Amalgamation by another name?

To the editor,

The News on May 15 featured a prominent story of an initiative taken by “leaders” within the Town of New Glasgow to encourage “community to think big rural.”

Pardon my cynical interpretation, but one could be forgiven for imagining this “initiative” as a paradox. First, the Town of New Glasgow has enough thinking to do in curing its own administrative shortcomings which have earned it the dubious distinction of one of the worst towns in Nova Scotia, if not Canada.

Second, seems to me that the Municipality of Pictou County has a more appropriate role in encouraging it to “think big rurally.”

Third, Mike Savage could be using this forum as a pre-election ploy to seek the next Liberal provincial leadership. What does one expect him to say about rural development? His father, when premier, took care of rural development by legislation creating the Halifax Regional Municipality and Cape Breton Regional Municipality against voters’ wishes.

So, what is one to make of this? Can it be that those who advocated for amalgamation in Pictou County can’t accept “no” for an answer despite the resounding failure of their amalgamation plan? Is this amalgamation by another name, to bail out the Town of New Glasgow by combining other jurisdictions’ assets with their own? Makes one wonder what part of “no” they don’t understand! What will “think big rurally” accomplish? My guess is, beyond rhetoric, nothing. Donald MacKenzie, P.Eng.

Lorne