Letters_09-42

Jeff Green | Oct 22, 2009

Re – Patriot Missiles in North Frontenac, Dave Winney

What a huge divergence of perspectives between the mayor & his council. Mr. Maguire gets it!  At the time I wrote the letter (Patriot Missiles), I didn't realize that the mayor was leaving on a prolonged vacation or I would have asked that he highlight the salient points from my letter for Mr. Beam and Mr. Good, or, at least go over the big words with them to ensure they understood the content of my message.

I must say I'm being unfair with Jim Beam because I know he is an intelligent man who has done much for the municipality; however, he's going to have to highlight for me the part of my letter that is "threatening". I've tried but I simply can't find it. I know that at one point, in the letter, I suggest that some of our taxpayers may have some specific suggestions as to what council can do with the excess green plastic bags. The veiled thought is that they can shove them where the sun don't shine but you have to look deeply to even find that thought. If that's a veiled threat, it's very subtle. Mr. Good and his suggestion to call in the OPP is something else again. 

Mr. Good needs to know that as a soldier, I've served this country in places he couldn't find with both hands, a globe and a flashlight including Syria, Bosnia, Yugoslavia (twice) Kosovo, Afghanistan (twice) not to mention a few months spent as the unwilling guest of my old friend Saddam Hussein in pre-war Iraq. Mr. Good cannot imagine how deeply affected and fearful I am as a result of his impotent threats.  You might say he's wasting his time; I've been threatened before...by professionals. 

As I read the mayor's comments, I'm not certain that consultations with restaurants and resorts were ever initiated by council even though he admits that some input from these businesses had been constructive. I know for a fact that in spite of the specific unfair instance I mentioned in my letter, (Marble Lake Lodge), no effort was ever made by the municipality to contact the lodge and work something out.

Council also made no attempt to respond to any of the points I made in my letter (assuming they recognized them all) choosing instead to threaten me, in other words, the "good defence is a good offence" approach. They really only needed to address the three listed suggestions I had that could have been phoned in by any irate taxpayer. Their choice: they can deal with my humour or they can deal with me as an irate taxpayer. That's not a threat!  That's a right! 

Dave Winney

See North Frontenac Councils' response