I have no confidence in Bruce Court
Today’s Telegraph-Journal has the most ridiculous story about Bruce Court’s opinion of the Deputy Mayor:
Councillor Bruce Court wants Stephen Chase stripped of his position as deputy mayor.
Court believes Chase does a bad job representing the city and he has no confidence in the veteran politician.
“I don’t have any faith in him; I find that he’s off on his own agenda and I don’t believe in what he’s doing,” Court said Tuesday.
“I think he’s being negative towards the city and he should be promoting the city in a positive way and not the way he’s going.”
The sad thing is that Bruce Court was elected to represent the citizens in our ward – not badmouth other Councillors.
The Deputy Mayor has a proper response:
When asked for comment, Chase said he respects Court and dismissed the councillor’s comments as an indication of a difference in political ideologies.
“(Court) has got an orientation towards organized labour and I have a different orientation and that has manifested itself in the way we approach council,” Chase said.
“I fully respect his ideology and it creates that balance on council. His respect is important to me and I respect his perspective.”
The fact of the matter is that I have no confidence in Bruce Court.
He spends more time promoting his own personal issues then representing the ward.
If anyone should get “dumped from Council” it’s him.
Nor do I. Though, at least he has the nerve to say he doesn’t like Chase, rather than pretending that he has issues with the way the position is filled.
I have to agree, however I can’t say I have any confidence in the Brothers Court as a whole. I mean, we have Ivan who seems to think he can push things that were defeated already (bottled water ban) or say one thing and do another (Long Wharf/Irving) and thinks it’s okay to tell members of the public to “shut up”, then there’s Bruce and his mudslinging, which is immature, no matter how you slice it.
I think it’s dangerous to make council a popularity contest amongst councillors – you can’t have some afraid to take a position that’s unpopular with the others … healthy debate is what leads to better policy.
The article talks about a proposal to make the deputy mayor’s position rotate on 9 month terms. I’m not big on a 9 month term – the European Union Presidency rotates every 6 months, and it gives little time for the new person to adjust to the role or implement an agenda.
There are big issues that Saint John has to tackle, and the term length for the deputy mayor position isn’t one of them.
[...] certainly hasn’t done anything to instill any confidence in him as a councillor in me or many others who believe, as I do, that we should dump him and not Deputy Mayor [...]
I believe with every fibre of my being that ivan (His Worship, just hearing him called that makes me nauseated) and bruce court are two of the biggest buffoons ever to sit on and “around the horshoe”.
bruce court calling out Deputy Mayor Stephen Chase in the Telegraph Journal should have been enough to have him removed from council, he is obviously a boorish moron and a bully who is not up to the job.
Lastly, both courts believe that they are better suited to make business desicions for our city than the business community who have spoken at length of how poor a desicion building the new police headquarters would be for our tax base and all of the other stupid statements, Pension Lawsuit etc. etc. etc.