Re: Did Owen Sound really have "a very good year"?   (OwenSoundHub, Jan. 21, 2021)

Mr. Clark is, of course, free to provide as detailed and encyclopedic a litany of our city's flaws as he sees fit. Take 25 paragraphs, perform as nasty audit of this town as you are able and, as they say, knock yourself out. Mr. Clark is also perfectly at liberty, in said 25 paragraphs, not to cite a single redeeming virtue of our little metropolis.

What he is not entitled to is to suggest for a minute that our mayor has been dismissive in any way of the deep and lasting impacts COVID has had on our community. The stubborn fact is that I have not heard any leader, at any level, speak to his electors with as much empathy on this issue as has His Worship. At council meetings and elsewhere, he has expressed real sadness at the effects of the pandemic and a deep understanding of how our health care providers have cared and themselves suffered.

He has also correctly acknowledged that the infection rate and death rate (the latter, zero) have been below that originally feared and has encouraged us all to believe that better days are ahead. To that end, he referred to some strong signs of latent economic growth. For this he is pilloried. I have differed strongly with my friend Ian on some issues. But on COVID he has shown civic leadership at its best.

He deserves more than this cheap shot, this frank distortion of his words.

John A. Tamming