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Harrison by-election a waste of time

What conflict of interest could firefighter get into?

Re: Supreme court rules by-election in order for Harrison council seat

This entire by-election is a farce and waste of everyone's time.

Firstly, God forbid we elect a person that is so dedicated to the community that he or she signs away their time, family life and possibally life or limb in the name of service to the community for very little money in return. However, one person clarified that our dedicated firefighters are not volunteers but are "paid on call" members.

Now, I'm no brainiac but I hardly think the firefighters of the Harrison Hot Springs Volunteer (add confusion here) Fire Department have a career with a lucrative salary and benefits package! Now that the Supreme Court has identified that these paid on call firefighters are employees I guess that will allow them to become union members and enroll into the Village benifets package as well. It will also take some work to change the name of the department to lose the word "volunteer" and order new stationary, uniform badges, crests and decals for vehicles etc.

Mr. Baziuk used a technical legality to set up a roadblock for a candidate that serves his community with little in return. I guess it comes down to an issue of "conflict of interest" but I'm not sure what a "paid on call" firefighter could do to sabotage an entire community.

Pierre Bouvier