The Colourful Season

In this, the colourful season in the hills, we ask municipal councillors and candidates about their lives in politics. And we say a very fond farewell to Alison Hird who for the past ten years has supplied our calendar events.

September 13, 2010 | | Autumn 2010 | Back Issues | Departments | Editor’s Desk | In Every Issue

Autumn is about colour: the trees on the hillsides, the art on the canvas and, once every four years, the election signs on the roadsides.

In anticipation of the municipal election on October 25, Jeff Rollings asked four former councillors about their lives in the municipal hot seat.

Their comments are frank and personal, not only about what they feel they accomplished, but about where they feel they failed, and some of the frustrations that go with the job.

In counterpoint, Julie Pollock talked to neophyte candidate Heather Hayes. Fuelled by her long record of community and volunteer service, she has entered the race with untainted optimism.

And finally, Ken Weber takes a look at councils of the past — when, for example, a seventy-dollar bridge repair could cause a local tizzy.

Read. Enjoy. Vote.

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With this issue we say a very fond farewell to Alison Hird.

For the past ten years, Alison has supplied our calendar of events, collected through her website, WhatsOn.ca.

Alison was a pioneer in the use of the Internet for community service. With the help of her husband Chris, a software engineer, she originally developed the site when she was a stay-at-home mum. She had recently immigrated to the Caledon countryside from England where she had worked for IBM.

“Situated at the top end of Caledon, I discovered we were in an area of conflicting borders,” she says. “Schools, health units, postal service, towns and counties all had different boundaries. I found it difficult to work out what was happening where.”

Her creative solution was to launch her own free, community-based events site. At first, much of her time was spent just teaching people how to use the Internet. In recent years, more than a thousand event managers from near and far have regularly submitted events to her site.

Now, after a decade of what she calls “a labour of love,” Alison is retiring her site, though she will continue to stay in touch with the community through her work as collections manager at Dufferin County Museum & Archives.

In The Hills is deeply grateful to Alison for her long and valuable service. We look forward to carrying on her work through our events calendar, where we will continue to provide the region’s most comprehensive listings of community, arts and entertainment events.

About the Author More by Signe Ball

Signe Ball is publisher/editor of In The Hills.

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