We get what we deserve
Most of you know that I do my best to write in a positive way, but enough is enough and I am tired of “stupid.”
It is time to stop this national embarrassment. Niagara is now the laughing stock of Canada. We have our own Rob Ford or Donald Trump and his name is Andy Petrowski.
But, everyone needs to stop pointing their self-righteous fingers at St. Catharine s regional Coun.Pe trows ki and start putting the blame for this circus squarely where it belongs: the people who voted him in and the councillors who enable his behaviour.
I talked to a very successful business owner in St. Catharines who told me that he voted for Petrowski the first time he ran. I asked him why and he responded that he thought that Petrowski would stir things up. Well, he certainly did that. But in my mind that was really a stupid thing to do. Throwing a vote to someone who you think would “stir things up” is not responsible. We all need to take our right to vote seriously. We need to elect people who have the ability to govern, not the ability to mess things up.
As for regional council, and more specifically the chair, you all need to take full responsibility for this round of “stupid.” There is an old saying, “we teach people how to treat us.” From Day 1 of the Petrowski side show, very few councillors stood up and challenged this buffoon, and those who did were told to cool it. Even worse, they got a target on their back because at the time Petrowski was part of the small but effective bully group that was and possibly still is running regional council.
It is time that this council finally stand up and take responsibility for their inaction and do something.
“That’s not fair, Ted, we tried but we don’t have the legislative tools.” Well I call BS to that statement. The tools have always been there and are currently there. It takes the form of a time tested way of governing called parliamentary procedure, and it works. I have been a paid parliamentary speaker who ran tight respectful meetings where people were held accountable for their behaviour. So, Petrowski could have been neutralized long ago if there was an effective chair who knew what to do.
And then there was and still is all of the stupidity surrounding the code of conduct and the integrity commissioner. Another circus and more dropped balls and wilful blindness. Posturing and politicizing bad behaviour in order avoid the inevitable is, in my opinion, doing the electorate a bigger disservice than Petrowski has ever done.
No, Petrowski is his own worst enemy, but he is not the only one to take the blame for this train that has gone totally off the rails. It is time that this council does the right thing. If Petrowski will not resign, then council needs to take him off of every committee and take his laptop away, forbid him from speaking to any staff and every time he does anything that would further taint the reputation of Niagara put a formal complaint in to the integrity commissioner who has the power to suspend his salary for up to three months at a time. And please, do not water down the code of conduct.
I, for one, as a proud citizen of Niagara, want and need this stupidity to come to an end and it needs to stop now.
When the next election comes, please think before you vote. Look at all of the councillors who sat on their hands and enabled this behaviour to continue. It is time to take full responsibility for how you, yes
you, the voters and the councillors, put someone like Petrowski in that seat and then allowed him to remain. It has been said, “Every country deserves the government they get, first they elect them and then they allow them to stay.”