Before the 2022 municipal elections completely fade from view, I wanted to comment on North Glengarry’s recent snooze-fest of a municipal vote. True, only three ward seats and one school trusteeship were being contested, so not really a sweaty palm time. Nevertheless, there was a dearth of information on many of the candidates. Voters were basically flying blind.
I don’t how others approached getting the low-down on those in the running. I turned to the Township’s municipal election page. There, I encountered a sparsely populated list of candidates. To be fair, a few had provided a brief position statement and a photo. However, the vast majority of the listings were devoid of content, with a blank avatar instead of a photo.
The Township’s “candidate matrix” is a very good idea. But if candidates neglect or refuse to populate it, the page serves no purpose. Why not make it mandatory… with each person in the running required to provide a position statement up to a maximum length and their photo? This would allow voters to better assess the candidates, including their level of literacy and ability to upload a simple, undistorted JPG. If they fail to do this, remove their name from the ballot.
I also would make this a requirement for those candidates who have been acclaimed. Providing voters with a statement of intent for the coming term would allow us to judge if the person has kept their promises.
E.B.’s magic sticks
I’d like to wrap up this week with a touch of folklore, courtesy of loyal reader Ken McEwen who was raised in the 7th Concession, east of St. Elmo. Ken emailed me a ‘blood stopper’ tale passed on by his late father. He heard it back in the 1930s or 40s, so the details are a wee bit hazy. Nevertheless, the gist of the story is that a farmer with a bleeding animal met the blood stopper in some village and raised the issue of his bleeding cow. “When he returned home,” Ken recalls, “his hired man said the bleeding had ceased, and the farmer ascertained that it had stopped at the time he had spoken to the blood stopper.”
That was the extent of Ken’s recollection of blood stopping, which he always assumed was confined to animals. However, he did provide a not illogical extension of local folklore: people with the capability to almost magically remove warts. According to Ken, there was an elderly gentleman in Maxville in the late 40s with this power, by the name of Chisholm. Ken believes the Chisholms originally came from Lost River, Quebec. “He circled the wart with the head of a wooden match,” Ken told me, “and the wart withered away.”
One doesn’t hear a whole lot about warts these days. Probably a good thing. With the demise of the E.B Eddy factory, finding a decent wooden kitchen match is nigh on impossible.
Wonderfully salad-free
I’m told that Saturday’s potluck supper in advance of the Dunvegan Recreation’s annual general meeting was right up my alley. Not one Arugula and Palmolive-flavoured cilantrosalad anywhere in sight. The only problem is that Terry and I thought it best to not attend. We had been exposed to Covid and, while we both tested negative on Saturday, one never knows. In hindsight, this was the right decision given that two telltale lines appeared on Terry’s rapid test Monday morning.
Luckily, acting president Kim Raymond sent me her annual report in which she outlined the Association’s return to normalcy. She also shone a spotlight on a number of long-time volunteers whose quiet work in the background make the DRA possible. Singled out for a well-deserved thank you were: Sean Burgess, the group’s expert number cruncher; Vivian Franklin, the DRA’s long-serving recording secretary, whose minutes are second to none; Ben Williams, for staying on top of hall maintenance and organizing the DRA soccer program; Bruce MacGillivray for soccer field maintenance; and Eileen Franklin and Robert Campbell for their support year in and year out. Relatively new to the DRA, Anne Forrester-Bertrand was also singled out for overseeing hall rentals and organizing the community’s Halloween party.
AGM 2022 also included an election (which are held biannually). Returning officer, Robert Linney, oversaw a quiet ballot in which the Executive remained virtually unchanged, with the exception of Anne accepting the position of vice president. Kudos to the new Committee. Thank you for helping keep the DRA alive and kicking.
M&M tickets going fast
Nine years ago, when the online box office opened for Justin Timberlake’s Legend of the Summer Stadium Tour, more than 600,000 tickets were snapped up in just one minute. That’s 10,000 per second. Of course, ticket sales for the 2022 Music & Mayhem revue at the Dunvegan Recreation hall aren’t anywhere near Timberlake’s record. But they’re not too shabby either. Despite web site glitches when they went on sale last Thursday, over 50% were sold in the first three days alone. So, if you have your heart set on seeing the troupe’s latest production, I wouldn’t dally.
As I mentioned last week, there will be a five performances in all: three in the evening and two matinees. Just like Timberlake, tickets for the M&M performances are only available online. Simply go to ‘beyond21.org’ and click on the ‘Events’ tab. Beyond 21 offers programs for local adults with developmental disabilities and is the recipient of this year’s M&M fundraising effort.
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