Editor:
In response to a letter published, July 31, I must say that the person could not have been at the meeting, judging from the letter’s content.
Although the number 17 per cent of the town is opposed is technically true, it is a gross misinterpretation of the facts. Babies, toddles, pre-teens and teens under the age of 18 cannot vote and therefore were not allowed to sign the petition.
A more accurate way to get the true representation of the number of people opposed to the paid parking issue would be 1,370 people signed the petition against paid parking.
This number represents more than 70 per cent of the number of people who voted in our last election. This number is greater than the amount of votes any councillor or the mayor received in votes.
Basically, seven out of 10 people that voted are opposed, which would seem to me like Town council is once again bullying and disrespecting their citizens.
This Town council has a history of bullying as was evident with the outdoor merchandising fiasco. The town council had bullied the retail sector aggressively (without any foresight or interaction) attacked the merchants with tickets for doing business the same way we had for the last 20-plus years.
They agreed to making a mistake and acting hastily, so the bylaw was rescinded. But not the fines they levied against the merchants.
Another example of this council’s bullying was when they erected an outhouse and ATCO trailers directly in front of my mother’s living room window the day after we buried my father, no less. If not bullying, that was extremely disrespectful.
Once again, obviously they were in the wrong and had to rectify the situation.
With the council’s history of disrespecting and bullying of its citizens, is it that far of a stretch that possibly a couple of our councillors maybe are being bullied into silence on the paid parking issue?
As for name calling, the only incident was after Stavros Karlos showed his lack of respect for our town and its citizen by leading off his speech with obscenities, he was labeled the F-bomb councillor.
The one thing I agree whole heartedly with you on is that last election was the time to rid ourselves of this mess we call town council. Funny thing there was no mention by any councillor that they were pro paid parking and were going to introduce it the following summer in their re-election campaigns.
If they had, the results would have been extremely different. Instead, we got another hidden agenda pushed down our throats without any say at all.
The last time paid parking went to plebiscite, it was a whopping 84 per cent of voters opposed; so really, now who is bullying who?
Greg Christou,
Banff
