Jennifer Smith

It's been an intense couple of days on the campaign trail.  Tuesday evening was the Ward 2 DBIA debate, followed Wednesday afternoon by the all-candidates meeting on seniors issues.

The Tuesday meeting was the closest thing we've had to a real 'debate' so far, in the sense that we all had to answer randomly selected questions with no preparation. It was exciting to finally have the chance to answer some ward-specific questions head to head with just my fellow Ward 2 candidates.


I had several people tell me afterwards that they really appreciated the fact that I had specific proposals to offer instead of just re-iterating the problems or explaining what couldn't be done.

Wednesday we were back to the madness of 30+ candidates at the table, this time talking about seniors issues.  We each got 2 minutes of introduction and one minute each to answer three pre-submitted questions.

I knew going into it that the library was going to be a significant issue. I also knew that the two incumbent Ward 2 councillors have suddenly, miraculously developed a passion for keeping the Bruce Street Library open.

I'm sorry, but they don't get off that easily. Here are the facts:

- The 'decision' to close the Bruce Street Library has never once been disputed or even brought up for debate at council in the ten or more years since it was first conceived as part of the 'Destiny Milton' strategic plan.

- After the location for the new library/arts centre was decided, the Library Board presented a more detailed 'Master Plan' to Council that contained a single line specifying that Bruce Street would be closed. Not a single councillor commented on it. This was in June of 2008 when both Ward 2 incumbents were on Council.

- In June of 2009 when the federal stimulus money came through and the construction of the new library was accelerated, there was another opportunity to discuss the fate of Bruce Street at Council. Again, it was not discussed.

- In December of 2009 we see the first mention in the press of Bruce Street closing in the form of a letter to the Milton Champion. There is no news article on the subject until March of this year.

- In February of this year, Council discussed the closure of the Bruce Street Library as a separate issue for the first time. Councillor Nelson commented on the "anxiety level" and "misinformation" among neighbourhood residents and seniors, and stated that "the perception - and politics is perception - is that we took something away". Councillor Boughton said nothing.

I'm not sure which is worse - the fact that neither of our representatives bothered to tell any of us that the Bruce Street Library was closing, or that they did nothing whatsoever to stop it. Perhaps they didn't notice. Perhaps they thought we wouldn't care.

In any case, that's simply not good enough. We deserve the kind of representatives who won't just fight for us when they happen to be running for re-election. We deserve the kind of leadership that gets in front of problems like this instead of letting major issues slip past unnoticed until it's almost too late.

I will deliver that representation and that leadership. I WILL put Ward 2 first.