YO! MISSISSAUGA!

[The Mississauga Muse]

Hey Mississauga Dudes and Dudettes!

ROGERS CABLE 10 has The Mayor's Hour this evening. 9 pm.

All about the 2007 proposed budget! Yes, indeed. The excitement of how your property taxes get spent. I sat in all all the budget meetings so it'll be interesting what gets revealed over the TV-waves (and especially what doesn't).

My favourite part of the budget discussions were when Mississauga dumped on Toronto for bleeding us dry. Yes, indeed. Made it sound like Toronto is Mississauga's second biggest albatross.


Signed,
The (ooooooooooooooo I can't WAIT til 9!) Mississauga Muse

 

[bizorky]

Evil Toronto, bleeding those long and winding roads of Missy dry!

 

[ahrvojic]

My favourite part of the budget discussions were when Mississauga dumped on Toronto for bleeding us dry.

Meh. This Mississaugan thinks that Hazel's little brother syndrome is incomprehensible in a place that is essentially Toronto anyway.

Petty GTA infighting will get us nowhere.

 

[cdl42]

I'm still waiting to hear them complain about Mississauga's share of the contribution to the UN.

 

[ganjavih]

It's time for some new blood in Mississauga... or at least a mayor with his/her own blood. The fact that Mississauga votes in McCallion with ~90% support each time and has done so for decades tells me something is broken in Mississauga. This is the kind of phenomenon you'd see in Saddam-era Iraq. Add to this the naming of countless buildings and institutions after her, a local paper that's more like a mouthpiece of the city government and a following that is almost cult-like and has no tolerance for criticism of the great leader, and it's enough to make you very squeamish. I don't care how good a leader is, if he/she is not challenged, corruption, arrogance and even delusional thinking take hold, which is exactly what we see in Mississauga.

Hazel's Musings

 

[bizorky]

^You must realize that because of posts like yours Mississauga is likely to pursue research for the development of nuclear weapons! They are wary of an imminent invasion of the imperial Toronto superpower and have a right to defend their sovereignty!

 

[spmarshall]

Ganjavih,

Are you seriously suggesting regime change?

After all,
- We'll fight them there, so we don't have to fight them here.
- Toronto will be greated as liberators, with its cheaper residential property taxes and democracy.
- We start with the liberation of our own international airport.
- We station troops on its northern frontier in cooperation with our Bramptonian allies to avoid a spillover of refugees seeking new places to sprawl.
- Then blow up everything named after Hazel (even if it means entering the University of Toronto's lands in Mississauga) and declare "Mission Accomplished"

Though I agree with the point of what you say. Too little democracy, even at the municipal level is a problem - look at what it brought North York and then Toronto for six years.

 

[The Mississauga Muse]

Hey there, ahrvojic

Quoting from my original post:

My favourite part of the budget discussions were when Mississauga dumped on Toronto for bleeding us dry.

I hope any Torontonians reading what I wrote recognized my statement as being tongue-in-cheek. One of the reasons that I wrote "my favourite part of the budget discussions were when Mississauga dumped on Toronto for bleeding us dry" was to show how grim and boring it is for a member of The Public to sit in on all the Budget meetings.

There's so very little entertainment at council meetings that I'm forced to look forward to the inevitable raising of two constant themes.

How Mississauga's money goes to Toronto.
How Mississauga's money goes to Brampton and Caledon.

I study behaviour. So it's of interest to me how humans go about delivering the same message in different ways --and of course (more intriguing) how sometimes they don't even bother delivering the same message in a different way.

ahrvojic, you wrote:

Petty GTA infighting will get us nowhere.

I'm reminded of Grade 9 history where we learned about city-states and fiefdoms or whatever they're called (my being in Grade 9 was almost as long ago as city-states and fiefdoms so please understand why I might be vague on this stuff.)

But it was like each city-state in a region was ruler-and-ruled unto themselves. Hmmm.... not unlike Afghanistan and the warlords carving up that country. That's how I see Ontario municipalities --city-states, and for the unlucky, a few run by warlords.

I mean I've really sat in on Mississauga council/committee meetings. I've even read the minutes afterwards --studied, pondered.

And while I'd have agreed with:

Petty GTA infighting will get us nowhere.

a year ago, I'm not so sure now.

I've concluded that for the municipality with the Pettiest and the dirtiest Fighters, GTA infighting will get them somewhere. It protects THEIR TURF.

By "THEIR TURF" I mean the comfy leather chair upon which they sit at council meetings.

It's amazing how one's view of local government changes once you begin to pay attention. You know, study them in their own environment --their comfy leather chair?

The Mississauga Muse

 

[bizorky]

I hope any Torontonians reading what I wrote recognized my statement as being tongue-in-cheek.

No worry Muse! I know that I'm not telling you anything new when I say that some of the most classic small-minded statements can come from the mouths of city councillors, et al. In those cases, the classic city states appear mature and progressive in comparison.

 

[The Mississauga Muse]

Hey there, ganjavih

You wrote:

The fact that Mississauga votes in McCallion with ~90% support each time and has done so for decades tells me something is broken in Mississauga.

ganjavih, the choices last election other than the Mayor were Barber or Hillis. I mean, seriously.

This is the kind of phenomenon you'd see in Saddam-era Iraq.

Check out the 2006 Election results:


Barber, Donald---------5,571-----5.18%

McCallion, Hazel------98,293-----91.41%

Willis, Roy N.-----------3,667-----3.41%

Now take this into account:

"The official results indicate voter turn out was 25 per cent this year. The City of Mississauga had a total of 445,964 eligible voters, 110,248 of which cast ballots."

110,248 out of 445,964 or 24.7% voted.

The City of Mississauga has 5000 employees who'd have a vested interest in how Mississauga keeps "Moving Forward" as is. And that's not just 5,000 votes but also those potentially of spouses, adult children, parents etc etc.

And JUST on the mississauga.ca website today --this announcement:

Mississauga Celebrates A Growing Achievement – City Reaches $1 Billion in Construction 10 Years in a Row

Feb 05, 2007

The City's year-end total value of building permits reached $1.05 billion, making 2006 the 10th consecutive year Mississauga exceeded $1 billion in prescribed construction.

You can bet people who've benefitted from development and the construction industry also made sure to cast their ballot.

At the ward level many had little more than a total of 8,000 votes spread among all candidates. Check this one out:

Ward 11.

Carlson, George-------4,789-----66.86%

Judd, Peter------------2,094-----29.23%

Pasicolan, Xavier G.-----280------3.91%

Total votes 7,163

All Incumbents need is Their People showing up.

Those with vested interests --anyone from the developer living in his mansion lakeside in Port Credit/Clarkson to those receiving Mississauga Corporate Grants for the Arts etc, --you bet they are voting for As-Is.

I want to deal with just one other of your observations. ganjavih , you wrote:

Add to this...a local paper that's more like a mouthpiece of the city government.

Agreed (with the exception of RANDOM ACCESS, John Stewart's BLOG). But ganjavih, by far, the worst of all, is Rogers Cable 10. Now you want to talk about a mouthpiece of the city government.

The Cable 10 "news guy" is even broadcasting over at the mississauga.ca website RA-RA-RAHing Mississauga! I mean SERIOUSLY --

Having said all this, though, I've got to say that I've attending a lot of meetings now and ...and I really respect Hazel McCallion.

I feel badly though about those struggling --the working poor, for example. They hear about Mississauga's prosperity and experience little of it in their own lives.

That, ganjavih, is what makes me "squeamish".


The Mississauga Muse

 

[doady]

Point was made.

Taste was defeated.

- Canuck

 

[spmarshall]

WTF is that?

Invoking Godwin's Law.

 

[bizorky]

Those are pretty tasteless images above.

Genocide; ha, ha.

Tasteless.

Get it?

 

[The Mississauga Muse]

doady,

Please remove your images of Mayor McCalllion.

First off there are people who respect her --I'm one.

Second, there might be people on here of Jewish faith who are likely to find the images distressing.

Next, there might be people on here of German ancestory (like me) who bristle at the very sight of a swastika. It's a constant reminder to me of how Germans failed.


Thanks,
The Mississauga Muse

 

[doady]

But isn't comparing Hazel to a brutal right-wing dictator more realistic than comparing her to a brutal left-wing dictator? She is right-wing after all.

Seriously now, I will remove the pics eventually, but the point had to be made. I don't agree much with what has been said in this thread so far. The Mississauga News a mouthpiece of the city? I read every issue and I haven't seen much bias in this newspaper. Should they start a new column dedicated to bashing Hazel McCallion like the Toronto Star did for David Miller? They are owned by the same company, perhaps some arrangement can be made.

And really now, is McCallion the only one complaining about the GTA pooling arrangement? The whole 905 has been complaining about this and they along with Toronto have been complaining about lack of funding for health and social service costs from the province since Mike Harris. So why are people singling out Hazel McCallion?