As a comment to the following article, Bambi will resort to some sarcasm, just for some fun:
While apologizing to Mr. Burke (for whatever hidden reasons, genuine or not), why doesn’t our Mayor take the opportunity to apologize to all the former Heritage Board members, and especially to Bambi’s spouse, Mr. Louis Béliveau. The latter was wrongly accused of misconduct by a town wanting to badly hide its own legal misconduct.
If the Mayor (or Councillor Black earlier), will say she is fabricating facts, well the whole story is documented in several past articles on the New Wark Times where Mr. Wark cleverly shared the “secret” Lordon Report, which ended being not too secret, we learned from the Supreme Court of Canada (https://warktimes.com/?s=Lordon+report).
Following the above, Bambi has expressed her hope for our town’s public apologies to Louis and to the other Heritage Board volunteers at two opportunities, if her memory is accurate, on the New Wark Times’ blog platform. She then quickly realized that not everyone is capable of introspection to generate authentic apologies. Who cares about apologies when we know the truth and we stand by our values? Plus, life is way too short. We preferred to move on and keep enjoying our daily lives.
Anyhow, according to Bambi, our Mayor takes good decisions sometimes and, when this happens, she is the first to write in appreciation. For instance, she can think of decisions for the Industrial park, bringing more businesses (mind you, even Louis wrote something positive about it), of the beautiful decorations for Remembrance Day, minus of course the rather odd management of the Memorial Park saga over the summer.
All the above being said, our town is notoriously known for overspending, especially on this highly expensive pond project (is it really needed?) and also on the Sackville Arts Wall that has cost us $43K (Bambi has called it in the past the “Wall of China” ?), or more recently the idea of an $80K dog park. Of course, Bambi adores dogs but is this project a good use of public funds, as Councillor O’Neil recently wondered (https://warktimes.com/)?
Regardless, our Mayor is free if he wants to apologize or to defend a town’s specific staff member, but Bambi does not agree with him on the way he is telling this story or this truth (or should she say “his” truth, to borrow a famous word we heard from a famous Canadian working in Ottawa).
Specifically, she is talking about the word “fabrication” used by our Mayor, which seems to insinuate that Mr. Percy Best is not reporting the evidence or the truth accurately. Mr. Percy Best is one of the most decent men Bambi has met. Or was it meant as a shot against Mr. Estabrooks (former Deputy Mayor) rather?
Our Mayor’s choice of words also seems to insinuate that Mr. Wark is not honest or accurate, as a reporter. Mr. Wark is one of the most professional and decent journalists she has ever met (see earlier post, reply to Councillor Black: https://tinyurl.com/tmnj58c).
Bambi does not understand, or care to understand, all the internal politics of our town. However, she cannot help not to wonder: Why this comment, this apology, and why now?
Bambi recalls only one encounter with Mr. Burke that was not particularly pleasant, and she is usually someone who naturally tends to see the good side of folks first and fast.
Mr. Burke may have not noticed that she has witnessed this interaction, between him and her spouse, that occurred at the Champlain Mall in Moncton where they had company with them. The incident happened during the saga of the Heritage Board before the legal action. It was the first time she met this Mr. Burke actually.
Anyhow, Mr. Burke’s attitude was more “childish” than anything else, if she may use the term. It made everyone smile ?. Perhaps this was his way of reacting when triggered. Maybe Louis “triggered” him when he politely greeted him. Luckily, she has seen him acting much more professionally on the town’s social media.
Because there is hope for more noble behaviour, she hopes Mr. Burke will have the decency to apologize to Mr. Best and Mr. Estabrooks. Whether he meant to be rude to them or not in the incident involving Crandall Engineering company, his action spoke volumes about the state of democracy in our small town.
If he apologizes (just like his/our Mayor did), despite overspending issues in this project or despite any error (mistakes do happen, we are human), like Bambi, Sackville citizens would appreciate his politeness. Perhaps they would also become more convinced/impressed by our Mayor’s recent public comment and apologies.
