Out of 'public' eye, into the jeans?
John Mcphee Brockton council had an interesting delegation Monday afternoon that raised several eyebrows.

Three representatives from Ainsworth came to council to encourage officials to take the "no risk guarantee" that would see the municipality save almost $35,000 in energy costs. (Story will be in next week's edition.)

Making the pitch were Ainsworth's Peter Grabner, vice-president (commercial division); Amanda Kusick, their municipal account manager, and Chris Stockwell a "consultant" whose resume includes serving as a councillor in Toronto; a former Speaker of the provincial legislature, and holding several cabinet posts including Minister of the Environment.

However, while the first two were professionally dressed, as circumstances should dictate, Stockwell looked like he stopped in for the presentation on his way to a ball game.

Here was a former career politician who was making a pitch for a quarter of a million dollar contract wearing faded blue jeans, running shoes, a casual shirt, and a baseball cap. His shabby, disrespectful appearance did not go unnoticed by local officials.

However, we shouldn't really be too surprised at Stockwell's 'snubbing' appearance. After all this is a politician who has a history of thumbing his nose at anyone else - taxpayers and environmentalists included.

In 2003, as the top gun at MOE, Stockwell overturned two independent inquiries and gave a Swiss company the right to take an amazing 4.5 million litres of water from the Tay River, near Perth, for free! His PC government later put a moratorium on that agreement.

Also in 2003, Stockwell was forced to resign from cabinet after Integrity Commissioner Coulter Osborne ruled that he breached the Member's Integrity Act by not divulging that he had used transportation funds from OPG. It appears that he also failed to disclose British Power's contribution to his travel costs on a 2002 trip the Europe where he took along his wife and two young children and charged taxpayers for a supervan use that included trips reportedly lasting until 1:30 a.m.

In yet another controversy, Stockwell and his staff were once forced to repay the government some $12,000 in wrongly billed expenses, including $3,000 in bar tabs!

So, if councillors were a little surprised, if not miffed, at Stockwell's appearance, perhaps they shouldn't be. The 'do-my-own-thing-my-way' track record is there.

Ainsworth undoubtedly hired Stockwell as a consultant for his name and his connections as they travel the province looking for energy saving contracts from companies and municipalities. But perhaps they should 'connect' him with a tailor.

When the former minister was making headlines for all the wrong reasons in the past, at least he looked good doing it.

Now, I guess image doesn't matter anymore.