Local Councils being sworn in across Simcoe-Grey.

With the weather across the riding of Simcoe-Grey being nothing but scary with some areas receiving close to 1 meter of snow, yes that's 100cm in just 3 days, it's amazing that politics continues across our riding.

Yesterday the Town of Collingwood's new council was sworn in with their first female Mayor, Sandra Cooper. She served as Deputy Mayor in the last term of council. Hopefully she will be able to get their town debt under control as it hits the 50 million plus mark. It seems she has a good team in place to help the town get out of the mess left behind by former Mayor and MP wanabee Chris Carrier.

In my town of Wasaga Beach, our council was sworn in today with family and friends in attendance. The only new face on council is Morley Bercovitch. Ron Anderson was returned to council after losing out in his battle for Mayor in 2006. Taking a look at this new council the odd man out would be Deputy Mayor, David Foster who's not known to travel in Conservative circles like the rest of them.

It's quite clear that partisan politicals is alive and well at the municipal level. Take for example Mayor Cal Patterson. In the 2008 Federal Election he stood in at a debate for then Conservative MP, Helena Guergis. Morley Bercovitch acted as Conservative MPP, Jim Wilson's CFO for his 2007 Provincial campaign. George Watson was the Vice-President of the Provincial Conservative riding association. Stan Wells is well known to support both the Federal and Provincial Conservatives, and his actions on council seem to reflect that. Nina Bifolchi is also a well known Conservative supporter given her family ties in the community. As far as Ron Anderson is concerned he seems to be more of a follower and if you watch his actions on council he will be a good little trooper and vote for much of what he's told to vote for.

Before the last council was done they approved an increase in our water bills by 1.5% starting on January 1st, 2011. They all voted for the increase except for George Watson. Kudos to him for taking a stand and sticking to what he promised he would do.

So what can we expect from Wasaga Beach council in the next 4 years? Not much as Patterson being Mayor is good at saying one thing and then doing another.

Until next time!