Bizarre Week in Politics

Feb 5, 2018 | News, President & CEO News Articles

This past week and a half reminds me of something out of the old television series with Rod Serling and “The Twilight Zone”, it has been totally bizarre.  I am of course, referring to the events surrounding the PC party resignations and subsequent events.  I don’t think I could characterize it as anything else but, totally bizarre.

Whether you support the Liberals, PC’s, NDP, Green Party, Republican or Democrat (no offence to any other parties out there) politics and political parties continue to dominate the news and not necessarily for the right reasons.  Here in Ontario, where we are quickly approaching both Provincial and Municipal elections, the focus to date has not been on issues, but rather the personalities behind the issues.

As we head to electing our Provincial Parliament and Municipal governments to lead us for the next four years, we are hearing little as far as the real issues that are facing us as a business community and ultimately, taxpayers.   To date, little has been heard from anyone on how we are going to move forward as a Province, or at the municipal level in Northern Ontario, on how we are going to compete in a global market.  If we are to grow our way out of many of the issues that we face, then we need engaged leaders who bring solutions and not problems to the table.

Our former Mayor and present MPP as well a former Chair of the North Bay & District Chamber of Commerce, Vic Fedeli is one of those engaged leaders.  Putting party politics aside, Vic always believed in what he was doing and did not forget the people that elected him to serve on their behalf.  The health and wealth of the community have always been the barometers for our MPP/former Mayor and the writer is of the opinion, that the Province would have been well served under his leadership.

As it turns out, for whatever reasons that we will probably never know, the executive of the party chose to have a campaign within a campaign and Vic did the honorable thing.  He elected to lead and do the right thing for his constituents and community.  My hat is off to Vic and I sincerely wish him luck with the job in front of him.  He is a leader and we need more of them.

Peter Chirico is the President & CEO of the North Bay & District Chamber of Commerce.

 

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