That's no umbrella; it's a grenade

Was that a suggestion or a joke?

Or, for that matter, a grenade?

It depends who you ask on the subject of North Grenville Mayor David Gordon's suggestion the separated municipalities of Brockville, Prescott and Gananoque get under the counties' 'umbrella' before his booming township considers regional economic development.

At the moment, the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville is committed to doing a feasibility study, alongside the Brockville and District Chamber of Commerce, of regional economic development.

Brockville council is likely to commit to the same thing at its next regular meeting July 23.

Gordon has been the most vocal skeptic of the idea at counties council.

And yesterday, he suggested he might change his mind on the subject if the separated municipalities joined the counties.

If I may be cheeky, and appeal a bit to my own heritage: in some quarters this would be like asking Ukraine to join Russia, or rejoin a new Soviet Union.

Or, for that matter, asking Russia to join the United States.

In a word: nyet.

Gordon seemed quite earnest in his suggestion the separated municipalities will one day have to have a discussion on rejoining the counties.

And as a journalist, it is my job to play such comments straight, even if I suspect North Grenville's clever mayor may in fact have been joshing me, or joshing his colleagues through the media.

As you can read in the article, Prescott Mayor Brett Todd's josh-o-meter was ringing from the start.

Brockville Mayor David Henderson, however, seems to take it not as a joke but a grenade: a trickier, larger issue thrown into the economic development discussion in a deliberate attempt to blow it up.

Either way, the counties umbrella is not getting more crowded anytime soon.

Nor are North Grenville and Gananoque likely to hop aboard the Economic Development Express.

Which leaves proponents of the regional initiative with two options.

The first is a more intense sales or pressure job to get those municipalities on board, perhaps by end-running the politicians and appealing directly to their business communities.

The second is to consider a regional economic development effort on a smaller geographical scale.

The second is the likelier outcome. While it would give the region less heft than initially desired, it could at least offer a chance to succeed by example, thereby luring the others in.

All of which can be done without discussing the size of the counties umbrella.