Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
Admaston-Bromley Councillor Michael Donohue is calling opposition to heritage designation of the Ottawa River “pandering” and “an abdication of leadership.”
“I, myself, do have an increasing number of concerns with regulations,” he said, “but this seems to be a ludicrous thing to hang your hat on if you’re going to draw your line in the sand on this.”
“It seems to me that whatever land-use policies are going to be developed within the province of Ontario are going to be developed whether this river has heritage designation or does not have a heritage designation. And this seems to be a straw man that is being set up. It’s appalling,” Donohue added.
“This is probably, as far as I’m concerned, this is THE heritage river in the country,” he said of the historic Ottawa River.
Donohue’s comments came on the heels of Mayor Raye-Anne Briscoe’s May 5 update on a bleeding off of support for heritage river designation by some municipal councils.
She said there has to be a reason why, when you’ve done all you can to provide all the documentation and logical thought needed, plus presentations by Order of Canada member Fred Blackstein, some people still won’t believe.
Briscoe then referred to an interesting CBC radio interview she heard just that morning which looked at conspiracy theories and how they work.
She explained that no matter how much logic and fact is presented, people driven by fear will continue to oppose and create conspiracy theories to back their position.
Briscoe even went so far as to compare the situation to the Tea Party movement in the United States and the movement to question that President Barack Obama was born in the United States, a point that has been proven but some still won’t accept.
She described such opposition as “built and bred in” and a “very, very worrisome” thing.
Understanding that many people who have decided to oppose the designation will not change.
The rural mayor, however, remains optimistic.
“Hope trumps fear,” Briscoe finally concluded. “We have to work on the hope.”