The Veterans

July 4, 2013 · 0 Comments

Dear editor:

The ongoing revelations respecting the levels of corruption infecting every sector of government, federal, provincial and municipal, is creating an awakening by some of the electorate and replacing hope with hopelessness. Some people run for political office and bleat about the positive contribution to the system they offer, and then, when elected, their focus becomes self, self aggrandizement; me, mine and more

That, of course is some of them, not all. We here in this riding have a dedicated person representing us at the federal level for which we are grateful. But the newly appointed leader of the Liberal party, Justin Trudeau, is proving himself to just in for the True- Dough. Remember, the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree!

To charge $20,000 for yapping to any charity organization working to raise money for health care and cancer research, while receiving public money as a politician gives one a clue regarding his loyalties and priorities: Bank account first consideration, public image second, no matter how carefully manipulated. Clearly a chip off the old block, namely daddy. What about daddy?

In 1939 daddy was opposed to Canada’s war participation and was frequently seen riding his motorcycle, while wearing a Germans helmet, up and down St. Catherine Street in Montreal. He and his followers were opposed to Canada’s involvement in the war

April 5 to 18 1952 he led a communist delegation to Moscow’s International Economic Conference.132 of the 471 delegates were from Communist countries. The delegation was organized by the Canadian Communist Party.

In 1953 he was barred from entry into the United States by the Eisenhower Administration

In 1960 he headed another group to China’s victory celebration, and applauds MaoTse-tung’s mass murders as necessary.

1963 he campaigned for the NDP

1968. Elected Liberal Party leader. And later, Prime Minister

At the provincial level we have seen Mc Guinty scramble out of the spotlight and away from the mess he has left of Ontario. His successor will need a magic wand to revitalize the province.

At the municipal level things are no better. The Shelburne hospital, now under destruction and conversion to 24 affordable living units at a cost estimate of $4,000,000 which is likely to rise considerably as do most government run projects.

Later county residents will be cursing in their beer when they receive their property tax notices. Maybe they should have paid more attention to what was happening earlier.

The loss of the hospital is a financial and social mistake only to be followed by yet anther costly expansion project. The Mel Lloyd centre is up for expansion at what cost even the county doesn’t know.

Soon our community will become a sad shadow of its former self, run into the ground by costly, deeply flawed, decisions that will drive investment elsewhere’ Today one walks our main street and sense its decline . It is now a set of stop lights at the corner of Owen Sound Street where 18 wheelers struggle to round the 90 degree corner. The cost of these senseless changes, the hospital and the Mel Lloyd, could have helped to fund a by-pass around Shelburne and opened up rehabilitation programs for the town.

We now have hundreds of ailing residents without access to hospital services close at hand. Expansion of the Mel Lloyd will never be a replacement for the old hospital for which financial contributions were made by Shelburne citizens. To add insult to injury, the beds, many donated by the families of patients who died there, have been removed without consultation with the donators, and sent to Haiti.

The vast sums of money sent there following the earthquake appear to have vanished into thin air. Recovery is virtually static.

Meanwhile Shelburne drifts more deeply into a backwater consisting of a set of traffic lights in a dying town centre.

Surely, decisions that lead to disasters such as this should be monitored and approved or rejected by an independent professional organization with the experience necessary to ensure that local politicians don’t let their enthusiasm lead to mistakes such as we see today.

Shelburne Veterans’

Association

K.C. Mesure, John Flannery