{"id":18649,"date":"2017-10-11T16:06:52","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T20:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18649"},"modified":"2017-10-11T16:06:52","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T20:06:52","slug":"inside-aurora-the-year-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-the-year-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: The Year Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, are you tired of 2017?
\nThe soggy summer\u2026endless political quotes and discord from the U.S… the inability to find a weekday parking spot near the GO station unless you get there before 7 a.m\u2026.
\nWell, why not look ahead a year? Here are some things we can anticipate in 2018.
\nThe big international event to kick off the year will be the Winter Olympic Games from Pyeongchang, South Korea.
\nIn the most recent Olympics in Rio, a number of competitors stayed away from fears of being bitten by zika-carrying mosquitoes. This time they may be more concerned about being hit by an errant North Korean missile.
\nIf that doesn\u2019t satisfy your sporting fix, then there are always the Commonwealth and Invictus Games, also to be held next year. As both are being held several time zones away, you might want to start catching up on your sleep now.
\nOn the provincial front, Ontarians will be going back to the polls in June. Election signs everywhere, unlikely to ever be fulfilled promises, sound bites, accusations and ads pervading every form of media for months\u2026It makes one wish it all happened more frequently than once every four years, doesn\u2019t it?
\nAnd just as we\u2019re all recovered from the over-exposure to provincial politics, before you know it, it will be time for the next municipal election.
\nJust to make things interesting, perhaps the question as to whether the size of Council should be reduced will be repeated on the ballot. Last time an alarming number of people voted for this, but not quite enough for Council to formally consider it.
\nPlaying it safe this year, Council may increase the required numbers of eligible voters in favour for the question to be considered from 50% to 75%. As well, anyone who votes in favour must do so after arriving at a polling station by dogsled, and vote while standing on one leg, and singing \u201cWaltzing Matilda\u201d.
\nThere will be adjudicators at the polling stations to negate any \u201cyay\u201d votes that don\u2019t meet these qualifications.
\nWe dodged a bit of a 2018 bullet when Magna announced they would be delaying their move to King City from next year to 2020. Meanwhile, the Town will be dreaming that vast numbers of international multi-billion dollar companies are queuing up ready to move into the site.
\nOf course, that seems to have been the strategy for the Howard Johnson\u2019s property when that business moved on, but no new tenant was waiting in the wings for that one.
\nSpeaking of hotels, if you\u2019d like to take a break from the events of the year and get away from it all, you have the perfect solution as Aurora\u2019s new hotel, the Microtel Inn and Suites, is scheduled to open in 2018.
\nYou will literally get away from it all, too, as it\u2019s tucked away in a seldom visited and relatively infrastructure-free corner of Town near the 404.
\nFinally, what better way to wrap up 2018 than to get into the seasonal spirit at the Aurora Christmas Market, or the \u201cbunch of vendors and other attractions clustered in a big parting lot with music playing in the background\u201d, or whatever politically correct, all inclusive name is adopted.
\nCurrently under discussion for Library Square, this is intended to be a temporary feature. However, with no end in sight to the 20 year so far discussions for what to do with this area long term, this \u201ctemporary\u201d feature may be around for many years to come.<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at:
\nmachellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston So, are you tired of 2017? The soggy summer\u2026endless political quotes and discord from the U.S… the inability to find a weekday parking spot near the GO station unless you get there before 7 a.m\u2026. Well, why not look ahead a year? Here are some things we can anticipate in 2018. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4QN","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 22:30:47","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\/18649","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=18649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}