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WHO DO YOU TRUST?
I usually am a very trusting person. I usually look at the glass of water completely filled with 90% water and 10% of oxygen, that is why we call it H20.
Of late I have become jaded with the news. My sports hero, Lance Armstrong, who after Testicular Cancer, went on to win the prestigious "Tour de France" will be stripped of all of his medals after many of his teammates admitted to doping with him. For many years I asked my young male clients to read" It’s not about the bike" so they could better understand that if you tried you could overcome adversity.
This last week we have Dalton McGuinty decide that he no longer wanted to be Premier of Ontario. He tells us that he has no immediate plans for his future. The members of the legislature will not be able to the rational/cost to the taxpayers now that he has prorogued the legislature until a new leader has been chosen by the Liberal party of Ontario.
With the Christmas break coming and no convention date chosen we could have Queen’s Park a cold empty chamber until Spring.
If Dalton had hopes of Leading the Federal Liberal party he has cast aside his many years of good works in government at the stroke of his pen when he cancelled the legislature.
The banner headlines in the London Free Press this week about Mayor Joe Fontana’s possibly using $20,000 in Federal tax dollars from his office to pay for his son’s wedding at the Marconi Club is hard to believe. As a member of parliament his salary was more then six figures.
When confronted by the reporters of the possible misuse of funds Joe seems to have a sudden lapse in memory wanting to see the original documents before he comments. When my two children got married I had to cash in some stocks to be able to write them a cheque to help cover the cost of their weddings. Being on a teacher’s pension there is no question of the amount that the weddings cost.
I hope for Fontana’s sake that he has a good explanation of why a government cheque was used to pay for his son’s wedding at the taxpayer’s expense. I hope Joe can look the citizens in the eye of London and tell us no that he did not abuse his position as a member of parliament . If he can’t we all suffer a little with the loss of confidence of those whom we elect to represent us.
Joe’s good name has been tarnished by innuendo without having the chance to defend himself in the court of public opinion. I sincerely hope he has a simple rational explanation. If he is indeed innocent of the accusations I trust that the London Free Press will print banner headlines telling Londoner’s that our mayor is a man of integrity who had been falsely accused. If he is found to misuse his position of authority he should pay back all funds and resign his position as Mayor of London.
My father taught me when I was a young man that: " since man to many is so unjust, I hardly know which one to trust, so you pay me cash to-day and I will trust you to-morrow."
Sad, that so many prominent people because of their actions have lost the trust of the electorate. It takes years to build a good reputation to earn the confidence in people and minutes to destroy.
Len Lesser