……… instead of giving our city a continual stream of fawning support of all things ‘Abbotsford Heat’?

Maybe it is too much to ask, that a local newspaper exists to report the news, and engage in sharp analysis of decisions,and spending done by the municipal governments.

My perception for a long time has been that the Abbotsford News has had a most lucrative relationship with City Hall.   Lots and lots of full-page ads for them, while the other local paper did not seem to share in that largesse.

Publisher, Andrew Franklin must look at the bottom line of his business, and can we really blame him?  His paper ran full-page ‘Abbotsford Heat’ plaudits very frequently, sometimes an entire section was given over to ‘The Heat.’   So yes, I’m guessing the Abbotsford News profited handsomely from their relationship with this hockey team.

But the point is, that the community did not do well, and our newspaper seemed loathe to write about how very bad this deal was for the tax-payers of this town.

I do not believe we needed to pay Ken King and his Calgary Flames another $5.5 million to leave our town.   Newspapers have enormous power, for good or for evil.

What if our local newspaper had honestly written about this grossly unfair contract, …….. I believe the owners of the Calgary Flames, and Lane Sweeting and his local co-owners would have been shamed into rewriting a more equitable deal, or offered Abbotsford money for them to back out of the contract.

But perhaps it was just too sweet for Messrs. Franklin and Holota, to see how sour the deal was to the rest of us.

Jordan Bateman calls for an audit of our city finances.  Good luck with that.  No doubt Jordan has far more clout than I do, but I and others have written the Premier and the Ombudsman with similar calls.  Their consistent non-response is good for my humility.

http://www.abbotsfordtoday.ca/ctf-calls-for-audit-of-abbotsfords-finances/