"Mr. Penashue, what federal riding do you represent?"

"We've made a submission to Elections Canada, and we will be, we are working with Elections Canada to rectify any errors that were made.


cbc video

Reporter: "Mr Penashue, can you tell me what day it is?"  
Mr. Penashue: "We've made a submission to Elections Canada, and we will be, we are working with Elections Canada to rectify any errors that were made."
Reporter: "Mr. Penashue, what federal riding do you represent?" 
Mr. Penashue: "We've made a submission to Elections Canada, and we will be, we are working with Elections Canada to rectify any errors that were made."
Reporter: "Mr. Penashue, could you suggest an activity in your riding that would be of interest for a tourist?"
Mr. Penashue: "We've made a submission to Elections Canada, and we will be, we are working with Elections Canada to rectify any errors that were made."

Okay it wasn't quite like that but really, check out the video. Every question Mr. Penashue was asked resulted in the same answer. He is hiding, he is avoiding questions that he knows the answers too. 

Peter Penashue's campaign in the last federal election saw him overspend by $4,000, take out a loan for $25,000, and receive cheques with no name and donations from unnamed sources.  

Truly disgusting, truly Conservative, truly disturbing...

CBC story here: 

Penashue offers few details on campaign spending

Big Ass Power Play looks to back fire on McGuinty

Its a slow ending, but there is an end in sight for the Ontario Liberals and Dalton McGuinty.  The question is who will it be, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives or the Ontario New Democrats.  

The McGuinty team were playing big ass politics when they choose a sitting Conservative MPP to appoint as head of Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario (WSIB). The move opened up a seat in the Provincial Legislature.  If the McGuinty Liberals won the seat they would have the slimmest of possible majority-like power.  They would be tied with the opposition in seats and the speaker (also a Liberal) would then break all tie votes in favour of the Liberals.  

Polling at the time the decision was made to undertake this sneaky, albeit legal, road to a majority gave the Liberals hope.  After all the took out a very popular local MPP.  What they were not counting was a couple of other factors.  They underestimated the public's growing interest in the NDP under the the leadership of Andrea Horwath.  Horwath has consistently out polled her opponents, McGuinty and Tim Hudak. They underestimated the NDP's choice of Catherine Fife, a woman that understands the education file very well and the Liberals hand picked fight with teachers is playing into to her hands.  

The Conservatives have done well in their choice of a candidate.Tracey Weiler, a former RIM executive and Wilfrid Laurier University instructor, has done a great job of holding Tory support. 

We have all seen it coming. The Liberals are a vanishing breed. They are about to get tossed in BC next May, they are very tiny parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, losing ground in Atlantic Canada and last election lost more ground to the NDP.  

In Kitchener-Waterloo its the a three way fight. The NDP could take the seat. The Liberals will try to scare us all.  The usual line about a vote for the NDP will be a vote for Tim Hudak. It didn't work in last years provincial election and it wont work in this by-election. 

Progressives can now become real progressives with a legit chance of succeeding in Kitchener-Waterloo and in the next provincial election likely a year away at most. 

see the Toronto Star: 

Ontario Liberals supported in Vaughan, but lose ground in Kitchener-Waterloo, new polls show

I was mean...

Two things happened within minutes.  First someone posted a picture on my facebook that was homophobic. Then I myself made a bad joke with a friend who is male and has wonderfully long hair.  I teased him and said he looked like a girl.

I was wrong. It was not nice and since he had been teased a great deal about it as a young boy, he has always been sensitive to comments made about him in that respect.  Its no different than the many other ways we make fun of people.  Its not funny.  Even if we think it might be we need to stop and think before we say things.

I am often thought of as being a considerate person, today I screwed up and made someone feel bad.  That was not what I wanted to happen, I did it and now I hope I learned.  I hope you don't have to say sorry for something you say that could hurt someones feelings.  

Dalton McGuinty Fails to lead

The McGuinty Liberal government in Ontario wants unions to take zero in wage and benefits.  The reason being, the province is having a tough time balancing the budget.  I get it.  So do lots of union members.

The last election, Dalton McGuinty received incredible support from unions and their membership. At no time during the election did McGuinty ever state that the province will have to seriously reduce spending.  In fact McGuinty and the Ontario Liberals proposed during the election to spend billions!  The increased spending was either in the form of cutting taxes for corporations or in new program spending.

Christy Clark has torpedoed BC's decades long ban on tankers

Liberal Premier Christy Clark has finally made the BC Government's position on the Northern Gateway Pipeline known.  The position is that BC will allow pipelines and tankers as long as someone will pay more to the BC government and promise to clean up any spill and give the first nations a few dollars.  The Clark Government has torpedoed BC's decades long ban on tankers.

Political decision cost you and me 190 million dollars.

The McGuinty government and it's lackeys are trying to say that the opposition parties would have made the same decision he just made with respect to the gas plant in Mississauga . This is an outright attempt to do more than bend the truth, its an outright lie.

The Ontario Liberal Government had awarded contracts to build gas fired plants. They never specified where they should be built nor did they demand any substantial performance bond.  Soon after getting the green light to build and supply power to Ontario, one company was unable to secure adequate financing.  At the same time the government had awarded another company the go ahead to build another plant, which was to be built in Oakville. That company had the financing and was ready to proceed.  The trouble here was the local community objected.

The local Liberal MPPs were under a great deal of pressure. The Ontario Liberal government then stated the plant could not be built in Oakville. There is still a matter of compensation due to the owners of the would be Oakville plant to be negotiated.

The Liberal Government made a decision to let the Mississauga folks go ahead, to avoid having to pay compensation as I guess they felt the company would not be able to obtain the needed financing.  It was a gamble, that has turned out costing the Ontario citizens over $190 million.   The Ontario NDP said in 2009 there should be a moratorium put in place on new power plants while we look at options and the fact that putting gas plants in heavily populated areas was not a good idea.

Again the Liberals did nothing. They allowed a gas plant to proceed through municipal zoning and approval. They allowed the plant to begin construction.  In fact the Liberals missed many opportunities to mitigate the cost of any settlement with their in-action.  The provincial election was coming up and the plant was being built.  If it was the government's intention to stop the plant, why did they wait so long, adding to overall compensation that would be needed to buy off the company for cancelling the plant?

The Liberals made a mess of it and then decided the best thing to do was wait for the election and then cancel the plant.  That provides maximum political advantage.  A political decision that has cost you and me 190 million dollars.

Both the opposition parties were opposed to its location. Both would not have allowed it to proceed.  Only the government of E-Health and Ornge could have come up with such an undisciplined approach to decision making.

Lightning in Toronto!

Lightning in Toronto Ontario

We set a record for July 17 in Toronto today, 36.4 C.  The big thunder storm has yet to happen.  Lots of sheet lightning, no thunder.  

This is how you beat the Conservatives

The Mulcair led NDP is certainly showing up the old Liberals.  Mulcair and the NDP have decided not to leave Conservative Party of Canada attack ads unanswered.  We all recall what happened to Dion and Iggy.  The Conservatives ran attack ads which went unchallenged by the Liberals.  I recall many of us at time wondering why they would not respond.  It has proven to be, perhaps just another example of a dysfunctional political apparatus torn apart by adscam and the Martin - Chretien civil war.

The NDP ad itself  employs many of the techniques used in the recent Conservative attack.  The dark thumping music, the unflattering images and a simple message.  It appears the NDP are going to hit back as hard as Harper and his Conservatives come at them.  That makes me happy.

Here is the ad...



Then some people thought it was Megan Leslie doing the voice over, see @kady of CBC, then Aaron Wherry of Maclean's clears that all up here.