Jeff Leiper Should Resign

09/16/2024

Planning committee chairman Jeff Leiper made a crack at the end of a video in the previous Bulldog post: “”Change will come to the bungalow belt.”

Leiper, the councillor for Kitchissippi, did so with an arrogant smirk on his face. A number of his fellow planning committee colleagues laughed at the statement.

This is not a laughing matter.

Intensification is a serious issue for serious people. Leiper is not a serious person. Planning committee should be a serious body making serious decisions that affect people’s lives. From councillors’ reaction to Leiper’s flippant remark, planning committee is not a serious body.

You don’t start putting apartments besides people’s homes and laugh about it. Leiper’s quip shows a profound lack of empathy for people losing the enjoyment of their homes. The councillor should be ashamed of his statement that makes fun of people losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on their homes due to his incompetent and misguided attempts at extremification of successful neighbourhoods.

His ideology will cost some people money they would have used for their retirement … a state which we would encourage for Leiper.

The councillor started out as a reforming member of the left and now is just an appendage of the development industry. Leiper doesn’t know what he stands for now except for one thing … himself.

Arrogance and disdain for people in difficult positions leaves him unqualified to govern. You need empathy and thoughtfulness in administration. Leiper has neither. Instead he ridicules homeowners who could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. From the video in the previous post, he appears to enjoy that.

He did that to constituents of his own ward in Highland Park. Now he does that to people living just inside the Greenbelt. Who’s next.

It’s amazing what some councillors will do for a few thousand dollars on top of their generous councillor salary when they become a standing committee chairman. Compromise never came so cheap.

Governing takes wisdom and concern for the people of a community. Leiper has neither. Look at what has happened to Kitchissippi since he became councillor.

There is a solution for people such as Leiper. They should resign.

Kitchissippi Councillor Jeff Leiper should resign.

One wonders what Leiper’s changes to communities will cause. He can’t comprehend that. Likely the breakdown of the complicated relationships that make neighbourhoods work. You know, the person who shovels a senior’s driveway so they can stay in their homes. The people who keep a casual watch over their streets from a chair on their front porch.

A successful neighbourhood is to be cherished and it should grow organically, not with the roar of backhoes and bulldozers.

Jeff Leiper has no idea the damage he is causing. But down the road the cost will appear on the agenda of the community services committee. A proud legacy, Jeff Leiper.

You govern for all, councillor, not just your fellow travellers. You have become what you despised a decade ago.

Ken Gray