Ah, election time! Doesn’t matter if it’s federal, provincial, municipal, or school council president, it brings out the best and the worst in us. On the bigger stage, the story in Canada to watch right now is the Alberta Referendum on separation speculation. Families and friends have split, A province stands divided. A country awaits the results.

Here, in rurban Caledon, the current municipal elections have brought on similar divisions between the country mouse and the city mouse visions for the future of our Town. One faction, carrying on the previous Strong Mayor’s policies, favours a developer influenced agenda. The other faction favours a constituent influenced agenda. Voters are on the sword’s edge.

Enter Brigette Loquercio and her Third Party “Setting The Record Straight” flyers on past Council voting habits. These flyers are a classic example of a propaganda technique called “cherry picking” where information can be truthful but misleading.

For example, it could be a fact that a politician voted to keep a petrochemical processing plant out an area zoned for business development. The mention of that fact would make it look like the politician had voted in the public interest. it may also be a fact that that same politician worked behind the scenes to help the owner of that petrochemical plant get approval permits through an Ontario Land Tribunal decision. That fact would be conveniently left out of the report card.

That is cherry picking the facts. You only advertise the sweet cherries and you bury the rotten ones.

In the last municipal election this same propaganda technique by a third party advertiser was used very effectively against the Jennifer Innis mayoralty campaign. That simple little blue “Report Card” was the subject of a news article in Brampton’s The Pointer titled “How a council report card helped sway an election.” That report card helped get Annette Groves elected Strong Mayor. 

As a previous third party advertiser indicated to me, all of this factual council voting information is available on public record. All of it. And without all of it you really can’t tell if the bowl of cherries is rotten or not.

That being said, this year’s high gloss, full colour very expensive “report cards” directly smear the voting records of past Council members who voted against the Strong Mayor’s policies. They especially target mayoralty candidate Christina Early. These third party ads put out by Brigette Loquercio  are being delivered door to door. Yes, as the  flyers state, “The Caledon Community Deserves the Truth” and I couldn’t agree more. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

By the way, if anyone sees Terry Groves passing out Third Party Advertising as he did in 2022, please remind him gently that as a campaign manager for current municipal candidates, he is not allowed to distribute flyers on behalf of Third Party Advertisers. Terry is no longer allowed on my property. And misleading cherry picked fact flyers by a third party advertiser are not allowed on my porch.

In contrast, the very informative cherry-picked fact sheet on Municipal voting records published by Democracy Caledon appeared in my mailbox a few days later like an antidote to the misleading information spread by the Brigette Loquercio Third Party Advertising Team. The scales are balanced once again.

There is a lot of money behind the Russo Teams push to elect the remnants of the “Gang of Five” and their new acolytes to complete their Strong Mayor’s agenda. I’m looking forward to the campaign financial audits. We are especially curious about the audit of the private non-profit charity, Caledon Community Inc, that houses the $1.5 million of the privately fund raised monies under the guise of two Mayor’s Galas that were not  sanctioned by the Town.

I have renewed hope that democracy in Caledon is protected, that I am mistaken in my wild speculations, and that third party advertisers who push propaganda will see the error of their ways. Peace in our time. The way I see it.

Skid Crease, Caledon

I love using Vote Compass in federal and provincial elections. But it just doesn’t work for Municipal elections. And here’s why.

In a federal or provincial election, the Party platforms are analyzed and used as a base indicator for matching your answers to the Vote Compass questions. For example, if one party has a strong platform and record of supporting climate change science, and it matches your answers, Vote Compass will indicate that your beliefs line up with their platform.

However, in a Municipal Vote Compass survey, your, the voter’s answers, are compared to the candidate’s answers, not to a large Party platform that has been published and tested. For example, when you take the Vote Compass Survey you may indicate support for protection of greenspace and farmland, and a slowdown to unsustainable housing development.

The candidate, despite their voting record, may have indicated the same support in his answers to Vote Compass. In my particular Ward in Caledon, only one candidate has personally answered the Vote Compass questions in the most populous way of garnering votes despite their Council voting record. There are no answers from the other candidates for Mayor.

So, when the match came up at the end of the survey, it showed that my answers in support of greenspace and farmland protection matched strongly with the only Mayoral candidate that had taken the survey. That candidate was Mario Russo,  a Councillor whose voting record was in direct opposition to everything in which I believe. The candidate I am supporting had not taken the Vote Compass survey and therefore their answers could not be compared,

My reaction to seeing the Vote Compass indication of my agreement with Mario Russo’s actual policies was anger. Vote Compass should NOT be publishing any “alignment with candidate” policies unless every candidate has submitted answers to the Vote Compass survey.

To make it clear, I do not support Mario Russo for Mayor of Caledon. Vote Compass got it very wrong, The way I see it

Skid Crease,
Caledon

Iran, Taliban led Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and …

the United States of America.

WHAT THE FUCK!