{"id":5915,"date":"2014-03-19T17:01:10","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T21:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5915"},"modified":"2014-03-19T17:01:10","modified_gmt":"2014-03-19T21:01:10","slug":"ward-system-would-bring-accountability-town-into-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/ward-system-would-bring-accountability-town-into-21st-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Ward system would bring \u201caccountability\u201d, town into 21st century"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am proud resident of Aurora for the past 20 years.
\nI have been a vocal proponent of the Aurora ward system for the past 10 years.
\nI am one who will bear the heat of change to benefit the greater interest of all Aurorans.
\nRecently, the Mayor, in a news article, said that the ward system is \u201cParochial.\u201d I like the good Mayor as a person, however, I do not agree with some of his views.
\nIn particular, I took exception to that belittling \u201cParochial\u201d statement. To me, the number one function of a Mayor should be to inspire and to uplift citizens, not to be the voice of negativity or doom and gloom.
\nI respectfully suggest, that the only thing \u201cparochial\u201d in Aurora is the \u201cparochial\u201d thinking of the past.
\nIt amazed me to think how a Mayor could make such an outrageous comment that not only insults the intelligence of Aurorans as a whole, but certainly, by association, it insults municipalities to the south, east, west and north of us who do have a ward system in place.
\nDo our neighbours and others who disagree with our Mayor know something he does not?
\nMr. Mayor, you must embrace, welcome and acknowledge change for the greater benefit of all Aurora.
\nAurora is not the sleepy \u201cparochial\u201d \u201col\u2019 boys club\u201d Town it once was.
\nThe new Aurora is a rich, diverse international Town, filled with innovation and genius.
\nNewmarket had an \u201cat large\u201d voting system about eight years ago.
\nThe people of Newmarket were not being properly served with that outdated system.
\nCouncil had the same predicament as Aurora has with red tape in realizing the ward system.
\nThey faced (as we do) the almost unattainable resident voter approval of 51% to vote in a ward system. But, historically, we can\u2019t even get 30% of the voters to come out and vote in a regular municipal election. We are in a Catch 22.
\nThe Newmarket Mayor and a savvy Council simply cut through the political red tape (as allowed by government regulations in all Municipalities) and voted the ward system in.
\nI am skeptical of our current \u201cat large\u201d voting system. I do not trust that it represents the greater interest and direct proportional representation of the residents.
\nThe at large system is an outdated ploy to benefit the few. The old system was perhaps useful when Aurora was a still an open space of farmland with neighbours living far apart. Today, Aurora is a bustling, thriving, enlightened community chock packed with new neighbourhoods, businesses and people from all parts of the world.
\nAnd as such, we need a proper ward system to reflect the immense diversity of Aurora, where a Councillor can represent, concentrate and be solely accountable to the particular needs of a particular ward in Town, not the \u201cat large\u201d vast open farmlands of the past.
\nThe direct election of Councillors by wards ensures that local government has a neigbour\u2019s face, not an \u201cat large\u201d long distance face. Ward Councillors who have been chosen by the majority of voters in the ward are directly accountable to the ward voters, not to the Mayor\u2019s slate or \u201col boys club.”
\nThe ward Councilor lives, breaths, attends, solely to his\/her ward\u2019s needs.
\nThe ward Councillor serves solely at the behest and pleasure of the ward voters.
\nThat\u2019s real proportional and democratic representation \u2013 not the wool over your eyes at large system.
\nIf that ward Councillor does not address people\u2019s genuine concerns, or does not serve with respect and integrity, or does not reflect the needs of the ward properly, then these Councillors will be voted out at the next election. The magic word here is accountability.
\nThat word is non-existent in the at large system.
\nFellow Aurorans, you are the real power in Aurora, not the Mayor, not Council.
\nTell Council you demand accountability from them, and that you want a ward system with
\nproportional representation \u2013 not optical illusions.
\nTell Council that you are part of the new International Aurora \u2013 not part of a \u201cparochial\u201d Aurora.<\/p>\n

Anthony Pullano
\nAurora<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Editor\u2019s note: Mr. Pullano is a registered Council candidate for this fall\u2019s municipal election)<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am proud resident of Aurora for the past 20 years. I have been a vocal proponent of the Aurora ward system for the past 10 years. I am one who will bear the heat of change to benefit the greater interest of all Aurorans. Recently, the Mayor, in a news article, said that the […]<\/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":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1xp","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 09:54:56","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\/5915","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=5915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}