Jim Chapman's Boner of the Week. NEW!

Kinda new anyway, as of last week and heard on the Jim Chapman Lecture Series on Radio, probably on Thursday.

Jim was talking municipal election coverage and the bit of a 'dust-up' in the London Free Press and on the *other* AM-radio station in town about the 'disgraceful' condition of Veterans' Memorial Parkway and how it was full of litter and garbage and overgrown.

If you paid any attention to this you would know that Ward 2 candidate Steve Polhill (son of current Board of Controller Bud Polhill who now hopes to be elected city-councillor in Ward 1,) was mounting a volunteer effort for this past Sunday to get the Parkway cleaned up. Then he complained through 'the social network' and then the 'mainstream media' that his rival for votes in Ward 2 - the incumbent councillor Bill Armstrong had put in an official complaint to City Hall about tax-payers dollars being used for free garbage bags for the clean-up. The implication being that Armstrong had no respect for veterans.

The Free Press did a little digging and found out that Armstrong had in fact complained to City Staff MONTHS AGO about how bad the roadway meant to honour war-veterans looked - and had been the FIRST city politician to do so. As for Steve Polhill's accusation that Armstrong had made the petty complaint about city-owned garbage bags being used for this volunteer clean-up, the Free Press reported that Armstrong had denied this and in fact, told the confidentialty people at City Hall to check their records, make them public - and this would prove that there was no communication from Armstrong for such a request.

Jim Chapman, however, when he talked about this on his current events radio show on Thursday didn't mention any of these facts which would put Armstrong in a good light. He dismissed all talk about the hostility between the candidates with a condescending "I hear they're having a bit of a tussle over there - 'twittering' and 'facebooking' back and forth." Oh, those kids!

He then went on to compliment young Steve Polhill for initiating such a positive community volunteer event. To anyone else, this 'clean-up' would be seen as an obvious blatant electioneering and grandstanding due to being organized and happening only three weekends before the election.

Jim didn't see it that way though - young Steve Polhill was just doing something on his own to show his respect for our war vets and because the City wasn't doing anything about it.

Well, of course, everyone else asked themselves - IF Steve Polhill had been so upset about this for so long, why did he wait until almost the end of campaigning to make a big deal about it?

More importantly, if he had - as he claims - to have had many discussions with Daddy 'Bud' Polhill about how bad the Parkway was, and what an insult its condition was to 'Our Boys,' then WHY didn't he just ask his dad to use his influence as a member of Board of Control and make a few phone calls and get a maintenance crew of city-workers out there? I mean, if you are a member of Board of Control, do you not have at least some kind of pull and power at City Hall? If not, what's the point? If a City Controller can't get a few city-employeed feet on the job over a period of months then he's even more inept than most of us have suspected.

No, everyone KNOWS that this was just a cheap election stunt and a very cynical and dishonest way of casting a rival candidate in a bad light in the theatre of public opinion. For proof of just how blatant the grandstanding was, all you need to know is that media-pig Steve Orser, the incumbant candidate for Ward 4 showed up to lend a hand and hopefully get his picture taken for the paper or on the TV.

Chapman himself had mentioned that *he* was planning on helping out at the clean-up. And we all got a good chuckle out of that - the image of Jim Chapman in a pair of duck-boots, a pair of coveralls borrowed from Orser, a garbage bag in his hand while he picked up litter with the other - I tellya, it's hilarious!

Of course it never happened. The day after Jim first mentioned helping out (and after suggesting that his listeners might want to do the same - for the vets,) the next day on the radio, after another reminder about the volunteer event, he then casually mentioned a flu bug which had been going through the station. As for his no-show - Quel surprise.

But that first day on the radio last week when he brought the subject up, Jim wouldn't wade into any mess that would show his best friend Bud to be the useless, ineffectual member of city-council that he is.

Instead, he did some on-air electoral endorsements.

Which brings us to Jim Chapman's Boner(s) of the Week.

"If you like Bud, you'll like Steve. He's a chip off the ol' block."

Now this ain't necessarily a good thing. Not exactly a flattering comparison during an election for municipal government.

... Does this mean that if elected to city council, Steve will emulate his dad by flip-flopping on various issues once he ascertains how the winds of public-opinion are blowing?

... Will Steve vote one way and then when questioned about it by the Free Press say something he will 'kinda' deny when interviewed about it the next day on the radio? "Well yes, I did vote that way and I did make that comment to Jonathan Sher - BUT that's not what I meant to say." Or use that old standby - 'Well city staff didn't give us all the information. And we had to vote RIGHT that minute!'

... and more importantly - if, or if not elected - will Steve Polhill follow family tradition by alerting the media ten months before the next municipal election that he is considering taking a run for the Mayor's chair?

Since Jim Chapman didn't want to get into the 'personal' politics of this specific election race, after he did all his cheerleading for Team Polhill, this is what he had to say about Steve's rival Bill Armstrong -

- "Well, ... what can you say about Bill Armstrong ..." Jim asked. Then as if grasping for *something* positive to say about him, he comes up with "... I guess the people out there like him."

Yeah, I guess they do, Jim. They like him so much that they've been re-electing him for years. They like him so much that in the last municipal election four years ago, the voters said 'No thanks' when offered a choice between Armstrong and Steve Polhill and picked him again.

But being re-elected or even elected isn't something Jim Chapman would know anything about. He's a three-time loser when it comes to running for public office. This guy couldn't get himself elected if his name was 'Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.'

And yet, despite Londoners having told him on three separate occassions that they don't like him, his politics or opinions, he still has the audacity to call himself 'The Voice of London,' and use that misnomer in his attempt to advise gullible members of 'Chapman's Army' a.k.a. 'The Silent Majority' a phrase he appropriately stole from the disgraced Richard M. Nixon. When it comes to telling people how or who to vote for, the man has as much credibility as Tricky Dick.

Now that I think of it, you don't hear Jim tossing that 'Silent Majority' thing out there much anymore. Maybe someone better versed in History than 'The Perfesser,' suggested that it might not be a good idea.