Bill Longworth Presentation to Council, Feb. 5. 2007

I’M BILL LONGWORTH, AND I’M SPEAKING HERE TONIGHT ON BEHALF OF VOTES---AN ACRONYM FOR “VOTE TO ELIMINATE SELF-SERVING POLITICIANS” AND OUR WEBSITE IS WWW.OSHAWASPEAKS.CA….I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO CHECK IT REGULARLY

THE ISSUE OF RETURNING TO THE GENERAL VOTE IS MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE FACING THIS COUNCIL

COUNCIL’S PUSH FOR A GENERAL VOTE IS IRRESONSIBLE AND UNDEMOCRATIC AND CANNOT BE JUSTIFIED BY ANY STUDENT OF MUNICIPAL POLITICS OR BY ANYONE WHO KNOWS THE HISTORY OF OSHAWA’S GENERAL VOTE

WARD VOTING IS BEST…THAT’S WHY IT’S USED IN VIRTUALLY EVERY JURISDICTION IN THE COUNTRY

PEOPLE EXPECT HONEST AND RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THIS CITY…IF SOMETHING IS JUDGED TO NOT BE BEST THIS CITY, THEN VOTERS EXPECT YOU TO OPPOSE IT. YOU CANNOT SAY WARD VOTING IS BEST AS MANY MEMBERS HAVE DONE AND THEN VOTE AGAINST IT. THIS SPIN IS NOT GOING TO IMPRESS THE VOTERS OR THE VOTES GROUP. WE EXPECT YOU TO SUPPORT WHAT YOU BELIEVE TO BE BEST. VOTERS WILL NOT ACCEPT ANYTHING ELSE. THIS IS THE TRUST OSHAWA PEOPLE PUT IN YOU BY YOUR ELECTION….DON’T LET THEM DOWN. VOTING CONTRARY TO WHAT YOU KNOW TO BE BEST FOR OSHAWA IS IRRESPONSIBLE, UNPRINCIPLED, AND DISHONEST AND DESERVE NEITHER THE RESPECT NOR THE SUPPORT OF VOTERS

LOCAL GOVERNMENT IS SUPPOSED TO BE CLOSE TO THE PEOPLE…YET THE GENERAL VOTE GIVES LOCAL POLITICIANS CONSTITUENCIES LARGER THAN EITHER THE FEDERAL OR PROVINCIAL MEMBERS





IN THE END, THE PUSH FOR THE GENERAL VOTE IS GOING TO BACKFIRE ON THOSE COUNCIL MEMBERS BEHIND THE MOVE AND THOSE WHO SUPPORT THE CHANGE.

1985 OMB FINDING SAID, “ANY CHANGE TO THE EXISTING SYSTEM WHICH WOULD APPEAR TO BE OPERATING FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE ENTIRE CITY WOULD HAVE TO BE BASED ON SOME CONCRETE EVIDENCE OF INEFFICIENCIES OR RATEPAYER DISSATISFACTION ON A LARGE AND WELL-INFORMED BASIS. (PG. 13)

THE WARD SYSTEM WAS WORKING WELL FOR OSHAWA IN MAKING IT A VIBRANT PLACE AND THERE WAS NOT A WHIMPER OF RATEPAYER DISSATISFACTION…AND COUNCIL DID NOT SUFFICIENTLY INFORM THE PUBLIC ABOUT THE REFERENDUM QUESTION OR RATIONALE FOR A CHANGE….

THEREFORE THE REFERENDUM RESULTS SHOULD CARRY NO WEIGHT.

* ONLY 15% OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS VOTED FOR A CHANGE, AND

* I BELIEVE MANY OF THESE WERE CONFUSED BY THE CONVOLUTED QUESTION THAT REQUIRED THEM TO VOTE “NO” TO RETAIN WARD VOTING, AND

* VOTERS MAY BE EXPERT IN THEIR FIELD…BUT HAVEN’T THOUGHT ABOUT CONCEPTS OF GENERAL OR WARD VOTE (2 DOCTORS I TALKED TO DIDN’T UNDERSTAND CONCEPT)

* THE STAFF REPORT ON THE REFERENDUM CLEARLY STATED THAT “THE RESULT INDICATED NO CLEAR MANDATE FOR CHANGE”---AND THIS IS THE fact COUNCIL SHOULD HAVE HEEDED

ALL OF THE INITIATIVE FOR CHANGE CAME FROM CITY COUNCIL AND IS DESIGNED TO SERVE THE POLITICIANS, NOT THE PEOPLE…WE ELECT YOU TO SERVE THE PEOPLE, NOT TO SERVE YOURSELVES.

COUNCIL’S ACTION IS GOING TO RESULT IN A “REVOLUTION OF ILL-WILL” TOWARD THIS COUNCIL …PUBLIC SENTIMENT IS GOING TO EXPLODE AT THE ANTI-DEMOCRATIC MOVE IN PUSHING FOR THE GENERAL VOTE…A MOVE THAT IS BEING INCREASINGLY SEEN AS “SELF-SERVING” FOR THE POLITICIANS IN INSURING THEIR LIFE TIME SEATS ON COUNCIL

IF COUNCIL ATTEMPTS TO IMPLEMENT A GENERAL VOTE TO AVOID AN OMB APPEAL WITH THE METHOD SUGGESTED IN THE STAFF REPORT YOU RECEIVED TONIGHT, I WILL STILL APPEAL TO THE OMB BASED ON THE ARGUMENT THAT BECAUSE WARDS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH VOTING BY TRADITION AND BY PRACTICE IN OSHAWA SINCE 1985, THAT A GENERAL VOTE FOR FUNCTIONAL PURPOSES WOULD DISSOLVE ALL WARDS IN FAVOUR OF ONE WHICH WE WILL ARGUE IS A CHANGE IN WARD BOUNDARIES

IF YOU ARE DOING WHAT IS RIGHT AND BEST FOR OSHAWA, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE FROM AN OMB APPEAL…WANTING TO AVOID A HEARING BY THE INDEPENDENT AND OBJECTIVE OMB CASTS A DARK SHADOW ON COUNCIL’S ACTIONS AND WILL RAISE MORE QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS IN THE MINDS OF VOTERS.







AT ANY OMB HEARING WE SHALL ALSO TRY TO REDUCE COUNCIL POSITIONS BY 3 BY ELIMINATING LOCAL COUNCIL POSITIONS…THE 1972 PROVINCIAL REPORT SETTING UP REGIONAL GOV’T SUGGESTED THAT IT WAS DESIREABLE TO REDUCE THE # OF PEOPLE SITTING ON LOCAL COUNCILS WHO ARE NOT ALSO SITTING ON REGIONAL COUNCIL

VOTES—VOTE TO ELIMINATE SELF-SERVING POLITICIANS

GROUP FORMED WITH 2 OBJECTIVES

* FIGHT TO RETURN WARD VOTING FOR OSHAWA

* ORGANIZE COMMUNITIES TO DEFEAT POLITICIANS WHO CONTINUE TO PUSH FOR GENERAL VOTE

* IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT THAT OSHAWA DOES HAVE A GENERAL VOTE IN THE NEXT ELECTION, WE HAVE ALREADY STARTED TO STRATEGIZE TOWARD ORGANIZATIONS THAT WILL RUN A “VOTES TEAM” ACROSS THE CITY TO RETURN THE DEMOCRATIC WARD VOTE TO OSHAWA…IN THE LIKELY EVENT OF WARD ELECTIONS WE WILL ORGANIZE TO DEFEAT THOSE POLITICIANS WHO HAVE PROVEN TO BE SELF-SERVING

WEBSITE http://www.oshawaspeaks.ca/ WILL BE ACTIVE VOICE OF THE VOTES MOVEMENT…ENCOURAGE YOU TO CHECK IN REGULARLY. YOU’LL FIND TEXT OF THIS PRESENTATION THERE!

THE ORGANIZATION AND WEBSITE WILL OPERATE THROUGHOUT THIS TERM OF COUNCIL TO INFORM AND ORGANIZE CITIZENS TO DEFEAT SELF SERVING POLITICIANS, AND WILL BECOME THE PRIME CLEARING HOUSE OF CITY POLITICAL NEWS AND OPINION

OSHAWA HAD THE GENERALA VOTE FROM 1933-85…LET’S LOOK THE DEVASTATING RESULTS THE GENERAL VOTE BROUGHT OSHAWA

* LAST GENERAL VOTE BALLOT WAS 11 X 14 WITH CLOSE TO 100 NAMES...HOW COULD VOTERS MAKE AN INFORMED VOTE EXCEPT TO VOTE FOR FAMILIAR NAMES…REASON WHY GENERAL VOTE LEADS TO NO CHANGE

* MOST OF COUNCIL CAME FROM SMALL POCKETS OF THE CITY LEAVING LARGE AREAS UNREPRESENTED FOR YEARS (7 ELECTIONS PRIOR TO WARD VOTE ELECTED TOTAL OF 109 ALDERMEN….NOT ONE OF THESE POLITICIANS FROM SOUTH OF KING STREET…ACCORDING TO OMB, OSHAWA VIRTUALLY HAD A “NORTH END” COUNCIL---8 MEMBERS LIVED IN OLD WARD 6 AND ADDITIONAL 3 MEMBERS LIVED IN ONE POLLING SUBDIVISION AT THE END OF REGENT STREET IN WARD 3

* FROM OMB FINDING…IN THE 7 ELECTIONS LEADING UP TO 1985, A TOTAL OF 109 SEATS WERE CONTESTED AND 3 OF 7 WARDS HAD NOT BEEN REPRESENTED AT ALL DURING THAT TIME---OSHAWA HAD A NORTH END COUNCIL.

* VIRTUALLY ALL CHANGE TOOK PLACE THROUGH DEATH OR RESIGNATION

* COUNCIL WAS VERY FRACTIOUS AS MEMBERS FOUGHT AND ARGUED WITH EACH OTHER IN SEEKING PRESS TO PROMOTE NAME RECOGNITION

* UNPRODUCTIVE COUNCIL…SO NOTHING HAPPENED IN OSHAWA…NO LEADERSHIP FROM COUNCIL…WHEN EVERYONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING, NO ONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING ….GIVE WORK ANALOGY….GIVES INEFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

* GENERAL VOTE PUTS GREATER INFLUENCE IN HANDS OF LARGE ORGANIZATIONS RATHER THAN TO INDIVIDUAL VOTERS…THEREFORE POLITICIANS MORE ACTIVELY PROMOTE THE AGENDAS OF THE LARGE ORGANIZATIONS.

WARD VOTING PROVIDES SUCCESS TO POLITICIANS WHO SERVE THE RESIDENTS OF THEIR WARD AND REQUIRES ACTIVE CAMPAIGNING AT ELECTION TIME….IT REQUIRES ENERGY AND HARD WORK….INTERESTING THE IDEA TO ADVANCE THE GENERAL VOTE WAS MOVED BY COUNCILLOR PIDWERBECKI AND SECONDED BY COUNCILLOR KOLODZIE, THE 2 OLDEST MEMBERS OF THE LAST COUNCIL WHICH ADVANCED THE IDEA….THESE ARE THE VERY MEMBERS THAT WILL FIND IT MOST DIFFICULT BECAUSE OF THEIR AGE TO CAMPAIGN DOOR-TO-DOOR IN WARD ELECTIONS...BUT THE GENERAL VOTE WILL VIRTUALLY GUARANTEE THEM A LIFETIME SEAT ON COUNCIL WITH THE NEED FOR MINIMAL CAMPAIGNING AT ELECTION TIMES AND MINIMAL EFFORTS TOWARD CONSTITUENCY WORK...A PLUM JOB IF YOU CAN GET IT!

Should Oshawa Council Serve the People…or the Politicians?

Oshawa City Council is likely to play loose with Democratic Ideals once again at a meeting of Oshawa City Council scheduled for 6:30 pm Monday, February 5, 2007. The basic question Council will have to ask itself is, “Who does the Council serve, the people or the Members of Council?” I’m betting that Council will adopt a position that makes it clear to all that they believe the system of local government should serve them first…the people be damned!

At Monday’s Council Meeting, politicians will receive and debate a staff report suggesting that they can adopt a general vote and this cannot be appealed to the OMB as long as they do not alter the wards. This means that they would retain the ward boundaries but that they would not be used for electoral purposes.

At the OMB hearing leading to the 1985 finding for ward elections in Oshawa, the first argument proposed by the city solicitor was that the OMB did not have jurisdiction in the matter. This argument was rejected by the OMB Chairman. This is the argument that the staff report is presenting to the politicians…that the OMB only has jurisdiction to alter wards but not to determine the method of electing council.

Indeed, the 1985 OMB ruling did lay out both wards and the election method to be used in Oshawa. At that time they ruled a ten ward system with one regional councillor to be elected from each ward and five local councillors to be elected from paired wards with the Mayor to be elected at large. The Ontario Municipal Act makes it clear that the ward vote is the expected for cities the size of Oshawa, and the general vote is the exception.

In any case, because of the strong association of wards with municipal elections throughout Ontario and its use in this context in Oshawa since 1985, we will present the argument in our OMB appeal that indeed for functional purposes the general vote does alter the wards…dissolving all wards into one for electoral purposes.

I have previously asked to be on the agenda to address Council on this question and encourage as many people as possible to attend and also to write the Mayor and Council and to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing who administers the OMB, the Municipal Act, and Municipal Elections stating your concerns.

This Council seems to think that our local system of government should serve them first. As ratepayers, we should be mad as hell that they place their self-interest before providing good representative local government to the city and its people.

This is Canada…and Council is being blatantly undemocratic!!!

An Open Letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing

The Honourable John Gerretsen,
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing,
Queen’s Park,
Ontario

Dear Sir:

Oshawa City Council voted to have a question on last November’s Municipal Election Ballot to seek the opinion of voters as to whether Oshawa should once again revert to a general vote. They worded the question in such a way that voters had to vote “NO” to maintain the present ward system of electing our council. Further there was no real effort to provide information to residents regarding the question and so voters were kept “cold” on the question until they saw it on the ballot in the voting booth.

The question of returning to the general vote was purely political as not a whimper of expressed public discontent with the ward system was heard. In point of fact, Oshawa was flourishing under the ward system with new major recreational facilities servicing all areas of the city, a boom in high quality housing, and the fastest growing region in the GTA. There seemed to be no reason for change outside of politician’s self interest in insuring their re-election with minimal competition at election times.

The general vote had been in use with severe shortcomings in Oshawa from 1933 to the time of the 1985 OMB ruling (M840053-March 21, 1985) which quoted a number of principles underlying its decision.

1) “The use of a ward system … would be one way of encouraging political responsiveness. The election of a council at large tends to reduce the representation of diverse political interests and conflicting political views and thus provides a less accurate reflection of local values.” (pg. 10)

2) From the 1972 Ministry of Treasury, Economics and Intergovernmental Affairs report entitled, “Proposal for Local Government Reform In An Area East of Metropolitan Toronto”, under the Regional Government proposal, the lower tier councils will be performing fewer functions than the Region. It is desirable, therefore, to minimize the number of people sitting on local council who are not on regional council.” (pg. 11)

3) A 1971 select committee of the Ontario Legislature stated, “It is important at all times to ensure that local government is kept close to the people. It is important to guard against the potential danger that members of Local and Regional Councils may have to represent too large a number of residents for effective representation.” (pg. 10)

4) Any change to the existing system which would appear to be operating for the benefit of the entire city would have to be based on some concrete evidence of inefficiencies or ratepayer dissatisfaction on a large and well-informed basis. (pg. 13)

5) “It is clear from the evidence that during the period 1971 to 1985 and in the last 7 general vote councils which collectively contained 109 seats in that time span, three of the seven wards have not been represented by residents of those wards….adding to the argument that Council has been essentially a north end council seven successive times.” (pg. 23)

In light of the above statements of fact and evidence quoted from the 1985 OMB finding, particularly point 4, I would ask the minister to:

1. Declare invalid any attempt by Oshawa City Council to implement a bylaw to have Oshawa revert to a general vote.

2. In light of point 2, I would ask the Minister to order the elimination of local councillors in Oshawa. This is certainly a point that we will be presenting at any OMB hearing called to hear the question.

I have given notice that I will appeal any bylaw to revert to the General Vote to the OMB, unfortunately at significant cost both to the Oshawa taxpayer and to the Provincial Government. Action by you to stop this irresponsible, self serving, and undemocratic action of Oshawa Council can save the time and expense for all concerned.


Sincerely,
William Longworth
Chairman VOTES (Vote to Eliminate Self-Serving Politicians)
159 Spirea Court,
Oshawa, Ontario
L1G6S8

February 3, 2007

The Sentiment Against A Change to the General Vote is Growing!

Here is a series of communications I have received from an Oshawa resident that is typical of the sentiment surrounding Council’s attempts to return to the dark days of the General Vote in Oshawa. I have not as yet met this writer but know that I can count on the support of her, her family, and friends. The sentiment against the change runs deep in Oshawa.

We hope that everyone is working as hard as Josie is to insure the council is not able to implement the “self-serving” general vote that will give politicians a seat until their death or resignation…not the way to bring vibrant leadership to Oshawa.

We need politicians that are accountable to their ward voters in solving their neighbourhood problems and able to represent the ideas of their community strongly on city council. We don’t need politicians that will be able to “retire” under the general vote but continue to collect the handsome benefits of their council seat.

These communications are reprinted in the order in which they occurred and are reprinted with the permission of the author.



From: pjpascoe
To: bill_longworth@hotmail.com
Subject: Meeting Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:33:10 -0500

Mr. Longworth

I was wondering if you know when the public meeting was going to be. I have been checking our lowly Oshawa This Week carefully but have not seen anything as yet. We will probably be as well informed about it as we were regarding the referendum question being included on our recent ballots. If more information was given about the Ward System question I'm sure there would have been more than 25% voter turnout. (A 60% yes vote of 25% of the citizens is not a clear statement)

This meeting seems useless anyway if we will only be discussing keeping the Wards as they are but still having a general vote. Doesn't make sense to a lot of people I have talked to.

I see now a lot of candidates who didn't make the cut in our latest election have thrown their hat into the ring for the one School Board Trustee position. They just have to get in there so their name will be seen in time for our next election without the Ward system. That's pretty pathetic, I'm sure they have a real concern for the education system.

A more important issue for our Council is to have a Steven Colbert Day in Oshawa. Its pretty embarrassing to live in a city where a comedian, not even from here, gets a day named after him.

What a great city we have here on the lake, NO marina, NO daily newspaper and now NO Ward system. The councillors made a wise choice in the new logo for us "Prepare to be amazed" , we certainly have been and we never cease to be amazed.

Why would a city of our size go backwards in time instead of going forward. It is Amazing!!

I hope I didn't miss that meeting as I do support all you efforts.

Josie Pascoe (& Phil Pascoe)




Quoting Bill Longworth bill_longworth@hotmail.com

Hi Josie...you haven't missed the meeting. the council will send a flyer via canada post to all residences announcing the time, date, purpose, location...but no background information.

I think the meeting will be an exercise in futility but still would encourage you to attend if possible to express your ideas. I will be there getting people to sign petitions and hopefully a lot of help will be there for that purpose.

I will also be publicizing the date of the meeting on oshawaspeaks.ca but I think the council members have already made up their mind on the issue.

I still expect to be able to appeal to the OMB because there are 2 other avenues of appeal that the city has not considered that I will use as grounds of appeal once they have approved the bylaw. No appeal is possible until then. I am keeping the oshawa appeal routes close to my chest at the moment because i do not want council to block them with any action prior to the passage of the bylaw.

I am confident that we will have an appeal and I am confident of winning and I am confident that the people of Oshawa will punish the pushers of the general vote at the next election.

We do intend to keep our blog active throughout this term of council and are confident that it will grow to be the dominant news source for commenting on council business.

Would I have permission to publish your letter with some remarks of my own as a posting on oshawaspeaks.ca?

Thank you for your support on this important issue. Hopefully you have been able to forward our website to all of the contacts in your email address book.

Bill Longworth,
Founder & Chair of VOTES (Vote to Eliminate Self Serving Politicians)
www.oshawaspeaks.ca
159 Spirea Court,
Oshawa, Ontario
L1G6S8

905 579 3971




Message received on March 1, 2007

Hi Bill

I talk to everyone I know about this issue and so does my 85 year old mother and we urge them to speak out. You may use my letter to help the cause and I will be out to the meeting to support you. I cannot uderstand what has gotten into our council these past few years. I honestly think it has to be senility.

Many thanks again for your hard work.

Josie Pascoe

The Sentiment Against A Change to the General Vote is Growing!

Here is a series of communications I have received from an Oshawa resident that is typical of the sentiment surrounding Council’s attempts to return to the dark days of the General Vote in Oshawa. I have not as yet met this writer but know that I can count on the support of her, her family, and friends. The sentiment against the change runs deep in Oshawa.

We hope that everyone is working as hard as Josie is to insure the council is not able to implement the “self-serving” general vote that will give politicians a seat until their death or resignation…not the way to bring vibrant leadership to Oshawa.

We need politicians that are accountable to their ward voters in solving their neighbourhood problems and able to represent the ideas of their community strongly on city council. We don’t need politicians that will be able to “retire” under the general vote but continue to collect the handsome benefits of their council seat.

These communications are reprinted in the order in which they occurred and are reprinted with the permission of the author.



From: pjpascoe
To: bill_longworth@hotmail.com
Subject: Meeting Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:33:10 -0500

Mr. Longworth

I was wondering if you know when the public meeting was going to be. I have been checking our lowly Oshawa This Week carefully but have not seen anything as yet. We will probably be as well informed about it as we were regarding the referendum question being included on our recent ballots. If more information was given about the Ward System question I'm sure there would have been more than 25% voter turnout. (A 60% yes vote of 25% of the citizens is not a clear statement)

This meeting seems useless anyway if we will only be discussing keeping the Wards as they are but still having a general vote. Doesn't make sense to a lot of people I have talked to.

I see now a lot of candidates who didn't make the cut in our latest election have thrown their hat into the ring for the one School Board Trustee position. They just have to get in there so their name will be seen in time for our next election without the Ward system. That's pretty pathetic, I'm sure they have a real concern for the education system.

A more important issue for our Council is to have a Steven Colbert Day in Oshawa. Its pretty embarrassing to live in a city where a comedian, not even from here, gets a day named after him.

What a great city we have here on the lake, NO marina, NO daily newspaper and now NO Ward system. The councillors made a wise choice in the new logo for us "Prepare to be amazed" , we certainly have been and we never cease to be amazed.

Why would a city of our size go backwards in time instead of going forward. It is Amazing!!

I hope I didn't miss that meeting as I do support all you efforts.

Josie Pascoe (& Phil Pascoe)




Quoting Bill Longworth bill_longworth@hotmail.com

Hi Josie...you haven't missed the meeting. the council will send a flyer via canada post to all residences announcing the time, date, purpose, location...but no background information.

I think the meeting will be an exercise in futility but still would encourage you to attend if possible to express your ideas. I will be there getting people to sign petitions and hopefully a lot of help will be there for that purpose.

I will also be publicizing the date of the meeting on oshawaspeaks.ca but I think the council members have already made up their mind on the issue.

I still expect to be able to appeal to the OMB because there are 2 other avenues of appeal that the city has not considered that I will use as grounds of appeal once they have approved the bylaw. No appeal is possible until then. I am keeping the oshawa appeal routes close to my chest at the moment because i do not want council to block them with any action prior to the passage of the bylaw.

I am confident that we will have an appeal and I am confident of winning and I am confident that the people of Oshawa will punish the pushers of the general vote at the next election.

We do intend to keep our blog active throughout this term of council and are confident that it will grow to be the dominant news source for commenting on council business.

Would I have permission to publish your letter with some remarks of my own as a posting on oshawaspeaks.ca?

Thank you for your support on this important issue. Hopefully you have been able to forward our website to all of the contacts in your email address book.

Bill Longworth,
Founder & Chair of VOTES (Vote to Eliminate Self Serving Politicians)
www.oshawaspeaks.ca
159 Spirea Court,
Oshawa, Ontario
L1G6S8

905 579 3971




Message received on March 1, 2007

Hi Bill

I talk to everyone I know about this issue and so does my 85 year old mother and we urge them to speak out. You may use my letter to help the cause and I will be out to the meeting to support you. I cannot uderstand what has gotten into our council these past few years. I honestly think it has to be senility.

Many thanks again for your hard work.

Josie Pascoe

The Sentiment Against A Change to the General Vote is Growing!

Here is a series of communications I have received from an Oshawa resident that is typical of the sentiment surrounding Council’s attempts to return to the dark days of the General Vote in Oshawa. I have not as yet met this writer but know that I can count on the support of her, her family, and friends. The sentiment against the change runs deep in Oshawa.

We hope that everyone is working as hard as Josie is to insure the council is not able to implement the “self-serving” general vote that will give politicians a seat until their death or resignation…not the way to bring vibrant leadership to Oshawa.

We need politicians that are accountable to their ward voters in solving their neighbourhood problems and able to represent the ideas of their community strongly on city council. We don’t need politicians that will be able to “retire” under the general vote but continue to collect the handsome benefits of their council seat.

These communications are reprinted in the order in which they occurred and are reprinted with the permission of the author.



From: pjpascoe
To: bill_longworth@hotmail.com
Subject: Meeting Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:33:10 -0500

Mr. Longworth

I was wondering if you know when the public meeting was going to be. I have been checking our lowly Oshawa This Week carefully but have not seen anything as yet. We will probably be as well informed about it as we were regarding the referendum question being included on our recent ballots. If more information was given about the Ward System question I'm sure there would have been more than 25% voter turnout. (A 60% yes vote of 25% of the citizens is not a clear statement)

This meeting seems useless anyway if we will only be discussing keeping the Wards as they are but still having a general vote. Doesn't make sense to a lot of people I have talked to.

I see now a lot of candidates who didn't make the cut in our latest election have thrown their hat into the ring for the one School Board Trustee position. They just have to get in there so their name will be seen in time for our next election without the Ward system. That's pretty pathetic, I'm sure they have a real concern for the education system.

A more important issue for our Council is to have a Steven Colbert Day in Oshawa. Its pretty embarrassing to live in a city where a comedian, not even from here, gets a day named after him.

What a great city we have here on the lake, NO marina, NO daily newspaper and now NO Ward system. The councillors made a wise choice in the new logo for us "Prepare to be amazed" , we certainly have been and we never cease to be amazed.

Why would a city of our size go backwards in time instead of going forward. It is Amazing!!

I hope I didn't miss that meeting as I do support all you efforts.

Josie Pascoe (& Phil Pascoe)




Quoting Bill Longworth bill_longworth@hotmail.com

Hi Josie...you haven't missed the meeting. the council will send a flyer via canada post to all residences announcing the time, date, purpose, location...but no background information.

I think the meeting will be an exercise in futility but still would encourage you to attend if possible to express your ideas. I will be there getting people to sign petitions and hopefully a lot of help will be there for that purpose.

I will also be publicizing the date of the meeting on oshawaspeaks.ca but I think the council members have already made up their mind on the issue.

I still expect to be able to appeal to the OMB because there are 2 other avenues of appeal that the city has not considered that I will use as grounds of appeal once they have approved the bylaw. No appeal is possible until then. I am keeping the oshawa appeal routes close to my chest at the moment because i do not want council to block them with any action prior to the passage of the bylaw.

I am confident that we will have an appeal and I am confident of winning and I am confident that the people of Oshawa will punish the pushers of the general vote at the next election.

We do intend to keep our blog active throughout this term of council and are confident that it will grow to be the dominant news source for commenting on council business.

Would I have permission to publish your letter with some remarks of my own as a posting on oshawaspeaks.ca?

Thank you for your support on this important issue. Hopefully you have been able to forward our website to all of the contacts in your email address book.

Bill Longworth,
Founder & Chair of VOTES (Vote to Eliminate Self Serving Politicians)
www.oshawaspeaks.ca
159 Spirea Court,
Oshawa, Ontario
L1G6S8

905 579 3971




Message received on March 1, 2007

Hi Bill

I talk to everyone I know about this issue and so does my 85 year old mother and we urge them to speak out. You may use my letter to help the cause and I will be out to the meeting to support you. I cannot uderstand what has gotten into our council these past few years. I honestly think it has to be senility.

Many thanks again for your hard work.

Josie Pascoe

So Do You Trust Your Neighbor?

The commonest reason general vote supporters give in supporting that system is that they want a vote in determining all members of council. They say if there is dead wood somewhere, they want a vote to eliminate the dead wood. They also say they want a “say” in determining every city politician. This is faulty thinking.

When voting across the city for all candidates, they have a one in thirty-thousand “say” in promoting their choice so their chances of influencing the outcome are slight. Even if they know the politician well and know him/her to be a poor choice, voter outcome is going to be determined by the vast majority of voters who do not know the individual personally but have only heard his/her name. Job performance, suitability, intelligence, beliefs, platforms, ideas, service to the people, ethics, etc. all become irrelevant as there are too many candidates to make an informed choice. So the individual “general vote" elector has next to no influence in the result. Politicians get elected only by name recognition. When Oshawa got the ward vote in 1985, over half the sitting council was defeated, all of whom had long careers as city politicians under the general vote.

Democracy, where everyone has a choice, depends upon trusting the wisdom of society to make the right choices. If you know a candidate that is/is not deserving of your vote for some reason, chances are ward electors will get to know this and they will cast their vote the same way as you would have.

The more informed voters are, the better choices they make. Ward voters will be more informed about the candidates than under a general vote. In addition, if 300 or 400 ward voters come to know the individual as you know him, this could make the crucial difference in leading to the victory or defeat of a candidate. These 300 or 400 votes are a big proportion of the 3000 votes cast for a winner in ward voting and so the strength of individual votes is amplified significantly.

Democracy relies on trust in your fellow citizens to make wise choices. As everyone has a vote, you want it to be an informed choice where the voter has a chance to get to know the candidate. If you know the candidate to be dead wood, incompetent, lazy, worthless, boastful, arrogant, ineffective, conceited or whatever, it is likely your opinion will be shared by ward voters who get to know him/her because of the close relationship ward voting promotes between ward politicians and their voters.

An informed choice is the best choice. Ward voting means a more informed vote choice by the electors. Ward voting will produce the best leadership for the people. Ward voting compels the politicians to work for you.

Trust your neighbor to make good choices. This is the essence of democracy. Ward voting is most democratic because voters can make a difference and can turf politicians out of office. It may have its flaws but as Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.”

"Angry in Oshawa" says...

“Angry in Oshawa” submitted the following comment to yesterday’s post.

Who originally brought up the question in council, and do you know who voted for/against the motion to put this on the ballot or for/against the idea in the first place? I would be interested to know.

Dear Angry

Thank you for your question.

The principal architect and driving force for putting this asinine referendum question was Nestor Pidwerbecki. His motion was seconded by Joe Kolodzie, interestingly the two oldest council members and perhaps the two who might find it increasinly difficult to perform and campaign for election with the energy required in ward elections, not to mention the energy throughout the term to look after their ward constituency concerns.

Their motion was despite the fact that there had been not been a whimper of public discontent for the ward system . It’s unfortunate that they were able to solicit council support to get the question on the ballot. Voting for the ballot question were Councillors Nestor Pidwerbecki, Brian Nicholson, Mike Nicholson, Cathy Clarke, John Neal, Joe Kolodzie, and April Cullen. Voting against were Mayor Gray, Councillors Robert Lutczyk, Tito-Dante Marimpietri, and Louise Parkes.

According to press reports, Pidwerbecki’s rationale for introducing the issue was: 1) Oshawa was growing too large for a ward system, 2) that a ward system council was too divisive and, 3) councilllors should have a city-wide mentality. Pidwerbecki is dead wrong on all counts and hopefully he brings less faulty thinking to his council votes. I suspect, though, that Pidwerbecki is smarter than this and that he is “stretching” to justify the unjustifiable.

Let’s analyze Pidwerbecki’s argument.

Oshawa is growing too large for a ward system---This is completely opposite from the truth. In reality, a general vote is only valid where the municipality is quite small and everyone knows each other. Using Pidwerbecki’s argument, Toronto’s council of 44 members representing 2.48 million people because of its vast size should be an obvious candidate for the general vote because he would argue it is too large for a ward system….ridiculous and absurd!

A Ward System Council is more divisive---How so? General vote politicians compete with each other at every meeting for press necessary to foster high name recognition. Therefore, they hog the floor and backbite, bitch, and bicker to steal the press. Ward politicians are not election competitors and have to be far more co-operative with their peers in order to gain support for the needs of their ward

A general vote promotes a city-wide mentality---Not so! A general vote politician gets elected through high name recognition and thus promoting themselves at the expense of real productivity becomes job one for general vote politicians. A ward vote politician gets elected through service to his/her constituents and so service to people becomes job one for a ward politicians. Ward politicians have to develop positive relations with their fellow politicians to get support for any of their ward initiatives. The very nature of co-operation leads to politicians working together to set priorities for the betterment of the city.

The general vote cannot be justified on any grounds for a municipality the size of Oshawa, It is obvious Pidwerbecki is stretching for straws trying to justify the unjustifiable…Don’t let him pull the wool over your eyes.

Councillor Pidwerbecki has been involved in politics for a long time. When we got the ward system in 1985, Pidwerbecki was quoted in the press as saying, “They are going to have to break up the country club and it is going to be the best thing that ever happened to Oshawa. How can I describe our feelings,” he continued, “we’re elated.” He said up to now Council had been composed of people who have had enough money to afford the high price tag of a general election campaign. “Now people who are relatively unknown may figure they have a chance where there was none before,” he said. “Instead of spending a lot of money to cover the whole city, they can now concentrate on one area and reduce the cost factor.” Describing the then “General Vote” Council as an “elite group”, Pidwerbecki said he expects some new faces on council after the next municipal election in November.

Pidwerbecki knows the value of ward elections but has changed his tune now that he is a member of council. His bringing up a return to the general vote can be no less than self serving in insuring his re-election.

Self serving politicians deserve neither our respect or support. Councillor Pidwerbecki will undoubtedly be #1 on our hit list for politicians to be defeated in the next election. We will organize his ward to ensure this. We are keeping our options open on other council members to see how they vote on the Bylaw that has to be introduced before a change. We shall appeal this bylaw to the OMB and have every expectation of a “slam dunk” win.