One cabal is not better than another cabal

Red, blue, orange, or green, any cabal is a bad cabal.

It is my strongly held opinion that one does not need to subscribe to a particular political philosophy to spend taxpayers’ money responsibly; to determine which road construction projects should take priority; to advocate for constituents; to ensure that waste management contracts are going to businesses that can deliver what they promise; to ensure that proper sanctions are in place when contractors don’t deliver what they promise; to develop strategies to determine the most effective way to invest in projects and services mandated by the province; to ensure the effective delivery of seniors’ and children’s services; to broaden Niagara’s transit system into a service that people can rely on to get there where they need to go efficiently; and on and on.

It is my strongly held opinion, because it is how I operate.

Some party faithful would disagree with me; some have.

Having run in three previous election campaigns, I witnessed a significant shift in 2014 with respect to how things were done on the campaign trail, and it is my opinion that we’ve seen the effects of that over the past four years…and it’s not been good. (Note: It’s possible, I suppose, that this struggle for party-related power was happening before 2014, but it was not my experience.)

This campaign is only different in that other political groups have gotten more involved than they may have been previously, and I think the rationale is that if one group is going to ‘play the game’ that way, then they have to as well.

I think it’s a bad idea.

As I say in the video below and have said in many public venues, I have never been able to throw my support behind a particular party’s platform. There are often good things in each of them, and there are always not as good things in each of them, and – sometimes – there are downright terrible things in each of them.

Whilst this video ruffled more than a few feathers over the weekend, in that there were a few comments on it and I received some private messages, I stand by it. The feathers that were ruffled were of people who thought I belonged to or aligned with a political party or who thought their party was the party with which I should be aligned.

Although I am friends with people of several political stripes, no one who has any sort of political ‘power’ is supporting my campaign financially or working to get my message out. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The citizens of Niagara will never get anything less than complete honesty from me. I’ve said in previous communications on this website and on social media that communication is of paramount importance to me, and I mean it.

Admittedly, there will always be someone who disagrees with or is unhappy about what I have to say or about something I’ve done. At the end of the day, I need to be able to look my children in the eyes and know that I’ve made good decisions and done the right things for their community.

Let’s work together to Reset the Region. It’s the only way it will get done.