#Twerpgate
While we were all getting caught up in the US election, a little bit of political drama was taking place in our own backyards too.
Mississauga Councillor Carolyn Parrish called Caledon councillors “twerps” at the last meeting, much to the dismay of Caledon mayor Allan Thompson.
At the October 26 regional council meeting, Parrish brought forward a motion to have Mississauga control regional roads running through their city.
In her remarks she stated that the move would prevent “five little twerps from Caledon” from having too much sway and input in how Mississauga spends its money.
The drama didn’t stop there though. Parrish took to Twitter in a fairly lame attempt at glossing the matter over. She tweeted, “Urban Dictionary defines “twerp” as younger, smaller and annoying.”
Thompson wasn’t happy though, and penned a letter to Peel Region Chair Frank Dale on behalf of Caledon council members. This letter will be presented at Regional Council on November 10.
“If these types of comments are allowed they will set a negative tone and give implied consent to use language to discredit or bully each other,” said Thompson in his letter.
Although Parrish’s tweet has since been removed, she has made no formal apologies for the offence her words caused.
Thompson went on to say, “This type of behaviour has no place in Canadian politics. We are better than that.”
Tensions have been high at regional council over the past few months with talks of Mississauga severing itself from Peel and Brampton requesting more proportional representation.
The next day, Parrish’s motion passed with some amendments and a outside auditor will come in to look at the possibility of transferring the responsibility of regional roads to local municipalities.