Dave Dale

I’m not sure what’s being planned to celebrate the city’s centennial in 2025 but it’s still not too late to mark the 130th anniversary of electing it’s first mayor or the 140th anniversary for the Township of Widdifield in 2022.

Unfortunately for the Cassellholme board, what’s remaining of it anyway, they didn’t have very good political advice or didn’t follow it. The “dithering” faux pas handed Coun. Bill Vrebosch all the mud he needed to throw at them while draining their political capital and tarnishing their professional reputations.

It’s not something most sitting councillors like to discuss because it adds a new element in their bid for re-election. Once you’re elected by at-large vote, why would you want to change and seek support in a specific neighbourhood?

On the pandemic front, the discussions, debates and protests over vaccine mandates became a lightning rod for politicalization.

Let’s take it a step further and invest that tax revenue directly into low-income and public housing, filling a void that’s causing part of the problem both socially and economically.

Perhaps it’s time to change the rules for being elected to municipal office? Maybe a councillor should have to fulfil at least one term before applying for a job at the city?

Even the spectrums on the left and right are at odds with each other, which results in more losers than winners every time we go to the polls.

The only benefit of having the election now, as far as I'm concerned, is that it saves having to do it next year because I’m certain the Bloc, NDP and Tories would have rejected the next budget and not waited for 2023 either. A federal, provincial and municipal budget all in 2022 would have killed me in a worse way than coronavirus.

Hopefully we'll find ourselves in a better place where invasive and destructive insects are not named after a group of people and there is no need for parades to demonstrate against oppression in the fight for inclusiveness.

It's high time for the Cassellholme board and executives to break out the dog and pony show that should have performed on the municipal council circuit months ago – pandemic or not.