Hazel’s no angel

Mayoralty candidate Roy Willis always says of his friend and fellow contrarian in municipal matters, Donald Barber, that he means well and that he works hard, that he unearths valuable information and fights the good fight on the right issues — but he doesn’t know where to stop.
Barber proved Willis’ point again Thursday.
Whatever tattered credibility Mr. Barber might have had in his latest run at the incumbent he loves to hate was washed down the drain in one fell swoop, with a single outlandish posting on his website, The Democratic Reporter.
“Hazel McCallion Is Dying” declared Barber in a screaming headline, with the subhead, “This is not a joke or hoax.”
Barber sat in the front row of the audience after he spoke Wednesday at an all-candidates’ meeting at Green Glade Public School.
It was from there that Barber detected the first death throes. Below an unflattering picture of the mayor that he took from this key diagnostic perch,
Barber explains on his site how he was able to glean what the rest of us at the meeting so stupidly overlooked.
Here is his description: “As a person who has seen up close and person (sic) the decline & decay of elderly members of their (sic) family I knew the signs and there (sic) all over Hazel McCallion. Hazel appeared to be up to the task at hand from a distance but not up close, she was struggling to stay alert - aware. If you put aside the perception that it is the great & powerful Hazel McCallion, you can see the human being behind the facade, the person fighting to keep up the appearance of a person just as alert and mentally active as those a haft (sic) her age.
“Many times, her eyes would close and (her) head would shake or tremble as she struggled to keep going on and focused on the task at hand. Seen this many times and it only gets worse and worse till very shortly, she will be losing track of the conversation or what she wanted to say, regularly. To suggest she is good for the next 4 years without even a doctors examination is shear (sic) madness. There is a very real chance she will not even live that long, let alone be mentally up to the task of running the 6th largest City in Canada. If the mind is going, the body is surely following but what good is a Mayor who is physically alive but mentally not all there?”
The parentheses should not say sic, they should probably say sick. I do not refer to the mayor.
Such poor taste; such poor judgment; such inane political strategy.
Barber apparently has scooped the mainstream press again: Hazel is old and will die someday. But that’s not the half of it... she’s statistically closer than most of the rest of us.
Stop the presses!
I thought I was at the same meeting as Mr. Barber, but apparently not. I noticed no deterioration of her mental faculties.
Has it never occurred to Mr. Barber that the mayor’s amazing stamina and iron constitution are an inspiration to the rest of us who would just hope to see a sunrise or two at age 85, let alone run a major city?
Which one of us does not see a glimpse of his or her own potential immortality in a woman who refuses to yield to opponents, physical obstacles or time itself?
Barber does the mayor a big favour by reminding people of her age. When was the last time you got to vote for an extraordinarily competent 85-year-old?
Yes, Hazel McCallion Is Dying: dying to stay on a job that no mere mortal, and certainly not Mr. Barber, can ever take away from her.

Comments

[Wayne Nagy]

If Caledon can have two Mayors, Emile Kolb and Marilyn Morrison, why can’t Mississauga have three Mayors, Hazel , Roy and Don???

The Regions new CAO, David Szwarc, has already spent Mississauga’s fair share of Social Services payments to put in new sewers up in Orangeville (The Big Pipeline) and they haven’t even turned the water on yet!

[Stephen Wahl]

If Don does not stop shooting himself in the foot I fear he won’t be able to even take a walk let alone run in the race for mayor.

[Donald Barber]

Mr. Stewart the statement you have made in you BLOG - “Because he is technically not supposed to be within a couple of hundred metres of the mayor as a condition of his bail” is a completely false and designed to defame a candidate in the eyes of the voters by inferring an unlawful act. Remove it right away!

Clearly you do not like the fact I note you work for the “Missing News” but this is not the way to serve the public and if anything it shows you serve another candidate for Mayor of Mississauga.

Silence is agreement & this is not about agreement.

Thank you for the proof read, changes have been made so you may wish make corrections too and some of (sic) are questionable. You should note that I do have trouble writing and over the years have gone through many proof readers, still do the best I can to help inform Mississauga and I have been the source of a number of Mississauga News stories - that I got no credit for.

Have you ever thought that by egging Mccallion on with statements like “the mayor’s amazing stamina and iron constitution are an inspiration to the rest of us who would just hope to see a sunrise or two at age 85, let alone run a major city? Which one of us does not see a glimpse of his or her own potential immortality in a woman who refuses to yield to opponents, physical obstacles or time itself?”- that you are egging the Mayor on to an unreasonable number of I am super women acts? That in fact you are tiring to push her over the edge and into the grave? Or is that the plan? I know there are very many people who truly want her gone any way possible, however I am saying she should give it a rest & retire by some other means than a dirt nap.