Dear Editor,
I write this letter to the Editor of THE EQUITY on the Friday before the 2017 municipal election results are known Sunday night.
Here’s hoping that everybody voted, either at the advance poll, by mail-in ballot or on Nov. 5, the actual election day.
I wish I had a vote but sadly my additional land purchases in Thorne last November to acquire this privilege only got registered in December, so I will have to wait until the next election to be allowed to vote in Thorne.

I do know who I would vote for if I could vote and since I do pay taxes, I too would like to see the new elected council use tax payers’ dollars wisely to ensure accountability and transparency which, in my opinion, was a given during the last four years. So I hope you who can vote, vote wisely.
I also would like to say that I don’t see just winners and losers as the result of these municipal elections. I see people who care enough to put their hat in the ring for the voters to decide who they democratically feel is their best choice.
It does not mean the actual elected candidates are good and the non-elected are bad. I feel it just means that the majority of the voters (wisdom of the crowd) have made their choice to run their municipality in a transparent, accountable and fiscally responsible manner.
One thing any community does not need is a “One Tin Soldier” approach as a means to an end to get their desired results.
It is a sad day when people believe that it is okay to hate your neighbour or cheat a friend because they believe they can do it in the name of Heaven and of course, they can justify it in the end. But like the song “One Tin Soldier” says, “There won’t be any trumpets blowing, come their judgment day.”
Anyway it seems that in the past, the previous councillors of the Thorne Municipality believed they could legally forgive the TCRA taxes and give them donations rather than rent because the official Amusements Act under which the TCRA was allowed to operate meant the TCRA was only allowed an income of $1,000.
From what I have read in the minutes and heard at council meetings, the way past councils dealt with the TCRA is not an accountable nor fiscally responsible way for the current elected council to operate. During the past four years, legal action was required to solve the disagreement between the TCRA and the municipality after the initial out of court attempts and possibilities failed and other options were exhausted.
Whatever one chooses to believe about the approach the elected councillors voted on and agreed they had to take in order to be accountable with tax payers’ dollars over the past four years with regards to the TCRA and the municipality requirement to have its own land, is apparently – thankfully – in the final stages of completion. This, I believe, was announced a while back in THE EQUITY by the Thorne Director General. She said the TCRA and the municipality had reached an agreement.
One thing for sure is that the TCRA is now a legal organization that can charge rent and collect income in excess of $1,000. This certainly is hard to dispute because even the TCRA’s lawyer said that the TCRA is now legal at the Extraordinary Meeting the new TCRA held to inform the community what the three past directors of the old TCRA had already chosen to do in order to become legal.
Anyway, here’s hoping the new TCRA will be self-supporting and doesn’t have to rely on handouts and donations to stay afloat. It is like the story about a hungry person. If you give the hungry person a fish (donation) then they are content today but will soon need additional donations unless they learn to be self sufficient. (Learn to fish so they can feed themselves).
The TCRA has a new board of directors and the municipality will have a new elected council on Monday and optimistically there is another four year opportunity of community activities, community improvements and hopefully lots of fun in one of the best communities in the Pontiac.
Here’s hoping there will be many activities at the TCRA and the Thorne Municipal council manages their budget wisely and in an accountable legal manner.
Hopefully now the Thorne community can become a community where facts and truth rather than rumours and lies becomes the basis on how people become informed on what’s happening in their community.
People should take an interest in their community and get their information from validated sources and then they will never have to be sorry for their misguided beliefs and/or actions.

Randy Born
Ladysmith, Que.