Man About Canton: Where Are the Candidates?

DID YOU KNOW …

There was a time when Canton was a “hot” political town — a time when there would be four or five candidates for selectman, a time when there would be contests for many of our town offices — but not this year, not in Canton. This year, for the first time in Canton’s history, there will be no contests for any of our town offices, and all incumbent candidates will have a “free ride” back into office.

While it is true that the incumbents have generally done a creditable job, the need for competition is obvious as the lack of political competition is not healthy in a democracy. Plenty of people complain about government, but apparently they don’t want to step forward to do something about it. This year, the recurring voter apathy that we have been seeing in low voter turnouts now seems to be matched by candidate apathy.

Once again, Canton voters are leaving the job of government and managing town affairs to somebody else, and that is too bad. Crucial issues facing the town will not get the kind of voter scrutiny and management they need. At this rate, what if they had an election and nobody, including incumbents, bothered to run? Judging from what has occurred this year, it appears it may come to that.

It appears that Canton-based Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins ice cream had a great year in 2010. They announced that preliminary figures indicate the two chains had combined worldwide sales of about $7.7 billion, which was an increase of 7 percent above the $7.2 billion they earned a year ago.

In New York City, it is now against the law to smoke in city parks, beaches, and even Times Square under one of the toughest anti-cigarette laws passed by the City Council. The smoking ban covers 1,700 parks and 14 miles of public beaches, plus boardwalks, marinas, and pedestrian plazas like the one in the heart of Times Square.

The Patriot Ledger reports that foreclosures are increasing in Massachusetts. In Canton, there were 11 foreclosures in 2009, and they increased to 21 in 2010. In comparison, Randolph had 85 foreclosures in 2009, which increased to 96 in 2010.

From our trivia file comes this interesting question: Who was the only U.S. president to serve in the Confederacy during the Civil War? It was our 10^th president, John Tyler (1790-1862) of Virginia, who, in 1841, was the first vice president to ascend to the presidency due to the death of his predecessor, William Henry Harrison. When the Civil War broke out, former President Tyler helped form the Confederate States of America. When he died in 1862, he was serving as a member of the Confederate House of Representatives.

The Canton Community Theatre and the Canton Future Problem Solvers are jointly putting on a fundraising comedy review which will feature four comedians at the Morse Auditorium at Canton High on April 2 at 8 p.m. The show will headline professional comedians Steve Sweeney and Tony V. Tickets are $25 and are on sale at www.cantoncommunitytheatre.org or at the door.

Congratulations to Canton Town Counsel Paul DeRensis, who was unanimously elected president of the statewide Massachusetts Selectmen’s Association at the recent annual meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

The benefits of using reusable bags instead of plastic are tremendous. Did you know that the petroleum used to make 10 plastic bags could drive a car one mile? Also, if you put plastic bags in your recycle bin, they do not get recycled and have to be returned to the stores or thrown away. A single plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to degrade. Reusable bags are stronger, hold more, and are easier to carry with their handles. Many people in the city of Boston bring their own reusable bags when they go to the supermarket. Come on Canton, let’s do our part!

Have you noticed the huge mountain of snow at the Devoll Field parking lot? Our DPW has been dumping snow there, and there was so much of it, some Podgurski Corp. heavy equipment had to be brought in to consolidate it. The mountain of snow is now so large and so tall, it probably won’t melt away for months. In the meantime, the DPW has also started dumping snow on the Bolivar Pond parking area on Bolivar Street.

Finally, the general consensus around town is that the Canton Public Works employees have done an outstanding job plowing and handling all the snow we got this year, and recognizing the DPW workers have had their hands full, the downtown merchants have been especially complimentary.

Be who you are and say what you feel because those that matter don’t mind, and those that mind don’t matter.

This is all for now folks; see you next week.

Joe DeFelice can be reached at manaboutcanton@aol.com.

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Posted by Joe DeFelice on Feb 24 2011. Filed under Featured Content, Man About Canton, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.