A tough job to win, a tougher job to hold on to

It's deja vu in the Oshawa political arena.

Back in 2006 Julia McCrea ran and won for school board trustee with the Durham District School Board. Her victory was short-lived however, when it was discovered that she was ineligible to hold office as a trustee while working in education. She worked as a teacher in York Region but lived in Oshawa.

One would think her background in education would have served Ms. McCrea well as a school board trustee in Durham Region. It was actually one of the reasons I voted for her. But rules are rules and Ms. McCrea was forced out of office before she could be sworn in. A by-election was held and Michael Barrett was re-elected to take her place.

Fast-forward to 2010 and Mike Nicholson finds himself in a similar situation. He won a seat on Oshawa council but today he got word from the Toronto Transit Commission, where he works as a bus driver, that if he was sworn in today with the rest of his council colleagues, he'd be terminated from the TTC. As a result, only Mayor John Henry was sworn in. (Visit http://durhamregion.com/news/article/167108)

City councillors work part-time and make about $30,000. TTC workers make considerably more than $30,000 so it's not a job Mr. Nicholson wants to lose.

Mr. Nicholson says he  checked with the TTC before he ran for city council and got approval. He was even congratulated by his supervisors and colleagues when he won the election in November. Now the story has changed and Mr. Nicholson has until Monday to get the situation figured out. If he can't hold office while employed at the TTC will the City of Oshawa hold a bye-election to replace him or award the job to the candidate who placed one behind Mr. Nicholson in the election? I for one hope we have a by-election. Otherwise Maryanne Sholdra will once again be on council. What a disaster that would be.

The City of Oshawa's slogan is 'Prepare to be Amazed'. Given the way this situation is playing out the slogan is proving true, but not in the way it was originally meant.