Dear Editor,
As letter-writer Steve Hammond and others have intimated in the past, the tax-and-spend candidates in this election race have softened their tone over time. Their message has gone from tax-payers paying hugely for a splash pad and indoor pool, to “let’s have a conversation” about it and consult unnamed multitudes of federal “contacts” to create a gushing torrent of funding for such projects. A message for the gullible and uninformed. More recently, even that approach has become a feeble endorsement of the current 2% maximum solution to tax rises.
During this time, my message has not changed. My tax approach is a rock-hard policy of curbing property taxes through a fundraising program combined with a campaign to get the province to upload costly provincial mandates from the shoulders of North Grenville and other municipal taxpayers. In short, my policy has been, IS and will continue to be a policy to sharply control rises in municipal taxes by various means. And, unlike one of my competitors, my policy will not change.
I believe you will understand, fellow citizens, that changes designed to get one elected can easily be “changed” and withdrawn in future “conversations” after one is elected. The wise elector will look to the record, past statements and experience of candidates as a guide to future behaviour. As has been oft been said in other contexts: “Caveat emptor”, or “Buyer beware”. Please do.
Jim Bertram
