Barrie Mayor Dave Aspden has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in relation to a trip he made last spring to China.  But the question remains, did he do anything wrong when he went on the trip with some developers who paid part of his freight for the venture ??

      While he may not be a crook, he may have acted immorally, or in the least, he did in my mind abuse the priviledge his office.  The OPP were forced into a lengthy investigation, lasting most of a year, and including dozens of interviews and a mountain of paperwork.  For what ????   Because city council at the time smelled a rat!!  Instead of launching an internal investigation, and demanding an explanation from Aspden himself, they led police on a wild goose chase, one that cost all of us a lot of money, sullied the office of Barrie Mayor, and put the political credibility of the city's leader in question.

     In their investigation, police may have in fact found things that bring Aspden's judgement into question, but those aren't the conclusions they were asked to come up with.  They were only concerned with any potential crossing of legal lines, and found none.  Therefore, the mayor has been cleared, at least of any criminal wrong-doing, but it may be years before his colleagues and constituents are able to wipe away the tarnish that this whole sordid episode created for the man, the office, and I believe, the entire city council.

    The question begs to be asked.  Are any apologies in order ??  From whom??  To whom??   Let me know what you think.