ELECTION FEVER WENT COLD - I WANTED TO GET INVOLVED BUT.........

For the past several months I’ve been blogging like a man possessed, on my Gravenhurst site, regarding the recent Municipal Election. I communicated with a number of council hopefuls who apparently liked the cut of my jib, early on, and could relate to some of the critiques I was offering up almost daily. I find that once the successful candidates are sworn-in to office, later in the fall season, getting points across requires an appointment or an application to council proper as a delegation. So I took my opportunity to express some concerns about my hometown, and offer some insight about ratepayer chagrin and forays by these same ratepayers in the future.......and the preventative measures to meet deadlocks before they mire down in conflict and dysfunction. Did it do any good? Geez I don’t know. But what I do know is, I’m the same now as I was when writing those September and October blogs, and I wasn’t wrong then and I’m not now......that the citizens here are not going to put up with shortfalls in leadership, and drunken sailor spending as we have in the past. While it may seem a tad dictatorial for a pundit like me to be telling councillors how to behave, and what to act upon, and what to unburden themselves, being apathetic to most council business four years ago, nearly cost us a beautiful wetland in our neighborhood......that council decided to sell off as surplus land in order to put that money somewhere else......like purchasing a property for a new town hall. It was the fight of our lives here because losing the wetland oasis, here in the urban area, would have drastically changed the water-filtering the bog provides, before town run-off hits the waters of Muskoka Bay, Lake Muskoka. We lost an entire summer fighting this but alas, it paid off, and I will be walking through the Bog as soon as I finish up this entry.

I have neglected my other blog sites this year for a number of reasons, and this time, it was all about politics. I hate politics. I despise having to deal with mantra of elected officials who tote the party line, with each carefully measured response to all questions. But I also know what it costs when you drop your guard, and so this time, I had a chance to share my concerns and chagrin about previous governments, on a site that was getting quite a bit of action.....which is always pleasing to a long-in-the-tooth writer, who is best known for historical features, not community activism.

I’m taking a break from all the political commentary of the past two months. I’d love to pull the canoe down from its mount, and paddle off toward the horizon, like Tom Thomson traversed the hinterland lakes and rivers in quest of interesting vistas and inspiring landscapes. You can check out some of the Gravenhurst blogs from the past two months if you like. I will return soon.

Hopefully without municipal politics muddying up the water of a traverse I might soon take.