Who’s his daddy?
Help me out here, will you?
Now that Dave Brister has officially declared his candidacy for the riding of Essex in the provincial election next year, who do you think he is thinking of when he casts his votes at city council the next handful of metings?
If there’s a road widening he would normally be against in the best interests of his south Windsor constituents, do you think he would vote in favour of it to benefit his new rural riding?
Do you think he would be against promoting economic development in the core when he knows that his county riding would get that new Big Box store if they failed?
Or do you think this politician is too honest to do this?
For quite a while now, I thought the answer to a lot of Windsor’s woes layed with the establishment of a regional government. You know the reasons; county residents who work in the city would help pay for the transportation network they require, help eliminate the tax benefits to living in the bedroom communities, to name a few. However, like we saw with the most recent mayoral election in Toronto, who’s to say that the new suburban councillors in a regional government wouldn’t take over and mold the city to their needs?
What would our city look like then?
Who’s to say that Brister hasn’t started building that city already?
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I dont think he would do that. Though we have knocked heads at times Dave Brister is a very honest individual and I believe works for what he was elected to right up to the end.
As for the regional gov’t. I am still for it. It is killing us economically and personally that we sitll have so many gov’ts in this little county.
While you are correct that the recent elections in T.O favoured the burbs it seems that for the most part amalgamation in other regions of Ontario has been successful and what happened in T.O is not happening there.
The T.O scenario is one I am still holding my breath on with regards to Windsor’s new ward system. I hope we don’t have 10 little feifdoms developing. Only time will tell.
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘feifdoms’ Dave, but I hope each individual ward, and especially ward 3 become much more ward-centric wrt policy etc. We need more concentration and emphasis on our neighbourhoods and that can only really happen if someone is fighting and pushing for what is good for that ward. We have had many decisions made on a grand scale where the perceived good of the whole is paramount thus resulting in hurting areas and neighbourhoods. Lack of planning and lack of focus is what has been a big problem in this City. I hope ward 3 becomes a major feifdom and begins to take its place as the heart of the city.
Hi Rino,
What I mean by feifdoms, it that each ward only cares about itself and no one working together. So therefore nothing gets accomplished. I worry that the suburban wards will work together to shut out the downtown ward which now only has 1 representative.
I hope this isn’t the case but if the new system creates the scenario above we are in deep trouble. Hopefully councillors (I am not holding my breath on some) will realize that each ward is unique and that what is good for core wards is good for the city.
What difference would that be than what we currently have, Dave? The suburban councillors have always held the power, regardless of the number of core/downtown councillors we had. The suburban wards have always been more needy (read: expensive and high-maintenance) and with the supposed importance of the ‘burbs, they’ve normally got what they’ve wanted. It’s been an unfortunate reality that has produced the city we see now.
Hi Chris, I agree that your scenario above has produced the cit we see now.
Previously, there were 4 councillors for the core areas. They only needed 2 other councillors to agree with their position of downtown. Now they will need 5 councillors. That is the difference I see.
The above is yet to be played out but we have a majority of incumbants that were re-elected. These same councillors (some who have been councillors for years such as Gignac) are some of the same ones who have put us in this mess. Add on the double-talkers like Hatfield (and my gosh Payne) and we could possibly have gridlock with nothing ever getting accomplished, let alone issues for the core areas.
As I said, I hope this doesn’t happen, but it is Windsor….we can only wait and see and send the message that the old way is the dead way for this city.
Completely understand where you’re coming from Dave, but the old scenario just makes our current reality that much sadder. True, 40% of council officially represeted our downtown, yet this administration still couldn’t stop the bleeding. I’m just saying that it can’t get any worse with the new lot.
The root of this problem is the fact that the “suburban” councilors (and I truly hate posing this as an “us” and “them” problem) don’t seem to understand that a healthy core is as good for them as it is for us! Only when we are all singing from the same hymnal will we start to see some real progress.