Humour

Frolicking Gaily Along the Trail

By Ryan McGreal
Published May 29, 2007

Nicole MacIntyre had me laughing out loud in today's Hall Marks blog, in which she reports that Councillor Dave Mitchell asked, at a council training session on harrassment, whether city "policies that harm agriculture could be considered harrassment against farmers" (I'm quoting MacIntyre, who's paraphrasing Mitchell).

Naturally, he raised the grim specter of the proposed recreational trails through the rurals, suggesting that the visitors trampling farmers' property could constitute harassment against an embattled minority.

Amid chuckles from around the table, the instructor replied that it would be harrassment "if the visitors were abusing the farmer's property because he was gay".

Mitchell retorted that they're not gay, just farmers. At this point, according to MacIntyre, the chuckles bloomed into open laughter.

The sour punchline to this joke, of course, is that Councillor Mitchell's own unswerving dedication to endless suburban sprawl is the biggest threat that farmers face. He's eagerly helping to destroy his own rural constituency, a rezoned and bulldozed hectare at a time.

Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a programmer, writer and consultant. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail, a citizen group dedicated to bringing light rail transit to Hamilton. Ryan wrote a city affairs column in Hamilton Magazine, and several of his articles have been published in the Hamilton Spectator. His articles have also been published in The Walrus, HuffPost and Behind the Numbers. He maintains a personal website, has been known to share passing thoughts on Twitter and Facebook, and posts the occasional cat photo on Instagram.

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By jason (registered) | Posted May 29, 2007 at 19:14:16

I think he's onto something here. I propose that we turf any councilors who do anything to harm agriculture.

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By joejoe (anonymous) | Posted May 29, 2007 at 20:21:11

It is official that Mitchell's an idiot right?
Thank God for that.

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By nobrainer (registered) | Posted May 30, 2007 at 08:51:19

Dave Mitchell jumped the shark when he got pulled over for speeding on his hog (the motorbike, not the livestock) and accused the police of being totally corrupt because they wouldn't let him off on account of him being a Big Important Councillor.

And this yahoo got reelected?

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By councilwatch (anonymous) | Posted June 01, 2007 at 01:01:02

Dave Mitchell should be joining the other Dave,"Wilson", as has-beens in green pasteurs.

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