Mississauga Ward 4 by-election had been called for April 27th! Check out Joe Horneck's campaign website and support a strong voice for transit!TodayT

Last month, I wrote about how I thought Joe Horneck would be a strong addition to Mississauga city council with an upcoming by-election for Ward 4 in downtown Mississauga.

With Mississauga Council calling the by-election today for April 27th, I encourage you to check out Joe's website and get involved with his campaign if you're in the Mississauga area. Mississauga needs a strong voice for transit and city-building now more than ever.

Joe Horneck would be strong addition to Mississauga City Council

It was a great personal experience to serve as Alvin Tedjo's campaign manager in Mississauga Ward 2 this fall, one that really made me think about the future of my hometown as it builds an independent identity for itself.

With that in mind, some interesting things have happened since the municipal election. Long-time City Councillor Frank Dale was elected as Peel Regional Chair, and as such, a by-election is happening in his former Ward 4.

While a number of candidates have put their name forward, I believe Joe Horneck is by far the best candidate for the future of Mississauga.

Joe has a strong, progressive and urban vision for Mississauga:

As co-chair of the western summit’s report, Unlocking Our Gridlock Together, A Citizens' Report on Transit, Horneck has been an effective advocate for action on an issue that needs all the action it can get. He’s quite comfortable being dubbed “the transit candidate.”...

He’s an unabashed supporter of the Hurontario LRT and says an integrated hub at the Cooksville GO Station could be a catalyst that’s required for the economic stimulation of that corner of the ward.

“If we can get a mix of private and public sector investments coming together around the transit hubs, it spills into the neighbourhoods around it,” he says.

I encourage you to follow Joe on Twitter and get involved in his campaign.

Whitby-Oshawa Conservative candidate Pat Perkins questions science on climate change

So Pat Perkins is willing to spend thousands of your tax dollars to fly herself out to a real-estate conference in Cannes, France that by her own admission "nothing concrete" has come out of, but she isn't willing to listen to scientists on climate change?

Whose priorities do you think she'll listen to in Ottawa, the residents of Whitby-Oshawa, or Stephen Harper?

Where does Hudak Niagara Falls candidate Bart Maves stand on right to work?

We know Hudak has no tolerance for his own candidates standing up for local jobs in the face of his reckless right-to-work-for-less scheming and Bart Maves himself used to be opposed to the policy?

So what does Bart Maves stand for now?

It's a question worth asking. In a debate this evening, Maves repeatedly talked about the need for "worker choice", but hesitated to actually endorse Hudak's position, which Hudak has insisted he stands by and expects his candidates to support.

With the Hudak and Bart Maves standing behind a reckless right to work for less scheme, and the NDP murky on important issues like the minimum wage, only Ontario Liberals are clearly supporting Ontario workers.

PC candidates and MPPs flee from Hudak's leadership

Hudak is down two candidates, with his candidates in Hamilton Mountain and Hamilton East-Stoney Creek resigning. This of course, comes hot on the heels of PC candidate Dave Brister getting the boot for standing up for his constituents and standing up to Hudak and his reckless "right to work for less" schemes, Hudak's Finance spokesperson Peter Shurman resigning as an MPP after billing you for his second home, and long time MPP and frontbench critic Frank Klees announcing his retirement rather than running for Hudak a second time.

Oh, and Gila Martow, the new Hudak candidate in Thornhill? In addition to contradicting Hudak and supporting subway taxes, she showed how out of touch she is by stating that "I don’t think that, especially in the Thornhill riding, there’s too many families... that are working ­— the parents ­— at real minimum-wage jobs"

Doing politics differently? NDP break campaign laws in Niagara Falls by-election

Is breaking the law to try and win Andrea Horwath's idea of "leadership"?

Thornhill PC candidate Gila Martow supports subway taxes, undercuts Hudak's policy

After trying and failing to land a star candidate, Tim Hudak has settled for former Conservative riding association president Gila Martow as his candidate in Thornhill to replace his Finance spokesperson Peter Shurman, who resigned after billing you $20 grand to pay for a second home while living 150 kilometers outside a his riding, which is only a half-hour drive from Queen's Park.

As a GTA seat, transit will almost certainly be a hot issue, and while it isn't surprising to see Hudak and his backroom boys pushing a dubious "we'll build massive infrastructure projects for free" line, Hudak's candidate doesn't seem to buy it, suggesting not just one, but two different subway taxes.

Ontario needs dedicated revenue tools to help make transit upgrades to create jobs and reduce gridlock a reality. Hudak's candidate Gila Martow seems to realize that, even if Hudak doesn't. This by-election campaign, will Ms. Martow stand behind her support for revenue tools, or will she flip-flop and support Tim Hudak's unrealistic schemes?

Orange continues to be crushed in federal by-elections

I was happy to help the Freeland campaign in Toronto Centre over the last couple of months, and I'm glad to have her as my MP. I was a poll captain, and Freeland pulled 62% of the vote in my home poll, woot.

With the results spinning game already going on, here is my contribution, taking a look at some of the data from by-election results since the last election:

• The NDP did get its best ever result in Toronto Centre with 36%, but despite Mulcair running a star candidate with a hard negative campaign, the actual margin between the Liberals and NDP increased from 2011 from 11% to 13%, with Liberal support increasing by 8%
• Of the nine by-elections held since the last election, Toronto Centre marked only the second time that the NDP actually increased its percentage of the vote. The NDP saw a 5% increase in Durham, when the Liberals were shorthanded because of the provincial Liberal leadership race
• The NDP also ran a star candidate and ran a hard negative campaign in Bourassa...and were rewarded with a lower share of the vote than 2011 and a Liberal margin of victory almost double over 2011
• In by-elections since Mulcair has become NDP leader, NDP support has declined by 9% on average, with three seats (Brandon-Souris, Calgary Centre, Provencher and Victoria) seeing double digit declines in support
• While the NDP vote has only gone up in two by-elections, the Liberal vote has only gone down in two races, (Victoria and Durham) which were held when the Liberals were without a permanent leader (and as mentioned when Liberal energies in Ontario were elsewhere) and the decline in both seats was less than 1%
• While the NDP was running from Mulcair's record on resource development in Toronto Centre, in Western Canada the NDP vote declined by 11% in Calgary Centre, 14% in Victoria, 10% in Provencher and 18% in Brandon-Souris. In all but Victoria, which was a held NDP seat and was retained, the NDP candidate finished with under 10% of the vote
• The Manitoba NDP holds a seat in Brandon, making the 18% drop they experienced more troubling, as they hardly lack a ground game. 
• While the Liberals took Labrador from the Conservatives and came within 4% and 1% of winning Calgary Centre and Labrador respectively, the 13% gap in Toronto Centre represents the closest the the NDP has come to actually winning (and again, this is actually a widening of the gap for the NDP from 2011) and the NDP only retained Victoria by less than 3% after a 14% drop

"Willing to bring it … hard", "stoke[ing]...frustration and anger" - What the expect from NDP campaigns in the upcoming by-elections

That's what Pundits' Guide and David Akin wrote about new Mulcair candidate Linda McQuaig's approach to politics in their (both very good) summaries of the Toronto Centre nominations. I was happy to spend the day pulling vote for Chrystia Freeland, who McQuaig wasted no time in attacking. Those who read my blog frequently will know that I would be a wild hypocrite to pretend to be offended by going on the attack, but as Liberals, we have to realize both that Mulcair's NDP will pull as few punches as the Harper Conservatives in both Toronto Centre and Bourassa going after Liberals and making personal attacks both nationally and on local candidates. The "Love is better than anger" etc stuff was always more how New Democrats saw themselves then how they actually behaved, but Mulcair's NDP's determination to attack the third-party Liberals years before a general election is something Liberals are going to have to deal with when campaigning directly against the NDP. In the past, Liberal campaigns against the NDP failed too often when they simply boiled down to strategic voting arguements - an arguement that collapsed in the 2011 federal election. We have to be unafraid to defend our Leader and candidate from personal and policy attacks, and argue that Justin Trudeau and candidates like Chrystia Freeland are better suited to address the needs of all Canadians. And yes, we can make arguements like how McQuaid's support of "Israeli Apartheid Week" and Mulcair's main focus as leader being tearing open the Constitution with Senate abolishment demonstrate that the NDP isn't focused on the issues of everyday Canadians. As a soon to be constituent of Toronto Centre, I'll be looking forward to helping out Justin Trudeau and the Freeland campaign.

Labrador insta-analysis

I present to you some thoughts on the upcoming Labrador by-election. By the way, here is a link to donate to the Labrador FLA: https://action.liberal.ca/en/donate/Riding/10004

With the resignation of Conservative Minister Peter Penashue after he admitted his campaign took illegal donations, Labrador faces a fascinating by-election. Penashue is taking the rare step of running in the by-election to attempt to re-gain a mandate, something that by my count has only happened a few times in Canadian history. (Sheila Copps in 1996 and  Roch La Salle in 1981 are the only examples that I can name off the top of my head.)

Penashue won an extremely narrow victory in 2011, defeating incumbant Liberal MP Todd Russell by only 79 votes, or less than 1 vote per poll. Penashue's victory in 2011 can be attributed to a few factors. As former Grand Chief of the Innu Nation, he was able to increase Innu turnout in the election, a demographic that for a variety of reasons has historically not had higher turnout. The return of the Newfoundland and Labrador PC's to the federal Tory fold has to be taken into consideration, as many PC voters and organizers followed Danny Williams' ABC campaign in 2008, resulting in Labrador having less than 40% turnout and Russell romping to victory with 70% of the vote with the Conservative candidate, a Parliament Hill staffer originally from St. John's finishing in 3rd with less than 10% of the vote. The NDP vote rising in 2011 also cost Russell. Discounting the 2008 result, comparing the 2006 and 2011 results shows a stable Tory vote - Penashue's victory in 2011 with 4,256 votes was actually less than the 2006 2nd place Tory finish of 4,528 votes. Russell's vote from 2006/2011 went from 5,768 to 4,177 (it should be noted that his rise in popular vote % from 2006 to 2008 from 51% to 70% was based on the Tory vote collapsing, his raw vote in 2008 was actually slightly lower than his 2006 score) while the NDP vote from 2008 to 2011 went up by almost 1000 votes. With the provincial NDP polling well right now, they will be a factor in the race.

By-elections historically have low turnout, but it should be noted that the 2005 Labrador by-election in which Russell was elected had a 53% turnout, higher than the turnout in the general elections of 2011, 2008, 2004 and 2000. However, this by-election was held during the height of the Martin minority government when one seat could have tipped the balance of power in the House, so with this by-election being held two years into a majority mandate I'd be very surprised to see the voters of the riding hold the same level of urgency. Not sure exactly who would benefit the most from low voter turnout, particularly in a riding with a large aboriginal population.

With clouds of election donation and spending over his head, Penashue hardly goes into the by-election with momentum on his side. Given the strained relations between the federal government and First Nations groups, it might be difficult for Penashue to motivate Innu turnout like he did in 2011. Aboriginals make up just under 40% of the population of the riding. The big wild card will be the Muskrat Falls project, which Penashue will almost certainly point to as an example of his being able to bring home the bacon. Penashue has done almost nothing else notable as Intergovernmental Affairs Minister.

Former MP Todd Russell (who is aboriginal himself) would be the most likely candidate for the Liberals, he's said he's going to take a few days to make a decision. Russell was generally well liked from what I understand (his losing 38.1% of the vote would be enough to get you elected in a lot of other ridings) and was close with Justin Trudeau when they served together as MP's, so the nomination would probably be his for the taking. If Russell takes a pass, the other name I've seen tossed about on Twitter is Liberal MHA and former leader Yvonne Jones, who represents the Southeastern portion of Labrador. Jones has a strong local base in her Liberal stronghold riding, never winning less than 56% of the vote, and that was as an independent candidate. Even in the 2007 Danny Williams landslide, Jones won 73% of the vote, and in the last election won 71%.

I briefly mentioned the NDP, who would hope to play spoiler and potentially come up the middle. The NDP has never won the seat federally, although they have posted respectable results historically, and have twice won the Labrador West seat provincially (they also won the poll covering most of western Labrador in the 2011 federal election). New polls show the NDP leading the PC's in popular support province wide, although support for the NDP outside Western Labrador tends to be concentracted in the St. John's and Avalon area. The newest poll shows them nearly 50% of the vote in this area, compared to 32% in the rest of the province. The size and remoteness of Labrador is problem in terms of polling, however, as Labrador has only 6% of the population of the province, and thus only 6% of the survey results were from the province. I won't claim enough about Newfoundland politics to know who the NDP candidate might be, with 2011 and 2006 candidate Jake Larkin being the most obvious choice. Former Labrador West NDP MHA Randy Collins spent 21 months in jail for fraud, so I'm willing to cross him off the list, as well as the previous NDP MHA Peter Fenwick, who ran for the Canadian Alliance in 2000. 2011 Labrador West provincial candidate Tom Harris perhaps?

Timing will also be an issue. Assuming Denis Coderre resigns as MP for Bourassa to focus on a bid for Montreal mayor, Harper would probably call both by-elections at the same time. It makes sense tactically for the Conservatives to do so anyway, they are an afterthought in Bourassa, so they could throw everything at Labrador (assuming they want to), while the Liberals and NDP would have to focus on both, with the Liberals in particular wanting to hold on to Bourassa from the NDP or Bloc (whose leader, Daniel Paille is seatless), while the NDP would dearly like to mount serious offensive campaigns in both ridings.

On the whole, I think the Liberals have the best shot of winning the riding back, assuming they get an A list candidate in either Russell or Jones although realistically any of the 3 parties has a shot. What kind of support Penashue gets from party central will be an interesting question, the Conservatives obviously would prefer to keep the seat, but given the circumstances of Penashue's resignation and new campaign, I can't imagine they want to get many media photos of Penashue with visiting Ministers.

Horwath skips vote on Southwestern Ontario Economic Development Fund and runs Rob Ford supporter in Vaughan - what does her NDP stand for?

Kitchener-Waterloo NDP candidate Catherine Fife is running on a slogan of "Leadership that delievers", but a look at the actions of NDP leader Andrea Horwath and her fellow NDP candidate in Vaughan raises questions about what exactly she wants to deliver.

Yesterday, the Ontario Liberals gave new support to the Southwestern Ontario Economic Development Fund, to help create jobs for families across Southwestern Ontario, including Kitchener-Waterloo. And what did Andrea Horwath do? She walked out, not standing up for job creation in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Now, we already know that Hudak candidate Tracey Weiler has no qualms about flip-floping on supporting her leader, going from saying she ""supports the leader’s position on halting the rollout of full-day kindergarten in the province" to running away from Hudak:

But with Andrea Horwath running a Rob Ford supporter in Vaughan as Fife's candidate mate, will we see Catherine Fife start to back away from Horwath? Here's Horwath's NDP values on display in Vaughan:

With Tracey Weiler and Andrea Horwath's values all over the map, Eric Davis is the best choice for strong local leadership in Kitchener-Waterloo.

"Students putting students first" - Ontario Student Trustees' Association calls Putting Students First Act "a fair deal", but will the NDP and Catherine Fife listen?

The NDP and Catherine Fife have already come out against the Putting Students First Act, but will they listen to the students of Ontario themselves or their big union money interests?

Here's what the Ontario Student Trustees' Association says about the Liberal government moving to make sure students are in class from day one of the school year in Kitchener-Waterloo and across Ontario

Hirad Zafari, OSTA-AECO President and Toronto DSB Student Trustee, called upon "provincial leaders and teachers' unions, specifically those who have not agreed to the OECTA framework, to ensure full-service education for all students this coming year."

Provincial leaders are calling on teachers' unions to take a two-year wage freeze as part of province-wide austerity in the face of a large deficit and growing Ontario public debt - "a fair deal, given the nine years of labour peace and the progress made in our schools" said Kevin Michael, Catholic Board Council President and Student Trustee at Dufferin-Peel Catholic DSB.



Tim Hudak showed he can't be trusted to protect stability in schools when he flip-floped and "condemned" full-day kindergarten, and Tracey Weiler showed she is no Elizabeth Witmer when it comes to standing up for Kitchener-Waterloo families by weakly saying she "supported [Hudak's] position". If Catherine Fife and the NDP put big union money (Fife hasn't issued any news releases about education, but she has about getting a public sector union endorsement) before what students want, what does that say about Fife's and the NDP's real priorities on education?

Why is Eric Davis running in Kitchener-Waterloo?

Here's a great piece by Kitchener-Waterloo Liberal candidate Eric Davis answering the most basic question that anyone running for public office has to answer: Why are you running?

Eric's two big reasons are simple but moving: Public service and family.

Eric has a long track-record of local leadership in Kitchener-Waterloo, and he'll be a fighter to build a better future for Kitchener-Waterloo families.


I was raised to believe that each of us has a responsibility to contribute to the vibrancy and success of our community. Everyone contributes in their own way. Until now, my way has been through volunteering with a number of local organizations, most notably as the vice chair of the local United Way, and recently as chair of the local branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

However, I have also long believed that public service is an important responsibility and an honour. I look to former representatives such as Herb Epp, Andrew Telegdi and Elizabeth Witmer, and I see how our community has benefited from leaders who have been strong local representatives of Kitchener-Waterloo first and foremost.

Witmer served our community for 22 years as MPP. Despite our many philosophical differences, I have a great respect for her dedication to Kitchener-Waterloo. She served with honour and distinction, and I hope to follow her path of strong local representation through hard work and a commitment to our community.

Eric's other big reason for running hits close to home for me: To protect the public services that helped his family, and to build a better future for all families like his in Kitchener-Waterloo.

In particular, Eric drawing inspiration from his wife surviving breast cancer thanks in large part to investments in health care and breast cancer detection made by the McGuinty Liberal government (just as my mother is a breast cancer survivor) shows he has a personal stake in protecting the gains Ontario has made in health care.

At the age of 24, my wife Cynthia was diagnosed with breast cancer. For 18 months she underwent chemotherapy, radiation treatments, surgeries and countless doctor visits.
Today, we are thankful to say that she is a cancer survivor due, in large part, to Ontario’s health care system.

Though we will have to find efficiencies in our health care system to ensure its long-term sustainability, we must always ensure that it remains free, public and universal so that everyone experiencing a health challenge like my wife can avoid the worry of affordability and concentrate on recovery.

Our daughter Isabella is now two years old. As I have watched her grow, learning to speak and developing a love of books, I’ve gained an appreciation for the importance of early learning.
That’s why I fully support the Liberal government’s investments in education, including the introduction of full-day kindergarten and the strong commitment to smaller class sizes.

While the Hudak Conservatives and Tracey Weiler flip-flop on important issues like full-day kindergarten, and the NDP presents no real plan to balance the budget and ensure stability in schools, Eric Davis will be a strong fighter for the future of Kitchener-Waterloo families, motivated by the very best of concerns: The dignity of public service and protecting the health care and public education systems that have helped teach and heal generations of Ontario families.

With education on the line, will Tim Hudak flip-flop on a wage freeze like he did on full day kindergarten?

We know Tim Hudak's position on full day kindergarten for Ontario families has gone from this:

To this

"Tim Hudak...condemned the program, which is to be fully rolled out by 2014"

with Hudak's double flip-flop backed by Kitchener-Waterloo Progressive Conservative candidate Tracey Weiler:

"Weiler said that she “supports the leader’s position” on halting the rollout of full-day kindergarten in the province."

With the Ontario Liberals introducing the Putting Students First Act, here is Tim Hudak saying he would support a wage freeze:

"We'll support a wage freeze legislation"

With his flip-flops on full day kindergarten, will Hudak stick to his word or not? And if he does flip-flop, with Tracey Weiler continue to "support the leader's position", or will she stand up for Kitchener-Waterloo families and put students first?

A more local look at successors to Jack Layton

Plenty of speculation so far about potential successors to Jack Layton as federal NDP leader, but I haven't seen much about potential NDP candidates to follow Jack in Toronto-Danforth, so I'll take a look at some potential NDP candidates for a by-election that will be coming in the next 180 days.

-Mike Layton
Jack's son, following in his father's footsteps by sitting on city council. Would he follow Jack's steps further and make the jump to MP? It would be interesting, but I doubt it. Layton has been in office for under a year, and has built his powerbase up in Oliva Chow's Trinity-Spadina riding, not the East York area Toronto-Danforth.

-Paula Fletcher
City council member for the southern half of Toronto-Danforth and formerly a public school board trustee, Fletcher is solidly a member of the left wing of council, although she barely snuck into re-election in Ward 30 in 2010 over Liz West. Fletcher has name recognition (although not always positive) and plenty of government experience, but the other "formerly" in her resume might be problematic - Fletcher was the leader of the Communist Party of Manitoba back in the day. Considering the communications and image issues the party is dealing with with Nycole Turmel's associations with Quebec sovereignty, the optics of an ex-Communist campaigning to be an MP for an ex-soverigntist wouldn't be the greatest for the party (assuming the by-election is held during Turmel's interm leadership, as the NDP fed council has yet to hammer out the exact time table.)


-Mary Fragedakis
The NDP alligned councilor for the north end of Toronto-Danforth, only recently elected in 2010. I think she's pretty unlikely to run, but I'll include her on this list just for the sake of it.

-Peter Tabuns
Former city councilor & executive director of Greenpeace, Tabuns is currently the MPP for Toronto-Danforth and was a close friend of Jack Layton. Tabuns was the early frontrunner for the ONDP leadership when Howard Hampton stepped down, losing to Andrea Horwath, who has since taken the party significantly away from environmental issues, leaving the former executive director of Greenpeace in a somewhat awkward spot, being forced to advocate for Horwath policies like subsidizing gas guzzling SUV's and voting against the Clean Water Act. (see http://www.blogger.com/www.dirtyNDP.ca for more details) Tabuns running would probably depend on the NDP results in the provincial election, but with a mix of civic experience and environmental background, Tabuns would be a good get for the NDP if they could convince him to run federally.

-Marilyn Churley
Former MPP for Toronto-Danforth and a twice failed federal NDP candidate in Beaches-Easy York, Churley would bring experience serving in a provincial NDP government, as well as the attractiveness of recruiting a high-profile female candidate to fill Layton seat (Layton was good at promoting women in politics, something I will always give him a lot of credit and respect for). Churley was also a notable supporter of Layton's NDP leadership bid, which might give her some added credibility. She's currently serving as a justice of the peace, so she would need to give up that respected position for a shot at running.

-Brian Topp
I'm not the first person to point out that Topp would need a riding if he wanted to be NDP leader. Topp was born and raised in Quebec and has worked in Saskatchewan, but has been based out of Toronto for a few years, so he could use that to fight off allegations of being a parachute candidate. With the timeline for both the NDP leadership and the by-election still up in the air, one interesting possibility would be Topp both running for leader and running in the by-election to have a seat. I remember back during the 2006 Liberal leadership contest a brief flurry of speculation came up about either Gerard Kennedy, Bob Rae, or Martha Hall Findlay contesting the London North Centre by-election, as they were the Ontario based candidates without a seat at the time. Nothing ended up coming from that, and aside from that I'm not sure if a seat less candidate for major party leadership has ever run in a by-election. Be an interesting test of party unity if he did decide to run for both at the same time.

If anyone else has any theories about potential candidates, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments.

Ottawa Citizen blog picks up on Beth Graham CFRA interview

http://communities.canada.com/OTTAWACITIZEN/blogs/greaterottawa/archive/2010/03/01/the-ottawa-west-nepean-candidates-bail-out.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage

This is a bit of self promotion here, but I'm pleased to see this video, which shows that Beth Graham is just not up to the task of being MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean. The rest of the article gives some good examples of just how much in shambles the Graham's media campaign is. Here's a direct link to the YouTube video, for those interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqkfThv9ZqU

Local PC's jumping ship on Beth Graham?

From what I have heard, the PC's are regretting somewhat booking the AGM to be in Ottawa this coming weekend, on the heels of a likely PC defeat in the swing riding of Ottawa West-Nepean. Beth Graham's campaign has been a policy free zone (her newest trick to try and distract voters from her lack of actual policy and platform has been to add "Toronto" in front of "Liberal" whenever possible, as heated as the Leafs-Sens rivalry is, I doubt Toronto-bashing can take the place of actual deliverable policies and platforms in the minds of the voters) and her local campaign has been lacking. Her "rally" on last weekend drew only 40 or so people, mostly bored staffers, and they only sent a single canvassing team out after, while the Chiarelli campaign hit 60+ polls last Saturday.

I asked a friend of mine who holds a high-level position within the OPCYA if they would be going out to West-Nepean on Thursday, and they responded in the negative, saying that "That campaign doesn't look like a winner." John Baird and Mike Patton have delivered cameos on the campaign trail at best, and a look at the endorsements page on Bob Chiarelli's website reveals a significant blow:


"Bob Chiarelli's record of accomplishment is significant. Our community would be tremendously well served with Bob at Queen's Park.”

Jim Durrell
Former Mayor of Ottawa

Durrell has long standing ties to the Ottawa conservative movement, being part of the right-wing of city council while serving as a councillor, was elected mayor on a centre-right platform in 1985, and donated to the party in 1996. For him to cross party lines and endorse Chiarelli for mayor is a serious blow to Beth Graham's credibility as a serious conservative candidate. Expect lots of PC voters to stay home on e-day

Beth Graham brings in the socially conservative reinforcements

Just learned from Twitter that Tory MPP Garfield Dunlop is in town to support Beth Graham for the Ottawa West-Nepean by-election. Ottawa West-Nepean is of course represented federally by Tory MP John Baird, who was outed as gay by Toronto Centre PC candidate Pam Taylor during the recent campaign. Wonder how he feels about Dunlop coming around considering this is his record:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0922/p06s01-woam.html


Garfield Dunlop is busy on the hustings, giving the same spiel at every door in his suburban Ontario district.

"I've got some literature here on same-sex marriage," says the avuncular politician, pressing a pamphlet into the palm of a white-haired woman who smiles and motions him into her home. "It's a sin," he continues, climbing into the foyer. "And it could tear apart the fabric of our society."

Beth Graham's hidden agenda indeed.

What are they teaching our kids these days? Beth Graham's hidden agenda

A glance at Facebook shows that the Ontario PC Campus Association shows that they are hosting two "Ideological Training Sessions" this Saturday. The one in Ottawa, which is linked a Beth Graham canvassing blitz that evening, has some "special guests", including Derek Fildebrandt of the Canadian Taxpayer Federation, and
Scott Reid, MP for Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox & Addington.

Apparently the speaker from the CTF will give a talk on economics, while Scott Reid will discuss "Political Rights and Values".

Let's take a look at CTFnomics:

-While the McGuinty government has cut billion dollar green tech deals with India, and the Green Energy Act will create thousands of jobs, the CTF refers to "so-called 'climate change'" (CTF commentary, August 19, 2008)

-Opposed Dalton McGuinty standing up for Ontario and demanding the next redistribution of federal seats fairly represent Ontario (CTF commentary, January 10, 2008)

-Loudly supported the reduction of public health care and a greater role for privatization of health services and delivery (CTF commentaries, November 29, 2007, September 17, 2006)

-Opposed in-vitro fertilization treatments, in particular for "single moms and lesbians" (CTF News, September 09, 2009)

-Described Ontario economic policies as "Soviet Ontario" (CTF News, May 5, 2009)

-Advocated for a regressive flat tax, which they have "long supported" (News release, June 08, 2009)

And let's look at the record of MP Scott Reid

-His talk may be about "rights", but that won't include the right of a woman to choose, Reid is vocally anti-choice and supported Bill C-391, a backdoor attempt to criminalize abortion, and served alongside Cheryl Gallant in the Canadian Alliance PC caucus, who compared a woman's right to choose with terrorism, saying it was "absolutely no different". (Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada Report, August 2007)

-We knew the Beth Graham campaign and the PC's had issues with French, but Scott Reid has a long record of anti-bilingualism activism, saying during the 2004 federal campaign that a Conservative government might change the Official Languages Act and weaken bilingualism requirements. (CTV news, June 1, 2004)

-Supported the extremist Randy Hillier for PC leadership, whose policy positions have been outlined many of a time in this blog.

-Was a founding member of the Lanark Landowners Association. Landowners Associations have opposed everything from environmental legislation and action and climate change (the Glengarry area association had a showing of a climate change denial documentary in August 2008) to government action to ensure the food we eat is safe.

Given the total lack of policy and platform Beth Graham has put forward, is the climate change denying, anti-public health care, anti-choice, anti-French positions put forward by the CTF and Scott Reid given to pump up Tory youth her real agenda?

Ottawa West-Nepean Progressive Conservative candidate Beth Graham blows it

I've written extensively recently about the battle for Ottawa West-Nepean, and I happened to come across a recording of the disastorous interview PC candidate Beth Graham gave to CFRA recently, which I whipped up a video for. Graham is asked 4 times a question about Nortel, and each time, she is unable to give a straight answer, dipping around having to committ to a position as well as totally botching the facts when it comes to HST. Have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqkfThv9ZqU