CARPE DIEM! GOOD LUCK. ELECTION SOLVES LITTLE IN MUSKOKA DAY AFTER VOTE

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com OPINION

MUSKOKA — A day after the election it’s like “déjà vu all over again” — merci beaucoup, Yogi Berra.

A few new faces, too many familiar faces — and as Muskoka as a cavalcade of coloured leaves.

Which is odd for all the brilliance and diversity of the past month, councils are as bland and white as winter.

For months since the clerks dropped the writ (I know it’s a fixed term) candidates began to walk the walk and talk the talk about what “I (we) will do …,” and began jockeying for voter support with vague promises they knew little of which they spoke, but should have known they can’t keep.

Motherhood and apple pie. Trump on a stick.

Within an hour of the last call-in vote last night the winners sounded as if they were still campaigning.

Carpe diem! Forget it.

Up and down Hwy. 11 — and the off the off-ramps east and west — it was Sunday’s news.

Heidi Lorenz in Gravenhurst, Rick Mahoney in Bracebridge and Nancy Alcock in Huntsville. All first-time elected mayors with at least three council terms on their CVs till yesterday.

“We’re waiting to hear from our councillors and the public,” each new CEO was heard to echo all the way to Port Carling, where mayor-elect Peter Kelley said as much in social media posts.

For it was there in Muskoka Lakes where the night was all about live by the sword, die by it.

Mayor Phil Harding lost the job he so coveted. He bled the reality of political life on the lakes far too many have needlessly suffered.

And he took his defeat hard.

In a bitter-sounding 9 p.m. tweet Monday, an hour after the polls closed, he blamed his loss on the Muskoka Lakes Association who failed to endorse him after propping him up for three terms.

“The people have spoken,” he wrote.

“This election was clearly about the Muskoka Lakes Association and Friends of Muskoka controlling council. Tonight, the MLA has succeeded.”

A frontal lobe swipe at his tablemates whom he implied could be controlled.

He did concede: “I have been fortunate to serve Muskoka Lakes for 12 years now.

“But as they say, ‘the people have spoken.’”

With a backhand compliment, he added: “I wish Peter Kelley and the entire ‘aligned council’ all the best for the next term.”

And “I personally want to thank all those that have supported me since 2010, as well as all the staff of the Township and the District for all they do for each and every Muskoka resident.

“As for me going forward, I look forward to spending some added time with my family.  Thank you.”

Harding is rumoured to be exploring a run to replace John Klinck at district, where the 22 councillors will pick their chair — without a direct vote by the public, MLA or Friends of Muskoka (as Premier Doug Ford once reversed himself on).

But where third party influence on the councillors’ decision could yet importantly play an influential backroom role — if allowed to.

Flower power wins out over staying power

MLA endorsement didn’t help in Gravenhurst, where flower power won out over staying power.

Heidi Lorenz, another three-term councillor, topped Terry Pilger who received MLA’s blessing.

Pilger lost by 218 votes after 26 years of serving and mostly living on and off as a career politician. He returns to selling real estate.

His backers will be sorely disappointed as he was seen as a nice guy who could be manipulated. Malleable putty in the hands of would-be movers and shakers with agendas he lacked and who saw his weak fence-sitting as an opportunity to exploit him for their own political gains without running themselves.

Lorenz, too, who ran full-out — literally pounding the streets this summer in running shoes after quitting her day job at RBC — could be prone likewise lobbying if she doesn’t exhibit sound leadership and vision early on.

And temper her tendency for outbursts.

She says she will make mayoralty her prime interest now. Without John Gordon’s fiscal budget hand and at district that will be challenge.

Luckily Lorenz will have Erin Strength as a sensible returning town councillor to off-set the influence of Piglet’s MLA running mate Jo Murphy.

The mayor-elect said last night that she will wait to hear from her five new councillors and those returning before setting course on what next to do.

Huh!

Wasn’t that what campaigning was all about?

Time to git er done. Enough of the electioneering.

Lorenz wasn’t the only one thinking and sounding alike. Similar sentiments were expressed elsewhere around the lakes and in Huntsville.

So much for a fresh, cost-effective post-Klinck climate change era ahead.

Setting cat amongst pigeons in Bracebridge

In Bracebridge Rick Mahoney turned a political friendship in to a full-time paid gig after former mayor Graydon Smith anointed — er, appointed — him deputy mayor before he became MPP.

Talk about succession planning. Wonder if councillors could do likewise? Best have a heart to heart with King Charles about the legitimacy of descendancy succession.

The Heart of Muskoka community had some wins and losses. Rookie Brenda Rhodes should be a good replacement for councillor Mark Quemby, who tried to move up a tier.

Rhodes, manager of the chamber of commerce, is a former provincial Liberal candidate.

Talk about setting a cat amongst the Tory pigeons. That will make for some lively debate around the council table with Conservative diehards Don Smith and Andrew Struthers.

Barb McMurray and Archie Bouie are back for yet one more go at it.

Missing will be Steven Clement, another just nice guy who chaired the district’s community services committee. Could he have handed his job over to Quemby?

Mahoney didn’t offer up much new for his town after the election, adding the MUCC arena/library project begun years ago will be worth watching at $60 million and counting for taxpayers.

He hinted at the Rona property the town owns overlooking the Bracebridge Falls. But offered up little else, not surprisingly. Like most Bracebridge councillors who keep their cards to close to their vest.

He and his council will likely be tied up in more legal wrangles with turtles, the Royal Muskoka College property on Lake Muskoka and Fowler’s mega quarry objections, reversals and another possible Ontario Land Tribunal appeal.

Huntsville’s Alcock strong mayor or status quo?

Up in Huntsville Alcock, a long-time councillor, will lead Muskoka’s largest community.

Again at first blush Monday she said she’ll rely on her council for direction the next four years.

At least they did a pretty decent main street makeover. But there’s still that thing about the empty eyesore lot where the Empire Hotel was — and which made for great TVO Main Street minute video.

Now that’s leadership (strong mayor?) or is she a consensus builder? Alcock learned that from departing Mayor Karin Terziano and her pre-decessor Conservative MP Scott Aitchison.

In the wings Georgian Bay and Lake of Bays will continue to agitate and scrape by and in the Muskoka burbs scramble for crumbs from Pine Street. While continuing to shout at a distance and advocate, respectively, for Port Severn, Honey Harbour, MacTier; and Baysville, Dwight and Dorset.

All part of the big Muskoka picture that will still look and feel the same four years hence when the some of these winners and losers will be on the hustings in 2026 walking the same walk and talking the same talk with the same things to say or offer … housing, affordable housing, climate, jobs ….

Nothing we didn’t hear this summer.

That may be comforting to too many. But there is so much more to Muskoka that needed — needs — to be addressed that wasn’t. Will ever be?

And with a storm on the horizon in every Port Carling and Port Sydney, best hold politicians’ to their few promises they have made.

As said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for “councillors” to do nothing.

Good luck, but don’t hold your breath when you jump in to these murky Muskoka political waters.

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