The following are Letters to the Editor published in the June 1 edition of the Minden Times.
Sold your vote yet, want a doughnut?
To the Editor,
What was that? Sold my vote! What are you talking about. Our votes aren’t for sale, are they?
Surely Doug Ford wouldn’t try to buy our votes. Let’s take a closer look. Our premier, as a Toronto city councillor, was documented and photographed by the CBC on December 12 of 2013 handing out $20 bills to residents of a Toronto Community Housing neighbourhood. Councillors strongly objected and so they should have.
The National Post of January 25, 2014 reported in detail and it’s worth remembering:
“What he’s doing is just plain corrupt,” Councillor Perk told reporters Thursday afternoon. “We’re not elected to hand out our private wealth.”
“This is how rich people buy votes,” Councillor Mihevc said.
Doug Ford defended himself for the cash-toss, saying he did not have time to go to Tim Hortons to pick up gift cards.
“I went there, I handed out the toys. I said folks, I apologize, I don’t like doing this rather than a Tim’s card, I didn’t have time, here’s $20. Go buy yourself a coffee,” he told reporters.
He said he handed out the “couple hundred dollars I had on me.”
The Etobicoke councillor argued he wasn’t trying to buy votes because he doesn’t plan to run in the next municipal election.
“I’m the last guy that’s corrupt,” he added. “Everyone knows the Fords are not corrupt.”
“I’m not running. I don’t need to buy votes, and we don’t believe in buying votes,” Ford said.
Wait a minute. In September 2014 Doug Ford filed to run for mayor of Toronto!
But no, he was not trying to buy votes. Fast forward to 2022 and that vehicle licence renewal rebate you received in the mail. That bought you a lot of doughnuts and coffee didn’t it?
Ford, with net worth of 50 million, claims to care about the less fortunate. Really? He opposed a house for developmentally disabled youth in his ward, saying the home had “ruined the community.”
Sorry Laurie Scott, when you shill for the corrupt Ford cabal you have willingly and totally sold out. You don’t deserve our vote!
John Gibb
Minden
Telling the story of Rotary
To the Editor,
In recent months, Rotary clubs of Minden and Haliburton have been involved in the planning and co-ordinating of volunteers for the mass vaccination clinics. That notoriety is just one of the many things that Rotary does for our community.
We have been asked so many times about Rotary and its purpose that we wish to answer that question in an upcoming Zoom meeting we are calling, “Rotary Around the World.”
We want people to know that Rotary is an organization of 1.5 million business professionals in 35 thousand clubs all over the world. As peacekeeping people who have the value of service, integrity and leadership for local and world projects, Rotarians are involved in helping people in times of flood, earthquakes, war, life’s stresses, etc.
We would like to tell the story of Rotary around the world to any one interested. We are having a Zoom meeting Monday, June 13 at 7 p.m.
We invite the curious to access the Zoom meeting information by contacting Sally Moore info@sunnyrockbb.ca or call 705-286-4922. Listeners and interested folks do not need a computer to participate.
Sally Moore
Minden