{"id":11750,"date":"2015-08-26T17:11:07","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T21:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11750"},"modified":"2015-09-09T09:04:12","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T13:04:12","slug":"brocks-banter-and-if-you-threw-a-party-invited-nobody-you-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-and-if-you-threw-a-party-invited-nobody-you-knew\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: “And if you threw a party, invited nobody you knew…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, I used this space to vent about a certain dilemma I was having.
\nIt wasn\u2019t anything serious. In fact, in the grand scheme of things, it was nothing at all \u2013 but a curious phenomenon unique to this day and age: hate watching.
\nSurely, you have heard of \u201chate watching\u201d: the act of watching a television show or movie with the sole reason of complaining about it leading up to, during, and after the broadcast or screening. It\u2019s a vicious cycle and I speak from experience.
\nChances are, you\u2019ve hate watched a show you don\u2019t particularly like just to draw some closure on a character or plotline you have inexplicably become invested in.
\nAt the time of that writing, my hate watch du jure was Aaron Sorkin\u2019s The Newsroom on HBO. The conceit of the show was reinterpreting how breaking news stories, spanning the last decade or so, would have been covered in a CNN-style news environment.
\nThe twist, however, is the show covers real events with the benefit of a year or two of hindsight, so our fictional heroes can rise above every misstep in reportage that plagued their colleagues in the real world and emerge with their reputations unscathed.
\nIn that rant, I stuck my tongue firmly in my cheek, took a few of the local issues of the day that had recently wrapped up after long and arduous processes, and pondered how local media might have reported on them if we too had the benefit of such hindsight.
\nNow, we have just such an opportunity to put this into action this week, thanks to the office of Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Provincial Government.
\nNewmarket-Aurora was the chosen riding for a particular good news story on Thursday as Premier Wynne, accompanied by local MPP Chris Ballard, local politicians, and dozens of our celebrated, medalled Special Olympians descended on Newmarket\u2019s Magna Centre to announce a $7.2 million investment to promote active lifestyles through the Ontario Sport and Recreation Communities Fund.
\nThrough this investment, a major beneficiary will be Special Olympics Ontario and their efforts to introduce more special needs athletes to sports such as soccer, swimming, basketball, and track and field, all of which are bustling with activity as far as Special Olympics Ontario \u2013 Aurora is concerned.
\nCast wider, this Special Olympics Funding in particular will go into their Partners in Play program, which will ensure the money is spread through 24 community partners in nearly 40 communities to over 1,300 individuals.
\nA good news story? A great news story!
\nTo compound the joviality of the occasion, spirits were, of course, buoyed by the announcement in the wee hours of the morning the Ontario Government had reached a tentative deal with Secondary School teachers \u2013 at least those in the public stream \u2013 thereby going a long way to put thousands of minds at ease as the dawn of a new school year approaches.
\n\u201cOur government is committed to investing in programs that promote the health and well-being of people of all ages across the Province,\u201d said Premier Wynne. \u201cThrough the Ontario Sport and Recreation Communities Fund, we are providing the support that families need to live a more active lifestyle while creating new opportunities for young people to engage with their communities.\u201d
\nGlen MacDonnell, President and CEO of Special Olympics Ontario, highlighted the importance this investment will play in his organization.
\n\u201cThe Partners in Play Program will foster the creation of program partnerships with local community sport organizations and open the door for meaningful participation for people with intellectual disabilities in new joint sport initiatives across the Province,\u201d he said. \u201cSpecial Olympics Ontario is grateful for the contribution of the Ontario Government through the Ontario Sport and Recreation Communities Fund in supporting this vital project and investing in the promotion of the integration and inclusion of athletes with disabilities with the creation of a vital and active Ontario.\u201d
\nI\u2019d like to share with you the excitement and delight I saw on the faces of the dozens of Special Olympians, their coaches, and their families not only as they learned of the investment, and they met with the Premier and the other assembled dignitaries, but also as they were able to hit the pool and show off the results of all their hard work in the water.
\nI\u2019m sure my colleagues at our other local media outlets would like to share this with you as well but we\u2019re all in the same boat. Unfortunately, we only have the photos that began to trickle in through social media after the event had taken place to go by \u2013 and the footage that provided an upbeat and happy accent to the otherwise dreary noontime and dinner hour newscasts.
\nBut, that\u2019s the way the ball bounces.
\nYou see, for a $7.2 million announcement that will directly benefit athletes in nearly 40 communities, local media were not invited to share in the occasion. We were not invited to cover the event, nor were we even given a heads-up that the Premier was making her way to the riding, which is unusual as there was a time when we would receive her itinerary, and that of her predecessor, on a near-daily basis whether they were visiting Aurora or Zephyr.
\nIt was suggested to me over the phone that afternoon \u2013 although in not so many words \u2013 by a person who had an organizing role in the event that The Auroran should take comfort in the fact we were not singled out and local media as a whole was left out in the cold. Cold comfort.
\nShortly after the pictures from Thursday morning\u2019s announcement started to roll in through social media challenges, so too did a new set of photos \u2013 this time with the same cast, but in a different location. The party had moved from the Magna Centre to The Maid\u2019s Cottage, a mainstay on Main Street, Newmarket, famed for their butter tarts.
\nAs I closely examined the photos of the Premier taking a bite of their signature pastry, one could see a who\u2019s who of local Liberal dignitaries, looking on with delight. Again, alas, it seems our invitations were lost in the mail \u2013 so you can join us all in a second hand thrill.
\nThis week, however, with Justin Trudeau set to visit Newmarket-Aurora this Wednesday, August 6, the wheels seem to be back on the bus. So, happily, if all goes according to plan, check next week\u2019s edition for full coverage.
\nAnd, most importantly, congratulations to all our Special Olympians. Having had the pleasure of interviewing so many of our athletes, their coaches and parents over the years, I know it is money well spent and we will all reap the benefits. Well done, guys and gals!<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir A couple of years ago, I used this space to vent about a certain dilemma I was having. It wasn\u2019t anything serious. In fact, in the grand scheme of things, it was nothing at all \u2013 but a curious phenomenon unique to this day and age: hate watching. Surely, you have heard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-33w","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 01:13:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}