{"id":21964,"date":"2018-10-17T16:48:08","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T20:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21964"},"modified":"2018-10-17T16:48:08","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T20:48:08","slug":"brocks-banter-the-price-of-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-the-price-of-admission\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: The Price of Admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cAs you unite in common effort and in common cause, may Divine Providence be your guide and inspiration\u201d
\nThese are the words, to some immortal, that are uttered by the Queen or Governor General at the end of just about every Speech from the Throne.
\nIt is an elegant, timeless phrase, although altogether too religious for some individuals, that packs a punch. In short, it is a plea from our Head of State, or the individual acting on her behalf, to our local lawmakers to basically say, \u201cOkay, the fun and games are over. Here\u2019s what you\u2019ve all pledged to do. Now it\u2019s time to get to work.\u201d
\nThe efficacy of this plea is, of course, in the eye of the beholder, but it is a nice sentiment nonetheless.
\nIt is an ask that should also be tasked with voters as they cast their early votes or prepare to head into the voting booth this Monday, October 22.
\nBefore you make your final decision, you have a responsibility to do your due diligence to make sure you pick the person who you believe will best represent your interests around the table.
\nI was approached a couple of weeks ago by a reader who had a request which seemed, at least on the surface, to be a simple one: running little vignettes with each of the candidates, featuring a few points from their respective platforms, that would be of interest \u2013 or of relevance at the very least \u2013 to readers.
\nIt seemed at the time to be a great idea. After all, the profiles we\u2019ve been running on each of the candidates have been rather lengthy, designed to give readers a full picture of those who are, essentially, coming in for a job interview with thousands of potential employers.
\nBut, at the same time, each of the thousands of employers have their own sets of criteria for the applicants. How strong are their environmental credentials? What are their great ideas for business investment? If they are incumbent candidates, what kind of value do think they have brought to the corporation (read: municipality) over the last four, eight, twelve years?
\nIt was impossible, in my view, to distill each of the candidates down to three or four points that would be relevant to all readers. It would also run the risk of leaving out something that groups of readers would feel essential to their decision-making process.
\nBut, in the end, each of our profiles are available online to help you find the candidate that suits your needs and your own vision for the future.
\nWherever you find the information you need, whether it is through our candidate profiles, their websites, literature left at your door, or even the dreaded robocalls, make sure you make an informed decision \u2013 and also make sure you cast your vote. Because, let\u2019s face it, no matter how the chips fall on October 22, somebody will want to complain and a cast vote, if you are entitled to do so, is your cost of admission.
\nAs the campaign hits the final stretch, I would like to congratulate each candidate not only for putting their names forward, but also running what has been, and, admittedly, there are still a few days left for things to go awry, largely positive campaigns. At least, campaigns that are much more positive than I anticipated them to be at the outset.
\nYou\u2019ve stated what your visions are, you\u2019ve fleshed out your plans, you\u2019ve pointed out where things have, in your respective views, gone sideways in years passed and how you think you can help right the ship. Congratulations to all, and good luck.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir \u201cAs you unite in common effort and in common cause, may Divine Providence be your guide and inspiration\u201d These are the words, to some immortal, that are uttered by the Queen or Governor General at the end of just about every Speech from the Throne. It is an elegant, timeless phrase, although […]<\/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-21964","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\/p3D2k4-5Ig","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 05:03:40","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\/21964","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=21964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}