{"id":20001,"date":"2018-02-28T16:27:59","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T21:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20001"},"modified":"2018-02-28T16:27:59","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T21:27:59","slug":"brocks-banter-settling-for-silver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-settling-for-silver\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: Settling for Silver"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Canadians are often celebrated for their own quiet sense of pride.
\nIn some cases this pride is self-celebrated.
\nWhether this pride is pride from afar or part of introspection, the quiet pride can take on a crescendo all its own when it is threatened or otherwise tarnished.
\nTake, for example, the storm in a teacup that erupted in South Korea last week when Jocelyne Larocque was awarded the silver medal, along with the rest of the Canadian Women\u2019s Hockey Team, in the wee hours of our Thursday morning.
\nNo sooner had the silver made a half-hearted pendulous half-swing across her chest then it was unceremoniously taken off by its recipient as the rest of her teammates down the line continued to receive theirs.
\nIt was a gesture which had many Canadians \u2013 and indeed some international observers \u2013 clutching their proverbial pearls.
\nAthletes win gold and bronze, some sports-minded pundits opined, adding that one merely \u201csettled\u201d for silver, having to be content with second-best
\nI\u2019m not sure I agree with that assessment, but nobody has ever accused me of being an athlete.
\nNevertheless, amid her defenders, presumably those in the know, this was a common refrain, but Larocque herself weighed into the fray the next day.
\n\u201cIn the moment, I was disappointed with the outcome of the game, and my emotions got the better of me,\u201d she said in a statement on Friday.
\nReading the varied reactions in the meantime, however, I kept hearing the echoes of a heated discussion which took place around our Council table just a few nights before.
\nAlthough things could change after press time this week, I have to wonder if Aurorans will be heartened that their Council is not content to settle for second best.
\nSitting at the Committee level last week, Councillors turned down a recommendation from staff which would have appointed the Deputy Mayor of Aurora as Aurora\u2019s alternate voice around the Regional Council Table, a governing body which currently only has one voice from this Town \u2013 Mayor Dawe.
\nThis lone voice is something that has been stuck in the craw of this Council, as well as Councils, as Regional Council has uniformly turned down the bids of Aurora and other single-vote municipalities for another seat at the table.
\nBids by single-vote communities like Aurora and King Township to gain that all-important extra seat have been turned down flat by fellow Region-mates, laying the foundation for some significant angst, including a vote by Council to direct Aurora\u2019s Regional vote to knock down similar requests from abundantly represented municipalities in the Region\u2019s southern tier.
\nThroughout the multiple conversations on this matter, it was clear that although a second seat would be the ideal situation, a Regional alternate, someone who speak on Aurora\u2019s behalf \u2013 and ultimately cast a vote representing the community\u2019s interests \u2013 in the off chance Mayor Dawe was unable to attend a particular Thursday meeting in Newmarket was the next-best-thing.
\nBut, with just a few months left before the 2018 Municipal Election, the tides seem to have turned \u2013 and the contortions Councillors executed in order to turn those tides almost better than any Olympic sport.
\nFirst out of the gate was Councillor Paul Pirri, who said he believed that seven months before an election was the wrong time to appoint someone to act as an alternate. There has been, he claimed, \u201csome level of politicking going on\u201d regarding the matter, without elaborating any further.
\nAnother naysayer was Councillor Michael Thompson who said he agreed that the timing just wasn\u2019t right with only five meetings left on the Regional calendar.
\nAnother factor to consider, he added, was Aurora had not really been earnestly fighting for an alternate; instead the fight for representation was for an additional seat.
\nWhile that was indeed the crux of the argument, there was indeed advocacy around the table for an alternate.
\nCouncillor Thompson\u2019s view was summed up by Councillor Mrakas, who said a recommendation for an alternate in the form of the Deputy Mayor was \u201ca little bit of settling,\u201d and going forward would \u201ckill\u201d any chances of reviving the conversation about an additional Regional seat.
\nAfter significant back and forth, the Deputy Mayor himself weighed in on the matter.
\nThis position is currently held by John Abel, who secured this position by dent of being the top vote-getter in the fight for one of the eight Council positions, a number which will be reduced to six by this fall\u2019s vote.
\nOver the course of the last four years, Councillor Abel, who, it should be stated, is mulling a mayoral bid in 2018, has increasingly found himself at odds with his Council colleagues on a myriad of issues, including, most recently, the redevelopments of both Library Square and the Aurora Armoury.
\nResponding to the positions of his fellow Councillors, he said their opposition to his appointment as the Mayor\u2019s Regional alternate was as much about personality as anything else.
\nPersonality conflicts are, of course, in the eyes of the beholders but I think Councillor Pirri is correct in saying that there is some politicking going on.
\nIn my opinion, Councillors balking at this appointment because it would be in effect for the 2018-2022 term of Council as well simply doesn\u2019t hold water.
\nThis is a Council which has mercifully made a decision on Library Square, a project which will have to be steered through completion by the incoming Council. This is a Council which has got the ball rolling on transforming the historic Aurora Armoury, a project which will also be brought in for a landing by the next Council crop. This is also a Council which made the decision to reduce the very size of the 2018-2022 term of Council by two seats.
\nRegardless of personalities \u2013 conflicts, or lack thereof \u2013 Aurorans are the only ones who really lose in this debate.
\nWhen Regional Council opted to sit back and do nothing when presented with the opportunity to make their Regional Chair an elected position, and thus beat the Province of Ontario to the punch, arguments were made that Regional Council abdicated its responsibility to the residents of York Region.
\nNevertheless, that decision was made and, unfortunately, so was the decision to deny Aurora a second seat at the table.
\nGetting the ability to appoint an alternate, an opportunity seized upon by King Township, is the next-best-sing, the silver medal.
\nI\u2019m not sure how Council sitting back, forgoing the opportunity to take this medal in hand, thereby ensuring Aurora\u2019s collective voices are represented as strongly and consistently as possible at the Regional table, is keeping their eye on the gold.
\nIn fact, I believe it does the community a disservice.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Canadians are often celebrated for their own quiet sense of pride. In some cases this pride is self-celebrated. Whether this pride is pride from afar or part of introspection, the quiet pride can take on a crescendo all its own when it is threatened or otherwise tarnished. Take, for example, the storm […]<\/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":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20001","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\/p3D2k4-5cB","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 07:06:15","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\/20001","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=20001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}