Overheard: A Tissue For Patty

By May 24, 2014Overheard

Patricia Ross’ Hurt Feelings
Submitted. Overheard – A recent column on Abbotsford Today [Homeless Chic or it may have been Why Is Patricia Ross Lending Her Name To This Farce] is said to have hurt Councillor Patricia Ross’s feelings.

She was reportedly told, in an attempt to make the 17-year-veteran of Abbotsford politics feel better about herself, ‘Oh Patricia don’t worry. Abbotsford Today is not a real news organization.’

Ross has been a fixture on city council for 17 years and in that decade-and-a-half, Abbotsford has been the murder capital of Canada; lived under the onerous financial terms of the illegal Abbotsford Heat Deal; been forced to abandon an anti-harm reduction bylaw which exacerbated a growing homeless human rights crisis, and made Maclean’s magazine top twits municipal affairs column three years in a row.

As Chair of the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) Ross continued a Liberal policy begun under her predecessor – John Les – and continued under her successor – Sharon Gaetz – which has allowed gravel companies to run roughshod over Sumas mountain and other protected areas of our natural environment while gaining most of her political supporter from those who care about it.

Ross has done nothing to solve the homeless issue in this community during her 17 years as a politician. With the looming municipal election next fall, Ross, like just about every politician in Abbotsford or member of the enormous number of organizations which collect millions of tax dollars for allowing homelessness to get worse, has had a sudden conversion and now wants to jump in front of the homeless parade in much the same manner in which jumped in front of the SE2 parade just as it was passing the reviewing stand.

Staff at city hall are reported to be desperately hoping she does not campaign for Mayor on the off chance she might win.

As a self-proclaimed expert in Public and Media Relations it is a little startling that it has taken her six years to realize that Abbotsford Today is not traditional a news organization. Given the results of the old, traditional media’s support of politicians like Ross and the councils of which she has been a part, maybe we should be thankful that ‘real’ news organizations are dropping like flies and are no longer the only game in town.

For those of us who read it every day and rely on it to find out what is really going on in our community, Abbotsford Today provides an authentic, tell-it-like-it-is and often satirical source of news and information we can’t get from the old media. It has been the first to report on most of the important stories in this community in recent years and it has highlighted the farce which Abbotsford city council has become under the leadership of the dinosaurs like Ross who have occupied it for decades.

Credit where it is due: Once the train has cleared the station and is moving quickly in the right direction, Ross does have an uncanny ability to notice it, chase it and climb aboard whether she understand where it is going or not.

As far as any hurt feelings are concerned, could someone please send her a box of tissues.

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