Niagara At Large Is  No Longer Going to Take Bylsma’s Bait

Every Time The Mainstream Media Shines Light on the West Lincoln Mayor’s Controversial Conduct, One  Suspects That He Loves It. It Plays To His Ultra-Right-Wing, Christian Heritage Party Base

A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted November 17^th, 2021 on Niagara At Large

So here we go again.

Niagara Regional Councillor and West Lincoln Mayor David Bylsma.His screwball conduct has wasted enough of the precious time that should be dedicated to addressing issues that should be of  concern to all of us.

Dave Bylsma, who serves on Niagara’s Regional Council by virtue of his current position as Mayor of West Lincoln, openly engages in another episode that is controversial or insulting to others, and he makes front page news in daily newspapers.

In the past, I have posted commentary on such episodes on Niagara At Large, with calls for Bylsma’s resignation from elected office or failing that, my hope that he might be turfed out of office in next year’s municipal elections.

But no more.

Like however many others in Niagara who sent me emails reading; “Have you seen this,” I most certainly saw the front-page story in Niagara’s daily newspapers this November 16^th about Bylsma – this time talking about some highly objectionable language he used to discuss employment at his family business.

As repulsive as this latest bit may be – at least rivaling one of his last acts of asking inappropriate questions to a young Niagara woman about her menstrual cycle – I decided that enough is enough.

I make this decision knowing that in these crazy times we live in, stories about looney tunes like this often attract more readers than stories about climate change or a group of volunteers planting trees in the community. And how sad is that and what does it say about the current state of our culture?

The bottomline for me is this.

I don’t want to give any more oxygen to this screwball from Niagara West and I sincerely hope that Niagara’s Regional Council, which has taken precious time away from the peoples’ business to reprimand him in the past, doesn’t given him any more oxygen either.

Bylsma’s nutbar antics have already distracted too much attention away from real challenges our municipal representatives need to be dealing with like affordable housing, public transit, COVID-19, the opioid crisis and growing our communities in ways that protects and preserves what is left of our wetlands, woodlands and food-growing lands.

Niagara mayors and Niagara Regional Chair Jim Bradley at an official ceremony on September 18th, 2020. If you look close, West Lincoln Mayor David Bylsma, second from left and toward the back, is the only municipal leader not wearing a mask. When this event was scheduled, new reporters attending it were told to wear a mask. But as par usual, Bylsma flaunted this health measure

We can’t afford to waste any more time on  clowns like this.

Besides, I suspect that Bylsma, like the Trump nuts south of the border who engage in outrageous behavior then use the publicity they get from it as a fund-raising opportunity, may see this as a way of ginning up his political base.

So no more. If this character resigns, Niagara At Large will be pleased to report that. Or if he is defeated in the fall 2022 municipal elections, we will be pleased to report on that too.

But I am no longer going to give screwy antics free rent here. There are too many other more important issues in Niagara to focus on.

• Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

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