QUITE AN ELECTION YESTERDAY

Well the electorate have spoken. Loudly, clearly, rightly and wrongly they have spoken. In Cambridge Donna Reid and Pam Wolfe were reelected. Good grief. Maybe the electorate don't have full knowledge of Donna but they sure should have figured out the hard drinking Pam who allegedly can be impaired (> .08) with only a couple of glasses of wine. I attended her trial in Cambridge and the lies were fast and furious hence her conviction on some of the charges. Look at Ken Seiling. A 29 year incumbent and he was running scared from Jay Aissa for a while. Lots of heavy duty spending plus at least for once he did get pushed prior to the polls. Well the electorate have spoken and I await five years down the road as the regional bills keep on mounting.

Then we have Woolwich Township. Right up to the last issue of the Woolwich Observer they were slamming Mayor Todd Cowan. The last issue even had a political cartoon of him as a huge pig at the trough. Subtle it was not. Yes he deserved to lose and not only did he come in last of four candidates for Mayor but his biggest public detractor via an ownership position in the Woolwich Observer, Pat Merlihan, won a councillor's seat in Ward One. Past Council experience did not help Ruby Weber or Al Poffenroth. It did surprisingly help Murray Martin who was turfed last time out by newcomer Bonnie Bryant. She was strongly against the proliferation of gravel pits and Murray was not clear in his position. He's back and she's gone although she had attempted to wrest the mayor's chair from Todd Cowan. Lynne Hare also lost in Ward three which surprised me. She had been a strong and forceful advocate as well against poorly sited proposed gravel pits. Sandy Shantz is the new mayor and she is both well known and well liked in Elmira and area.

So do the electorate know what they are doing? The answer is yes and no. Examples abound. They made good choices and they made lousy choices. It's a crapshoot unless as with Mayor Cowan you are determined to prove that you are an ass. And yet look at Toronto. Rob Ford is back on Council. Perhaps Todd just didn't try hard enough to be an ass.