{"id":3091,"date":"2013-07-10T16:42:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T20:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3091"},"modified":"2013-07-24T17:15:54","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T21:15:54","slug":"inside-aurora-inferiority-complex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-inferiority-complex\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Inferiority Complex?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

If things keep going the way they are, I fear our town will suffer from an inferiority complex.
\nThis is because like a \u201cbefore\u201d version of the scrawny, 97 lb Charles Atlas, we seem to be getting sand kicked in our face by everyone else at the political beach.
\nSadly, we\u2019ve had a number of examples of this within the past year or so.
\nTake the angst over the town being split into two electoral ridings, which it was claimed would reduce our political voice in Ottawa and at Queen\u2019s Park. Council was against it. Our federal MP and provincial MPP were both against it. Citizens were against it.
\nPersuasive and logical arguments were put forward to the Powers That Be, and what happened? Figurative sand was kicked in everyone\u2019s faces, and the town was split in two.
\nNo sooner had that dust settled when we heard that we were going to lose our town\u2019s only post office.
\n\u201cThat can\u2019t happen\u201d, everyone cried. There were letters (well, emails, texts and tweets), and general uproar, and support from various levels of government, and in the end, I expect not to anyone\u2019s surprise, our closest post office is now in Newmarket.
\nThe latest example is the cell tower that has recently sprung up in King, just west of Aurora\u2019s border. Now that it\u2019s appeared on our doorstep, no one wants it (until they start losing cell reception, anyway).
\nThe mayor has spoken to Bell. The town staff has spoken with other municipalities. The lawyers have spoken to… well, who knows; we\u2019ll find out when we get all the bills.
\nThe cell tower is still there. But just wait, because you know that with everyone pitching in for a good old concerted Aurora effort …well \u2026nothing\u2019s going to change.
\nThat\u2019s why these sorts of Aurora issues never appear in the Vegas odds makers\u2019 books. The result is always inevitable.
\nUnfortunately, this isn\u2019t a new phenomenon for us. How many times over the years has the town gone to the OMB to complain against a proposed development that goes against the town\u2019s wishes, citizens\u2019 interests, or general good taste? A bunch, that\u2019s how many. But there are not a lot of wins on the \u201cAurora\u201d side of the score sheet to show for it.
\nOne related proposal that received a lot of press was the Board\u2019s plan to close and sell off that historic downtown institution; Wells Street School. Did the Town unite to stand up and fight to insist this school be saved to teach Aurora\u2019s children for generations to come?
\nOf course it did.
\nAnd did the town succeed?
\nOf course it didn\u2019t.
\nBut back to recent history, how about the continued effort to obtain a second representative on Regional Council? Good idea. Timely. Makes sense. Lots going for it. Aurora put forth its case, and as a result, how any reps do we have? Still one.
\nIn fact, not only did they turn us down, but they wouldn\u2019t even let our only representative be allowed a back-up if he couldn\u2019t make it.
\nHopefully, our mayor enjoys both good health and a poor social life, and can attend most meetings.
\nOn the bright side, it could have been worse; they could have taken away the one rep we do have.
\nThere are other examples out there, but you get the idea.
\nI think that the only way this trend is going to change, is if Aurora starts working out and flexing its municipal muscles a bit more.
\nEither that, or every time the town wants to assert itself, it will have to get used to the sand of unfulfilled wishes being kicked in its face.
\n
\nFeel free to e-mail Scott at
\nmachellscorners@gmail.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston If things keep going the way they are, I fear our town will suffer from an inferiority complex. This is because like a \u201cbefore\u201d version of the scrawny, 97 lb Charles Atlas, we seem to be getting sand kicked in our face by everyone else at the political beach. Sadly, we\u2019ve had […]<\/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-3091","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-NR","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 14:21:57","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\/3091","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=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}