It Has Now Become Sharknado in Carleton Place — Someone has to Say This!

 

 

If you thought the October 22 municipal election for Carleton Place was going to be run with integrity, compassion, and “heads sewn on straight”– your head was hiding in a bucket of water. I knew after a tumultuous 4 years the weeks up to the election were going to be nothing but a fright fest, and here we go.

Today Jerry Flynn dropped out of the race for mayor, and I would never tell you who to vote for but– do you really want another 4 years of the same? For anyone that does not understand what we went through then I guess you didn’t read the newspaper headlines, or see the TV news reports of how utterly stupid we, the people of the Carleton Place, looked to the outside world. If you don’t mind looking like that then I guess we don’t need change, and can just go ahead and vote for toxic candidates.

Yes, we have some old-school conservatism in our council, but that alone does not lead to those with a toxic vision. But, contemporary conservatism is, in part, defined by anti-establishmentism–and that does lead to toxic candidates. To me those are the folks that have opposition to the social and political establishment that have their own school of thoughts– that do things for their own benefit, not for others, as they just do not want to listen anyone else. It’s all about them– just like Trump.

I am very sad that Jerry has decided not to run for mayor, but life has to come first I know that– but, it also makes me wonder about things. The undercurrents I am feeling right now are not full of integrity or compassion and maybe something smells worse than a dead mouse in my walls. But you know what? That is my opinion and you do your own thinking.

The candidates running for the October 22 race aren’t all the same. They all share some form of different ideas, sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t.  There are also some, like other elections, probably with ill-conceived ideas and an agenda to be pushed through. How much more do we want of this? Well it is up to you. Can Carleton Place stand another 4 disastrous years? I don’t think so– but hey, maybe I am wrong.

One could say globally and locally things are really screwed right now. We really need people to stand up for mayor and council of Carleton Place. We need some challenges here before we are in the headlines for another four more years. Don’t think it can happen? Just wait…

 

Update- 

Doug Black and Ralph Lee in the running for mayor and Sean Redmond for deputy and here is the link

 

http://carletonplace.ca/2018-municipal-election.php

Comment-

Kyle McCulloch

Well put and I agree with all of it. I decided to run because I was tired of this town, that I have come to love, being dragged through endless bad press and council meetings devolving to name calling and shouting matches.

I may be naive about some things but I feel at the core anyone running for municipal politics has to have the best interests of the town at heart. There can be disagreement on what is best but it has to be kept on a civil level and the facts have to come to the front. There is simply no room for personal issues when making decisions for the whole town.

We all want what is best for this town, every single person running, I have to believe that. Some have more interests than simply living here, as voters we need to decide if those interests coincide with what is best for the town. I have a little house in town, most of my friends live here, my kids go to school here and my family loves this town. That’s it.