Letters

In any election, there are winners and losers. The Beaconsfield Citizens Association (BCA) wishes to congratulate those who were chosen by their fellow citizens to serve as either mayor or councilor for the next four years. We wish them the best.

We also want to extend our thanks to those who are leaving office for their contribution to the community. The jobs of mayor and councilor are demanding and anyone who has contributed time and energy to these positions deserves recognition.

We also thank defeated candidates for participating in the democratic process. Their involvement generated new ideas and gave us a choice on Nov. 1. Without them, there would not have been an election. We also hope they will continue to show interest in their community by attending city council meetings.

Recently published comments seem to indicate that the BCA was somehow responsible for the outcome of the Nov. 1 election. There is no doubt that we did have our differences of opinion with the outgoing mayor, but they revolved around specific issues: high taxes, a multiplicity of potentially costly projects and spending that seemed out of line with the taxpayers’ interests. Unfortunately, the former mayor and some of his councilors often resorted to attacks rather than frank, open and substantive discussions on the questions that many residents and merchants were raising. Major issues were never dealt with adequately.

While it is true that some BCA members either ran for office or supported other than some incumbent candidates, as is their democratic right, our organization steadfastly refused to recommend that citizens vote one way or the other. No candidate or team of candidates was endorsed by our organization. Our only hope was that as many voters as possible go to the polls on election day. To this end, with a voter participation rate for the mayoralty race of approximately 55 per cent, we feel that we have contributed to our stated goal of greater citizen involvement in this election.

We wish the new administration well and we look forward to a dialogue on the issues that matter to Beaconsfielders.

I am completely in agreement with your editorial concerning the need of citizens to participate in monitoring the activities and spending in their communities to think that the City of Montreal is the only community where there seems to be some sort of collusion would be foolish (‘Citizens everywhere should follow BCA’s lead,’ The Chronicle, Nov. 18.). Vigilance is the name of the game and what better way could be found than by having a local association and the eventually moving into politics, I would even suggest to have volunteer citizens at tender submitting time, congratulation to all the elected officials in Beaconsfield.