Counterpoint: Question #9
The Lindsay Post is running a weekly series of questions, with answers by both the "Yes" and "No" sides of the issues.

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Question #9: Why is the system you endorse better able to provide recreational services to city residents?

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Mother Nature provides the best recreational opportunites

      The "Yes" side has to concede a tie to the "No" side on this specific question. There are plenty of recreational activities in the City of Kawartha Lakes as long as we recognize that recreation involves spectators as well as participants and that recreational opportunities are sometimes less than obvious.
      Budget-balancing is the hot-topic sport these days. While not particularly good at it, City Council certainly tries, although with the same degree of success that "Eddie the Eagle" Edwards brought to the Olympic sport of ski-jumping. Effort, however, is what counts.
      Reserve-raiding is a team sport in which Council tries to score points with the public by stealthily using up stockpiles of cash while pretending to hold taxes close to the ground. Success in executing this play results in a penalty of having to lift taxes next year as high as possible.
      Cutting the Works Department budget for rural road grading, culvert cleaning, brushing, and ditching, has given taxpayers in those parts of the community healthful exercise doing these chores themselves. Having to drive slowly over washboard, graveled roads fosters an appreciation for nature. Dodging potholes develops hand-eye coordination. As the ancient Romans would say "Mens sana in corpore sano": A sound mind in a sound body.
      The invigorating exercise of sweeping up the sand applied in copious quantities to City streets this winter pays rich health dividends when City residents take on this task as well.
      Credibility-stretching, fence-straddling, and public posturing in front of television cameras at Council meetings are useful activities for City Councillors as they jockey for position in the upcoming municipal election. Number-crunching, (although we're not sure precisely what that is), sounds like good exercise for City finance department staffers.
      The hard oak benches in the spectators' gallery at City Hall provide the Spartan conditions necessary to toughen posteriors grown soft from too much comfort in our own homes.
      Closing the old municipal offices and replacing them with fewer service centres has encouraged healthful exercise as people travel longer distances to pay their taxes.
      Placing a greater tax burden on the backs of rural taxpayers has strengthened flabby physiques. Increasing this burden year after year will result in a veritable race of supermen. Unless, of course, the taxpayer is crushed to death in the process. Caution is advised.
      Eating less as we struggle to pay our Mega City tax bills has had a slimming effect on all of us. Dodging creditors and bill collectors tones under-utilized muscles.
      Perhaps we're over-reacting. Victoria County and her former municipalities have always had an excellent parks system and recreational activities. Volunteers have always come forward when needed in the past to help with swimming programs, cultural, sporting and community events. Those same volunteers will be back after a "Yes" vote for two-tier government. The Kawartha Lakes region is rich in the natural features that provide so many opportunities for sport and recreation. Fishing, boating, swimming, hiking, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling, will always be available. Nor do they require a mega city government in order to survive and thrive.
      After careful re-consideration the "Yes" side would like to retract our first statement. We believe that the provision of recreational services depends primarily on mother nature with an assist from volunteers and well-motivated local government initiatives. We believe that a return to two-tier (Victoria County-local municipal government) will in no way impair the recreational opportunities available to area residents and might even augment them.
      Getting out of the City will be good for the lungs too.