As a fiscally cautious city councillor, Dave Kennedy spent a dozen years helping Flin Flon sustain a healthy financial outlook.
Now, as the newly elected head of North of 54 Cottage Association, Kennedy finds himself at odds with former colleagues who view cabin owners as key to achieving that same goal.
Kennedy figured prominently at last week’s first-ever North of 54 annual general meeting, held, perhaps tellingly, at the Creighton Community Hall.
Early on, he was summoned to the microphone to speak to a question on annexation. Can the current city council really rule out this option when it will soon be replaced by a fresh council? Kennedy replied that it would be very difficult, though not impossible, to rescind a no-annexation agreement.
Kennedy then returned to his seat at a head table he shared with other members of North of 54’s negotiating committee. Together, they had been tasked with trying to reach a deal with the city to revive their year-round fire protection and strike the word “annexation” from the municipal
lexicon.
Declaration
Kennedy didn’t sit long. Less than 90 seconds later, back in front of the sombre crowd, he declared that the city’s latest offer
to cottagers just wasn’t good enough. Council “has not moved,” he explained, and its proposal went beyond what was reasonable for cottagers to take on.
“I’d like to move that the City of Flin Flon’s offer be rejected,” Kennedy, looking as dapper and composed as ever, concluded.
It was not clear how much persuading Kennedy actually had to do to win over the assembly. The city proposal was anathema to many cottagers before they stepped into the hall, but some, presumably, were still waiting to hear what negotiators like Kennedy had to say.
A woman from the crowd seconded Kennedy’s motion.The “all in favour?” call elicited upstretched hands from all but one of the cabins represented. All but one in a roomful of nearly 200 people.
By night’s end, Kennedy had been named inaugural president of North of 54, a group of legal standing that merged the smaller cottage owners’ groups from outside Flin Flon.
And there was no doubt in anyone’s mind about what Kennedy’s top priorities will and should be. Cottagers, by and large, want some form of year-round fire protection – and quite likely not from Flin Flon at this point.
They also really, really don’t want to become part of Flin Flon in the physical, rather than colloquial, sense. That much is evident from an anti-annexation petition said to be signed by over 500 cottagers – easily the vast majority.
Qualified
Kennedy may be uniquely qualified to deliver on those goals. Having spent a dozen years on city council, he has honed solid political skills and acquired scads of inside knowledge about how governments
function.
Kennedy also possesses that intangible gift of likeability. With a straight-talking demeanour and populist sensibilities, he was one of the most admired Flin Flon city councillors of the 2000s.
And each time he voted against giving himself a pay raise, questioned a city expenditure or let loose a witty wisecrack, his popularity seemed to soar.
Many voters lamented Kennedy’s emotional, mid-2010 announcement that he would retire from civic politics. Some had expected his next big announcement would be that he was running for mayor, but despite persistent rumours he would seek the top job, Kennedy resisted.
Now, four years later, Kennedy again finds himself factoring into the affairs of City Hall, but from a completely different vantage point, a completely different side of the negotiating table.
For all of the attempts to prevent city-cottage discussions from escalating into an all-out war, this situation feels awfully close to one as both sides draw their lines in the sand.
Kennedy, whose motion last week elicited one lonely opponent, can clearly see where the
cottagers’ line is. The question now: Where will the city’s line be after the
Oct. 22 election?
First executive
North of 54 Cottage Association, representing area cottagers on the Manitoba side of the border, elected its first executive last week:
President: Dave Kennedy
Vice-president: Terry Spence
Treasurer: John Faktor
Secretary: Ted Hewitt
Big Island directors: Cam Slugoski, Tim Schwartz
Bakers Narrows directors: Jay Cooper, Garth Thompson, Dale Powell
