Saturday, May 7, 2016

CRAITOR THE TRAITOR GETS THROWN UNDER THE BUS

Premier Wrynn recently revealed that former MPP Kim Craitor was forced to resign in 2013 due to sexual harassment allegations against him. He has since said that the allegations were "unfounded," although a third-party investigation did determine that there was evidence of harassment by Craitor. Since then, one of the complainants has come forward publicly. She, along with other Niagara Falls employees at Craitor's constituent office, had abruptly resigned as well. His long-time aide had already left for greener pastures.

Accompanying the article is a head shot of Craitor, taken several years ago, which shows a marked resemblance between Kim and entertainer Wayne Newton. What struck me is that there may be some justice in the world as Kim thought nothing of throwing The Four Fort Erie Councillors under the bus in his support of Jim Thibert, the head of the EDTC and his frequent lunch/golf companion.

Of course, many of us had already realized that Kim was a liar. He told a whopper just after the provincial tourism minister gave $2 million to Fort Erie for "tourism initiatives." That announcement was made with great gusto at a Chamber of Commerce meeting. Craitor was quoted in the local press as saying that there was no decision yet as to where the windfall was going, but there were a lot of possibilities for its use. Of course, we knew that it would all go to the flailing Fort Erie Race Track and it did. Of course it did.

Frankly, I would never have guessed that Craitor would sexually harass his female office staff. I had other suspicions about him amid some pretty disturbing accounts about money losses in a provincially held program. Many of us thought his abrupt resignation was due to that. We never believed that he was just "exhausted."

Craitor pandered to the wrong people in Fort Erie and gave the rest the impression that he was working in their best interests. He was not; he was a Thibert groupie. While he was palling around with narcissists, he was setting himself up for his own demise. I hope that he resigns from Niagara falls Council. He is done like a duck's dinner.

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