From Cork to Toronto

David Shiner , a Toronto city councillor and former budget chief, is the Conservative candidate for the Provincial seat in Willowdale, a closely contested match-up with incumbent Liberal David Zimmer. Some members of council and the Mayor's man-in-the-hallway and deputy communications director Stuart Green have called for Shiner to either resign or take unpaid leave on the grounds that while campaigning he is not representing his constituents and that Olivia Chow and Sylvia Watson did likewise when they ran. Now if Shiner stood aside unpaid, his constituents aren't represented for the term of the campaign, and if he resigns neither a by-election or an infill process would be completed by election day so once again, his constituents go unrepresented. So basically Willowdale has inferior representation whichever way you slice it, and he does seem to be still dealing with some city business ( any that gets him media coverage anyway ). Then there's the issue of drawing sala...

"Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint, and anise, and cummin, and have left the weightier things of the law ; judgment, and mercy, and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel." (Matthew 23:23-24) Even though I was educated by primary and secondary schools controlled through the Catholic Church back in Ireland, I am a believer in unified education, at least when publicly funded. I believe that state funding used to fund the same curriculum in a school with a religion's name on the door should be used to promote diversity in education provision. This would mean taking the money which currently funds duplicated bureaucracy in the Catholic School Board system and putting it towards under-resourced areas such as trade apprenticeships, guidance counselling, after-school programmes and special needs teaching as well as ensuring that buildings are properly ...

Well, after a few hiccups the Greens are in, and approved by a thumping majority too. The party activists took the deal well and the opposition of Roger Garland in some ways shown how the Green movement has changed since he was the spearhead - whether for better or worse I can't tell beyond the seat count. Among the various items in the agreed programme for government , the decision to force reopening of rail to Navan and to limit the Western Rail Corridor's Northern limit to Claremorris is a step in the right direction. The Electoral Commission, similar to Elections Canada I suppose, is also a good idea. Trevor Sargent's decision to step down as leader and refuse a Cabinet seat is an interesting one - a nod to those in the party who didn't bargain for this arrangement, and Canadian readers might reflect that Peter McKay should have done likewise after the merger which betrayed the word he had previously given. From a tactical point of view it might be useful to ...

Well this is telling it like it is: Let's be clear. A deal with Fianna Fáil would be a deal with the devil. We would be spat out after 5 years, and decimated as a Party. But, ... would it be worth it? Power is a many faceted thing. so said Ciaran Cuffe , newly re-elected, on his blog. (Hat-tip Slugger ). The question is - is Bertie using the Greens to panic Labour into making him an offer, and if so by even considering coalition with FF could they suffer the same effects as if they had done so anyway? Meanwhile, the same post spreads rumour about John Deasy's possible defection to the depleted PD ranks. One would ordinarily be concerned about his electoral prospects given running under one flag only to take up another while the ink is drying on the election results. However Deasy's surname probably brought him more votes than his Party, as so often in Ireland and probably the reason FG didn't just dump him even after threatening Enda Kenny with a leadership challeng...

Since I haven't got Canadian citizenship yet (eligibility to apply won't be until March), I'd like to appeal to anyone who knows who they are voting for trustee and ward but doesn't have a mayor pick to give it to this guy . He's a 22 year old student at Guelph-Humber College and lives near me according to this interview on the Edge 102.1 (and a good sport too) and has got his classmates and I suspect many other younger votes interested that otherwise couldn't give a damn. He even had to give up his part time job as Leaside Garden Zamboni driver because unlike David Miller, he can't draw salary as a city employee while campaigning. To add insult to injury he was excluded from a debate at his place of work ! It goes without saying that some are grumpy that other young candidates aren't getting his press but if the mayoral race wasn't such a bust he mightn't have made the same impact as he has. I do like that he considers the annual 50+ homic...

With Jane Pitfield resorting to plagiarism and a bankrupt bowtied joke as the only other candidate the media wants to know, I guess Hizzoner will get another kick at the can. Some action on city issues north of Queen Street would be nice this time Mr. Miller.

Given Harper's performance over the last few weeks and his handpicked Senator's failure to make progress at Public Works, here's the news that will hopefully end his dreams of an overall majority and send him to Opposition - proof positive that Reformer and other social conservatives are simply unable to co-exist with progressive Conservatives. Halton Tory Youth have come out for Garth Turner's challenger (who isn't even admitting until recently he's running at all to keep things nice and secret). [Originally seen at Big Blue Wave] All this is being co-ordinated by Charles McVety and Rondo Thomas, and if you don't recall who these guys are then Zac at Behind the Headlines has some reminders for you . According to Turner the numbers turning out in public (via "Defend Marriage meetings") are small but not so small that he's ignoring it either - far from it. James Moore, Gerald Keddy, John Prentice and John Baird are also believed to be on the...

A good move by Bill Graham but he should have made a better one - get the process moving for all ridings so they are ready to go at any time - something that would make Harper pause before throwing around threats of confidence motions. Graham said doing some but not all would preserve the Leader's role in selecting candidates, when apart from basic screening (which cost the Tories one of their BC candidates last time) LPC HQ should stop imposing candidates on ridings entirely. In the particular case of Vancouver-Kingsway, local Liberals had Emerson imposed on them by Paul Martin, he was elevated to cabinet immediately but then defected to Harper's cabinet this year. It's time they got to pick their own guy or gal. I suspect one part of the Liberals thinking is that without a prospective candidate to focus on, the rage against Emerson might wane - not to the point of retaining the seat but in terms of national attention-getting. The incumbents remain protected, including ...

The problem Peter Tabuns has is that he doesn't want a portlands power plant at all. However, since the NDP declined to evict Hizzoner ( as was Hargrove ), Miller still having his NDP party card makes it tricky for Tabuns to fully disown him since our Mayor has gone and backed the "Toronto Waterfront Clean Energy Centre" joint venture between city-owned Toronto Hydro and US firm Constellation Energy Group over the rival "Portlands Energy Centre". However, a few new snags have arisen - the lease on the Hearn (currently to a film studio) does not permit power generation . the Ontario Clean Air Alliance (which includes Toronto Hydro as a member, ironically) says the current Hearn plan, a simple cycle non-co-gen station is less efficient on a pollution per watt basis than the PEC combined cycle bid. It does mention that with steam for district heating (co-generation) the TWCEC would be more efficient than the PEC, but that implies the PEC would not be able to d...

Apparently the Fluorescent Orange Peril's Peter Tabuns is " standing up " for Toronto-Danforth. Only a few weeks ago the wicked Harperites were campaigning on that same slogan. "Swiftboating" was not yet in the lexicon when Marilyn Churley associated Greenpeace founder and Liberal candidate Bob Hunter with paedophilia because of a book Hunter had written about child prostitution in South East Asia which he claimed was in the "gonzo journalist" tradition - if only James Frey had thought of that . Now during the current by-election to replace Churley, while the NDP haven't stuck Ben Chin with anything similar yet, they do seem to be trying to get something ( see also here ) from Chin's less than clear bio. (Apparently the Tories care too - maybe they should worry more about the really small number of lawn signs in the riding - I've only seen one so far, at Donlands and O'Connor). Chin had mentioned in separate bios being the son of ...

Well, I'm definitely showing some naivete in the early going . There seems to be as much chance of a Tory ever being elected in Scarborough as the cRaptors winning the NBA championship. Especially as Lee , Karygiannis , John McKay and Wappel are on Tory ground on the issue of same-sex marriage and Cannis wants the Khadrs deported (even the ones who are Canadian). The Toronto Sun probably doesn't have much problem with them. The only problem is that means both major subway projects pass through incredibly solid Liberal territory. The only transit authority in the GTA with legitimate hopes under this 905/519 government is GO Transit .

The CBC website is moaning that election coverage can't start until 10pm Eastern time . That's because that's when the polls in British Columbia close (7pm Pacific time). CBC stations in various parts of Canada are allowed to post results from polls closed so far, so in Ontario they will be allowed broadcast results from 9.30 eastern, but BC stations will be showing something else until 10. It eludes me what is to be gained by publicising the results while people anywhere in Canada are still going to the polls , as they used at the last election. Even if polls in Ontario are not closing now until 30 minutes before, it's a principle which should be protected. I also think returning officers should be precluded from releasing any results in progress until this time, so the Newfs would just have to wait for their counterparts on the other coast. Better yet - don't count until the following day. Just because something is technically possible doesn't mean it ...

This guy certainly exercised his franchise . That much exercise makes me feel tired sitting here!

It beats pestering the Letters editors of the various Toronto and Irish newspapers with my spleen I suppose. Never thought this blog thing would keep going - in fact now I've given in and started one seems like about time it died... back in the days of Mosaic it was so much harder to interest people in Tim Berners-Lee 's invention and now you can't pry them off it. There's just too many things that just bug me - especially during this federal election campaign as I still have taxation without representation, (roll on 2008) but even if I did have a vote, there's just no place for a socially liberal fiscal conservative. The lunatics have taken over the asylum . The incumbents are floundering and attempting to buy off all and sundry, forgetting that's what got them in trouble in the first place. Then there's the other crowd who constantly display their schizophrenia, really wanting to be fluffy bunnies but unwilling to forgo their buddies in Big Auto , ...