Misled
One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.- George Orwell They didn’t come to talk about industrial wind turbines. Rather, the two emissaries from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC)—an agency of the province of Ontario—came to apologize. MPAC is the […]
Politics and money
When she was running for her party’s leadership four years ago, Kathleen Wynne was the only candidate, of the seven running for the job, who understood the issues at stake at Ostrander Point. Four candidates flat-out refused to answer my questions, three offered prepared generic statements about how renewable energy was critical to Ontario’s future. […]
Irreversible
Heavy equipment began chewing up the landscape this week. They’ve begun on Army Reserve Road near the boundary between Athol and North Marysburgh. Workers are preparing the ground for the construction of turbines 16 and 17 of the White Pines industrial wind energy development. There are 27 turbines to be built as part of this […]
There’s always a catch
“Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing,” wailed the old woman. “What the hell are you talking about?” Yossarian shouted in bewilderment. Joseph Heller set Catch-22 on a dusty Mediterranean island during World War II, presenting both a tragic and funny window into the bureaucratic absurdity of […]
The constant
Jim Dunlop was wearing many hats in December 2010. He still worked part time at the cement plant as a safety officer. He had recently been re-elected as councillor to represent Wellington. And he was working hard to see that a magnificent new arena was built in the village. On this particular December day, however, […]
A year later
It has been a year since a group on council ousted its top manager, Merlin Dewing. Dewing had been hired to fix the County’s serious structural problems—runaway costs, broken infrastructure, poor accountability and moribund marketing and economic development. He made enemies along the way. He knew that. He had come here to do a job—not […]
Unbound
It was remarkable—the speed with which the developer skipped past what must have been a shattering decision, pivoting smoothly to plans to uproot and cart away the vegetation upon which the Blanding’s turtle clings to survival. As if they hadn’t heard the news. Two Fridays ago, wpd Canada learned that the Tribunal had upheld an […]
Restore environmental safeguards
It strikes them when they hibernate. A white fungus appears around their mouth, noses, ears and wings. It takes so much energy for the bat’s immune system to combat the infection, they use up their available fat stores. Some die in their roost; others fly hungry into the winter sky empty of insects upon which […]
Cliffhanger
I saw The Big Short at the Regent Theatre over the weekend. The movie, based on Michael Lewis’s book, purports to tell the story of the collapse of the housing market bubble in the US in 2007 and 2008 which very nearly took down the world’s banking system with it. As entertainment, it was mildly […]
Spatial disorientation
Is Shire Hall run efficiently? By this I mean, how does the County compare to other municipalities? Does it use its resources well? Are its operations run efficiently? How does it rank among its peers? What about productivity? Are we getting enough out of our human resources? Are we improving? Or getting worse? In what […]