 |
| Newton Apple Seed - 2014 "Honours and distinctions bestowed by a grateful nation" |
“(If you) follow the advice of Henry David Thoreau - that government is best which governs least,” Mayor Dan Needles said in his 2015 State of Mariposa address. “By that measure, my term in office has been an extraordinary success.”
This year
marks a decade since the appointment of the farmer, playwright, and Leacock
Medalist as Mayor of Mariposa, a role largely fulfilled with a speech at the
Annual Leacock Medal Awards Banquet and Gala. (Read about award winner by Terry Fallis)
In his June
2015 remarks, the Mayor reflected upon his “decade of good government” with an
inventory of inactions and with a renewed commitment to not doing anything. Needles assumed office in 2005, the year his
predecessor, two-time Leacock Medalist Harry J. Boyle passed away at the age of
89. Boyle, who served for twenty years as
honorary Mayor, also took pride in his lack of service.
Although the current
officeholder framed his report with imaginings, Needles did remind the
audience of a memorable and real experience that marked the very first exercise
of his official duties. At the Leacock
Medal banquet in 2005, a lightning strike at Geneva Park killed the microphone,
the lights, and the air conditioning forcing an early termination of the event. Attendees went home soaking in sweat, parched,
and grateful that some speeches were left undelivered.
“Fourteen
speeches died in the womb that night,” Needles as mayor lamented. “But everyone
liked the new format - thus a new era began and we have been wrapping these
things up by 9-30 ever since – this has been my sole reform as your mayor – and
that was (the result of the lightning and) really an act of God – not me.”
 |
| Lake Couchiching - Geneva Park |
“There is care,
there is affection in this room,” Needles would say near the end of his speech.
The Edwardian, Anglo,
central Ontario of Sunshine Sketches may not seem like the overarching model for modern Canada, but
that ability to imagine your community – whatever form it takes - as something
different, to place yourself with one foot in and one foot out, to see your
quirks and your strengths, and to celebrate and smile collectively will always be
an ideal worthy of kindly contemplation.
A few other 2015
banquet speakers made a nod to Mariposa, but the magic flowed most easily
during the mythical mayor’s address. The mayor must deliver it with all the solemnity
and pretense of an early 20th century small town politician whether
speaking of things not done or referencing actual events like the power failure
that could have been lifted from the pages of Sunshine Sketches.
“Imagine how
disappointed I was to learn that I would not be giving a speech in Ottawa,” he
said in mock dismay. He also described his shock at receiving the call from the
Governor General’s office adding that he normally receives federal missives,
instead, from “his (the GG's) chatty brother the Receiver General.”
In a closing
aside as the man, not the mayor, Needles noted that the criterion for the
national honour is “to build a better country” and that he was cheered that making
people laugh would be considered worthy in this vein.
“And this is
just one reason I prize my citizenship.”
While his June
6th, 2015 audience at Geneva Park did not overtly concede to the “good
government” claim, their response to the Mayor’s speech suggests that, during
his term in office, Needles has done his share in ensuring Mariposa has “good
galas.”
DBD - June 2015
 |
| My Book visiting Old Brewery Bay that Day |