What if there is a spiteful, vengeful streak?

SwP thumbnail graphicBy Pepper

February 9th, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

 

A regular eagle eyed reader who follows the Mayor on Twitter brought this to our attention.

MMW tweet re flag

He points out that the flag used in the tweet is not the correct version

He then adds that we cannot use his name saying “I don’t want to be in her bad books.” adding that “errors are errors.”

The unfortunate part of this is that there are people who feel they will be in the “bad books” of an elected official if they call them out on something.  This is really unhealthy for a democratic society.

What, though, if we have a Mayor who is spiteful with a vengeful streak?

What do you do then?

Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.

 

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6 comments to What if there is a spiteful, vengeful streak?

  • So what? Is worse than a vengeful spiteful streak. It is an attitude that allowed the Holocaust and allows elder abuse to exist as all levels of Canadian governments have confirmed is the case.. Yuck we thought better of you David.

    • David Barker

      I think that is a vast over reaction and wild comparison by you both. Being ruthless is a necessary quality required of leaders. It is nowhere near comparable to the Nazis and the happenings of the holocaust. Patton, Eisenhower, Montgomery were ruthless, but did not assist in the holocaust. Hitler and his followers were demented, misguided beings. What was being discussed in the article had nothing to do with political philosophy or policy. Though if you are reaching for such extremes for comparison you might say the opposite characteristic to that being discussed is being weak easily walked upon. An example from that era might be Neville Chamberlain.

      There are no kid gloves in politics or generally in life, except in Timbits soccer.

  • perryb

    maybe it would be better if someone figured out where this “false flag” came from. Google searches have nothing but this flag, in posts dating back a couple of decades. Search of city crest looks much more like the official version, but more crudely rendered. A mystery for our anonymous citizen to solve?

  • David Barker

    I think pretty much all politicians (councilors and mayors are just as much politicians as are MPPs or MPs) to some degree or another have a mean, or vindictive, or vengeful streak, or whatever you want to call it. As do many managers in the corporate world. As do many principals in the school system. As do many senior officers in the armed forces.

    Get it ?

    That human characteristic is a trait of probably the vast majority of leaders in every aspect of our society.

    So firstly, let’s not make unfounded innuendos about the Mayor. And secondly, even should she have that trait, so what ?

  • mr steven holman

    I would like to know what the mayor might do to a citizen who pointed out an error in a post? Cancellation? What might that entail? What is this citizen afraid of?

    • mr steven holmam…. we are not the citizen…. but our files do document why this citizen has cause to consider keeping his/her name anonymous. Check out Gazette article on Kelly Arnott’s statememt in the 2014 election (when running against Meed Ward) about downtown businesses going under. There are numerous comments and a particularly interesting one from the Mayor who basically stated Ms. Arnott (a very respected and hard working downtown business owner) does not have a clue what she is talking about and then Brian Dean of the BDBA joining in the fray he should not have as he is someone we expect to remain absolutely neutral. Mr. Dean joined in after a comment from a very well respected business man with multiple businesses throughout Burlington, including the downtown, Sean Baird, that was supportive of Ms. Arnott. Mr. Baird was supportive of former Mayor Goldring in the 2018 election and ended up facing criminal charges and an arrest warrant being put out for him. The charges have been dropped as we forecast they would be once a good lawyer got their hands on the disclosure for them, but the damage has been done! Yes Baird may well have made a couple of mistakes with a brand new process – third party advertising but did not deserve what he got and the mayor’s ;public statement, making it very clear she was absolutely delighted with the charges (many believe were instigated by her) showing what many could see as a spiteful vengeful spirit after Mr. Baird has clearly supported those who run against her two elections in a row!