There was much hubbub earlier this week as Brant and Brantford members of council met to start the latest round of negotiations aimed at moving that boundary between the city and county.

Officially, that’s the City / County Strategic Growth Negotiations Task Force.

On Monday, when city councillors met for a historical overview, it was a different A-word that caused Ward 3 Coun. Dan McCreary to look in my general direction and comment about the media not making too much of amalgamation or annexation. The words are politically loaded— annexation being evil, I guess, because it implies some kind of takeover.

“Annexation: the act or an instance of annexing,  especially new territory.”
“Annex:  1. to attach, append, or add, especially to something larger or more important.
2. to incorporate (territory) into the domain of a city, country, or state: Germany annexed part of Czechoslovakia.
3. to take or appropriate, especially without permission.
4. to attach as an attribute, condition, or consequence.
— Dictionary.com

So let’s call it what it is folks. The ultimate goal here is that the city’s boundary will move, and expand into areas that are currently the County of Brant. Let’s stop dressing it up as a ‘change in governance,’ ‘strategic growth’ or other such babble.

It’s an annexation, plain and simple.

Categories: Brant, Brantford, Dissention in the ranks

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