Scanned, recopied or Internet copy, if there are errors, please e-mail me with corrections: Opening comments: More at the end. National Post - Apr. 14, 2010 - By Megan O'Toole - motoole@nationalpost.com Parrish scolds McCallion for remarks In an e-mail to all members of Mississauga council, Carolyn Parrish has sharply chastised Hazel McCallion for her criticism of the federal and provincial governments, and warns the Mayor may have put at risk future funding for the city. "You should know that most of this council neither shares your ingratitude nor your confrontational style," Ms. Parrish told Ms. McCallion in the e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by the National Post. It was sent a day after Ms. McCallion greeted a joint federal-provincial infrastructure announcement with heavy skepticism last week. The Mayor said the $138-million pledged for highway, bridge and road improvements across the province -- including a couple of projects in Mississauga -- amounted to "a drop in a big bucket" and will have little impact on the region's considerable infrastructure needs. In an e-mail response, Ms. Parrish said she was "embarrassed and ashamed" by the Mayor's public comments. "Typical of the dozens of senior politicians who have been at the sharp end of your tongue in the past, and hoping to allay the always expected verbal onslaught, Mr. McGuinty began with flattery, calling you 'the most powerful politician in Canada,'" Ms. Parrish wrote, referring to Premier Dalton McGuinty's opening remarks at last week's announcement in north Mississauga. "Instead of responding with the grace and dignity befitting an experienced and senior politician, you appeared ungrateful, ungracious and downright rude." Ms. Parrish goes on to question why, after receiving such criticism, the Premier or Prime Minister would choose to deliver more funding to Mississauga in the future. "Although you frequently bemoan the fact that you no longer 'control' council, you do in fact speak for us at events such as yesterday's," Ms. Parrish wrote. Ms. McCallion would not comment on the e-mail yesterday, but said she planned to address the matter at a council meeting today. One of the mayor's council allies, Katie Mahoney, has already responded with a e-mail of her own to all members of city council. In it, she attacks Ms. Parrish's credibility, asking how the criticism of Ms. McCallion can be taken seriously when it comes from a colleague who, as a federal MP, became famous for outbursts that "embarrassed and shamed Canada internationally," including telling former prime minister Paul Martin to "go to hell" after her caucus expulsion and referring to the NATO "coalition of the idiots." "One of life's early lessons is that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," Ms. Mahoney said. The Ward 8 councillor stood behind the Mayor's criticism of federal and provincial infrastructure funding, pointing to a shortfall that has resulted from "years of downloading, cutbacks to transfers and neglect from senior levels of government. "Are we then to simply say 'thank you Sir, may we please have some more Sir?'" Ms. Mahoney demands. Home Page - Main Table of Contents - Back up a page - Back to Top [COMMENTS BY DON B. - ] |
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