MORE FACTS SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISCLOSED

On Sept. 11, Rankin MacSween, head of the organization New Dawn and a two-time Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) mayoralty candidate, penned a letter in the Cape Brerton Post endorsing Coun. Amanda McDougall for mayor. MacSween has a long-standing record of public service and has every right to endorse a candidate.

He says his decision is based on his belief that McDougall “believes in this community.” I do not question his honest belief here. But this should be put in some context and since MacSween was given his space, I am asking for mine to describe that context.

Back in 2018, McDougall accused her fellow councillors of not initially giving New Dawn $1.5 million of CBRM tax dollars to taking an action “tantamount to recklessness.” New Dawn had been given around $9 million by the federal and provincial governments and she said the municipal government should give them money as well. This was reported in a July 2018 story in the Post.

So, it may be said that McDougall, as MacSween knows, was also a backer of New Dawn and not just someone who was community minded. He did not note this in his endorsement.

Neither did he mention that New Dawn, again in receipt of millions of dollars of public money, spent perhaps up to $50,000 on a professional poll conducted by Abacus-Leger. We don’t know the exact figure because New Dawn never told us, even after promising to do so.

The poll was on who should be our next mayor. Both MacSween and McDougall were in the poll and as well as Senator Dan Christmas and one other person.

When the question came up as to why a publicly funded agency spent so much money a political poll, McDougall defended New Dawn from not revealing the price of the poll.

“Do they get public money? Yes, but so do private businesses as well and we don’t require then to turn over all of their financial statements. New Dawn has their own revenue streams. If they take it from their own revenues, who are we to judge,” explained McDougall, in the Cape Breton Post on Nov. 28, 2018.

What McDougall failed to say, or understand, is that New Dawn could have done without the money from public funds it cost for the poll if they had used what she speculated were the private funds used for it. In other words, they could have asked for that much less from the taxpayer and not spent it on a poll helping her.

MacSween should have disclosed these facts when he endorsed her and McDougall should have, as well, when she boasted of his endorsement on Facebook and other venues.

I do not support any mayoralty candidates and have not been back home long enough to be on the voters list, but fair is fair.

Brandon MacCuish

Mira Road