Hugh Arrison and Jim Flaherty don't get the job done.

So Jim Flaherty was in town last night for a fundraiser with his close supporter and policy follower, Hugh Arrison.

http://www.mississauga.com/article/18997

"This riding is, quite frankly, ripe for a Conservative Member of Parliament and the member-to-be is someone who has the business background, is the right candidate for the right riding at the right time."

Interesting that Jim talks about the importance of the riding to the party, not you know, the people of the riding to the government, but I guess Jim Flaherty lacks the political sense to say something less cold-sounding.

Flaherty also talked about the funds the Tories have set aside for infrastructure in the GTA, a not so subtle attempt to try and make Mississauga voters forget about the times he said not to invest in Ontario and rejected Hazel McCallion's advice on balancing budgets.

So Jim must be pretty proud of himself, n0? Go into a riding they think they can win, put on a dazzle, $250 a pop show for the crowd, and leave Mississauga with the wind at his back.

What a shame that reality has a liberal bias.

http://www.thestar.com/FederalElection/article/502107

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, vocal in her demands for a better deal for cities, said Dion's plan is just what she's been asking for.

"And it's not for potholes," said McCallion, taking a swipe at Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's statement that Ottawa isn't in the business of fixing city roads. "It's for transit and sewage treatment and bridges and hospitals and colleges and all sorts of important things."

You know all those hard-working, middle class Canadians the Conservatives keep trying to win over? A whole lot of them live in Mississauga, and a whole lot of them like a government that doesn't bash their home province and city.

Life after Hazel, and wrapping up Montreal

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080804.whazel04/BNStory/National/

Interesting piece in the Globe about Mississauga municipal politics after Hazel is not longer mayor. I think Carolyn Parrish, the former controversial Liberal MP and current city councillor, hits the nail on the head when she says:

"No one of substance will run against Hazel McCallion. She is just too revered in this city."

Hazel's level of being revered can be debated, but it is certainly true that no big-name figure will risk embarrassing themselves running against Hazel. The article names all of the currently discussed contenders for the job, Parrish herself being the consensus front-runner, but other names include city councillor Katie Mahoney, her husband, Steve Mahoney, councillors and Hazel loyalists Pat Saito and Maja Prentice, and a non political challenger. This brings us to some interesting scenarios. A rematch of the 2004 Mississauga-Erindale Liberal nomination between Parrish and Steve Mahoney would probably be the most hard fought of any potential campaigns, as Parrish and Mahoney have plenty of bad blood between each other, and the feud they formed from the nomination shows no signs of having been cooled. Although it is generally thought that Parrish would be able to get most of the support of the Mississauga Liberal machine, Mahoney would probably be able to get the support of a significant chunk of it, as well as become a standard bearer for any "Anyone but Parrish" movement. A second scenario is that of a more openly Conservative aligned candidate running, and attempting to come up the middle and take advantage of a potentially split Liberal vote. Of course, a Conservative challenger could also take votes away from Mahoney, spliting the anti-Parrish vote and assuring victory for her. A third possibility is an election with many various councillors running, perhaps up to 4. I think Parrish would also have an advantage here, with her superior name recognition and political machine able to pull votes in areas that might otherwise vote for the local council member. If you are noticing a theme here, it is that Parrish is the favourite in all the scenarios I've listed, which I think is accurate. Parrish (for now) is the only possible candidate with real city wide name recognition, a powerful political machine, and regardless of what you personally think of her, to not recognize her as the favourite is ignorance.

ps:
I liked all the various comments on my last couple of blog posts telling me that the great hand of the Liberal Party had come and smacked down on a lowly blogger. In a stunning development, the natural governing party of Canada has bigger fish to fry then concerning itself with an errant youth. Here's what happened: Concerned about the impact of my blog on a campaign I wanted to win and help out, I went down to W-VM office the next day, and had a good long chat with the campaign manager. He apologized for the way I had been turned away, and that that had been a mistake on the part of a volunteer who didn't know what proper procedure was for dealing with would be volunteers, and that he had used my blog post as a tool to get his team more motivated and focused, and I apologized for not going through proper channels to voice my concerns. I pulled the original blog post and posted a new one, and I then spent the rest of the day doing what I wanted to do from the start: helping out Marc Garneau's campaign. I made phone calls for a few hours, then went out canvassing with Marc himself to ID some voters, the result of which was a couple dozen Liberal or likely Liberals ID'd, a hand full of BQ supporters, and zero NDP or Tory supporters. So after all the false drama that was attempted to be whipped up by rabble.ca and such, the end result? A happy local campaign, a happy party, a happy volunteer, and Liberal voters being ID'd.

Hazel fires another shot

http://www.mississauga.com/article/14668

Hazel, the Queen of Suburbia, and someone who has feuded with the federal government many times recently, has fired another shot at the Conservatives:

"Canada is missing the "vision that built the rail lines across this country," she said."As I travelled abroad a few weeks ago to Taiwan and Korea, they are investing billions of dollars in their infrastructure," she told the gathering here of municipal leaders from across Canada."The economic success of this great country is based on the status of infrastructure in our municipalities. That's where the action is. That's where companies come to operate their businesses," she said.The feisty mayor drew gales of laughter from the audience when she took a shot at remarks Flaherty reportedly once made about Ottawa not being in the "pothole business."He was suggesting municipal infrastructure isn't Ottawa's responsibility."I can think of some potholes that need fixing in Ottawa," she said, a slag at Harper's recent axing of his Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier."

It will be extremely interesting to watch how Conservative candidates in Mississauga react to anti-Hazel remarks made by the government, the Finance Minister in particular.

Why do Mississauga South Conservatives hate Facebook?

It seems the most common users of Facebook are students, and people running for political office. With Facebook a great way to reach younger voters (and an increasing number of older ones), I was compelled, out of being bored more than anything else, to see how well represented the parties of Mississauga South are on the site.

My method was rather crude, I simply typed in Mississauga South and see what happened. I got 131 groups, and included only groups that were Mississauga South specific (and political in nature). Here are the results I got:

Liberal
-Vote Charles Sousa
-MSFLA
-Re-Elect Paul Szabo, MP for Mississauga South

Green
-Peter Browne for Member of Youth Parliament - Mississauga South
Mississauga South - Green Party of Canada
-Mississauga South Green Party of Ontario (GPO)
-Mississauga South Green Party of Canada
-Elect David Johnston

NDP
-Mississauga South New Democrats

So the Greens have a number of groups (admittedly small in membership and overlapping), the Liberals a few, the NDP none, and the Conservatives, the 2nd party in the riding, none. (I must admit that a Tim Peterson group did exist at one point, I would reckon many defeated candidates in elections deleted the groups)

Given that most political Facebook groups are either deliberately created by the central association, or spontaneously by supporters, I can draw two conclusions about the Conservatives: The central association is either too out of touch to realize the usefulness of Facebook as a tool, or the membership is too out of touch or apathetic to create one. Given the relative slant of Conservative membership to lean towards old white people, at first it doesn't shock me that no groups exist. But then I realize-The MS Conservatives are smack in the middle of a nomination race, and no candidate has a group that could be easily found by simply searching the riding name.

While the Conservatives make no secret of the dislike they have for the youth vote, particularly youth in urban/suburban areas, (and I'm not just talking out my ass on this one, when Ian Brodie came in to talk to my class at the end of last semester, he dismissed much Liberal support as coming from "young people with no particular responsibility") to not take advantage of Facebook in a riding where on paper, they have a good shot, shows that perhaps the Conservatives, (and more specifically Jim Flaherty) given the attacks on the provincial Liberals (who Mississauga voters gave overwhelming support to in the election) and the municipal government led by Hazel McCallion (for whom 90% of the vote can be expected) are perhaps going to write this city, and this riding off.

Two big announcements in Mississauga

I think this: http://www.mississauga.com/article/11751 and http://www.mississauga.com/article/11711 can be seen as pretty linked to each other. The provincial Liberals give a ton of money to Hazel while she and the provincial government feuds with Jim Flaherty, giving Dalton another leg up in his back and forth, and the federal Conservatives make an announcement friendly to Eastern-European voters, of which Mississauga (and particularly Mississauga South) has a lot of. Eastern European voters (particularly Polish ones) are important voters for the Conservatives, as unlike many other immigrant communities, the Conservatives do have good support within the community. Interesting to see these come back to back.

Conservative inaction damaging progress of Mississauga, and the abandonment of fiscal conservatism

http://www.mississauga.com/article/9419

As I've written many times, Hazel McCallion should be the role model for fiscal responsibility, and her moderate and pragmatic values should serve as inspiration for all those who call themselves fiscal conservatives, as well as municipal governments.

While this incident further shows Conservative hostility towards Ontario's cities, the more interesting matter Hazel's bashing of the Conservatives should serve as a sign that the Conservatives have in fact abandoned fiscal conservatism. Given the huge deficits and gross spending by the Bush administration, and economist baffling decisions such as taxing income trusts and the GST cuts, it can be very fairly postulated that "economic conservatism" as generally understood, is no longer an actual set of policy prescriptions, but is merely a piece of rhetoric.

Replacing "fiscal conservatism" is two contrasting policies. While the Conservatives and Republicans cry they are fiscal conservatives, what they really are is "fiscal populists". The Bush administration, with its costly Iraq war spending, and military Keynesism, has been described by commentators as "Big Government conservatism", a combination of socially conservative domestic policies, expensive foreign policy, pork barrel spending, and corporate subsidies. In Canada, the Conservatives have seemingly showed disdain for basic rules of economics, and the advice of economists, in favour of implementing flimsy policies more concerned with bumping up Conservative support 1-2 points than with moving Canada's economy forward and helping individual Canadians achieve financial security.

Back to Mississauga, good to see the "small man of Confederation" has delivered the goods while Lawrence Cannon dithers.

Liberals and Conservatives on getting things done for Mississauga citizens

The Liberals: http://www.mississauga.com/article/8758

Mississauga South Liberal Paul Szabo has been named the hardest-working MP in Ottawa for the second consecutive year.

Pat Martin can childishly name-call and disrupt the Parliamentary process all he wants, but Paul Szabo, my member back home, is very effective for the people of Mississauga South.

The Conservatives: http://www.mississauga.com/article/8760

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the 86-year-old mayor of Mississauga should shut up and stop whining about her city's infrastructure problems and get to work fixing them.

It is fairly rich for the former Minister of Downloading and Locking up the Homeless, whose most high profile actions as Finance Minister federally have been a broken promise on income trusts, and a GST cut the vast majority of economists have been critical of, to speak so ill of the Mayor whose city has become associated with successful urban growth, balanced budgets, and lack of debt. While a general urban bashing makes sense from a Conservative stand point (they won't win any seats in the major urban core areas, and bashing big cities and big city values plays well in rural areas and among SoCons, the Conservatives bedrock supporters) the sheer hostility towards much of the suburban areas, and Mississauga in particularly I can't understand.

If the Conservatives wish to win a majority, Mississauga is an area in which they will need to make gains. On the Mississauga South Federal Conservative webpage, one of the lines they have states "Who will represent Mississauga South in a Conservative majority government?" The line is more than just filler, it has real substance. Mississauga South is among the top targets for the Conservatives, missing it by less than 5% in the last election, and if any real Conservative beachhead will be established in the GTA, it will be on the banks of the Credit River.

It isn't as if Mississauga is downtown Toronto, beyond the South, the Conservatives even have an incumbent in the city in Mississauga-Streetsville (albeit via a floor crossing), and have a realistic shot at Mississauga-Erindale, meaning that in the best of times, they could control half the city riding's, meaning Mississauga is not exactly an electoral wasteland.

The only possible explanation I can think of for the cold shoulder the Conservatives are showing towards Missers is they have figured that general urban bashing will secure more rural seats than developing actual urban policies would gain urban seats. Mississauga voters need to realize that Conservatives ultimately do not care of them, which is a real reflection that the Conservatives are willing to ignore and trash a city that ultimately represents so much of what is right with Canada; economically successful because of moderate and balanced approaches, wonderfully multicultural, and based around a successful federation.

More Hurricane Hazel

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/275278

Support for Hazel, in the GTA, and in the urban centres of the province continues to grow, as her campaign against the most anti-urban government in modern days.

This week, it was federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty who ran into the municipal rock of ages. "I tell you I'm taking on Mr. Flaherty," the mayor said. And, as a result, he and his government might well be picking up bits of wreckage for the foreseeable future.

McCallion slapped a 5-per-cent infrastructure levy in place – no muss, no fuss, no months of squeamish agonizing – to vacuum up some of Ottawa's GST cut and take care of what the feds won't do.

And, step aside, boys, from now on she'll lead a national campaign entitled Cities Now!, to demand Ottawa use its huge surplus to help urban centres tackle their many and mounting problems.

"I'm not fighting for Mississauga," she declared. "I'm fighting for the municipalities of Canada."

Others might be content to wait for bridges to fall down. Not Her Worship.
Suddenly, the easy outs of Ottawa have been closed off. No one can accuse Hazel of being some union lackey. No one can accuse her of running a fat and wasteful shop.

Unlike your more effete urban pols, McCallion's got a style and face and sensibility at home in every Tim Hortons and curling rink, legion hall and mall in the country.
She had street cred before the term was invented. If she says so, it must be true. And if she's angry, something must be wrong. And if you're in her crosshairs, well, might want to get your affairs in order.

"I am in a fighting mood," Greater Toronto's best-loved octogenarian announced

Come election time, the Conservatives will find that Misser Liberals will be in a fighting mood, not content to let federal mismanagement destroy Canada's greatest urban success story. The recent provincial election showed that Mississauga, once a safe Conservative area, is becoming Liberal country. Wajid Khan, at a rally the other day, talked about how proud he was to be a Conservative, and how the GTA needed more Conservative representatives. As long as the Conservatives take an openly hostile. approach towards Ontario's cities, and the GTA in particular, Khan should be spending more time discussing with his riding why he felt the need to join an anti-urban party, and less time grandstanding.

Hurricane Hazel vs. Jim Flaherty

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/274687
http://www.thestar.com/Article/274686


"We are doing the right thing. We shouldn't have to, but we have no choice," McCallion said after the 9-2 vote.

This is about par for the course for Hazel. Mississauga and McCallion herself have long prided themselves on prudent fiscal management, and remaining debt free. While the blame for rising infrastructure costs can be spread around to many sources, from the Peel Regional government and the unfair burden it places on Mississauga, to the Mississauga government of the past which has displayed pro-growth policies at the sake of infrastructure development in the past, in the here and now, Hazel criticisms of the federal government should definitely be noted.

"The federal and provincial government better not come here and tell me we are not managed efficiently. They wouldn't dare tell us that. I tell you, we could teach them a lot of things as to how better they should be managed," she said.

"They're doing everything to put money in people's pockets to win the next election, using the taxpayers' money to win a majority," McCallion said. "I take real exception to that, I tell you. We are fighting. I'm in a fighting mood. ... We are going to get a real campaign going across this country."

When asked if she'll have problems selling the idea, McCallion said: "The citizens of Mississauga are disappointed that the federal government has disowned the cities of Canada, absolutely. It's a complete neglect of the cities of this great country."

She said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's mini-budget, which ignored urban needs in favour of cuts in the GST and income tax, left Mississauga with no choice but to impose a levy that could be collected annually for the next 20 years.

"It's a sham," McCallion said, slamming the tax cuts as a cynical attempt to gain re-election.
"Is the federal government going to wait for more bridges to fall down?" she said, citing the results of neglect in the recent collapses of bridges in Quebec and Minnesota.

And then David Miller's comments:
"I don't think they can dismiss each city systematically," Miller said. "Mississauga has benefited from extraordinary growth, and even they are facing challenges that are unaffordable in their city without massive property tax hikes.
"So Minister Flaherty may try to marginalize Hazel McCallion. Good luck."

Hazel, who is extraordinarily popular in Mississauga, is arguably the most credible political figure in the country when it comes to urban areas. Jim Flaherty, hailing from the opposite end of the GTA, ignores her at his peril. Given that Mississauga is an area the Conservatives hope to make real gains in, (Khan doesn't count) particularly Mississauga South, which is bound to be a top Conservative target in the next election, as it was the seat they came the closest to winning in the GTA proper, Hazel's criticisms will certainly put a dent in any plans to paint Misser blue.