OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story about Oro-Medonte incumbents skipping a candidates forum, published Sept. 15.
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For some strange reason Mayor Harry Hughes and several incumbent councillors who were elected to represent us on Oro-Medonte council have decided to boycott the all-candidates meetings being hosted by the Engaging Residents of Oro-Medonte.
A wasted opportunity. Hughes’s fuzzy explanation that his time is better spent canvassing door to door doesn’t make mathematical sense as the meetings are an opportunity to speak to a large group of obviously interested voters in one place and at the same time.
Some folks say that politicians speak out of both sides of their mouths, but it seems that Mayor Hughes, Cathy Keane, Shawn Scott and Tammy DeSousa don’t want to speak face to face with the public at all, preferring instead the stiff and controlled setting of council meetings, which are primarily shared with a very small audience through electronic means.
Is this another action by the pack that has controlled the voting in so many council decisions, or have they adopted the strategy of the PC party in the last election — ‘a closed mouth catches no feet?’ Whatever their thinking, they are still current members of Oro-Medonte council — responsible and accountable to the residents who elected them. Maybe they’ve forgotten that they swore an oath to do so and they’re still on the payroll.
Despite their refusal to engage with the public in all-candidates meetings, they have the nerve to ask us to re-elect them — except for Tammy DeSousa, who was defeated in the 2018 election and appointed to council by council.
Are they embarrassed to discuss their performance during the past four years, or afraid of the questions that they might be asked by residents who know and are angry about the mishandling of major issues during their term? Whatever their reasons for avoiding the public, they should be ashamed. How can people who refuse to represent themselves to residents honestly state that they represent the interests of those residents?
There are many open-minded and intelligent candidates who are willing to replace them, so as residents with the power of voting, we need to attend the all-candidates meetings and meet some of these alternatives.
Allan Baker
Oro-Medonte
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