The chickens do come home to roost
By Letter to the Editor on January 15, 2021.
Dear Editor:
A politician’s most reliable pals are the universality of an electorates short and forgiving memory.
In the Jan. 12, 2021 Herald front page item “Spearman wants Shandro fired,” our departing mayor cries he’s “very concerned” that prevailing UCP health minister Tyler Shandro “is not listening”, he “is ignoring best practices” and “choosing to impose a system bureaucrats have long desired.” Mayor Spearman talks of “a wall of silence,” “accountability” and “credibility,” all regarding impacts UCP’s plan to scrap local EMS dispatch, will have on the community.
Time to rewind a tape. Recall during the curbside recycling debacle this very mayor didn’t noticeably deal the taxpayer of Lethbridge many, (if any), favours he’s asking of Shandro.
The chickens indeed do come home to roost. The mayor ignored best practices, and much of two crazy expensive studies conducted by American firms — that were to be “best practice” “guiding principles” explaining how RCS should rollout! The mayor also ignored a 2017 Lethbridge Herald poll asking “Éif Lethbridge citizens should be given a chance to vote on the curbside recycling issue”.
A wall went up, with those who would benefit most financially supplying the rebar, leaving 82 per cent looking at a wall on the other side. We felt your pain Mr. Mayor. Through it all the vast majority of those financing the ruse were patient as Mayor Spearman and the then city manager sold the citizenry on the ghastly bottomless costs that would capture under ideal buy-in a residential waste stream shown in a City of Lethbridge Waste and Recycling study to be 25 per cent of the whole, a mere 6.5 per cent of the 25 per cent comprised of recyclable materials. The Lord-overs showed little interest in the costs, the sheer lunacy of much of it, the benefits, nor the impact this polluting obfuscation would have on the community — forever!
Those with longer memories, still battling walls at city hall puzzle at the audacity of an elected official demonstrating remarkable lack of accountability geared to a learning, listening, hearing disability, now asking for the head, the livelihood and career of another with similar impairments.
Alvin W. Shier,
Lethbridge
-1
Agree Alvin. The Mayor suffers from “if it’s not my idea, I’m not listening”and shows a juvenile attitude in demanding the firing of a provincial minister implementing a process which has been on the books for 10-12 years. There have been many opportunities for the Mayor to make his case in the last eight years. I guess no one was listening. This was pure politics on the Mayors part, catering to voting blocks and getting mileage out of the disdain in certain quarters with the dislike of the current Health Minister.
As for recycling and for an interesting view log on to CBC Marketplace, Season 47 Episode 1, Tracking your trash. Enlightening.
Two ‘wrongs’ do not make a ‘right?’
It’s not so much a matter of wrong and right, but rather the hypocrisy in stating the concerns of the citizens.
Another example of this, is the massive amount of crime that SCS had attracted to Lethbridge. The Lethbridge social media sites were inundated with angry citizens in regards to such. The mayor is/was a member of the sites and well aware of the issue. Now ask all those people how the mayor responded to their concerns, and you’ll get the answer of, “He ignored our concerns of the crime because he was a supporter of the SCS right from the beginning”.
…not to forget Shandro’s other foibles as well. Premier Kenney has been very unwise to keep him in the health portfolio.
Maybe, but then again, I doubt Shandro has the last say. It seems to me that any of his major suggestions would have to be approved by Kenney. Then again, again, lol, perhaps Shandro is just doing what Kenney tells him to do.
Regardless, the thread isn’t about Kenney or Shandro. It’s about the mayor’s alleged hypocrisy.
The difference between curbside recycling and Shandro’s lack of action on the issue is that people may die. There are tangible results to altering EMS dispatch, in scenarios where seconds really do count.
Nobody is dying from curbside recycling.
Weirdo.
What’s this have to do with Shandro.
just to refute the awkward belief that viruses cannot be protected against with vaccines: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-fact-check-vaccines-protect-against-v-idUSKBN25O20E