We expect candidates for office to seek a mandate for their policies and projects.
When prominent commitments are not announced during a campaign, we don’t expect to have them sprung on us afterward.
But Harvey Rosen feels he’s entitled to do anything he wants once elected.
Ed Smith believes it’s acceptable to conceal his intentions from voters, and act on council as part of a governing party, rather than as a councillor who’s accountable to local residents.
At his very first council meeting, Ed Smith made his Rosen Party allegiance clear, declaring that the mayor’s address to council be treated "as an on-going reminder during our term…of Council’s vision for our community."
Last campaign, Rosen and Smith didn’t tell us:
Last campaign, Ed Smith told us he would listen.
What he didn’t say, was that he had ears only for Harvey.
Ed Smith believes his job as councillor is to leave public policy to Harvey Rosen, vote as instructed, and then run for re-election on the signal accomplishment of attaining flowerbeds for Compton Park.
Four more years of Rosen and Smith means:
Do you know what these men have in store for us after election day?
Do you really want to find out?
Kingston is at the crossroads. The Rosen Party, represented by Ed Smith, is well on its way to crippling Kingston’s economic prospects for a generation or more.
Fact: unless the LVEC can meet any number of fanciful targets for attendance, event bookings, ticket surcharges, etc. we areon the hook for at least $1.8 million in debt charges per year for 40 years.
Fact: the city’s own report implicitly acknowledges that the multiplex is not needed for social/recreational purposes – that is why we must destroy the other arenas so as not to compete with it.
Fact: the multiplex is an egregiously irresponsible use of taxpayer funds that is aimed solely at filling hotel rooms through tournaments, and that has diverted funds from more pressing capital projects.
They had no mandate for the LVEC, and no mandate to risk 40 years of debt payments to pay for it.
They had no mandate to close all our local arenas, and no mandate to sell the Memorial Centre.
Harvey Rosen’s economic vision is limited to the two-pronged claim that: 1/ spending hundreds of millions of dollars of public money to fill your friend’s hotel rooms will magically make Kingston become the land of milk and honey; and 2/ claiming that you are such a well-connected member of the old boys’ club that you can hit up senior government for grant money any time you want.
Never has Rosen or Smith ever discussed any ideas about responsible stewardship of taxpayer funds.
Kingston must put in place the favourable structural conditions that will attract entrepreneurs and capital investment.
Kingston needs low and stable taxes, a well-maintained road system, streamlined and flexible land-use laws, a planning bureaucracy that does not shakedown out-of-town investors, and the perception that the rules are the same for all citizens.
A lady was quoted in the newspaper referring to the Rosen/Smith regime a new "Family Compact" in Kingston.
The Family Compact, of course, was a group of landed gentry in 19th century Ontario who had no use for democracy, and who used the government to advance their own interests, to the detriment of the public good.
This is an apt analogy for Kingston.
In Kingston, we have a handful of families, Smiths and Rosens among them, who control a vast amount of land.
With this control has come a great sense of entitlement, an entitlement to ignore the needs and wishes of the rest of us, an entitlement to manipulate the democratic process, and an entitlement to mortgage the future of Kingston to further their own interests.
The lesson to be learned from the 19th century example is that the landed gentry must always be kept at arm’s-length from political power – we forget that lesson at our peril.
The reasons to defeat Smith and Rosen are numerous, but none more important than the need to send a loud and clear message to our landed gentry that we will all have a say in Kingston’s future!
REMARKS NOT DELIVERED DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS
As your councillor, I will press for an immediate review of operational spending for every department at City Hall, with the goal of achieving a one-year tax freeze by the third or fourth year of the coming term;
As your councillor, I will insist that the city target capital spending to real infrastructure needs and not to vanity projects that create lasting financial problems for the city;
As your councillor, I will not vote for any budget that increases the municipal portion of your property taxes at a rate greater than the rate of inflation.
Williamsville: it’s time to send Ed Smith back to Sydenham ward. It’s time elect a local resident as councillor, not someone who’s parachuted in from elsewhere to split votes and re-elect Ed Smith.
Williamsville: it’s time to elect a councillor who will stand up to the special interests that have hijacked the political agenda of this city.
Williamsville: it’s time to elect a councillor who has the intellect and judgement needed to provide effective oversight of city's pending mandates, and who has the fortitude to challenge the culture of waste at City Hall.
Williamsville: it’s time to elect Todd Speck.