{"id":8278,"date":"2014-09-24T14:43:35","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T18:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8278"},"modified":"2014-10-08T20:52:29","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T00:52:29","slug":"inside-aurora-promises-promises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-promises-promises\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Promises, Promises"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Back when Aurora was known as the Chicken Capital of Canada, municipal election candidates could realistically promise to deliver a \u201cchicken in every pot\u201d.
\nToday, our Town no longer has a wealth of poultry, but we do have no end of election promises and slogans. This is especially true with thirty (!) Council candidates vying for voters\u2019 attention on lawn signs, pamphlets and in the media.
\nTo assist in deciphering all this quadrennial jargon, here are some observations on some phrases and commitments you\u2019re sure to hear over the next month.
\n\u201cI will control development\u201d
\nWhen a candidate says this, one can be confident that development will indeed slow down during their term in office, not because of any actions they will take, but because there\u2019s no green space left in Town to pave over.
\n\u201cI will speak for you on Council\u201d
\nThis is true unless any one or more of the other 40,000 or so voters in Town decide they want something different than you, in which case either one (or more) of you will be disappointed, or the candidate will try to speak for you all, which will logically result in some fascinating contradictions.
\n\u201cI will fight high taxes\u201d
\nYes, they\u2019ll argue when a budget comes forward recommending higher taxes, but when it comes time to vote it through, they will first ensure enough other members are willing to support it, so if they do vote against it, they can look good, without jeopardizing the increased tax outcome.
\n\u201cI will represent you\u201d
\nNot necessarily your viewpoints, but at the very least they\u2019ll physically represent you by attending every opening and special event at which there is a photo op and\/or free food is being served.
\n\u201cI have experience\u201d
\nThis may sound good on its own, but it depends a lot on the nature of the experience, so make sure you ask. Hopefully, it will include a balanced municipal, fiscal and communication-based background. However, it could potentially consist of skillsets in less practical fields, such as knowledge of Icelandic history, the ability to identify different types of igneous rock, and to achieve consistently high scores in playing pinball.
\n\u201cI will spend your tax dollars wisely\u201d
\nAnother one that\u2019s hard to judge without better knowledge of the candidate. For a preliminary indication of how well they may achieve this goal, see how many election signs they\u2019ve spent money on.
\n\u201cI\u2019ll get things done\u201d
\nThey can guarantee this unless, of course, not everyone around the table agrees, or the issue has to be referred back to staff, or several consulting reports are required first, or it\u2019s too close to the next election to decide anything, or it\u2019s a day of the week ending in \u201cy\u201d, or any number of other \u201cunforeseen\u201d reasons.
\n\u201cI\u2019m a team player\u201d
\nThis means that they\u2019ll try not to sue their fellow Council members \u2013 at least, not right away (but no guarantees).
\n\u201cI believe in transparent government\u201d
\nIn this case transparent may mean a decision process so full of holes, you can see right through it like it wasn\u2019t even there.
\n\u201cI will fight to revitalize the urban core along Yonge Street\u201d
\nWhich I\u2019ll get right to after I approve more growth on Leslie, and attend all these ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the many new businesses I\u2019ve supported to open up on Bayview.
\n\u201cI stand on my record\u201d
\nAnd as we all know, records go around and around without actually getting anywhere.
\nThere, now you have some insight into the possible interpretation of a few basic election-related phrases you\u2019ll be hearing over the next several weeks. How well these explanations reflect each candidate, and how you decide to apply this insight on October 27th is up to you. <\/p>\n

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

By Scott Johnston Back when Aurora was known as the Chicken Capital of Canada, municipal election candidates could realistically promise to deliver a \u201cchicken in every pot\u201d. Today, our Town no longer has a wealth of poultry, but we do have no end of election promises and slogans. This is especially true with thirty (!) […]<\/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-8278","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\/p3D2k4-29w","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 21:17:48","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\/8278","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=8278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}