Christine Cooper (quoted below) invited all the Midland council candidates to participate in her widely popular online podcast show to learn more about their motivations to seek (or re-seek) public office this election. Her comments and the links to the audio interviews are below. Unscripted, no AI, and just honest off-the-cuff interviews are a great way to learn more about candidates.
It is unfortunate that some chose not to participate but you can still learn more about them at the All Candidates Meeting on October 8th, Bourgeois Community Centre 6pm-9:30pm or by reading their profiles published in MidlandToday.ca or visiting https://midlandontariovotes.ca/
Morning Midland,
A couple weeks back I kicked off a bunch of conversations hoping to sit down with as many registered candidates in the upcoming MIdland election. We have such little access to candidates so I thought “let’s do this!”.
I started out with a list of 20 candidates and ultimately ended up with 15 interviews. I’ll speak to those 5 missing epi’s separately, because I’ve got a couple of things to say about that.
So here’s the entire catalogue of 15 interviews, all on one list to make it easy for you. Just click and listen. My apologies for some of the editing, with a few choppy moments and some misfit intro music, I was flying solo and my pod partner usually does the edits, so hence a few gulpy, gappy moments. Although, there are a few seconds of long silent air and those were not edits.
Sometimes silence speaks louder than words.
I have some thoughts about candidates, both the incumbents and the hopefuls. For now, I’m saving some of that for a final wrap up episode where my pod partner from The ReSisters, will join me for a feisty, honest talk about the good, the bad and the oh so ugly that I got an inside glimpse too. What I learned during this process was that it wasn’t so much what was said during the interviews, but rather what was said when the mics were turned off. The other thing I learned, some people have no business thinking they should go into public office. Ever.
As for me, the status quo I had on my own voting list going into these conversations, looks very, very different coming out the other side of the conversations. But there were a couple of gut instinct thoughts, that ultimately, turned out to be right on the bullseye.
Chose carefully Midland. What you see, is not necessarily what you get.
To the current council and the incoming council, I’d like to remind you that our chamber is not the coliseum, so please drop the gladiator mentality, because it serves absolutely no one. It only serves to stoke division and brings out the contrarians, which to a point, can be helpful, until it is not. And lately, it clearly has not.
And stop with the intentional block voting. You think we don’t see that? It’s tantamount to a temper tantrum and It’s an incredibly childish because you are supposed to rep the community at large. Do your job.
It’s gotten to a point that it has become visibly counter productive and if you do not have the capacity to check your personal biases & your animus for the greater good, then get out. Please. We deserve better than that. New comers should take note of that.
And to that end, how about during council meetings you put down or better yet, turn off your phones, you are after all, on the taxpayers dime during those meetings. Your undivided attention should be in the residents best interests. Isn’t that why you are there, collectively, for all the residents?
After watching hours of council, I was visibly witnessing councillors, meeting after meeting, spending much time reading their phones. Which begs to ask the question -what is so important? Are are they DM’ing each other or is there a 3rd party involved here, digitally whispering into their ear.
My money’s on a 3rd party player, driven by a sour grapes agenda and it doesn’t take much gray matter to figure out who that third player is. So the question here is why does a 3rd party constantly have the ear of an elected councillor? Because if this is who I believe it is, that forever contrarian has dragged our municipality, councillors & even some staff, through complaint after complaint at the Integrity Commissioner’s Office. And out of all those filings made, there was only one complaint that held any merit and funnily, it was simply a procedural complaint. To date, not one complaint on conduct has ever be upheld by the Integrity Commissioner’s office. Ask yourself, if you want to elect a person who has demonstrated this chronic adversarial propensity. It tells you so much about a person.
Again, chose carefully Midland. Because we’ve got Midland Bay Landing decisions at risk and is this what we really need from a wannabe public official?
Lastly, I wanted to share this with the incumbents. There has always been this unspoken rule during campaigns. Be careful about what plunk onto your front lawn. Be careful about who you hitch your wagon to and who is using you to clout chase off your reputation. That is hand you don’t want to play and you will learn that lesson the hard way. Welcome to FAFO town. And that include that clique, including an old school Kingmaker, who has held court, encouraging candidates to join them.
We see it all.
Stay tuned, more to drop. It’s tea time Midland. Watch for your incoming PIN Voting Card from the town. We are less than a month away from advanced voting.
Welcome to politics. Even at the local level there’s a stench.
*AI notation on this post is NOT for the content, that’s all me baby. It’s labeled AI because because of the font used on the graphic.
Christine Cooper ~ The ReSisters ~ Podcast Host
NOT ALL CANDIDATES PARTICIPATED IN THE PODCAST INVITES…
INTRODUCTORY EPISODE
MAYORAL CANDIDATES
Candidate Website: https://billgordon.ca/platform
DEPUTY MAYORAL CANDIDATES
Candidate website: https://bethprost.com
COUNCILLOR CANDIDATES (INCUMBANTS)
Candidate Website: https://howiemajor.com
Candidate Website: https://jazpatel.com
Candidate Website:
Candidate Website:
COUNCILLOR CANDIDATES (NEW)
Candidate Website:
Candidate Website:
Candidate Website:
Candidate Website:
Candidate Website:
Candidate Website:
Candidate Website:
Candidate Website:
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