If you were still planning to vote in this fall’s election during one of the numerous days set aside for advance polls, you are pretty much out of luck. Advance polls closed on Friday although they had a good run from Sept. 21 – 30. But, if you really feel pressed to vote before this Thursday’s official election date, you can hoof it to your local returning office until Oct. 5 by 5 pm. For more info and to find your office go to the Elections Ontario web site and type in your postal code. Voting by mail is also over since the deadline was Sept. 30.....On election day itself – Thursday - voting hours are more convenient than they have been in the past running from 9 am to 9 pm.....Meanwhile, have you been getting bugged by seemingly non-stop calls from political parties, candidates and polling firms, sometimes in the magnitude of six or seven calls a day? Ontario’s election laws don’t prohibit automated phone messages, according to Elections Ontario spokesman Vincent Muller. But “If the call was an impersonation of an election official, party or candidate, you can submit a complaint to us.” There is also a blackout on political advertising Oct. 5 and 6. “But if the automated message was announcing services to help people get out to vote on election day, it is permitted.” Even if you’re on the national Do Not Call List you can still legally receive unsolicited calls. According to the CRTC, which regulates the list, “There are certain kinds of telemarketing calls and faxes that are exempt from the National DNCL, including those made by or on behalf of political parties and their candidates”.....Do you dislike all the candidates and political parties but still would like to make your protest voice heard by, say, drawing a line across your ballot? Well, you are out of luck. According to Election Ontario's Muller an “improperly” marked ballot is “considered invalid” and is not officially counted. “Any notations and markings of any kind are not documented in any manner by Elections Ontario.” But you might take small comfort in knowing that those ballots are collected in “special” envelopes. (pic courtesy Elections Ontario)

Leaders' debate had a definite winner

Politicians sure know where they stand with our TV networks. You had to finish eating quickly to catch this week’s Ontario election debate since it started at 6.30 pm and ended at 8, just in time for prime time TV shows that really matter with viewers.....That being said the debate may have brought a few surprises. Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, who often is characterized as a wimp, milquetoast, low key, or at best simply a nice guy, was very strong in defending – or perhaps spinning – his government’s record, compared to the positions staked out by New Democrat leader Andrea Horvath and PC head Tim Hudac. Being in office can afford a politician a superior debating stance. And this seemed the case with McGuinty. Having intimate knowledge of government policies is an advantage over the opposition, who mainly have access to the same information as the general public.....In Tuesday’s debate McGuinty’s opponents seemed to draw little blood attacking his government for being spendthrift by increasing the debt by $110 billion. Nor by the fact he “broke promises” to not increase taxes. Perhaps his best defence was a good offence. The despised HST is “absolutely essential” to creating jobs, he stressed over and over, citing 90,000 as the number of new jobs created because of it. The same with green energy. McGuinty swelled with pride when describing how Ontario “is going to be the first in North American to build clean energy technologies.” He said Samsung is “bringing $7 billion” into the province; that money is not a subsidy to the green energy manufacturer, contrary to vociferous opposition charges. Cancelling the contract, as proposed by the Tories, “would send a shockwave through the international business community,” noting Ontario is second after California for business investment. McGuinty also championed health care investments by saying his government had approved 18 new hospitals, 200 family health teams and the first nurse practitioner-led clinics in North America. He also did a good job of glossing over the e-health spending scandal, arguing electronic records are “very important” for a modern health system and 10 million Ontarians will have them next year....For her part Horvath came across as personable and down to earth, and more articulate than the stiff Hudak who found it difficult to get a word in edgewise with the vocal McGuinty. She supported green energy but lambasted “private power deals” saying the system should come under public control. And while her party would merely freeze tuitions the Liberals would provide an annual tuition cut of up to $1600. On health care Horvath would expand home care and cap hospital CEO salaries but had little else to say. She would also freeze transit fares and take 50 per cent of the cost of transit off the backs of municipalities.....Hudak, for his part, mainly reiterated what he has been hammering away at throughout the campaign or in his party’s pledge book. That included protesting government “sweetheart deals” with green energy producers where the subsidy is 80c per KH versus the real cost of five cents. He would also increase student student loan assistance to families earning above $60K and “cancel $40,000 scholarships” to foreign students. He also criticized the government for its $10,000 “affirmative action” assistance to immigrants in the province five years. He repeated full-fledged support for health care by saying his government would add $6.1 billion per year and increase long term beds by 40,000. But beyond these stock items he didn’t have a lot to say.....In sum, McGuinty sounded the best by spinning and, to his credit, arguing well, even seeming convincing at times. Horvath was almost as good a speaker and wasn’t rattled by criticism, though she was short on how her party would pay for some of its promises. Hudak was wooden, inarticulate and hardly fleshed out his main policy goals. Nor did he draw a bead on the premier when he could have gone to town on the debt, taxes and green energy....Winner: McGuinty, followed by Horvath and Hudak.

Grit $ announcements just keep on coming

WindsorOntarioNews.com Sept 8 2011

Too bad an election doesn’t come around every month given the kind of spending announcements from local MPP and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan – who might as well now officially be called Windsor-Essex’s godfather – on local projects. It has really been quite staggering. Over the past two weeks Duncan has led almost daily significant funding announcements: up to $2 million to clean up the Grace Hospital eyesore, tens of millions for a Windsor Regional Hospital expansion, attending the ribbon-cutting of Tecumseh’s waterfront park while touting the province’s more than $6 million share, $17.3 mil for a new Lakeshore arena. This is in tandem with provincial Liberal party promises such as offering up to $1600 a year in post-secondary student assistance.....And these pledges come on top of more than $100 million made during the dog days of summer. These include tens of millions for Hotel-Dieu Grace’s angioplasty wing expansion, $5 million to hire new nurses, more than $4 mil in separate grants to the U of Windsor and almost $8 million for St. Clair College’s HealthPlex....Then there’s relative small fry spending such as a million here, a million there on projects like the dilapidated College Ave. bridge reconstruction, E.C. Row/Dougall bridge, an engineering study for the Riverside Dr. so-called Vista project, and for upgrading the Provincial-Cabana intersection.....Are there any more local sore spots the Liberals could applying healing balm on? How about returning a 24-hour nursing station to Pelee Island? Don’t be surprised if there’s an announcement yet to come on that.....These lavishments leave local Opposition candidates looking small and vapid which of course is the objective. Sure, NDP and Tory candidates have complained about the Liberals buying votes and being desperate (they’re still behind the Tories in the polls but barely) with an election now exactly four weeks away. But all the Conservatives have to offer are retread promises about putting prisoners to work cleaning parks and graffiti, and attacking the admittedly hated electrical smart meters. That’s pretty weak gruel compared to the Liberals’ big bucks. How the Grits will pay for all these is another matter. But who cares? Spending on badly-needed community infrastructure and services likely trumps cost concerns. Who, after all, wants to spoil the party? It’s the old promise-now, pay-later scheme for the Liberals whose chief weakness, ironically, is the mammoth debt they’ve ramped-up over two terms in power.

Have Hudak & Tories peaked too soon?

WindsorOntarioNews.com August 19 2011

Only a month ago it looked like Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives were in good position to soundly defeat the two term governing Liberals at Queen’s Park. Now it looks like the Liberals have more than a better chance of reclaiming the government in the October 6 election.....The Tories in fact simply might have peaked too soon by releasing their populist election platform last May called the Changebook. That seemed to hit on all the right issues that had long irritated many parts of the electorate. For example the Tories pledged to repeal highly-subsidized green energy legislation, eliminate the HST on electricity and home heating bills, rid the province of smart meters, and reduce government spending by two per cent annually.....Since that time, however, the Liberals, rather than ducking, have come back swinging, as if the best defence is a good offence. They have strongly defended their green energy legislation touting the thousands of jobs it will create and accusing the Tories of wanting to throw workers on to the street. And there has been a parade of announcements and sod turnings of late. In Windsor these have included – finally - the construction of a new cardio wing at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital, start of construction of a new regional jail and

the Windsor-Essex Parkway. The Liberals also announced $5 million for new nurses. Province-wide the Grits have touted consumer-friendly policies such as 20 minute service or no charge for renewing licences at Service Ontario and in the GTA refunds for GO Transit users if the train is more than 15 minutes late. Who said government can’t act like business! As well, the Grits have been promoting another little-known aspect of their current policies, like the 10 per cent Clean Energy Benefit on hydro bills. Expect more emphasis on this as well other populist moves over their past term, such as income tax reductions and credits. If the Grits play it right they could out-Tory the Tories......Earlier this month the Liberals found out they might be on the right track. Nanos Research reported the Conservatives had only a 4.5 per cent lead over the Liberals compared to 7.3 in May. Meanwhile 38 per cent of voters surveyed by Ipsos Reid said Tory leader Tim Hudak would make a better leader compared to 33% for Premier Dalton McGuinty. A year ago 37 per cent favoured Hudak and only 29 per cent McGuinty..... Perhaps it’s the summer doldrums and even McGuinty’s harshest critics have gone off to the cottage. But the Liberals’ refusal to cower in the wake of Tory attacks – with a new emphasis on the populist parts of their program (you didn’t know they had them, did you?) – might keep electors voting in a Grit Red government for a third time, no matter the moaning and complaining about green energy, the HST, the eHealth scandal, and general government waste.

Dwight Duncan wouldn't mind Opposition at all

WindsorOntarioNews.com August 2 2011

The Ontario Tories look primed for an election win Oct. 6 with an Ipson Reid poll in mid July showing an 11 point lead over the Liberals. With one of two Windsor Liberal cabinet ministers, Sandra Pupatello of Windsor West, not seeking re-election, that leaves Finance Minister Dwight Duncan of Windsor-Tecumseh as still in the running for the fall vote. Some have wondered why Duncan hasn’t resigned like Pupatello knowing the writing for the party's defeat is on the wall? Here’s a reason. Duncan is still a big enough name in these parts to win handily over any candidate and indeed probably a no-name one for the Conservatives if the example of their Windsor West candidate Todd Branch is an indication. Yes, there is the NDP nominee, Andrew McAvoy, the former Windsor Library board chair and a former Green Party candidate who placed fourth in the last election. But what chance does McAvoy - despite raising his profile in a controversy with the city over the future location of the main library branch - have against such a powerful politician as Duncan? Next to very little. Should the Liberals be thrown out of office the game would hardly be over for Duncan. Yes, he would sit in Opposition. But for the MPP, a political animal of the first order, this would merely be a reprieve and likely a welcome one. Why? Because in all likelihood Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty would step down or be forced to by the party, creating a vacuum at the top. Duncan, as finance minister – a post he has held continuously since 2007 (he also had a brief stint before that) - is the second most powerful man in the government. Duncan of course also has wide ranging cabinet experience as former Minister of Energy, Minister of Revenue, Chair of the Management Board of Cabinet, and Government House Leader. And don’t forget, Duncan ran for the party leadership in 1996 at the same convention at which McGuinty was chosen leader. Duncan initially even had more votes than McGuinty. So, now, with McGuinty stepping down all signs point to Duncan seeking the leadership. The chances are very good he would win. Being in Opposition therefore would be ideal for Duncan – who eats, sleeps and breathes politics – to rebuild the party, gain experience as Opposition and party leader, and seek to beat the incumbent Tories in the next election. Sounds more than plausible, doesn’t it?

Are Liberals stalling for a candidate?

WindsorOntarioNews.com July 14 2011

Liberal Windsor West provincial riding association president Marion Fantetti threw cold water on the NDP’s suggestion the Liberals can’t find a candidate in Windsor West for the Oct. 6 election, and because of that there has been a delay in the association holding a nomination meeting. “They're not finding anybody. Nobody is willing to run," Windsor West New Democrat candidate Helmi Charif was quoted as saying in The Windsor Star. “I don’t even want to respond to that,” Fantetti said. “I mean my goodness it’s barely even been four weeks” since the riding’s long-serving MPP and high profile cabinet minister Liberal Sandra Pupatello announced she would resign from politics after 16 years in office. Fantetti said that unlike other of her party’s associations or those of rival parties - which have had considerably more time to choose their candidates – Pupatello’s announcement “came as quite a surprise to everybody” both outside the party and within. Therefore, she said, people need time to decide whether they will seek the nomination. “I think there’s a lot of people still thinking about it. And in fairness we have to give them time to do that.” Asked if she thought potential candidates might not come forward because of the Liberals’ current low position in the polls compared to the Tories, Fantetti said “we have had no indication of that whatsoever. Windsor West is a very viable riding” for her party. The riding was created in the 1990s to overlap the federal Windsor West riding, which has had a history of being represented by Liberal Herb Gray since 1968 and then by New Democrat Brian Masse since 2002. In the 2007 provincial election Pupatello beat the next most popular candidate, a New Democrat, by 8,217 votes and got 50.19% of all votes cast. In the 2003 election she got 62.51% of all votes cast. Asked when a nomination meeting might be scheduled Fantetti said “we can’t say exactly just yet. Everything will fall into place probably quite rapidly.” -

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May 2011 federal election

Is it legal for election signs to be installed on public property? It depends on the municipality. (Picture at left shows Essex Liberal candidate Nelson Santos’s signs along County Rd 20.) Said an Elections Canada spokesman it's up to the municipality. “It’s really municipal bylaws where they’re allowed on public property, easements and those kinds of things".....Bill Jean of the City of Windsor's building department provided a copy of the city’s sign bylaw, which does have a section specifically about election signs. There are certain restrictions such as that signs can’t be within 10 metres of a polling station or displayed on a “public road allowance (or) public property” that would create “dangerous or undesirable situations.” But they are not otherwise restricted. City sign bylaw enforcement chief Ann Kalinowski said Windsor otherwise has “no power of enforcement” until after 72 hours after voting day, when the signs must have been taken down.....Meanwhile Amherstburg chief administrative officer Pam Mallott said her town’s sign bylaw allows election signs on public property providing, “The signage is removed and the party called to pick up if the signage does not adhere to our signage bylaw, if it impedes maintenance operations, or if there are line of sight safety concerns.” - 5/3/11

Full disclosure dept: The lead letter to the editor in Saturday’s Windsor Star, castigating the media for ignoring the sins of the federal Conservatives, was written by an Ian Bawden. He calls out the the media on its “support” for the Tories “the most corrupt government in the history of Canada” and finishes by saying, “Journalists may believe this government is good for Canada, but I believe the Canadian electorate are going to react differently on May 2.” Ian Bawden also happens to be the name of the manager of Windsor West incumbent NDP Brian Masse’s (right) campaign. - 4/25/11

WON.com spotted the first vandalized election lawn sign – in River Canard (LaSalle) along County Rd. 20. On one side of Tory candidate Jeff Watson’s sign was written in big black letters “No Way” and on the other “Ya Right.” The sign was spotted Friday April 8 but two days later it had been removed.....Meanwhile the NDP appeared first out of the gate, at least in the Essex and Windsor West ridings, with lawn signs. By early last week – the second week of the campaign - in many areas NDP signs well outnumbered the Conservatives and Liberals combined. Spokesmen for the NDP put that down to a well-oiled organization. In Windsor West’s case, incumbent Brian Masse’s campaign manager Ian Bawden said the Windsor West party organization is well-entrenched given that this is Masse’s fifth election in nine years. “That’s part of our strategy,” he said, “to outshine (the other parties) right away.” A week ago Masse's local party association had 1200 signs up and another 300 “in our baskets here ready to go,” said Bawden. Asked if his party benefits from its close ties to organized labour – and therefore can draw on a ready supply of volunteers to put the signs up – Bawden suggested this is true to an extent. But, he said, when he worked at the GM Transmission plant, his “brothers and sisters” worked “with other parties as well”.....Meanwhile Essex NDP candidate Taras Natyshak suggested a reason his signs were out in force early was because his campaign has been in motion virtually since the last election in 2008 and his party nomination just after that time. “Because,” Natyshak said, “obviously there was a risk of another election soon afterwards.” Natyshak didn’t doubt other parties may also be organizing as hard but the lack of their signs might be because they “haven’t received the ringing endorsement that our signs seem to indicate.” - 4/11/11

Irek Kusmierczyk, the Liberal candidate in Windsor-Tecumseh, came to Canada with his family as “political refugees” following his father’s arrest for involvement in the Solidarity trade union movement in his native Poland in the early 1980s. “The security police came to our apartment and arrested him, we did not know whether he was alive or dead,” said Kusmierczyk, a Windsor resident who has competed a PhD from Vanderbilt University in Nashville studying Great Lakes water issues. “And he was imprisoned for his belief that unions were an integral part of any society”..... Kusmierczyk also has a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics.....Kusmierczyk wrestled the nomination last week from Windsor lawyer Mike Stipic..... Kusmierczyk is also working on a book about issues connected to the Great Lakes from pollution to invasive species. “We’re on the verge of a fresh water crisis,” he said, noting southwestern US states, which already have water shortages, “are going to be looking” at tapping northern water..... Kusmierczyk said he’s running for the Liberals because “the central part” of the Grits' election platform is going to be about education and innovation “and this is the foundation for the future of Canada.” He said this is particularly crucial in Windsor where there has been a massive “brain drain” of young educated professionals and skilled workers out of the area. “The Conservative Party wants to spend $30 billion on fighter jets because they mistakenly believe that we are in an arms race. We aren’t. We are in a brain race.”.....Kusmierczyk is in the same position as the people he's fighting for. Following university he lives at home with his parents and is himself seeking a full time position in the Windsor area.....He said he’s running at the federal level because there’s already “dynamic” leadership at the local and provincial levels. “We have been missing leadership at the federal level for 10 years.” – 3/17/11

You know the federal government is testing the waters for an election when you get a random telephone call, this one from a call centre in New Brunswick (a lot of call centres are in New Brunswick), asking a few general questions about the performance of the ruling Conservative Party. Among the questions: “are the prime minister and government on the right track” are there “any issues they can work on such as crime, the economy, taxes” and if an election were held today would you vote for the Conservatives? The questioner also asks for home and email addresses to follow-up with political party literature. Asked why she was calling, the call centre woman replied, “It’s just a poll. We just want to see, if there is another election, (what the party’s) chances are.” Some political observers have suggested a federal election could be held as early as spring. That’s not to be confused with the provincial election scheduled for a fixed date this Oct. 6. - 2/10/11

Jennifer Robinson, the six-time Canadian figure skating champion and former Windsorite – but who has long made Barrie Ontario home because of her affiliation with the Mariposa figure skating club - was just elected to Barrie City Council in her first stab at electoral politics. A recent news story picture shows Robinson with a blue, red and white lawn sign distinctively looking like a typical Conservative political party lawn sign, raising questions if Robinson is also a true blue Conservative. Asked if she is a Tory, Robinson replied, “I picked those colours because I thought they looked nice.” Asked if she has any aspirations to run for the Tories for higher office she said she has “no desire to run in any other election.” She also said she decided to run municipally because it “is about issues and not policies from a party.” There are no partisan political blocks – such as Tory or Liberal - on Barrie council. - 12/13/10

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