Manitouwadge Candidates Night

Written by admin on 10 October 2010

MANITOUWADGE, ON – Monday, October 4th, Manitouwadge Electoral Candidates (with the exception of John Rioux who did not attend nor did he have any msg relayed to explain his absence) presented themselves at the Manitouwadge High School auditorium which was filled to standing room only. Candidates should’ve had 3 minutes to speak however, unlike other communities’ candidates’ night, Manitouwadge’s was NOT equipped with a light system, it was, in my opinion, much too casual and because of this offered some preferencial treatment when they did not have the courtesy to stop after 3 minutes and were not stopped by the moderator.

The moderator also, unfortunately, allowed members of the public to go on long, undirected rants from which a question was very hard to determine. CFNO News Anchor, Al Cresswell, was in attendance and asked the very important question of candidates not currently on council “How many council meetings have you attended in the past 4 years?” why is this relevant? Because all of these candidates critized the current council, would have us believe they have Manitouwadge’s best interest at heart but yet of the ENTIRE GROUP only 2 (neither of the new Mayoral candidates) had attend a couple meetings – IN FOUR YEARS – what could possibly excuse this inattention? Well, they had various excuses but the answer remained the same, “none”, which leads to another important question which was not asked “how on earth do they hope to fall into their positions without a great deal of difficulty, if they have made no effort to learn what council is all about?”. It certainly shed alot of light on why such ridiculous issues, like the critisism of council taking legal advise, kept arrising throughout the night, I spoke a couple days ago with Mayor Rick Dumas from Marathon who assured me that legal counsel is in fact incredibly important for council members and mayor and should, in his opinion be followed.

In Schreiber, current council members running for re-election rightfully spoke with pride of new equipment purchased for public works, and money spent to improve municipal services yet in Manitouwadge, it was made to seem our past council (which I am by no means saying is perfect) should be ashamed of the successes they’ve had in the past 4 years as if they are a negative. Like the $750,000 snow making equipment at the ski hill which extended our season by nearly 3 months making it possible for Kiwissa Ski Centre to welcome many more regional skiers – yes tourists – is this not something we have wanted???

One mayoral candidate has spoken of ‘getting rid of’ a full 20% of municipal/public works staff then without skipping a beat promises job creation? But you have just said you were cutting existing jobs that provide very necessary services.

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Unfortunately, technical problems mean I did not capture Dave Wheadon’s speech. In an attempt at keeping things fair, Mr. Wheadon’s video interview which covers many similar topics, can be found at http://www.OntarioNewsNorth.com/?p=14739 he has also written a letter which is accessible through his advertisement on OntarioNewsNorth.com’s home page also and you can read that by clicking here: http://www.OntarioNewsNorth.com/wp-content/DaveWheadon.pdf . My sincere apologies to Dave & OntarioNewsNorth.com readers/viewers for this incovenience.

Enjoy…(this is just a portion of ManitouwadgeCandidatesNight, I will continue adding as it is uploaded.

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…More to be added shortly…

: “J’ai l’éducation de TOUS nos enfants à coeur!” Conseillière Mélany Courty seeking re-election as French Public School Board Trustee.

: Darlene Keenan, Public School Board Trustee seeking re-election.

: Dan Fairservice hopes his years in Manitouwadge’s public school system as student and teacher will weigh in his favour in the race for Public School Trustee.

: Councillor Ray Lelievre is running for re-election as councillor.

: Public Health Nurse Shirley Saasto-Stopyra is campaigning for the position of Councillor.

: Electoral hopeful Eva Plourde did not mention her past experience on Council many years ago, perhaps feeling that it might not benefit her in this election. She’s running for Councillor.