A Tale of Flamborough

As Bob Runciman takes his seat in the Senate, I am reminded of an interesting story about Flamborough's resistance to the amalgamation with the City of Hamilton.  It has more to do with a former colleague in the Ontario Legislature, when they were in power.

When Harris called the election and won his second majority in 1999, he tapped a Flamborough lawyer by the name of Toni Skarica to join him, with the promise that Flamborough would not be amalgamated as part of the city of Hamilton.  First there was the suggestion by Toni Skarica that the regional municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth be dissolved and that the cities and towns (Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Dundas, Flamborough, Ancaster and Glanbrook) be separate and distinct municipalities.  Looks good on paper, right?  Well there was a little problem.

You see, if the province accepted, there would be an uproar of epic proportions from the cities and towns in Metropolitan Toronto, who were just as peeved as the folks in Flamborough were (and possibly are still to this day).  They would easily be labeled as hypocrites for having applied different princples upon other groups.  It was the last thing they needed.  To say the least, there was a firestorm brewing.

Then one cabinet minister suggested that Flamborough could be divided and shared among the bordering regions and counties.  And for about two weeks, it falsely buoyed the hopes for Flamborough.  But then, as it normally happened in Mike Harris's government at that time, the Premier's Office boomed down from above that such notions would be discouraged vigorously on the first sign of it.  So there is was, game over for Flamborough and their aspirations.

But the citizens of Flamborough continue to hope that they will one day realize that dream of one day becoming their own municipality.  Such conviction should be respected, but not toyed with or pandered.  I am actually rather disappointed that politicians are still cruelly toying with them.  I respect their feelings, but if I want to be mayor, I have to understand what I promise and I need to ensure that the promises I make are ones that I can keep.  Here's what I have to say about it.

We can go on being sore about how you were wronged (and you were so dishonestly wronged), or just make the best of it and work together in solving the city's problems.  The taxation situation, I can understand, but we need the money.  And there is another way to get more of it.  We need businesses to come and pay some of those taxes for you.  But I will get more into the property tax issues in a later post.

Let's just say that people in Flamborough do have a point and to help reduce the property tax burden on them, we need businesses to move or build here.  So the city needs to mobilize and work harder to get businesses to come to Hamilton, create more jobs and get more tax money from these businesses.  We do love you Flamborough and we really want you to be a part of our family, because in the end, all that we have is each other and let's face it.  We know each other much better than those cretins in Burlington know you.  Familiarity may breed contempt, but at least you have a good idea of what to expect.  Better the devil you know, et cetera.