I just heard on ‘Shift’ the afternoon program on CBC that the Moncton Times & Trashscript ‘We Say’ was read out on that program for all Saint Johners to hear.
Wonderful. Saint Johners were calling in almost in tears they were so upset.
Now, courtesy of CBC, the good people of Saint John get to have a taste of Al Hogan. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame CBC – I’d do the same thing – it’s newsworthy.
But I know a few Saint Johners read this blog and let me say that Al Hogan doesn’t speak for Monctonians. He speaks for himself.
I wonder what it would take to get a guy like that ousted. It’s an absolute wonder that the Irvings would allow him to make those comments and stir up resentment between two cities that should be working together to take on the challenges facing our province. I can only think they agree with Al Hogan and that’s bizarre as they have done so much good for both cities. Otherwise, they would send him packing and replace him with an editor that was a better representation of Greater Moncton.
You see, in my opinion, after living in Moncton for over eight years now, on the whole, Monctonians are a decent lot. Their unassuming, hard working, open to strangers, fairly cultured, reflective and an overall good bunch (there are some bad apples, of course). The editor of the local English language paper, au contraire, is the opposite of that (is that a bilingual oxymoron? I digress). He spews forth buffoonery (note his We Say today linking Andy Scott’s People Strategy with the Petitcodiac River, sheesh). He purposely doesn’t report on highly relevant stories because they don’t fit his agenda. He is critical of everyone except a few of his little friends and his syrupy stories about the economy and the provincial government serve no meaningful purpose other than to lull people into sleep (and then slap them awake once in a while with a We Say like his rant against Saint John).
So, maybe we should do a little on-line petition – print it out and stack it in front of ‘Mr. Irving’s’ door.
Maybe not. This is not really a grass roots blog.
Tomorrow back to our regular programming.
But tonight, I vent a bit.