Former Liberal MPP and cabinet minister Linda Jeffrey decisively defeated scandal plagued incumbent Susan Fennell in a much buzzed about election. Former city councillor John Sanderson showed valiant campaign effort and made strong enough of an impression to be the official runner up. However, Mr. Sanderson was not able to fully distance himself from the stigma of the Fennell administration. Ms. Fennell finished in a disappointing 3rd place.
The various scandals in which Ms. Fennell was embroiled, the lack of progress in Brampton, and a general 14 year itch for political change all contributed to Ms.Fennell's precipitous decline in this election. Even though Brampton may not agree now, Ms. Fennell had a decent, dare I say, impressive run.
She led the city through a phase of unprecedented growth, there was a highway 410 expansion, improvements in public transportation, and we got a new hospital all under Fennell's leadership. However, complacency kicked in, mistakes were made, and the administration simply exploited a broken and disengaged system to pull some "fast ones" on unsuspecting Bramptonians. The City Hall expansion and the Rose Theatre come to mind, we're going to be paying for those projects for a very, very long time.
Whatever, we must move on. We now have a new person in Brampton to lead the city in a new direction. How reassuring. So now what?
If one will join me in a trip down memory lane, lets go back to a far and distant time called 2007. Ah, 2007, Soulja Boy's "Crank That" was wining the hearts and minds of music lovers worldwide, and Blackberry was the biggest cell phone company in the world. It was a different time. Well, back in 2007, there was a gentleman named Barack Hussein Obama, you may have heard of him. Mr. Obama held ambitions to become President of the most powerful country on earth and bring change to a desperately out of ouch political status quo. The people bought in, hard. Globally, people rallied around Mr.Obama's vision of a new era where equality, sustainability, and peace were paramount. Mr. Obama committed to -amongst many other things - granting access to healthcare for millions that could not afford it, withdrawing American troops from military quagmires Iraq and Afghanistan, and getting that pesky economy back on track, with the catch that the gains of a better economy would be distributed evenly.
The world rejoiced when Mr.Obama won a historically unprecedented election and became President of the U.S.A.. He even won a Nobel Peace Prize, for a reason surly very similar to: "yo? A Black President... in America?! With that historical baggage? You deserve this bro." Mr. Obama assumed office in 2008, won a second term in 2012, changed everything, and America + the world, lived happily ever after!
.....(wait for it).....
Hell f**king no!
Despite the people's desire to embrace change, and President Obama's best efforts, things haven't really changed that much. America is at war with a new enemy, the Obamacare revolution has gotten off to a rocky start, the economy is hanging on by a thread, systematic racism is still a thing, the environment is kicking the bucket (google "Florida Sinking", its not #BramptonRises firing shots, it's literally happening!). Simply put, things didn't magically change overnight, and over the 2000+ subsequent nights of Obama's administration. Sure, the American government may have done its boring administrative job the past 6 years, but many reflect and wonder what went wrong for the grand, positive, progressive, albeit ambitious vision they voted to lead their country.
Was Mr. Obama just a liar? Possibly. Did the system screw him over, likely. I think he has probably tried his best to institute the changes he promised, but realized there was something that even all the executive powers could not quite change: the American people themselves. American continue to allow themselves to be trolled with a broken, ineffective democracy. The facade of progress in equality is usually followed with "there's a black President, man!", but then a tragic incident with with racist overtones proves the country still has ways to go. Gun violence in America is still out of control, but f**k you if you think Americans will ever give up their guns. The rising plutocratic class in American society continue to gain disproportionate amounts of power and influence. Oh, and the Americans are leading another war in Iraq.
America, f**k yeah! It's a cool idea, but they never really wanted "change", They wanted to think they were getting change. and fully buy into that hype. As soon as the lawn signs are down and attack ads stop airing, so to does most people's engagement in the political system. In the best case scenarios, new candidates are elected, but the same appointed bureaucrats, and powerful private interests spring back into action. The people fail to follow through on all that engagement and revert back to droning it out in real life. Its an unfortunate cycle, but it is what it is.
But, it's a different story in B-town right...right?
The most recent municipal election in Brampton had a 36% voter turnout. That was an improvement on last time, but come on 1 out of 3? With all the news and signs, whatever. Of those approximately 100,000 voters, half chose Ms. Linda Jeffrey to be our new mayor. That's less than 10% of the entire population of the city who directly consented in choosing its leadership. How many of them will stick around to see the changes through? The scouting report on Brampton is worthy of its own lengthy, off kilter post, but everyone gets the deal with Brampton. We need change so how do we change things? Who's going to make it happen? Which direction do we want to go? Ms. Jeffrey and city council can try to answer those questions over the next 4 years, but the people have to stay engaged too. We can't continue to play passive roles in our democracy, and simply expect change. It's time society stopped falling for the hype.
**jda out**
JDA is in the 1% of disengaged Bramptonians, yet he's still a #BramptonRises kinda guy. Follow him on twitter @Jibbyville.
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