A convincing candidate for Biggest Bozo
Not sure who is the bigger bozo in this column: Andy Petrowski or Donald Trump.
Of course Petrowski, as a mere St. Catharines regional councillor, can only be accused of boondocks bozo-ism. Other guy is president of the most powerful nation on Earth.
And to be perfectly honest, the Tweeter-in-Chief is simply a driveby blot on Petrowski’s Twitter compulsions.
The councillor is all the time tweeting to Trump, sometimes four, five times a day. For reasons, he explained to the Star, which should be obvious: “Because everybody following Trump can read my tweets.”
Yes, it’s a humongous yip canvas and irresistible to this yokel politician, despite being snapped with a Twitter-leash by the regional administration — forbidden to use his regional email account, indeed, suspended from all governmentissued communications devices, after an embedded pornographic image was sent from his email account on May 29.
Not his doing, Petrowski insisted, of what was but the most recent scandale arising from his social media twitching. Somebody else got their dirty fingers on his left-open government-issued iPad and did the deed. A person Petrowski indicates he can identify, but chooses not to. He did apologize for the massmailing of a woman sitting on a stool, legs wide open.
Last week, about half an hour before Petrowski showed up for a council meeting — his appearance was brief and calculated to stop the clock running on Day 50 of a personal leave — he popped up on his personal Twitter account, posting a fake Trump tweet. “It was a meme,” he emphasizes to the Star, as if such a distinction is relevant.
In the meme, fake-Trump says: “Regional Council is VERY weak. We need to be STRONG against radical liberal elites. SAD! Petrowski will defend taxpayers.’’
To which the real Petrowski responds: “Thank you, Mr. President. It’s time for everyone to come together to Make Our Countries Great Again!”
It can get brain-cramping, sifting out real news from FAKE NEWS, Trump’s most notable contribution to the lexicon of neologism. Well, apart from “covfefe,” which was, at least, amusing.
“I thought it would be funny,” Petrowski says of his phoney Trump thing.
Such a riot, Petrowski, especially when railing against FAKE NEWS media. Social media, he claims, is his only means for subverting all his enemies in legacy media, the way they twist his words and edit out pertinent quotes. Which is why he’s not doing interviews anymore. Except he can’t help himself and . . . does interviews, such as this one, ranging far afield in his screeds against Liberals, liberals, lefties, “pathetic” fellow councillors and, most particularly, the region’s integrity commissioner — a “complete lunatic” — who, a couple of weeks before the notorious porn thing, recommended (it was accepted) that Petrowski apologize for previous code-of-conduct violations and agree not to use his Twitter account in a manner that contravenes that code.
There were at least three separate incidents investigated by the commissioner. In the past, a text message was sent from his phone to police Chief Jeff McGuire that read, “hello clown are you a tyrant?” and he has tweeted bilge attacking gay people, former president Barack Obama, Muslims, refugees and (via website links on retweets) Jews.
So, this is what Petrowski has to say about the reprimand passed against him: “I’m not apologizing.” “I’m not going to make any retractions on my Twitter account.”
“I’m not taking any bogus sensitivity training.”
The sensitivity training is a condition of his return to council.
Now, I’m no fan of sensitivity bunkum; it is of dubious usefulness when imposed. But council did pass that motion on June 8, voting to suspend Petrowski from all council committees, etc., until he submitted and got his head screwed on right.
Petrowski counters that council has no jurisdictional right to “pile on” demands — the sensitivity training, the apology — and that the reprimand has already been duly accepted, done, finito.
“Once you’ve been reprimanded, there are no other options. The integrity commissioner recommended a public reprimand and then he piled on with his own penal- ties. He’s a complete lunatic. He doesn’t understand the law.
“They’re just piling on these ridiculous left-wing motions to a complaint where I’ve never even been told who the complainants are. Sensitivity training according to who? Kathleen Wynne? Justin Trudeau? They want me to go somewhere to change the way I think and the way I express myself, my freedom of expression.
“Why don’t we just add lethal injection?” It’s tempting. Dropping into council last week, that was strategy. Under the Municipal Act, a councillor can be on leave for a maximum of three months, after which that individual’s seat becomes vacant and council decides how to fill it.
Aha! Petrowski suspects a plot. Because council takes all of August off, the next meeting is not scheduled until mid-September, by which time Petrowski will be beyond the limit. The cameo appearance last Friday was intended to dodge that possibility.
Lord knows it’s safe to say council would like to be rid of this chronic embarrassment. Regional chair Alan Caslin had said — before the personal leave was announced — that he would ask Petrowski to resign.
Petrowski won’t say why he took leave. “I’ve never called it a medical leave.”
Next tweak of the Petrowski Plan: Showing up for one of the committee meetings on which he sits. “Let’s see what happens. Will the chair ignore me or not?”
Keeping him away from boards and committees — all part of the plot to remove him from the “rough and tumble” of regional politics. “They are denying my ability to fight for my constituents. It’s a canard, a distraction, using stupid tools to take the public and the media’s attention off of council business.” Like taxes and profligate public works projects and left-wing agendas — the Gospel according to Rob Ford, or Donald Trump, come to that. Returning to his FAKE NEWS mock Trump tease. “I mean, really. Would anyone think the president of the United States would waste his time on Niagara?” Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.