POLITICS IS A DIRTY BUSINESS - PERFECTLY SUITED FOR POLITICIANS

Yesterday's Woolwich Observer has two separate Opinion pieces which will be an eye opener for many unfortunately. It's unfortunate because the evidence is all around us and has been for a very long time. The Opinion pieces are the Observer's Editorial titled "Municipal race is a call to arms, not to Kool-Aid" and the second is Steve Kannon's "Odds are Michael Harris was a victim of party politics endemic to our system".

Michael Harris was our local MPP at Queen's Park for the past seven years as a member of the Conservative Party. While I don't care for Conservative politics I must say that overall I was impressed with Michael Harris. His party has however shown their true colours in spades. Firstly was the coup d'etat that removed their leader Patrick Brown and that has been followed by the even more spurious allegations against Michael Harris. Shame on any political party for falsely making allegations against the member of another party but there may be a special place in hell for those filth who attack members of their own party for their own personal gains.

As Steve Kannon states "It may be just a coincidence Harris was pushed out after co-chairing the campaign of rival PC leadership candidate Christine Elliot. Or that the allegations followed the failure of Mike Harris Jr. son of the former PC premier, to secure the nomination in the neighbouring Waterloo riding." Right, that's it, just coincidence. Both sets of allegations were less than even serious. They were lie filled examples of ordinary behaviour that goes on all the time around us. They were not criminal acts and they might not even be considered by many as much worse than naughty. What they were, were convenient excuses for the liars and bullies who pervade our political systems.

In the Observer's Editorial about our local municipal politics they tell it straight regarding our current crop of councillors with one, maybe two exceptions at most. "...the elected officials conflate their interests with those of the citizenry. Co-opted into the bubble, they take on the mindset of the public sector employees whose interests are increasingly at odds with residents' needs, particularly when it comes to spending priorities and keeping budgets under control.". The Observer advise that municipal politics need to be more adversarial with councillors more at odds with Staff who are constantly putting administrative and program spending ahead of other more serious priorities (infastructure etc.) . There is very little value to the taxpayers in paying employees at rates both higher than the citizens are earning as well as higher than what private industry pays its' employees. Municipal governance particularly at the Woolwich Township level is not rocket science after all. Hell just look at some of the idiots that have been on council for years. All they have going for most of them is Mennonite names (Shantz, Bauman, Martin) backed by money and influential friends. That is our local reality.