Councillor Tim, Get Serious
From the man who brought you snow-plow naming, we now have Nickelback tub-thumping to get the Alberta band to come to Bluesfest.
That comes in a sort of bet with Bluesfest that if the big event got Nickelback, Beacon Hill-Cyrville Councillor Tim Tierney would tattoo the band’s name on the back of his arm … or some derivation of that.
Good grief, I’m a Mark Knopfler fan … a Mozart fan … a Trombone Shorty fan, but I’m not getting their names tattooed to my butt.
Between naming snow plows after something and getting the word Nickelback on his arm, what Tierney is getting is cheap advertising … no … free advertising. It’s all about name recognition. Doesn’t matter what I do, just make sure you spell the name right.
And Nickelback isn’t coming to Ottawa because of Tierney. They’re playing this town because they can make huge money so it was put into their touring schedule long before Tierney went under the needle. That’s how things work on touring, councillor. Five days after Bluesfest, they play a big event in London, Ont. It’s part of their tour, Tim Bob. They don’t create a show due to persuasion, they do it for money and London and Ottawa are relatively close together. So hit ’em both.
Let’s see. How do you spell Tierney? Oh I know, W-A-T-S-O-N. Did I get that right?
Look these are serious times in a serious city. The Trillium Line is two years late after a rather taxing procurement. Is Councillor Tim wondering what went wrong? Did he ask a question of the LRT people about the procurement when they released the news of the delay? Hell no. That’s the kind of publicity that Tierney doesn’t need. That said, it is free.
What about the abomination that is Lansdowne? Curious councillor?
How about all those homeless people piled up like cord wood on Murray Street? Interested?
Then there’s the violence and drugs in our rapidly declining ByWard Market. We’ll get the Night Mayor on that immediately. And he or she will write a very long report on it.
Yes, Councillor Tim, many people are in rough shape in this town and you’re spending time on cheap publicity for yourself.
This is a time for serious leaders and Tim Tierney is not a serious leader.
Ken Gray
Mark Knopfler and Trombone Shorty: They ain’t no Nickelback but they got aspirations.
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I visited Toronto recently, a city with a population base of 3 million and 25 councillors plus a mayor. Ottawa, with a population base of roughly 1 million has 24 councillors plus a mayor. The arithmetic is simple; in Toronto one councillor represents 120,000 people, in Ottawa the ratio is roughly 1 to 42,000. Although Toronto has its problems, the current representatives seem to be doing a good job of running a big city, according to my cousin who lives in East York. Ottawa, on the other hand, keeps sinking deeper and deeper into the mire. It sounds to me like Tim Tierney would be better suited to working in the marketing department of a large corporation. There’s one gone.