Kenny Rogers has a great voice and when he sings The Gambler, you’re right with him as he tells the story of an inveterate gambler giving advice to a greenhorn on how to play poker and how to play life.

It’s really not a short segue to wonder, if some folks on Brampton council might have been listening to Kenny when they decided to fold themselves into retirement after 25 years sitting around the council table.

It’s true that you have to know when to hold them, to fold them, to walk away and sometimes run from politics … especially after 25 years. All three retirees, councillors from 1 and 5, local and regional and the regional councillor from 7 and 8 are retiring after 25-plus years at the council table.

All three, each, in their own way, have made significant contributions to the City of Brampton. They acquired and became skilled at knowing this city inside and out over the 25 years and have become experts on the City of Brampton. They deserve our thanks for the many years they have served' missing family events, enduring late hours and sometimes tolerating ill-informed and inconsiderate criticism from the community.

To all three; Grant Gibson, Elaine Moore and Gael Miles our thanks for long and valued service. We wish you good health and good fortune in whatever you tackle next.

The last of the long-term members of council is John Sprovieri. John will have served on Brampton council for 30 years at the end of this term. News reports say that John is contemplating what to do next now that Gurpreet Dhillon, the local councillor, has decided to contest the regional councillor’s seat in Wards 9 and 10. One can only guess what Spovieri’s next move might be. Maybe it is to run for local councillor in Wards 9 and 10 or maybe it’s to run for mayor or maybe run for regional chair. John has lots of time to think about his options. The municipal election is in October.

In the 2014 election, Sprovieri won his regional councillor’s seat by only 346 votes with 29.06 per cent of the vote … the second place challenger got 27.57 per cent. There were six other people running for that post. In the meantime, Ward 9 and 10 has changed again and grown with an influx of new people. So running for local councillor may be a chancy decision and running for mayor requires a very good organization and a track record to attract supporters. No easy feat! Maybe regional chair isn’t such a bad choice!

The Gambler song gives good advice when it says, you have to know when to hold them, fold them and know when to walk away. All tough decisions especially if you had things you still wanted to do and had the energy to do them. Never an easy choice!

History records who wins, not who almost won and even though you’re recorded in the election statistics, politics is a zero sum game where win, not place, counts. Still there is lots of time left to make decisions so who knows what will happen!

Terry Miller is a long time Brampton resident and former Peel Region and Brampton city councillor. The Scene column appears each week.