The Proclaimers

It seems the ESI were offline for a day or two. I blame some of this on the latest scandal to come to our parochial city. Yes – the sudden proclamation and de-proclamation of Shannon Tweed Day seems to have heightened the public debate regarding whom is entitled to get the keys to the city for a day. I really think this is short-sighted policy from our public officials. Long before most of us learned to type with one-hand on the internet, all that we had was what we found in our friends’ dads secret hiding spots in the basement behind the loose acoustic tiles. And Shannon Tweed was part of that history. Okay, so she wasn’t from Ottawa (a newfie no less), but she was a bit of an icon to this town having a bar on Bank St. named after her (ed. Zoom, you must have been to Shannon’s at some point? Did it become Hoopers?) And I read somewhere that she waitressed on Elgin Street for some time before breaking out for the big time. Lets face it: breaking out of Ottawa in the pre-internet, pre-instant celebrity, pre-Youtube world of the 1980’s deserves some recognition. Moreover, there was no pretense as to what Ms. Tweed represented. Meanwhile, we have currently-seated elected officials having streets named after them before they even leave office. Our Mayor is currently teaching his wife how to bake a file into a cake in case the judge doesn’t side with him. The guy who lives at 24 Sussex makes Machiavelli look like Gandhi.

So, I say, give Ms. Tweed her day. It can’t be any worse than what we have done before or what we will most likely do next. Besides, I hear Marlen Cowpland may be looking for the same recognition at some point and it may be in our collective interest if we can say: Sorry Marlen, it’s been done.