall was really operated by the old boys’ club.
Let me I assure you, if an old boys’ club existed yesterday, it is gone as of today.
The trick isn’t to replace one group of old boys(and girls) with another. Will Council and Cornwall under Leslie really treat everyone fairly? Will it truly be more open? We’ll know real soon. There are some historical injustices that this council will be faced with. There are promises that were made by many elected during the election such as rescinding salary raises and towing the line on taxes. Will Brock Frost really donate all of his council salary for all of this term to charity?
There already seem to be some lines drawing and while there is no clear block supporting our new mayor such as Bob Kilger had, it should be interesting to see how this new council navigates some very very choppy waters especially once the pull and press of interested parties gets into high gear.
The proof will be in the actions of our elected officials. Tonight was a time for snappy phrases and sugar coated idealism. Tuesday it’s showtime and the real action begins.
One sign will be to see who is on the Lay committee and ultimately who is appointed to which committees. Will we see new faces? Will old corrupt bullies like Glen Grant be allowed to be on a City of Cornwall committee after what happened at the WFC?
One could be jaded. This writer prefers the glass to be half full. Of course the other half is loaded in the squirt gun and ready for use 🙂
What do you think Cornwall? Will things be different this term or just another facet of the same mayhem? 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.)
Comment policy reminder
CFN suggests you post comments using your real name. If you wish to post with a pseudonym you can register that user id by emailing info@cornwallfreenews.com with your name, address, phone number and user id you wish to register.
Jamie did you check the dump site where Bare Ass and his gang might be? An old boys club is exactly how Cornwall was run for many many years and if Leslie can pull a miracle out of a hat by making all the changes my hat is off to him. It isn’t just Leslie it is the so called elites of the town the ones who rip off the people and are rich because of what they do and pretend to be so holy. As far as taxes are concerned Leslie might get to see a cupboard that is almost as empty as Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard and will not be able to not raise taxes when he finds out what the books say when he drags that Adams woman out of the broom closet to find out the truth.
Jules so far Leslie is focusing on council and not it being a one man show. It should be interesting to see how that plays out with this group. Of course it takes pressure off oneself to defer to the group publicly.
My thoughts are that all the committee members need to be re-accessed by mayor & council.I think that they know which ones have to go in order to bring fresh air. While council itself got a cleaning, I think that return council members will be more noticed for their change or not.Voters will be watching for the next 4 years to see if any more house cleaning needs to be done. The one thing I,m having trouble with is why did not CFN which has the highest amount of readers get an add to announce this event.
Well Mary there still is a city boycott….
“of saying one thing and doing another”….
it’s because people are not independent enough to accept reality and have to be coddled like a child. People don;t realize that to have a “leader”, you need followers. People need not be followers, but they are… and until they grow up, they will be treated like children.
CFN viewers knew what was going on because of your great detective work on conflicts of interest,that is why we now have a new mayor & many new councilors, they risk a lot by keeping up this boycott…just saying, if CFN did it once ,CFN can do it again
Admin said “MP Lauzon took a pass as did Grand Chief Mike Mitchell. Mostly what was missing were most of those that ran for office. There was no Glen Grant, no Bob Kilger, Syd Gardiner, Denis Carr, Denis Thibault. There was no sense of a community coming together.”
To me last night was not about Grant, Kilger, Gardiner, Carr and Thibault. Last night was about Cornwall starting to move on from its past. Having any of those there would have defeated the purpose of the evening….installing a new mayor and council.
Hugger showing solidarity for what’s best for the community is never a bad thing. Respecting the voice of the public also doesn’t hurt. If Glen Grant for example can state he wants to be on committees then he could have showed up last night and congratulated the new council.
I personally was disappointed in the turn out.
Yes, solidarity is important. However having Grant, Kilger, Gardiner, Carr or Thibault show up last night would have shown, IMHO, disrespect to the new council. Last night was about moving forward, not reliving the past.
Hopefully Glen Grant is smart and does NOT want to be on any committees. Having him on any committees, IMHO, would be a massive mistake.
{MODERATED} time to stop using the term “Bare Ass” Jules.
Thanks
Jamie I have him pegged for what he is and too much fun using that name.
You have Jules, but I don’t believe in kicking a dog when it’s down. I think that it’s hard to criticize someone and then behave as they would. Please refrain from further use of that term in reference to our beaten former mayor. Karma is punishing him enough at this time.
I am sure things will loosen up. After all last night was their first meeting together. Give them time and please let’s try to keep an open mind and not expect miracles. While Mr Kilger was not a fan of mine he is sick with cancer and I really think respect for him is fair. Let go of the past and hatred of him
Jane I think respect for humanity is a good thing. Bob is human. Respect for what he did to this community as Mayor is quite another thing. He is responsible for his legacy illness or no.
I hear you Jamie I hav tried talking to many people in this community to say one good thing about you and your online paper.. I keep trying to tell folks read all of the articles I think you will see you are wrong and they say he writes lies etc etc. I know from the time I have been reading your online paper your articles all make sense and many of the comments seem credible so while not an answer to your question why is there so much animosity towards you and your paper. Very upsetting to say the least and I am sure you must feel it. Also the hate group on Facebook. . As far as changes. I am not sure how much Cornwall will change..
Jamie you are right. When I keep saying that you are a good man I mean that to the fullest extent and that is the truth.
Jane Doe wonders why people do not like you and I can answer part of why they don’t like Jamie. Cornwall is a very small and backward mentality among a lot of the people and they haven’t lived anywhere else to make comparisons. Cornwall is a place where if you are not one of them (born and raised) then you do not belong. That happened to that young actor now in Hollywood who was abused in the school system and his parents took him out and home schooled him and he is originally from London Ontario. Ryan Gosling is his name and I was racking my brain trying to think of his name. This doesn’t just happen to Jamie but to everyone. I left Cornwall in 75 and I changed a lot compared to what I used to be because I saw people from everywhere. Jamie has seen even more than I have and has a more broad outlook on things. I have all the respect for Jamie and his paper and his paper is the best in town and they are jealous because they are not free like Jamie to tell the truth. The other toilet papers of record are not free because they are corporate owned and they do not tell you the same truth that Jamie does and that is the truth. You keep up the good work that you do Jamie and we are proud of you and like you very much.
Jamie I wanted to add one more thing here and that is I would not wish cancer on anybody not even the people that I detest. I am in tears just now thinking about my own parents what they went through. It is a mighty rare thing that I ever saw my mom cry in her life and only a few times since her life was mighty hard. Back in 1966 she found out that she had breast cancer and spotted it on her own and went to her doctor and then surgery and cobalt radiation at the Civic Hospital here in Ottawa. Mom was a very hard worker all her life and honest to God I swear Jamie she gardened till the very end when she was put in the hospital to die. She hung a lot of her clothes outside to dry even though she had a dryer. You could see the hardship that she had in her life and was a farm girl. Do you think Jamie that I could do the same as she did well the answer is no = no way at all could I ever work as hard as she did and come out with a smile on her face and laughter at my crazy antics. I am crying for Bob (gee that was hard to say Jamie) but I truly am and wetting the keyboard with my tears. I was only 15 when I found out that mom had cancer and I went straight over to her doctor after school to talk to him and I had no appointment. I was a basket case and needed to talk. It was Dr. Ralph Randlett that I spoke to (Mary Jane Randlett’s father in law a former surgeon) and a mighty good man. Mom kept having cancers for years after in different places and kept having surgeries and treatments and lived till the age of 81. We talk a lot about her around our household and we say that you cannot replace that old generation. We all have to pray for Bob and no matter how bad he was as mayor or as a person nobody deserves cancer. Everyone please pray.
Time to Remove the Advertising City Hall and Other Advertising Boycott of any and all Media’s incl. CFN aand a note on pay raises.
1) Kudos to Jamie but we need to be somewhat more realistic here. Yes, his input in large measure asserted issues important to the voters.
Mr. Frost, whom I initially supported on Facebook and on this media was elected (hey, maybe I had influence to a minor measure of those who voted for him). I initially take people at face value, giving full credit where I in his case saw fit. Was I fooled? Perhaps. While others I supported did not get the call to duty.. Wow is me.
I am sure though will all Jamie did was a great measure as it purports truths and comments beyond the average citizen, I really think the catalyst was in the losing candidates (including our former Mayor) was the degree of the raise they voted in. Frankly,that was the icing on the cake for a voter decision. They bit themselves in the assets.
2) Regarding a raise, I could see a longer term of catch up as far as matching Ontario averages. It is a tad unfair to keep Cornwall Mayor and council in a back roads level of pay. I strongly believe that dedication to duty, yes, even ribbon and media opportunities otherwise are part of that, but the amount of training time, learning curve and the day by day reading and meetings of all hours on top of citizen one on ones by phone or face to face harbouring complaints or special requests is phenomenal and the average citizen would not, could not tolerate this.
Because the pay raise consultants recommended, and because citizens overwhelmingly objected I think they raise should maintain a catch up mode over an 8 year span rather than only the 4 years initially recommended. I also believe that the 4 year initial decision by the last council was NOT sold clearly enough. Too many voters were angered in comparison to their own incomes AND took it to mean the total amounts would start right away instead of over a 4 year term.
We need to reason this out relative to the assessment asked for by council of administration to review the last 10 year increments and the inflationary rates applied until now.
Years have gone by now where our Firemen, Police and most other political parties have been assessed on wider averages while Cornwall has sat passively by with our local remunerations.
Question I have, why have other department heads including administrations increases gone far, far ahead while we put thumbs down on our Council and Mayors increases? Answer….because they are not unionized or controlled by Ontario Legislative requirements, AND they are not voted for but selected.
Give this some consideration to lighten up and allow at least an 8 year set of increases until catch up has been accomplished with our sister cities.
Dave Windsor