A quick post to thank the residents of Aurora for their support and confidence!

A very special thanks to my campaign team - your hard work and support was invaluable!

A special note of recognition to all who put their names forward for this election. Aurora is all the better for your commitment.

And, lastly, congratulations to the new Councillors. The residents have made a clear statement about their vision for Aurora, and I look forward to working with you to accomplish that!

We were out in full force this morning at the GO station. My sincere thanks to the supporters who braved the rather chilly 6:00 AM start! (I think this was the first, albeit light, snow of the season).

It needs to be pointed out that the GO station is private property. And, if you want to canvass there, you are required by GO to have a permit. I know this because I went through the process of first investigating and then obtaining the permit. I was permitted for two mornings – September 22 and October 22.

If you don’t have a permit, then you are not allowed to canvass on GO property. It’s fairly cut and dried.

So, why am I blogging about this?

This morning, two other Mayoral candidates showed up, yet neither had a permit. GO asked them to leave.

One has touted their respect for authority. The other has expressed concern about my alleged lack of experience with rules and procedures – yet interestingly, it was one their supporters who was yelling at us for being bullies. I guess being a bully is when rules are applied equally.

It turns out that I am the only candidate -- Mayor or Councillor -- that has applied for a permit this election.

My Perspective: I have stressed throughout my campaign that a major concern I have is the general lack of respect and the unequal application of rules. As I have commented in previous posts, Canvassing at the Market and Lessons on Leadership one element of respect starts with either knowing the rules or finding out. It is not simply assuming you can do something. It is not assuming you have an automatic right.

If elected Mayor, I am fully committed to playing by the rules and the consistent application of the rules that exist for all – not just for some.

By now, many of you will have read, or otherwise been informed of “The Lawsuit”.

I am referring to the $6,000,000 defamation law suit that has been filed against three residents by the Town on behalf of outgoing Mayor Morris, in her capacity as Mayor, under authority of Town Council.

This is being covered by the Aurora Citizen, (auroracitizen.ca/2010/10/15/maybe-you-heard-about-the-lawsuit/), the Banner (www.yorkregion.com/news/article/889498--aurora-mayor-launches-legal-action-over-blog-comments) and the Auroran (www.theauroran.com/online).

I will not go in to details here, except to say that the taxpayers of Aurora are paying for Phyllis Morris to sue three residents, and should this lawsuit actually be successful, all the benefit will accrue to Phyllis Morris.

There is absolutely no downside for Phyllis Morris – she bears no cost and stands to personally benefit.

This is an obscene abuse of Council authority as well as your (and my) tax dollars.

My Perspective: First, if you stand for election, you do so by choice. With that role comes the understanding that people will disagree and be critical of your decisions. If you are not prepared to accept that as part of your role -- then you should not run for elected office. Criticism is part of a healthy democracy.

Second, if Phyllis feels that she has truly been defamed, then by all means, she should pursue this through the courts -- in her own name and using her own funds. But, she is using our tax dollars to do it. Once again, Aurora taxpayers are funding legal expenses that provide no value to Aurora taxpayers.

The mind boggles!

If elected Mayor: I will do everything in my power to right this outrageous wrong and commit to re-establishing a community environment where all opinions are welcome and no one is afraid to speak out against the decisions of their government due to the threat of legal action by the very people that were elected to serve!

Sport Aurora hosted their all-candidates meeting yesterday.

It was a lively affair with not only the Mayoral candidates answering questions, but also a session for the candidates for Council to answer questions.

The format was modified slightly from the previous events, in that after the Mayoral candidates gave their opening remarks, questions were then directed to a particular candidate and the others were given the opportunity to offer a rebuttal.

While not a full-out debate, it did allow the candidates to provide points of differentiation.

Obviously, the focus was on sports and volunteerism, and I wish to thank Sport Aurora for giving us the opportunity to address this important element of life here in Aurora.

The general consensus is that sport is very important in Aurora, and in my opinion, we need to focus more on the long-term benefits.


My Perspective: We should be looking at how to attract tournaments. The positive economic and cultural benefits are too important to overlook. For example, there was a discussion on the benefits of building a facility to host some of the baseball games for the Pan-Am games that are coming in 2015.

With the these games being the driver of the all-day GO train, there is certainly good reason to look at developing a business plan around this to see if it is feasible.

One point of discussion that did not come up was the “Every Kid Can Play”. This is a program that recognizes that even in affluent Aurora, not everyone can afford to have their children in organized sport. If elected Mayor, I commit to bringing this very valuable program forward for public review.

My thanks to Sport Aurora for organizing this event.

Last night, the Aurora Chamber of Commerce sponsored their regular all-candidates meeting. This has been a recurring event although the format was changed slightly for last night, due to the absence of Mrs. Morris, who was attending the funeral of her father-in-law in England.

So, rather than the usual debate, it was a moderated question and answer session for the Mayoral candidates.

All the candidates for Council were there as well, and hopefully, you had time to meet at least some of those running and form some opinions on who to vote for.

And, the room was packed! Like the Library event, it was standing room only. The residents of Aurora are very engaged in this election. And, the wide range of questions nicely demonstrated the diversity of Aurora.

Once again, I was gratified to see many people sporting their Geoff Dawe for Mayor buttons! Your support is very much appreciated.

I focussed on my three key principles of Leadership, Community and Accountability and reiterated my commitments of:

• Instituting a Strategic Plan
• Rebuilding our sense of community
• Re-establishing a year-round Budget Finance Committee
• Re-establishing long term budget forecasting

And in addition, I have committed to

• Creating an education program for the residents about tax levies and assessments, to help them understand what they are getting for their tax dollars and to help ensure they are getting maximum value.

If you were not able to attend, then there is one more public debate on Sunday October 17th at the Legion.