Enough spinning to mix concrete

No one in the realm of politics is immune to the mystifying power of spin.

We who report and consume political news will sometimes fall victim to it, and the people who move and act within the world of politics – even municipal politics – will sometimes fall prey to the temptation to do it.

So we should not be surprised to find some remarkable examples of spin in the way Mayor David Henderson and city officials handled their decision, announced Wednesday, to back out of the Tomlinson concrete plant project.

The city's official statement on the matter starts off factually enough, but ends up spinning hard enough to mix concrete when it gets to the mayor's official quote.

“It is clear from the community response that the city is changing and more sensitive to the location and type of heavy industry in the city.”

Fair enough, and accurate at least where this project was concerned. But in the sentence that follows, the spin reaches centrifugal force:

“The city’s strategic plan emphasizes a focus on Quality of Life and the community reaction and proactive efforts by concerned residents to prevent the development of these types of business in the proposed location are an endorsement of the focus on quality of life by the community.”

Hold on now. Let's step out of the centrifuge, throw up if we have to and analyze this.

A large group of people got angry enough for the city to cancel a big project – and that's an endorsement of Brockville's strategic plan?

Excuse me. I'm still a bit dizzy.

Once the inner ear has recovered from all that spinning, one realizes the absurdity of this statement.

The massive public outcry against the Tomlinson project was not an endorsement of the strategic plan, but a rebuke to the city for not following that plan in the first place.

Or, perhaps more accurately: a rebuke for what these project opponents saw as a departure from the strategic plan.

Quality of life is a critical part of the city's strategic plan, but then, so are employment and economic growth.

The two sides simply disagreed – vociferously – on whether this project struck the right balance between these priorities.

Another instance of spinning, one with admittedly less gravitational force, was Mayor Henderson's reaction to the question of whether this decision will embolden other civic opposition groups in their efforts to derail other projects or initiatives.

Henderson responded to this query from the media with an ironic rhetorical question. If I may paraphrase a bit, he said: “Am I worried about people showing more civic engagement? Well, let's see...”

Kudos to the mayor for choosing the right spin-tactic on this one. It is right and good, in a democracy, to praise non-politicians for getting political when they feel they must, even if it means praising people who oppose your plans.

The question will only really be answered by the political events to follow. It's highly likely, for instance, that opponents of a switch from municipal policing to the Ontario Provincial Police are already studying the successful strategies of the Coalition for Responsible Urban Zoning (CRUZ).

Another packed public meeting, anyone?...