Joe Morinville
Thursday marks the second anniversary of the current crop of councillors being elected. Not that new fellow in the slick sharkskin suit and two-tone shows what just got in, but the original seven what ran a couple years back and won enough votes. Hard to believe it was two years ago tomorrow that a whole lot of new blood joined Council. Here’s a few thoughts and questions I’m thinking about 730 days into their term.
1/ Gord Boddez took more votes than anyone in the election of 2010. Part of his campaign was coming to Council with details on how a pool could be built in this community without raising taxes. Two years later he’s yet to share it at any public meeting of Council I’ve read about. I’d like to hear about it before it becomes an election platform for his mayoral bid in 2013. Hell, I’d like to hear any of them talk about all the stuff they promised in the fall of 2010.
2/ Mayor Bertschi has moved from being an RV salesman to working up north quite a bit. During all of that time I’ve never seen his hair move. If you could elect a man purely on a great haircut, he’d win every time. There’s other reasons, but a fine haircut is sure got to be one of them.
3/ Speaking of looking good – how come it is Paul Krauskopf looks as good in a proper suit and tie at Council meetings as he does in flip flops and a grass skirt at Volunteer Night. Fortunately, our distinguished and long-serving member of Council has the good sense to know when to leave the flip flops and riff raff clothing at home. He ought to pass on some of his good garment sense to a colleague of his.
4/ Does anyone know what Councillor David Pattison is talking about? I don’t mean specifically. I mean just in general. I think it is probably just his planning and development background because anyone that’s dealt with one of those folks usually walks away shaking their heads for one reason or another. I think it might be because they are all super smart and sometimes forget the rest of us aren’t.
5/ Young Lisa Holmes has come a long way since being snipped at by the mayor back in 2010 at that forum they held at the Smith Music. I don’t remember what it was all about, but she sure held her own then and she is still doing so two years later.
6/ And speaking of feisty women, that Boutestein lady has come a long way, too. She was pretty unsure of herself at first. These days she’s often at the front of the line asking some tough questions about how money gets spent and why the hell it is people asking for grant money don’t show up when it’s being voted on. They changed the rules over that question and good on her for asking it.
7/ Although he’s not part of the original pack, that Fingler fellow has jumped right into the mix on Council, getting his two-toned feet wet with the questions and the voting. It’s good to see him standing behind our business community in some of these votes and questions, and I think we will soon see our business community is and has been behind him in a big big way.
8/ Collectively, you can tell the clock is ticking and the calendar is flicking towards Election 2013 because these politicians are popping up around town like them moles you whack with a mallet at the carnival. We may be a year away from the election signs going up, but there is no doubt that campaign season has begun. You can smell it in the air. Well, maybe that’s something else you smell.
9/ I’m waiting for Council to pass a bylaw that says bylaw officers can’t wear mirrored sunglasses and must hand out a ticket or two during the year that don’t involve people speeding. When a fellow’s grass is as high as a giraffe’s undercarriage, it is time to stop playing around and to give that hippie a ticket. All that natural vegan peace and love and tall grass nonsense is good for the communes, but it just doesn’t work here.
10/ I’ll end on a decent note by saying I sure wish former Councillor Van de Walle the best in his health battles. There is a lot of respect for the man for what he has done on Council and for stepping down knowing attendance would be problematic.
