Saturday 7 August 2010

More Stadium Fallout

I have written about the Tiger-Cats rally, the senior governments' bombshell that they won't fund a west harbour site and the mayor's tantrum following said bombshell, so I guess it's only fair that I cover the west harbour rally that occurred last night.

Like I said in my piece on the mayor, I didn't want to make this overly political, but my hand was forced. Well, after reading what transpired last night, I'm not going to bite my tongue.

I just want to comment on Graham Crawford, a member of the pro-west harbour group "Our City, Our Future," comparing what occurred yesterday evening to living in North Korea.

Yes, in his infinite wisdom, Mr. Crawford compared the federal and provincial governments' about-face to the dictatorial regime of Kim Jong-il.

It is hyperbole of that nature that dilutes the actual message. Mr. Crawford comes off looking like an ill-informed fool with this statement. I get that he and his supporters are angry, but to make the comparison to North Korea is juvenile, asinine and completely ignorant; though given the comments made by the mayor, I should not be surprised when one of his supporters would make such an imbecilic declaration.

This debate is now calling into question the democratic system we have in Canada. A simple perusal of the Canadian Constitution would do them all some good, as it would put to rest the ridiculous notion that what happened yesterday was somehow anti-democratic. Democracy has not been attacked; this is not authoritarian; this is simply the federal and provincial governments making a decision that they are well within their rights to make. They don't want to see their tax dollars spent in a manner that only benefits the mayor's massive ego

To be completely honest, I'm just sick of this whole thing. This issue has ripped the city in two and, up to this point, has done more harm than good. I cannot wait until this whole thing is behind us. I want to get back to simply focusing on the on-field product. Hopefully, that will come sooner rather than later.

No comments:

Post a Comment