John Tory is not impressed

With both McGuinty and Tory in HKLB recently, I thought it would be interesting to compare how they spent the time:

McGuinty:
http://www.thepost.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1437437

...The new Green Act, expected to be unveiled this month, will lead to the creation of 50,000 direct and indirect jobs within three years.
McGuinty and Johnson were escorted through sprawling modern barns on the dairy farm by co-owners and brothers Jim and Phil Callaghan. McGuinty told them it is "an amazing operation."
The Callaghan brothers run the farm with their mother, Aileen, who watched the Premier's visit while leaning on the arm of Johnson's wife, Terri Crawford. Phil's wife Karen was also on hand, with their two children Jennessa and Chadd. The family later gathered together for a photo with the Premier.
McGuinty asked questions and heard that the farm has 600 head of cattle and is in the process of getting a biodigester to convert the methane from manure into 500 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power 400 homes near Lindsay.
The Callaghans will receive provincial financing of $400,000 when the project is completed, which will be in about a year. Jim Callaghan noted that "the City of Kawartha Lakes has been great. The mayor is 100 per cent behind it."
After the tour, McGuinty gave a brief press conference, thanking the family and commending them for their work ethic and family values. He praised Jim and Phil for their entrepreneurial ability and enthusiasm. He also noted the "impeccable character" of Johnson, who knew the Callaghans' late father.
He said the Green Act will reduce the time it takes to get green energy projects such as theirs up and running. The red tape to get connected to Hydro One for wind turbines will also be cut, he said.

So McGuinty talks about actually putting money into building the new green knowledge economy, (take a look at this too: http://www.thepost.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1437446) and making government more energy efficent, demonstrating that the best kind of government in an economic downturn is of an active, but limited one.


Meanwhile it looks like Nega-Tory is back on the scene:
http://www.thepost.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1437425&auth=DAVE%20FLAHERTY,%20LINDSAY%20POST%20REPORTER

I love this line:

He criticized the Liberal Party for the amount of office space it rents in Toronto.

"We can afford to move some of those jobs out of Toronto," he said.

A large amount of effort will be needed to bring new endeavours to Lindsay. The area will have to sell itself, Tory said...

Interesting to see Tory call for moving jobs out of Toronto, after all, he plans on wanting a job as a Toronto MPP as soon as he finishes Tim Peterson'ing the people of HKLB. A large amount of effort will be needed for HKLB to sell itself, considering even the man who wants to represent it at Queen's Park is looking to run away from actually having to deal with the such concerns as, you know, the actual residents of the riding. I mean, come on, can you really expect a silver spoon boy like Tory to actually want to represent a rural Central Ontario riding? He did that once and he abandoned it as soon as he could. Really, people of HKLB, you need to do a better job of impressing John Tory if you want the privilege to have him as an MPP for a year and half. It's only costing the province a few hundred thousand dollars, which is nothing to a man of Tory's background.

ps: Be sure to show support for Rick Johnson in the Lindsay Post's poll:
http://www.thepost.ca/

Vote early, vote often.

CUSA Elections

Carleton has voted, as can be seen here: http://www.cusaonline.com/elections/results_el.html

Despite a lot of talk that the "establishment/CFS" slate could be beaten this year, the Demand Better slate (which I was supporting) only managed to get one exec member elected, Nick Bergamini, who was basically the whistle blower in the whole Shineramagate. Unfortunately, Brittany Smyth, the incumbent President who mishandled the Shineramagate incident, was elected as a Public Affairs rep.

Beyond that, however, the story of the election is developing to be the appointment of the "Because It Matters" candidate Erik Halliwell as President, after the controversial disqualification of Bruce Kyereh-Addo (the Demand Better candidate) and Cam Macintosh, an independent candidate. Furthermore, lets take a look at the results of the exec positions in which the student vote in theory actually counted:

VP Finance

Joel Schuurman (Demand Better)
Votes: 1561
Meera Chander (Because It Matters)
Votes: 1727

Patrick Troy
Votes:427

Spoiled: 56
Rejected: 146

VP Internal


Cameron McKenzie (Because It Matters)
Votes: 1946

Shaun Cawley (Demand Better)
Votes: 1727

Spoiled: 78
Rejected: 171

VP Student Issues


Ashton Starr
Votes: 386

Carlos Chacon (Because It Matters)
Votes: 1635
Nicholas Bergamini (Demand Better)
Votes: 1729

Spoiled: 49
Rejected: 127

VP Student Services

Jessica Vasquez (Demand Better)
Votes: 1960

Shewit Kalaty (Because It Matters)
Votes: 1730

Spoiled: 81
Rejected: 163

VP Student Life


Alexandre Sirois (Because It Matters)
Votes: 2155

Omhenimhen Iyamu
Votes: 622

Yulian Ihnatyuk
Votes: 753

Spoiled: 72
Rejected: 249

As you can see, with the exception of the Student Life position, (the Demand Better candidate had to withdraw) the difference between the Demand Better and Because It Matters candidates was smaller then the number of ballots deemed to be spoiled and rejected. It remains to be seen how any appeals of the disqualified candidates will go, but after a lot of initial hope, it looks like broadly speaking, the establishment won again.

EDIT: Lots of rumours floating around that Bruce actually recieved more votes for President then Erik, around 1700.

Israeli elections

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304741384&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The centrist Kadima is unexpectedly looking like they will emerge as the largest party (most polls suggesed the right-wing Likud would hold the biggest share), but with the rise of the hard-right but secular Israel Beiteinu party, it would seem the right-wing might have a better shot at forming government. Another link on the J-Post site though, says that negotionations for the formation of a right-wing block might be more difficult:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304744151&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

"A source in Likud was quoted as saying that Lieberman would "bleed us dry" in coalition negotiations"

At this point a "grand coalition" might be the most likely outcome, and in such a situation, Kadima, as the largest party, would probably get dibs on the Prime Ministership.

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http://www.thepost.ca/

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"Buy your own damn fries."

Ok, technically Obama is actually just quoting a friend from his book Dreams from My Father, but it is still endlessly amusing to hear Obama use some pretty blue language:

http://www.aprilwinchell.com/2009/02/05/barack-obama-is-tired-of-your-motherfucking-shit/