authentic. intelligent. conservative.
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Hello, World!
Seems I've developed a small following in the United Arab Emirates and Guadeloupe. So I would like to say 'Hi' to them, as well as readers in the United States, South Africa, Russia, South Korea and Italy. It's interesting to think of what would lead someone in these fa-flung locals to my blog - but it's all good! I hope I keep you informed and entertained, and encourage you to comment as you see fit.
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Fall in Belleville
It was fun, yesterday morning, to see Belleville trending on Twitter. How it started was likely tied to the Russ Williams case, but a number of us on decided to move things in a different direction, posting a large number of tweets about the great place that our city is. Whether it's our small town attitude, big city amenities, proximity to cottage country... Anyone following us got a real sense of what a great city Belleville is, from the parks and fishing spots along the Bay of Quinte and Moira River, to our historic downtown, the shopper's mecca along Bell Boulevard, to the fiery fall colourings of the rolling hills and farmland of the city's north.
Now, after lunch at Slapshot Bar and Grill (great food!), I am in Starbucks, waiting for my wife to get her hair done across the street. And I see more of what is great in Belleville - it's people. From kids and teens, through a young mother and her little girl, to folks my own age (40-ish), and older. Sitting, shooting the breeze - sometimes talking to people you don't know as you wait in line. We all have a common denominator - being here in what I think of as the best place to live in the world.
Okay - enough mushy stuff...
This 'n' that...
Now, after lunch at Slapshot Bar and Grill (great food!), I am in Starbucks, waiting for my wife to get her hair done across the street. And I see more of what is great in Belleville - it's people. From kids and teens, through a young mother and her little girl, to folks my own age (40-ish), and older. Sitting, shooting the breeze - sometimes talking to people you don't know as you wait in line. We all have a common denominator - being here in what I think of as the best place to live in the world.
Okay - enough mushy stuff...
This 'n' that...
- Have you gone for a fall drive yet? Tree colours have peaked in the area, so this may be your last, best chance to enjoy a drive through Belleville's beautiful countryside.
- Looks like my Oilers may have already peaked - three losses in a row after a two and oh start. Oh well, it's a rebuilding year. And unlike the Leafs, the Oilers have their picks for the upcoming draft, so a bad record isn't so bad.
- The Prime Minister is in town Monday morning to unveil a new coin. The public is welcome. I'll post the info ASAP.
- And don't forget to vote!
Friday, 22 October 2010
A Coward (But NOT a Complete Idiot) Speaks (Caution: Attempted Humour Zone)
Yes, I admit it. I almost endorsed some candidates Wednesday. Then my brain returned from whatever alternate dimension it had been exploring and hit me upside the head with a two-by-four. There are only two good reasons for endorsing someone else when in my position:
* - do you REALLY think I was serious here? Come on... Speaking of serious brain trauma^...
^ - no disrespect meant to the serious matter of brain injuries - only trying to use humour aimed at those of us who only wish we had a brain to be traumatized.
- Not being in my position.
- Sudden, severe brain trauma.^
- A large amount of cash in an unmarked envelope*
- I am in my position.
- No brain trauma recently.^
- No cash*
* - do you REALLY think I was serious here? Come on... Speaking of serious brain trauma^...
^ - no disrespect meant to the serious matter of brain injuries - only trying to use humour aimed at those of us who only wish we had a brain to be traumatized.
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
The Finish Line is in Sight
After a surprisingly short, although at times it seemed so long, campaign, we are finally in the home stretch. Already the internet and advance polling is finished - with over 4,000 people voting before anyone got to see the non-mayoralty candidates present themselves for consideration Monday night.
But ultimately, what's past is done. The mistakes of a campaign cannot be undone - all we as candidates can do is finish up and prepare for the election stress of Monday the 25th of October.
What would I have done differently? I would have been going door to door more and earlier. Sorry if I missed you - please feel free to call me if you want to discuss something. I procrastinated because, as an introvert, that is seemed like a difficult job. And it was - going door to door is hard, time consuming work. My hat is off to those who did more in this area than I did - kudos rightly go to you.
I would have brought together a team in January, rather than September. While I spent a lot of time before I declared going over my platform (the university idea goes back a ways - just ask Kevin), next time I will put as much into pulling together my team and logistics plans early in the year. That qualifies as a stupid mistake, as a veteran of a number of provincial and federal campaigns, from grunt work to campaign manager, going back to 1985.
And, as part of that, I would have put more energy into raising campaign funds. While it would be nice to believe it's just about the ideas, if you want enough people to know about your ideas, you have to spend money advertising.
And, according to Lorne Brooker, noted political thinker, I needed a suit. I guess that way I can blend in with the crowd. I, though, happen to be partial to the dress code of the regular guide. Indeed, Lorne - do you wear a suit to work every day? I am, however, in the market for a new tweed jacket - I miss the one I had in university.
But before I go, let me commend my fellow candidates for Councillor. There are no candidates for either position I could not vote for. I commend my fellow council candidates for their campaigns, and acknowledge them all as the type of quality persons this city benefits from having. Almost as good as me!
But ultimately, what's past is done. The mistakes of a campaign cannot be undone - all we as candidates can do is finish up and prepare for the election stress of Monday the 25th of October.
What would I have done differently? I would have been going door to door more and earlier. Sorry if I missed you - please feel free to call me if you want to discuss something. I procrastinated because, as an introvert, that is seemed like a difficult job. And it was - going door to door is hard, time consuming work. My hat is off to those who did more in this area than I did - kudos rightly go to you.
I would have brought together a team in January, rather than September. While I spent a lot of time before I declared going over my platform (the university idea goes back a ways - just ask Kevin), next time I will put as much into pulling together my team and logistics plans early in the year. That qualifies as a stupid mistake, as a veteran of a number of provincial and federal campaigns, from grunt work to campaign manager, going back to 1985.
And, as part of that, I would have put more energy into raising campaign funds. While it would be nice to believe it's just about the ideas, if you want enough people to know about your ideas, you have to spend money advertising.
And, according to Lorne Brooker, noted political thinker, I needed a suit. I guess that way I can blend in with the crowd. I, though, happen to be partial to the dress code of the regular guide. Indeed, Lorne - do you wear a suit to work every day? I am, however, in the market for a new tweed jacket - I miss the one I had in university.
But before I go, let me commend my fellow candidates for Councillor. There are no candidates for either position I could not vote for. I commend my fellow council candidates for their campaigns, and acknowledge them all as the type of quality persons this city benefits from having. Almost as good as me!
Friday, 15 October 2010
A Disgusting Way to Destroy Your Own Campaign
Last night I had the, for lack of a better way to phrase it, interesting experience of going to my first Wharf Street Debating Club Bun Feed, a Belleville tradition dating back to... Anyway, it goes back a long way - about a century.
This is supposed to be, more than an all-candidates meeting, a fun event and roast of the candidates for this years city elections. As can be seen in the Intelligencer article, much fun was had by most, at any rate, with heckles, cat calls and wisecracks flying back and forth through the home of the Wharf Street rival, the Belleville Club, where the event was held.
My turn came to speak, and I laid an egg - and was roundly heckled for it. Tried to be funny and failed. I have never been the 'class clown', and demonstrated why last night. It takes a deft touch to be a true humourist. There weren't any in the room last night, but veteran speakers such as Mary-Anne Sills, George Zegouras and Ross MacDougall did a pretty good job, as did the Masters of Ceremonies from the WSDC, whose names I forget - and will continue to forget until I get over having the bell rung on me.
We all had a drink or two in us (not too much for me - I didn't want to make an ass of myself while drunk, so instead I made a fool of myself sober.
The last speakers of the night were the mayoralty candidates, and the last of these was Mitch Panciuk.
Now, Mitch is a guy I have generally liked, insofar as I have gotten to know him over the last month and a half. He owns the Belleville Boston Pizza, a great family restaurant as well as a great place to watch a game. He's an Edmonton Oilers fan, generally a good sign.
But for the most part, he has been partly tone deaf when it comes to the Belleville electorate.
He has heard the grumbling and complaining of our ever growing municipal taxes. This is a story that likely goes back to the incorporation of Belleville as a police village back in 1836, and surely predates Belleville becoming a city in 1878. So to assume that the taxation concerns heard these days represent the fuel to drive his campaign to victory is a dubious proposition at best. Victory would need more.
Early on, when pressed for answers on what he stood for , or what his plans and priorities would be if elected(by me and others), his response was that his priorities would be whatever the people of Belleville thought they should be. That was it. I was a little surprised, as he was essentially asking the electorate for a blank cheque beyond cancelling capital investments.
Then, on Tuesday, at the mayoralty debate hosted by Loyalist College, he was asked twice, by the president and then the vice president of the Belleville Professional Fire Fighters Association, if he had read the Master Fire Plan. His response was that he hadn't as he wanted to approach fire issues with an 'open mind'. This is a document which, amongst other things, will affect the costs of taxation and fire insurance throughout the city, and his reason for not reading it is nonsensical. If he just hasn't had time to read it, admit it. A mayor has to hit the ground running, and either knowing the fire plan or listening to the guys trying to implement it is a necessity.
And then he wonders at the BPFFA supporting Neil Ellis?
But those were just the vagaries of the campaign trail, smaller details in the painting of what will be the 2010 Belleville Election.
And last night Mitch Panciuk urinated in the paint can.
His was the last podium appearance, and I can only assume he wanted to finish the night with a bang. Which he did. In the midst of a derogatory commentary aimed at Ellis (and a shot at the Intelligencer)(very much an appropriate part of the evening, as I understand it - correct me if I'm wrong, please), he made reference to a crude 'nickname' allegedly from Ellis' high school years, and suggested, basically, that the Mayor enjoyed self-pleasuring, and was doing so currently, and as such the rest of us at the event ought not shake Ellis' hand.
I have worked in the political arena for many elections, federal and provincial, since 1985, and this is, far and away the most disgusting comment I have ever witnessed.
I am, as most people know, a conservative (voted Reform in '93, '97, Canadian Alliance in 2000, and Conservative since at the federal level), with a libertarian streak a mile wide. And I want to make something clear - as a conservative, I deplore the unjustifiable, vulgar, reprehensible - you get the idea - comments made by Mitch Panciuk last night. They were disgusting, have no place in an election, and have taken Belleville politics to a level I don't remember seeing before.
Mitch Panciuk owes Neil Ellis a public apology. Otherwise, I don't see how he can be seen as a credible candidate to represent our city as mayor.
Note: Going home last night, I asked my co-campaign chair, and good buddy, Kevin MacPhee if he could remember another candidate for public office committing political hari-kari in quite the same way. He thought of one - Joe Biden kicking off his run for the Democratic presidential nomination by commenting on how clean and well spoken Barak Obama was - for a young black man. Fortunately for Biden, Obama didn't hold a grudge.
This is supposed to be, more than an all-candidates meeting, a fun event and roast of the candidates for this years city elections. As can be seen in the Intelligencer article, much fun was had by most, at any rate, with heckles, cat calls and wisecracks flying back and forth through the home of the Wharf Street rival, the Belleville Club, where the event was held.
My turn came to speak, and I laid an egg - and was roundly heckled for it. Tried to be funny and failed. I have never been the 'class clown', and demonstrated why last night. It takes a deft touch to be a true humourist. There weren't any in the room last night, but veteran speakers such as Mary-Anne Sills, George Zegouras and Ross MacDougall did a pretty good job, as did the Masters of Ceremonies from the WSDC, whose names I forget - and will continue to forget until I get over having the bell rung on me.
We all had a drink or two in us (not too much for me - I didn't want to make an ass of myself while drunk, so instead I made a fool of myself sober.
The last speakers of the night were the mayoralty candidates, and the last of these was Mitch Panciuk.
Now, Mitch is a guy I have generally liked, insofar as I have gotten to know him over the last month and a half. He owns the Belleville Boston Pizza, a great family restaurant as well as a great place to watch a game. He's an Edmonton Oilers fan, generally a good sign.
But for the most part, he has been partly tone deaf when it comes to the Belleville electorate.
He has heard the grumbling and complaining of our ever growing municipal taxes. This is a story that likely goes back to the incorporation of Belleville as a police village back in 1836, and surely predates Belleville becoming a city in 1878. So to assume that the taxation concerns heard these days represent the fuel to drive his campaign to victory is a dubious proposition at best. Victory would need more.
Early on, when pressed for answers on what he stood for , or what his plans and priorities would be if elected(by me and others), his response was that his priorities would be whatever the people of Belleville thought they should be. That was it. I was a little surprised, as he was essentially asking the electorate for a blank cheque beyond cancelling capital investments.
Then, on Tuesday, at the mayoralty debate hosted by Loyalist College, he was asked twice, by the president and then the vice president of the Belleville Professional Fire Fighters Association, if he had read the Master Fire Plan. His response was that he hadn't as he wanted to approach fire issues with an 'open mind'. This is a document which, amongst other things, will affect the costs of taxation and fire insurance throughout the city, and his reason for not reading it is nonsensical. If he just hasn't had time to read it, admit it. A mayor has to hit the ground running, and either knowing the fire plan or listening to the guys trying to implement it is a necessity.
And then he wonders at the BPFFA supporting Neil Ellis?
But those were just the vagaries of the campaign trail, smaller details in the painting of what will be the 2010 Belleville Election.
And last night Mitch Panciuk urinated in the paint can.
His was the last podium appearance, and I can only assume he wanted to finish the night with a bang. Which he did. In the midst of a derogatory commentary aimed at Ellis (and a shot at the Intelligencer)(very much an appropriate part of the evening, as I understand it - correct me if I'm wrong, please), he made reference to a crude 'nickname' allegedly from Ellis' high school years, and suggested, basically, that the Mayor enjoyed self-pleasuring, and was doing so currently, and as such the rest of us at the event ought not shake Ellis' hand.
I have worked in the political arena for many elections, federal and provincial, since 1985, and this is, far and away the most disgusting comment I have ever witnessed.
I am, as most people know, a conservative (voted Reform in '93, '97, Canadian Alliance in 2000, and Conservative since at the federal level), with a libertarian streak a mile wide. And I want to make something clear - as a conservative, I deplore the unjustifiable, vulgar, reprehensible - you get the idea - comments made by Mitch Panciuk last night. They were disgusting, have no place in an election, and have taken Belleville politics to a level I don't remember seeing before.
Mitch Panciuk owes Neil Ellis a public apology. Otherwise, I don't see how he can be seen as a credible candidate to represent our city as mayor.
Note: Going home last night, I asked my co-campaign chair, and good buddy, Kevin MacPhee if he could remember another candidate for public office committing political hari-kari in quite the same way. He thought of one - Joe Biden kicking off his run for the Democratic presidential nomination by commenting on how clean and well spoken Barak Obama was - for a young black man. Fortunately for Biden, Obama didn't hold a grudge.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
My Twitter Coverage of the Mayoralty Candidates debate - Oct 12, 2010, from Loyalist College
- TheIntell Ellis: need to explain to Mr. Panciuk difference between business plan and a capital budget
- TheIntell Herrington: Belleivlle stalled in the 20th centruy... take 3 or 4 terms to get us where we are supposed to be... current council made steps
- TheIntell Herrington: City already in debt, not $48 million though... Belleville/Thurlow need to join together and work together
- BillGlisky Panciuk: Intell declared Herrington front runner after 1st debate..... um, no we didn't
- Ladawn14222 @jamesphieffer 58 Million HIT! With SOCIAL SECURITY FREEZE! http://socialsecurityfreeze.com/
- OT_Group @jamesphieffer not soon enough, the morning north turn is a killer!
- TheIntell Herrington: City makes money on signs, need to step up and do something about them
- AlvaDiep @jamesphieffer Take advantage of an additional income stream. http://tiny.pl/h9dn3
- TheIntell Herrington: evaluate what needs to be done with priority areas including Thurlow
- BillGlisky Herrington: 1) City Hotel 2) ample parking, don't have accessibility 3) Local business feasible to provide tax incentives
- BillGlisky To Mitch: don't believe we heard an answer to the first question: have you read the Fire Master Plan and what issues do you have with it?
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