CORNWALL ONTARIO – One of the saddest thing about the clique politics of a small tiny town like Cornwall Ontario is that the clique usually fails at what they do. It’s sad. It’s sadder that people are allowed to be in positions to fail rather than be inclusive or remotely professional.
A few months ago a prominent business person in Cornwall asked if they could sponsor an year long ad campaign on CFN for the OSPCA locally.
Of course we’d support that, but in spite of over twelve million human page views and counting in 2016 the local affiliate did not respond to CFN.
After talking with this person; who’s very focused on numbers, I agreed to try again. I thought about charities to approach and a couple were affiliated with the United Way.
Now I don’t bother with the United Way in Cornwall because frankly it’s clique central. I find them utterly unprofessional under their current board and with Lori Greer, the patronage princess of Cornwall at the helm.
I’ve always felt it’s important to walk the walk however and yesterday, being the owner and editor of the largest media outlet in Cornwall, I humble walked into the local office of the United Way for the first time.
Ms Greer snubbed me, and I could see her chatting with the receptionist who left me waiting for nearly ten minutes before taking my name and number for Ms Greer who did not call back.
How many years has the UW failed to hit its targets? Can you imagine the benefits of 12M page views worth of exposure?
Now perhaps you can put this down to a small group, or particular person simply being a small minded idiot, but this is after all a city where the Mayor said that our attempt to do the 100 Letter Campaign, which besides helping the local economy, would promote Cornwall by viewers sending in letters about why Cornwall is so amazing, which we’d publish, and the top vote getters would win local prizes.
For those of you who never read about it, here is a link to our 100 Letter stories.
My client still cares about the community. It’s something that we laugh about. We just sigh….”Cornwall” again.
What many of these small minded people don’t realize is that their behavior is a reflection of Cornwall that is seen and heard about far and very wide; even when I don’t write about it and I rarely write about the antics of people like Jeanette Despatie, Lori & Graham Greer, Carol Link, Geoff Clarke, Angie Baker, Bill Makinson, Kevin Lajoie, Randy Sauve, and Sue Stewart. UNITED WAY CLIQUE MEMBERS.
This of course is not how you build a community. It’s one thing to choose to run your business like a petty minded ignorant bully, but when you are working for the public good, or public purse, is there really any room for this sort of behavior? If you choose to do public good just to advance yourself are you really doing public good?
But at the end of the day you just try and find good people to work with and move forward, and try not not to get pigeon toed poop on your tootsies.
If you’re a Cornwall area charity looking for some love feel free to email jamie@cornwallfreenews.com or dial 855 444 1133.
And if you really want to support your community and the clear need for independent honest news dial 855 444 1133 and support CFN by placing your ad here and helping your business, service or organization.
UPDATED TO ADD the United Way Mission Statement
Inclusive and Accountable? Makes one wonder if the board of the UW SD&G have read it?
Jamie nobody who is good will stay in Cornwall and that includes the refugees. Once the refugees have been supported for a year they will branch out elsewhere. Nobody in their right frame of mind would choose Cornwall to live and work – jules what do you mean work – it is dead – a graveyard. We laugh about Cornwall all the time – it is not a place that is welcoming at all for anyone.
Actually Jules only a single, one, uno, Syrian refugee family came to Cornwall. Another Bernadette Clement #epicfail.