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If you could put Ontario’s four biggest political parties into human form and have them squabble onstage, you’d have Thursday night’s debate among the major candidates in the Ottawa-Vanier byelection.
The riding, held by Liberals for 50 years, has a long history of provincial politicians who came up from Vanier’s streets: Bernard Grandmaître was mayor first; Claudette Boyer was a school trustee; the just-retired Madeleine Meilleur was a Vanier councillor, a regional councillor, a city councillor before heading to Queen’s Park in 2003.
None of the people vying to succeed her has that background and it showed, in front of about 250 spectators in the Knights of Columbus Hall on McArthur Avenue.
(The debate got an ugly start, when constant candidate John Turmel and a guy who’s legally changed his name to Above Znoneofthe crashed the stage and complained that the organizers, a large group of community associations in the main, hadn’t invited them.
“You wanna hear what I have to say?” Turmel demanded. “No!” the crowd shouted. Turmel yelled abuse until the police came for him and Znoneofthe.)
Then it turned into a pretty normal debate among a group of well-meaning but so-so candidates.
Nathalie Des Rosiers, the lawyer running for the Liberals, returned again and again to her pride in the achievements of the Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne governments over the last 13 years, and her determination to defend Meilleur’s honour as a not-neglectful MPP.
“I’m probably the only person who has read all of the mandate letters Kathleen Wynne has given to her cabinet ministers,” Des Rosiers boasted near the end. They list the Liberals’ achievements and give ministers their marching orders for the two years before the next general election and it’s great that Des Rosiers has mastered them.
Though she’s not the MPP, Des Rosiers did say the provincial government will pay for its half of a detailed study of a tunnel under Sandy Hill and Lowertown meant to get truck traffic off King Edward Avenue.
“It’s a very important issue, a question of safety for our citizens,” she said.
Is it now, scoffed André Marin, the lawyer running for the Progressive Conservatives. Because the Liberals haven’t done much about King Edward in 13 years. Maybe we should have byelections more often.
Marin, for his part, turned everything he could to the price of electricity, which propelled him into politics in September after years as Ontario’s non-partisan ombudsman. The decline of small businesses in the ByWard Market — hydro rates.
The Market needs “a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,” Marin said. “Businesses are suffocating, they’re dying, they’re calling out for help, they should get help.” Specifically, they’re dying because electricity prices are too high, he said.
What about the proliferation of payday lenders, especially on Montreal Road?
“The root of the problem is high electricity rates are driving away business,” Marin said.
When cornered on a local issue, Marin returned to his other safe answer: a task force he wants to create to deal with the “root cause” of whatever is wrong in Vanier. It would have all the stakeholders on it — residents, business owners, police, councillors. Even Des Rosiers, he promised. They’d figure things out.
Would Marin move to Vanier from his home in Nepean if he wins? one man asked. He’d consider it, the candidate said. But he’s just a 20-minute drive away, and understanding the issues is more important than where you live, he said.
(The two leading candidates each brought their own cheering sections of party apparatchiks and staffers. Marin’s supporters heckled rudely; Des Rosiers’s wooooo-ed her banalities with more energy.)
Claude Bisson of the New Democrats objected to the privatization of Hydro One, the high price of electricity, and a tuition increase for postsecondary students the NDP expects. When a question from the floor — by irritated resident Matthyw Thomas — asked each candidate for a specific local issue he or she considered a top priority, Bisson blanked utterly and passed (eventually he came up with revitalizing Montreal Road).
Raphael Morin of the Greens returned again and again to sustainability and support for small businesses. On a lot of issues, he said frankly that he didn’t know and would have to consult his party’s policies.
So here’s the good news: If you care enough to vote in the Nov. 17 byelection, you probably already know everything you need to know about the candidates. Vote by party and you’ll get what you see on the label.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
The riding, held by Liberals for 50 years, has a long history of provincial politicians who came up from Vanier’s streets: Bernard Grandmaître was mayor first; Claudette Boyer was a school trustee; the just-retired Madeleine Meilleur was a Vanier councillor, a regional councillor, a city councillor before heading to Queen’s Park in 2003.
None of the people vying to succeed her has that background and it showed, in front of about 250 spectators in the Knights of Columbus Hall on McArthur Avenue.
(The debate got an ugly start, when constant candidate John Turmel and a guy who’s legally changed his name to Above Znoneofthe crashed the stage and complained that the organizers, a large group of community associations in the main, hadn’t invited them.
“You wanna hear what I have to say?” Turmel demanded. “No!” the crowd shouted. Turmel yelled abuse until the police came for him and Znoneofthe.)
Then it turned into a pretty normal debate among a group of well-meaning but so-so candidates.
Nathalie Des Rosiers, the lawyer running for the Liberals, returned again and again to her pride in the achievements of the Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne governments over the last 13 years, and her determination to defend Meilleur’s honour as a not-neglectful MPP.
“I’m probably the only person who has read all of the mandate letters Kathleen Wynne has given to her cabinet ministers,” Des Rosiers boasted near the end. They list the Liberals’ achievements and give ministers their marching orders for the two years before the next general election and it’s great that Des Rosiers has mastered them.
Though she’s not the MPP, Des Rosiers did say the provincial government will pay for its half of a detailed study of a tunnel under Sandy Hill and Lowertown meant to get truck traffic off King Edward Avenue.
“It’s a very important issue, a question of safety for our citizens,” she said.
Is it now, scoffed André Marin, the lawyer running for the Progressive Conservatives. Because the Liberals haven’t done much about King Edward in 13 years. Maybe we should have byelections more often.
Marin, for his part, turned everything he could to the price of electricity, which propelled him into politics in September after years as Ontario’s non-partisan ombudsman. The decline of small businesses in the ByWard Market — hydro rates.
The Market needs “a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,” Marin said. “Businesses are suffocating, they’re dying, they’re calling out for help, they should get help.” Specifically, they’re dying because electricity prices are too high, he said.
What about the proliferation of payday lenders, especially on Montreal Road?
“The root of the problem is high electricity rates are driving away business,” Marin said.
When cornered on a local issue, Marin returned to his other safe answer: a task force he wants to create to deal with the “root cause” of whatever is wrong in Vanier. It would have all the stakeholders on it — residents, business owners, police, councillors. Even Des Rosiers, he promised. They’d figure things out.
Would Marin move to Vanier from his home in Nepean if he wins? one man asked. He’d consider it, the candidate said. But he’s just a 20-minute drive away, and understanding the issues is more important than where you live, he said.
(The two leading candidates each brought their own cheering sections of party apparatchiks and staffers. Marin’s supporters heckled rudely; Des Rosiers’s wooooo-ed her banalities with more energy.)
Claude Bisson of the New Democrats objected to the privatization of Hydro One, the high price of electricity, and a tuition increase for postsecondary students the NDP expects. When a question from the floor — by irritated resident Matthyw Thomas — asked each candidate for a specific local issue he or she considered a top priority, Bisson blanked utterly and passed (eventually he came up with revitalizing Montreal Road).
Raphael Morin of the Greens returned again and again to sustainability and support for small businesses. On a lot of issues, he said frankly that he didn’t know and would have to consult his party’s policies.
So here’s the good news: If you care enough to vote in the Nov. 17 byelection, you probably already know everything you need to know about the candidates. Vote by party and you’ll get what you see on the label.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
