This is not the campaign blog you seek

If you are looking for Jennifer Smith, Candidate for Milton Town Council Ward 2, you've got the right person, wrong blog.

My campaign website can be found at www.jensmith.ca . What you see here is my all-purpose personal blog in which I discuss federal politics, world events, film and television, and whatever else strikes my fancy. Feel free to look around, but you will notice that a) there isn't a lot here on local Milton issues, and b) I haven't posted much here lately because, well... I'm not paying much attention to anything but local Milton issues right now.

I'm sure I'll start posting here again after October 25th but in the meantime, please go to my real campaign blog at www.jensmith.ca.

Lisa Raitt Consults Her Public

Yesterday, Lisa Raitt carried out a blitz of Milton, Oakville and Burlington in the form of three rather hastily organized 'public consultation' meetings. She booked the small meeting room at the Milton Sports Centre for ours, which was announced less than a week in advance. All of which told me that she really didn't want or expect much of a turnout.

That, and the panicked looks on the faces of those running the registration desk.

The room is supposed to have a capacity of 35, but there had to be 50 or 60 jammed in, with at least a dozen standing in the back. Apparently it was the same at the other two meetings. And from the comments I heard and the questions that were asked, hardly any of them qualified as Conservative supporters. Not any more.

Her staff was there, of course. Former local Conservative Riding President Pat White was in the crowd, as well as a younger guy who seemed pretty partisan, but it was generally the same as what I've heard reported from the other two meetings: mostly critical, several neutral, and only a very few supportive.

Some got downright angry.

The event certainly drew the finest people. Some of the local personages who showed up were Donna Danielli, Colin Best, Mike Cluett, Mike Grimwood from the Rural Residents' Association, Joan from MiltonGreen, local reporters, and probably more I didn't recognize.

There were a few people who wanted to talk about energy and the environment, including one denier who droned on and on (they cut him off when he started quoting Lord Monkton). Other than him, the consensus was that that the Conservatives haven't done enough. Lisa took the opportunity to launch into a defence of the tar sands and 'clean coal', citing her Cape Breton roots as the reason for her affection.

We had one representative of an engineers group who spoke rather eloquently about AECL and the need to retain Canadian intellectual property. Apparently the AECL people completely swamped the other two meetings.

There were several very critical comments and questions on the HST - even Pat White said the timing was bad, and nobody was buying the line that the Federal government hadn't applied pressure to the provinces to harmonize. And then there were the usual random issues: income splitting, investment rules for horse farms, cheap imports, regional transit, Glenorchy Conservation Area, gun registry, family farms, pension reform and Nortel.

I asked the first question about prorogation. Lisa and her staff all know who I am, so I don't generally want to pound her too hard at these things and get dismissed as a Liberal partisan. Besides, I don't hold grudges, and she's always very friendly with me. So I just thanked her for holding these meetings today, and then I asked her how she was going to be filling the rest of her time over the next two months. She said that she'd be spending a lot of time in her constituency office and some in Ottawa - and then she said that she gets invited to a lot of local events like ribbon cuttings and Rotary functions, and this will give her a change to attend a lot more of those.

Seriously. Rotary lunches. Your MPs at work.

That seemed to break the ice on the issue because after that there were a number of critical comments about prorogation. The most intense came from Mike Grimwood, who really laced into her about it and wouldn't let it go. His best quote: "Why even bother with public meetings when the PMO makes all the decisions anyway?"

She didn't really address any of these concerns directly, even at later meetings where she just said that she would take our concerns back to Ottawa. But really - what is there to say?

Couple of funny moments: she still can't pronounce Nassagaweya and tried to laugh it off (note to all Halton candidates: if you can't pronounce Nassagaweya, you're as good as dead in the rural wards). She knew I was running for Council and congratulated me before the meeting, saying how much fun it was campaigning, and engaging in a little girl talk about all weight I would lose door-knocking.

Afterwards, she offered me this final piece of advice: "Don't read anybody's blogs but your own".

Thanks, but I'll not only read others' blogs - I'll even keep taking comments on my own.

(for a review of the Oakville meeting, check out Matt and Ashley's blog)

UPDATE: The Champion has a brief article about the event. I didn't count, but there's no way they fit 100 people in that room. I know - I rented the same room for a Liberal meeting tonight. Like I said, the room has a capacity of 35 and is only about 750 sq.ft. That would be like fitting 100 people into the main floor of my house. No way.

I'm Running

In case you've been wondering why I haven't posted much lately, this might help solve the mystery:

A Fresh Start

My name is Jennifer Smith, and I am running for Milton Town Council, Ward 2. Welcome to my campaign blog!

Yes, it's true - I've really done it. The papers are filed, the bank account's set up, and now (of course) the blog. Next order of business: PayPal account for donations.

I'm going to need them.

With a Little Help From Our Friends

Not sure how I missed this one: a full page ad in Friday's Milton Champion denouncing Lisa Raitt and her recent U.S. 'Tar Sands Promotional Tour' - and it's not even one of ours!



Thanks, ForestEthics!

Thoughts on the Milton Town Hall Forum

Last Wednesday marked our first post-Garth Turner Town Hall meeting in Milton. It was hosted by our new Liberal candidate Deborah Gillis, and featured two eminent guest speakers: MPs Michael Savage and Dr. Carolyn Bennett.

As one of the organizers, I was very pleased at how well the event went off given that we only had two weeks to pull it all together. The hall got booked, the ad got into the paper on time, the flyers got handed out at the Farmers' Market the Saturday before, and despite my fears of an empty house we actually had about thirty people show up.

Given that our two guests were the Opposition critics for Human Resources and Health, respectively, we tried to come up with a theme and a title that would reflect their areas of expertise as they applied to local concerns while leaving things open to a broader discussion. Various ideas got bandied about until we finally ended up with "Building Canada's Health and Social Infrastructure".

I did mention we only had two weeks to do this, right?

Deb introduced our guests, everyone gave their opening remarks, and then we opened things up to questions from the floor. There had been some concern that some people would try to disrupt things with endless questions about Ignatieff and why the Liberals are trying to force an election, but it all turned out to be very civilized. I wasn't surprised. I had told Deb that even during the worst of the Garth Turner town halls, the disrupters usually restricted themselves to standing glowering against the back wall.

Of course, the discussion wasn't restricted to just the theme at hand. All kinds of issues came up, from the environment to civic engagement to election strategy in the riding of Halton. We talked about Aboriginal issues and the Kelowna Accord. We talked about engaging youth in the political process. We talked about the problems of promoting Liberal social policy in one of the richest ridings in the country.

Carolyn Bennett is a firecracker. She's one of those intense, passionate, socially conscious politicians that I've always been especially fond of. In fact, when she was talking about grassroots democracy and the ability of MPs to effectively represent their constituents, it was almost like listening to Garth again. Mike Savage is very much the same, although he seemed to have trouble getting a word in edgewise. And just the fact that Deb Gillis was willing and anxious to engage in this sort of public forum only six weeks after her nomination tells me that she is of the same mind.





Watching and listening to these three remarkable people, and having met and spoken to a growing number of other Liberal MPs over the past two years, it occurs to me that whatever the problems are with this party and this country, they are not primarily because of the men and women we have elected to the House of Commons. Maybe I'm self-selecting, but every one that I've met is just as passionate. Every one believes that their responsibility is to represent their constituents and not their party. Every one believes in social justice, and the idea that helping those in need raises us all up.

Beyond that, every one of them has specific, practical ideas for making these abstract values into functioning social policy.

I have no illusions that every single Liberal MP in the House of Commons is as intelligent and as socially committed as the dozen or so that I have personally met, or that every one of them is completely sincere. But nor do I doubt that there are many fine, committed Conservative and New Democrat Members who, while they might have different solutions, care deeply about democracy and social justice and want to see all Canadians live better lives.

So what's the problem? How is it that these intelligent, committed people are all reduced to children throwing spitballs during Question Period and, to a lesser extent, in committees and in the public media?

It's easy to blame it all on the Conservatives, and easier still to blame it all on Stephen Harper. But let's face it - if even half the MPs simply refused to engage in these ridiculous games, it couldn't go on.

Take Question Period. QP and the preparation for it occupies an inordinate number of hours out of the working day for each and every one of our MPs, and there is overwhelming agreement in every party that the whole process is a frustrating, humiliating, and utterly pointless show put on for a public that finds the whole thing disgusting.

Mike Savage colourfully described it as a "putrid, fetid, pus-filled swamp between two fifteen and three o'clock".

So why does it go on? Why isn't there a mass movement in all four caucuses to have QP moved to the morning, have rules of decorum imposed and enforced, and make other changes to turn it from being a circus into an actual exercise in holding government accountable?

Or take the mess that is internal party politics - particularly in the Liberal Party. Every single Liberal MP from Michael Ignatieff down to the lowliest backbencher will happily extol the virtues of "grassroots democracy". And yet we continue to have a system which allows the party leader to bypass the will of local members and arbitrarily appoint candidates.

I have been a Liberal Party member for about three years now, and I have yet to be allowed to vote for either the leader or the candidate of my choice.

Nobody likes this - not the MPs, not the riding executive, not the members - and it never, ever ends well. The squabbling over Outremont this past week is an extreme example, but even here in Halton where most riding members seem more or less content with the way things worked out, we still lost people who really wanted Garth back and were appalled at the way the whole thing went down. And that's not just bad for democracy - it's bad political strategy.

So why does it continue? What's the up side to allowing candidate appointments? It can't just be about getting more women elected - that's easy enough to fix through active recruitment. Is it really just a power thing, getting MPs in who are beholden to the party leader? 'Cause I really don't see someone like Deb Gillis kissing anyone's ring no matter how she got here.

It's puzzling to me. I'm sure that a large part of the answer lies in the power wielded by those unelected advisers, strategists and party officials whose roles seem so arcane and yet whose names keep cropping up whenever these issues arise. But who gave them that power in the first place?

Maybe it's all just David Smith's fault.

As depressing as all this seems, that town hall meeting actually gave me hope for my party and for my country. Because I am convinced now more than ever that there are a lot of good, good people representing us in Parliament, and even more working on the local level to get them elected. I know. I've met them.

We just need to figure out how to clear the way to let them do their jobs.

Meet Halton's New Candidate!

The Liberal Party is pleased to announce that Deborah Gillis has been appointed by Michael Ignatieff as the candidate for Halton in the next Federal election.

I'll give you a moment to get back in your seat. Take your time.

So. Without disclosing anything confidential (I hope... I'm pretty sure), here's what happened:

Garth Turner, as you may know, was our MP and Liberal candidate in the last election. He lost to Lisa Raitt. At our AGM last winter, he declared his desire and intention to be our candidate again, and most people seemed pretty happy about that. At least the ones I spoke to were.

Then some odd reports started coming out in the media and on his blog. Phrases like, "Stick a fork in me, I'm done" were used. And yet whenever he communicated with the board, he insisted that he still wanted to be our candidate. It was a little... confusing.

Meanwhile, a few up-and-comers started to smell blood in the water. Feelers were put out. Alliances began to form. Then in late May, it really looked like Garth was serious about not running. We were given the go-ahead to start the candidate search process and the contenders came out of the closet. There were several of them, some more serious than others. None seemed especially likely to be able to take down Lisa Raitt, although it's hard to say how it all would have worked out.

Overtures were made to Garth to try to get him to come back into the race, but he became more and more adamant that he wasn't willing to do that. And after speaking with him and with Esther, I began to understand why he wanted no part of this particular dog fight.

We like to think of a nomination race as a democratic process, and in some cases it can be. However, given the fact that most ridings only have a few hundred actual party members, the whole process is extremely easy to manipulate. Even when it works the way it's supposed to, the winner is rarely the one with the best ideas who can argue them persuasively to the existing membership. No - the person who wins is the one who can sign up the greatest number of 'insta-members' willing to come and vote for him or her. And if the potential candidate belongs to a church or an ethnic community or some other large organization, it becomes incredibly easy for them to sign up a busload of friends, family and acquaintances as members and get themselves nominated.

It happens all the time in both the Conservative and Liberal parties. I don't know about the NDP, but I wouldn't be surprised if their potential candidates run right out and sign up all the folks in their union local.

There is, of course, a shockingly simple solution to this problem: increase the amount of time someone needs to be a party member before they're allowed to vote in a candidate race. Say, six months. Even four. Even two.

Unfortunately, most political parties have absolutely no interest in doing this because new members mean new money. These 'insta-members' rarely renew their memberships or even stick around to volunteer during campaigns, but no matter. A candidate contest run under these conditions represents a quick infusion of cash to party coffers, so any attempt to change things is likely to be fought tooth and nail by the powers that be.

But I'll get more into that later.

Given these circumstances, and given that Garth doesn't have a lot of friends in the new Ignatieff regime, it was perhaps inevitable that our leader was going to make use of his prerogative to appoint a candidate in Halton. And given the circumstances, I'm not sure I can blame him. Garth wasn't willing to run if he was going to have competition, and the party wasn't about to appoint him or have him acclaimed. And since the Liberals apparently now want Halton back almost as badly as the Conservatives did in the last election, none of the candidates who had stepped forward thus far were seen as sufficiently competitive.

Enter Deborah Gillis.

I haven't met Deb yet, but from what I've read she's a serious player. She's kind of from Corporate World, but is better known as an advocate for women in business through a non-profit called Catalyst. She's also worked as a policy advisor in various governments, and was very active in Liberal Party politics in her native Cape Breton (groan... yeah, I know).

All good stuff. I have no doubt that she's going to give Lisa a run for her money, and I will be happy to support her and campaign for her in any future election. Besides, I have a feeling we are about to find out what it's like to have the full weight of the legendary Liberal Party Campaign Machine behind us on this one. Would have been nice to have that in the last election... but whatever.

My problem is not with Deb Gillis. Not at all. My problem is with the way in which this was done. Because while I sympathize with the reasoning behind appointing a candidate, and even appointing somebody other than Garth, and even going out of their way to appoint a woman, there's one thing that I just don't understand:

Could they not find a single worthy female candidate who was actually from Halton?

None had stepped forward, but I can think of two off the top of my head who would have kicked ass, both from Milton's Town Council. I don't know if either of them would have been willing - hell, I don't even know if one of them is a Liberal. But surely enquiries could have been made and Halton Board members could have been asked for their input before they resorted to bringing in a ringer.

Instead, we were simply informed that a decision had been made and this was our candidate. I think they call that 'consultation'.

As you might imagine, a few people are pretty pissed about this, especially those who are closest to Garth. There was much hair pulling and carrying on about 'the end of democracy as we know it' at first, but things have settled down now and it looks like most folks are actually getting excited about working with Deb.

I was kinda pissed at first (although not really surprised), but now I'm mainly curious to see what happens next in this never-boring riding. And since I'm the pragmatic sort, I'm far more interested in figuring out how to solve problems than just complaining about what's already been done.

So. How do we solve this problem? How do we make the candidate selection process more democratic and keep this sort of thing from happening again?

That's your homework, boys and girls. I'm off to the cottage tomorrow and I'm not sure what my internet access will be like, so comment moderation is on.

[duck]



(edit Aug 4 10:09)

Lisa Raitt Shows Her Face in Milton (with video!)

After failing to appear at two scheduled media events last weekend and indefinitely postponing a Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Oakville set for next Friday, Lisa Raitt has finally surfaced - just in time to sign a Really Big Cheque for $14.9 million in front of Milton's lovely new Town Hall.

The cheque is for joint Federal and Provincial funding for the oft-delayed Milton Arts and Entertainments Centre and Library. It's also for the expansion of the Milton Sports Centre, which is where I get confused. Originally, the Town had asked for 7.5 million dollars from each of the Provincial and Federal governments for just the Arts Centre / Library. They were also going to be asking for $13 million for an expansion of the Milton Sports Centre

So I'm looking at that giant cheque and thinking, "Shouldn't there be two of those?"

Raitt's speech didn't clarify things any. She referred to the $14.9 million as "federal funding", even though the Giant Cheque was signed by both herself and Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn. And she specifically stated that 6.7 million of this money was going to the sports centre expansion (which, BTW, she seemed considerably more enthused about).

So is there another Giant Cheque out there, or did Milton get screwed out of half the funding we asked for? Sprawlville TV is on the case - I'll let you know.



(Appearing in this video: MP Lisa Raitt, MPP Ted Chudleigh, MPP Kevin Flynn, Mayor Gordon Krantz, and Milton CAO Mario Belvedere.)

UPDATE: I spoke to Councillor Colin Best at the Farmer's Market this morning, and he says that the $14.9 million is just the first instalment.

Musings on Multiculturalism: A Tale of Two Customers

Having spent most of my life in Toronto, I was always used to seeing and interacting with people of all races and cultures, and living in a city of ethnic neighbourhoods that manage to blend at the edges without too many ill effects. For instance, I used to live and work around Eglinton and Oakwood, which was a colourful, raucous intersection of Jamaican, Italian and Jewish neighbourhoods. There was an issue with street violence, but that were already starting to clear up by the time we left. By and large, everyone got along and interacted just fine, and when they didn't it was rarely because of one racial or ethnic group squaring off against another.

So it was quite the culture shock moving to Milton 15 years ago. I hadn't lived in a more homogeneously white, Christian area since I lived on tree-lined, WASP-ridden Cortleigh Boulevard as a little kid. Milton seemed to belong to the same era, preserved in its little 1970s development-moratorium bubble.

Since the 'Big Pipe' started bringing lake water and new residents eight years ago, I've watched this small town transform into an increasingly diverse, small suburban city. We now have much broader food choices, the music at our street festivals is considerably more varied, and I'm seeing more and more hijabs, turbans and tunics at my son's high school. For me, this has been a sort of normalization, but for others it's been... a bit of an adjustment.

This was made clear to me recently when I was signing up a new customer at the video store where I work. I noted the Mississauga address on his driver's license, and he mentioned that he had moved recently because it was getting "really bad there". At first I thought he was talking about the ugly subdivisions, but then he said `You know, I hate to say it, but with all these new people moving in..."

And I promptly changed the subject. Because the boss really doesn't like it when we hit the customers.

Unfortunately, he insisted on returning to the topic, complaining about all the crime in Mississauga (which continues to have the lowest crime rate of any city in Canada), and how there are hardly any "Canadians" there any more.

You have no idea how badly I wanted to punch him in the nose. Instead, I
pointed out that Milton was also seeing an increase in its immigrant population and that I considered this to be a good thing. "The place needed a little colour", I said. He shrugged and allowed as to how this might be so.

I was still fuming over this encounter when, about an hour later, a woman came in looking for Spanish language films. She taught ESL at the newcomer resource centre next door, as well as teaching Spanish at the Employment centre in the same mall, and she wanted the films for her class.

We got chatting. Turns out she was born in Mexico but moved to Milton many years ago. She originally planned to just be a 'traditional housewife', but decided to start teaching because she was constantly running into an undercurrent of anti-immigrant sentiment in town and she wanted to help both old and new Miltonians get over their ignorance and distrust of one another.

I told her a bit about my earlier encounter. This led to an even longer discussion about how racism in this country tends to use immigration issues as a cover.

As I was checking her out, I noticed a familiar last name on her account. "Oh," I said, "Your husband must be related to my former next-door neighbour". I told her the name and she said, "Of course, she was my mother-in-law!"

It turns out this lovely woman from Mexico was in fact a member of one of the founding families of Milton - a family that had lived here for well over 100 years. I immediately contrasted that with my previous customer on his flight westward in search of a place with 'real' Canadians, and thought about roots, and who was contributing more to the country and the community.

I also thought about something John Ralston Saul pointed out in "A Fair Country": that when the first waves of immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean first came to this country, they were not only scorned - they were not even considered to be of the same race as those who had come earlier. Germans were similarly viewed, portrayed as 'Huns' and depicted as physically different from 'us'. As were the Irish years before.

We are so used to seeing racism through the American experience where it is so overwhelmingly defined as literally a black and white issue, that we almost become blind to it when it involves other groups. And because so many of our Chinese, South Asian, Latino, Caribbean, and other citizens of colour have only been here for a generation or two, the line between race and immigration issues becomes blurred.

Unfortunately, it seems to be becoming so blurred that some have started excusing racism as mere xenophobia. In this country, neither should be acceptable.

Pedestrian Fail

As seen on Mary Street by the new Milton Town Hall expansion in February:


moar funny pictures

There's still no sidewalk on the other side, nor apparently any plans for one.

New MP, Same Old Riding: Lisa Raitt's Town Hall Meeting

Lisa Raitt held her first town hall meeting in Burlington on Saturday. Or was it her third? She claims to have held two previous meetings in December, but damned if I can find any announcement or reference to them in the archives of the Milton Champion or any of the other local papers. I never got any notification in the mail, and it's not like she had a web site to announce them on.

I'm guessing that's why attendance at the previous meetings was apparently less than they were hoping.

Saturday's meeting, on the other hand, was quite well attended - thanks to my promotion of it on this blog, no doubt. I counted about 50 people, which was on par with one of Garth Turner's town halls. We were asked to 'register', not just in a guest book but by filling out a full page form asking for name, address, email, and such things as 'what issues are most important to you?' and 'do you think the government is on the right track?' I filled the first part of mine out, leaving the rest for after the meeting, but I overheard a few people who didn't want to fill it out and apparently that was just fine.

I had no idea what to expect and was feeling a little conspicuous, what with my trademark button collection proudly displayed on my purse, but I figured nobody would be paying any particular attention to me as I quietly walked in and...

"Hi, Jennifer!"

Crap. It's D'Arcy Keene. He's spotted me.

"Hi, D'Arcy, howzit goin?"

He still scares me a little. He's wearing a particularly menacing black turtleneck-and-blazer ensemble today, such as one would expect to see on the guy who turns out to be a vampire at the end of some '70s British horror movie.

Keep walking. Don't make eye contact.

I did see a couple of friendly, or at least familiar faces. Former Green Party candidate Amy Collard turned up and sat in the front row. Mike Cluett came in late and stood in the back. And then we got started.

Lisa started off by explaining that she was one of about half a dozen cabinet ministers who had been asked to conduct 'budget consultation meetings' in their ridings and that this was one. I don't remember seeing that in the announcement, but fair enough. She does say that we can talk about other things but that she's mostly looking for ideas and priorities, particularly regarding economic stimulus.

She also informs us that she will be calling on people row by row, front to back. This rather rigid format was in stark contrast to the more open discussions that went on at Garth's meetings, where one person would raise an issue and then whoever wanted to talk about that issue would put up their hand and talk about it. Once everyone had had their say, someone would bring up another issue.

At this meeting, someone would ask a question or make a comment, Lisa would respond, and then she'd move on to the next person in the row. Some limited discussion happened, but in general if someone else wanted to say something about that same issue, they had to wait until she got to their row. It was very civilized, but I personally felt that it was less productive than it could have been.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by the people in the crowd and the kinds of questions and concerns they raised. I'm not sure why I expected them to be any different or any more partisan than the people who attended previous meetings just because we have a Conservative MP now, but frankly I couldn't tell you who voted for what party judging by their questions. Spending as much time as I do immersed in the cutthroat world of political blogging, I tend to forget that average people don't give a rat's ass about party politics - they just want things to be better.

Some of the items discussed:

The deficit.

Raitt said that there were "a variety of opinions within our party" regarding the wisdom of posting even a temporary deficit, but I didn't hear anyone raise this as a concern. There seemed to be an understanding that there was simply no way of avoiding a deficit and stimulate the economy.

Infrastructure.

A lot of people talked about this, and suggested a wide variety of projects including social housing, wind and nuclear projects, small hydro, transit - even one fellow who suggested we redress the errors of the past by buying back the 407. Concerns were raised by a couple of people that going overboard with project spending could result in cost increases due to increased demand. Raitt said that MPs were being asked to provide John Baird with a list of shovel-ready projects in their ridings, and that she has been working closely with Gary Carr on this.

Environment and sustainability.

I was impressed by how many people spoke intelligently and enthusiastically about green energy, local business, local food, etc. Despite efforts to paint these as 'left-wing' issues, it seems that everyone now understands that progress on these fronts is not only vital to our planet but will also ultimately help the economy. I got no sense from anyone that there was any choice to be made between the environment vs. the economy. Good to hear.

Finances.

There were a number of seniors at the meeting, so there was a lot of talk about pension investments and suggestions for tweaking the tax laws to make it easier for them. Not really any demand for tax cuts per se - most just wanted to be able to withdraw from their pensions or sell their property without being penalized so heavily.

Aside from pension issues, there was some discussion of rebates for energy saving retrofits, which falls under Raitt's purview. The consensus was that the rebates were too small and the paperwork to onerous. Much laughter when someone noted that rebates were available on water-saving toilets, but only for one toilet per house. One complaint about the cancellation of the hybrid / fuel efficient car rebate.

At one point, Raitt commented that during previous economic hard times, governments have simply downloaded services and costs but that they weren't going to do that. I'm sure she was talking about Martin, but of course Ontario's King of Downloads was the very same guy who's in charge of the federal purse right now. Points for irony.

Politics and electoral reform.

The only time the crowd broke into spontaneous applause was when one woman spoke of how disgusted she was by the behaviour of our elected representatives over the past year. She complained that there didn't seem to be a lot of empathy from the government for the plight o average Canadians, and that everyone from every party - including the Bloc - needs to work together on this through an "honourable process". Raitt promised to do better.

There was also an interesting exchange on electoral reform, specifically PR, where someone referred to our having "a two-party system in a five-party country" (brilliant line). Raitt said that she was surprised by how many people in Halton are aware and informed about this issue - much more so than in other ridings.

And my favourite line of the day was from the woman who stood up and said, "I am a life-long Conservative, and I believe that Stephen Harper owes the Canadian people an apology".

I asked two questions: why is Jim Flaherty consulting with business groups and corporate leaders and bankers but not labour groups? (Raitt said she was pretty sure he would be at some point, and that she was meeting with labour leaders out west sometime soon), and what was up with the AECL strategic review? (The review is apparently done, but a lot depends on the results of the Ontario bid). That led to a few questions and comments about AECL and the nuclear industry in general, and Raitt said she thought it was very important to keep nuclear jobs in Ontario. Which didn't exactly address the whole public/private issue, but whatever.

After the meeting, I went over and said hi to Mike Cluett (stop twitching, Esther), and ran into D'Arcy Keene again over by the Tim's.

"I really wasn't trying to be rude when you came into the office that day - I was just... surprised."

"No worries", I said. "Just the usual paranoia." Ha ha. Don't make eye contact.

He chuckled. "I'm really not that scary, you know. I'm just tall."

Well, he' not that tall. I'm pretty sure my husband's taller.

But seriously, I'm just teasing him. I'm sure he's a very nice person and not scary at all. And really, he's a very natty dresser for someone who can't see his own reflection in a mirror.

(crossposted from HaltonWatch)

Letter to Lisa

By way of the Editor of the Milton Champion, which today quoted Halton's new Conservative MP as saying,

“(We) will use every means possible to make sure this attack on Canada, this attack on democracy is not going to be allowed.”

My response:

To the Editor,

In the heated debate over recent events in Ottawa, it is unfortunate that Lisa Raitt and other representatives of the Conservative Party are trying to make their case by misleading Canadians.

Raitt referred to the proposed coalition between the Liberals and the NDP as "an attack on Canada, an attack on democracy". Perhaps she should bone up on her Canadian civics, because what the opposition parties are proposing is precisely how our parliamentary democracy is supposed to work. In fact, Stephen Harper proposed his own coalition with the NDP and the Bloc when he was on the other side of the aisle.

We did not elect Stephen Harper or the Conservative Party - we elected Members of Parliament to represent us. Our Prime Minister is chosen based on who has the support and confidence of the majority of those MPs. By his actions and his attitude, Stephen Harper has lost that confidence.

Prime Minister Harper has demonstrated time and time again that he is either unwilling or unable to work with opposition parties, despite his repeated promises to do so. Instead, he has chosen this time of economic crisis to deliberately provoke yet another political confrontation, playing his favourite game of 'Parliamentary Chicken' while failing to take any serious action to help Canadians through these hard times. Anyone concerned with the stability of a coalition government should consider how unstable three years of this sort of endless brinksmanship have made this country.

As for the opposition members, calling them names and accusing them of "attacking Canada" is an insult to the Canadians who elected them as their representatives. They are simply doing their job. Perhaps Ms. Raitt and her colleagues should try doing theirs.

Jennifer Smith

UPDATE: Published in the Milton Champion on Friday, Dec.5th., along with some other interesting editorial commentary.

My Other Blog is the Milton Champion

Milton is blessed with not one but two local newspapers that almost everyone in town actually reads and is influenced by. One is the Halton Compass (formerly the North Halton Compass), which is one of the few surviving independent local papers left in the GTA. It's small, but mighty.

The other is Milton Canadian Champion - a Metroland paper that nonetheless has enough of a history in town (150 years) that it's managed to maintain its own character.

Not long after moving to Milton fourteen years ago, I discovered the power of a well written Letter to the Editor of the Champion. Over those years I've written several - the most effective of which was one decrying a proposed increase in the speed limit on my street. That one inspired a petition started by a little girl up the street, a series of supporting letters, and an invitation by my town councillor to speak as a delegate before council.

I brought maps, and photos, and traffic calming studies - and consequently my little stretch of road is still a school zone.

My point is, despite the emergence of the internet and the blogosphere as potent tools for political change, sometimes nothing beats a good, old fashioned letter in the local dead trees media for reaching the local masses. I highly recommend it.

Sometimes, though, these things take time.

I don't think I've ever written a letter to the Champion that was never published, but they have often delayed publication long enough for the subject to lose its relevence. Such might be the case of my response to this letter, published two weeks ago, from an emissions control specialist who claimed to have attended the Turner / Dion extravaganza last month and yet somehow came away with the impression that The Green Shift was a cap-and-trade system. I sent my letter immediately, but so far the only response they've published was one from... Garth Turner.

Sigh.

So, in case they never get around to printing my (vastly superior) letter, here it is in full:

To the Editor,

Jon Komow's recent letter critiquing the cap-and-trade system of pollution control was fascinating and obviously based on professional expertise. However, I'm not sure if he actually attended the same town hall meeting that I did because Stephane Dion's 'Green Shift' plan is not, in fact, a cap-and-trade system.

Perhaps he's thinking of another party. The NDP is proposing a cap-and trade system, and Jack Layton has criticized the Liberals for not doing the same. The Conservatives have brought in a sort of cap-and-trade system, although the 'cap' is actually an 'intensity target' and the 'trade' system has not actually been set up. And of course neither plan provides tax relief to individuals and businesses to offset the resulting cost increases.

I am also curious about his complaint that the U.S. pollution control credit system brought in 15 years ago (I'm assuming he's referring to the Clean Air Act of 1990) just allowed major polluters to keep on polluting. It's my understanding that that program directly resulted in a 40% reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions and a comparable reduction in acid rain levels. Even he cites the massive reduction in conventional air pollutants over the past four decades, so I'm not sure exactly what his argument is.

One other correction: previous Liberal governments (and a couple of Conservative ones) have, in fact, provided Ballard Power Systems with hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies and R&D funding over the past two and a half decades.

As for Mr. Komow's concerns about the business impact of a carbon tax, he would do well to consider what the impact will be when Europe and even the U.S. stop doing business with us because of our high carbon emissions. Or when Canadian businesses can simply no longer afford the carbon-based fuels they've come to depend on and find themselves with no alternatives.

In the coming years, businesses that cling to the past instead of embracing the new low-carbon economy are going to find themselves in dire straits, with or without a carbon tax. With the Green Shift, they will at least have some resources to help them adapt.

I strongly recommend that Mr. Komow and anyone else who is interested in the facts actually read the Green Shift plan at www.thegreenshift.ca. Read it, work out the costs and benefits, and decide for yourself if you find it sound. But please, base your decision on the facts and not on rumours or political fear mongering.

- Jennifer Smith

My only regret is that I didn't have access to that carbon tax economic impact study the Conservatives commissioned and subsequently buried in a drawer - along with that TASER report.

And the Candidate is...

For well over a year now, the citizens of Halton Region have been waiting with bated breath to find out who would be squaring off against Garth Turner as the Conservative candidate in what seems to be a now imminent federal election.

Would it be ex-Reformer Rick Malboeuf? Or maybe Charles McVety devotee D'Arcy Keene? Or perhaps some new, fresh face would emerge from the ranks? Whoever it turned out to be, he or she would most certainly be elected by an open, democratic process by the local Conservative Party membership. Right?

Meh... not so much.

Halton riding has a consistent and active membership of around 550 and a significant amount of money in the bank. It has always had a healthy riding association ­ active in many community events and experienced at winning elections. There have been at least three very well-qualified members who have announced their intention to seek the candidacy for the same two years. All the requirements for holding a candidate selection process have been in place. It is axiomatic that the longer a candidate has to work the riding the more likely he/she is to have a positive influence on the outcome of an election.

However, PoliOps has decided to appoint Lisa Raitt as the Tory candidate in Halton...

It is likely that the fuss raised by the newspapers and blogs about the nefarious treatment of the Mississauga East-Cooksville membership caused PoliOps a little temporary concern (see Mississauga South) and sometime in February/March 2008 they told Lisa Raitt she'd have to campaign for the candidacy (like Major Ted Opitz). She flatly refused. She gave the bogus excuse that her position in a government agency didn't allow her to campaign for a political position. This is not true. More likely she was concerned about the optics among Toronto city councillors and/or she simply didn't want to lower herself, or exert herself, to engage in a contest for a position she had previously been assured was hers and that she still wanted to have.

So PoliOps made a tactical shift. The membership in Halton will not be allowed to choose their own candidate. Whenever the writ is dropped for the next federal election, the cover of the call to arms will be used to sneak in Lisa Raitt as the official Party Representative.

Oh yes. This is going to be WAY fun.

.....

As an aside, while I was digging through Garth Turner's blog archives looking for info on his former nomination rivals, I ran across this gem of a quote from the days shortly before he was unceremoniously booted from his own party:

Political parties are shaped by the people who form them. Policies emerge, evolve, mature or disappear. Leaders come and go. Nobody expects new members to throw off their old ideas or principles when they join - the party only hopes supporters will be just that, supportive.

Parties adopt and reflect the people in them, rather than the other way around. Modern Canadian political parties are not mental or moral straightjackets which squeeze out personal belief or questioning analysis.

Given the somewhat upsetting discussions I've been having recently with some of my NDP brethren in the blogosphere over my support of the Liberal Party, I found that to be appropriate and surprisingly heartening.

Well said, sir.

Watch This Space

Today's the big day here in Sprawlville! The Great Green Shift Road Show and Turner Town Hall Shindig is coming to Halton, and yours truly will be there with bells on, bringing you the live(ish) play-by-play and (possibly next day) video coverage.

Ok, so Kady O'Malley I ain't, but I'll do my level best.

As if I won't have enough to do juggling laptop, still camera and camcorder, praying the Wi-Fi holds out while I desperately try to film and type at the same time... I have also volunteered to be the event's Official Blogger Wrangler. Yes, Garth Turner in his infinite wisdom has invited every rabble-rouser and miscreant who frequents his blog's blood-soaked comments section to c'mon down and hang out with Mr. Dion a while before the main event.

They still haven't responded to my requisition for cattle prods and a Taser.



Oh, and I have to pick up the pipe and drape this morning. Can't forget.

It should be an interesting event, if only to see how many members of the "Garth is the Anti-Christ" anti-fan club actually show up. Some have been making a lot of noise about staging a protest, but I suspect that actually being invited to attend might have taken a bit of the wind out of their sails. But it sure would be entertaining.

For everyone else, if you are anywhere near St. Vlod's in north Oakville tonight around 7:30, please drop by. Or at least, try to get there at least an hour early and fight your way through the crowds to stake out some standing room along the back wall. No matter what your political inclinations might be, everybody really is welcome to come and ask whatever questions you might have.

Come see me. I'll be the one with the lasso.

A Chat with Peter Haight

I know, I'm sorry. I've been negligent in my political postings. I've just been having way too much fun playing with my video camera and editing software and doing video posts over at my new blog, Sprawlville.

See? This is why I only have one kid.

Just to give you an idea of the fun I've been having (and to shamelessly troll for readership for my new blog), here's my latest entry:

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There are few people in Milton more knowledgeable or passionate on the subject of Milton's sprawl problem than gallery owner and ex-council candidate Peter Haight. What he knows hasn't made him any happier, but it does make him fascinating to talk to. If a bit... discouraging.



For those of you who don't live here, Sargent Farms is a chicken processing plant located right beside Sixteen Mile Creek in the middle of downtown Milton. Next door to a pub. Every day, large trucks full of live chickens drive into town and truck loads of dead chickens drive out - all through the heart of our historic downtown.



By all accounts they are good corporate citizens and a fairly major employer, even though most of their employees are from out of town. And I'm sure it was perfectly reasonable for them to be where they are when they first set up shop - back in the 1940s! Today, I'm sure even they would agree that it's ridiculous.

Trouble is, solving the problem would require two things that are in pitifully short supply with our town council:

1) money, and
2) the willingness to admit that there is a problem

The GreenCarting of Milton

I live in the invisible house.

Admittedly, my house is set a fair ways back from the street, and there is a big ol' tree in front of it. And there's a park across the street, which means that trick-or-treaters and newspaper delivery kids prefer to just skip it rather than haul their asses all the way up the driveway when there's no houses to hit on the way back up the street. Still, when the trucks come on Wednesdays to pick up the trash they always manage to find us.

So why is it that, when Halton's new GreenCarts for compostables were delivered last month, our neighbours on both sides got theirs and we got hosed?

I immediately called the Region and left my information. They put me on the list and said to wait a week. A week went by, and I called again. They had apparently gotten my phone number wrong the first time, but we got that straightened out. They apologized, said to wait until the 4th. I wait. No Green Cart.

A few days later, my neighbours had their first GreenCart collection.

For some unknown reason, the Region decided to roll out the GreenCart program and change up the whole garbage and recycling schedule AND start using a new waste collection contract company all on the same day.

All did not go well.

The contractor in charge of the region's garbage pick-up has issued an apology to local residents for the delays that've been experienced so far in the new waste collection program.

Miller Waste Systems started a contract with the Region last week that includes the new GreenCart program, weekly Blue Box collection and bi-weekly garbage collection with a six-bag limit.

But the program got off to a bit of a rocky start, with some residents waiting for several days after their scheduled collection day for a Miller truck to show up.

Oops. Yeah, I noticed that. Our garbage and blue boxes didn't get picked up until Thursday night, and on Friday I still saw trucks collecting yard waste. Seems MWS had some splainin' to do.

Miller Senior Vice-President Blair McArthur appeared before regional council Wednesday to apologize for the challenges that've been experienced so far and offer up some explanations.

"There is a very compelling reason for the delays you have seen," he said. "The Region's marketing campaign (for the program) promised 'More Blue and Green for a Better Planet' and we have definitely seen more blue and green than at any time in the history of our waste diversion experience. In our 47 years of business, we have never seen such unprecedented rates in the roll-out of a new waste management program or the volumes of material set out for collection."

He said last week, Miller trucks collected about 2,000 tonnes of recycling and organics (compostable material) -- over 50 per cent more than what was expected.

There were also high volumes of leaf and yard waste, with more than 200 tonnes of the material being collected per day. That's about 20 per cent more than Miller had anticipated.

Shocking, I know. Especially since it was the first week after the snow melt and people had spent the weekend, oh... cleaning up their yards. Still, one wouldn't think that having to collect 50% more stuff would result in it taking 300% longer than they had estimated. Although apparently they also had issues with people not showing up for work. And they weren't real familiar with the routes. And they only had 63 trucks.

Wait a minute. 63 trucks? When they're hauling blue box/green cart, garbage and yard waste in three separate runs? And there are... 440,000 people in Halton? Which is, what, 150,000 households? Maybe 100,000 who don't live in apartments? That's still... holy shit. Ok, well, I guess I don't know enough about waste management.

Amusingly enough, Milton almost torpedoed the whole Green Cart plan. Apparently a number of our rural residents protested, asking why the hell they should pay their Hard Earned Tax Dollars to collect stuff they could just as easily compost in their enormous backyards. Sadly, when the Region did a garbage study, they discovered that rural residents had just as many compostable materials in their garbage as everyone else in town.

Soooo... we'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I finally got my GreenCart today. And only three and a half weeks late.

Spring Is Sprung, the Grass is... Underwater

One of the nicest things about our little house in Milton is that Sixteen Mile Creek is literally across the street from us. Our part of it flows within an ugly but effective concrete flood control channel behind a high fence. Aesthetically it sucks, but days like today I'm awfully glad it's there.

This is the scene a few blocks south of us, looking north...



and looking south:



I've lived in this town for fourteen years, and I've never seen flooding this bad. Ever.

Other signs of spring: things emerging from the snow. Garbage. Muck. My next door neighbour's Christmas tree that the Town failed to pick up in January:



And this poor little fella, right at the busy corner of Laurier and Ontario St:



So sad. He looks like he's asleep, which he probably was when he crawled into a snowbank and died. I'll take mercy on the squeamish and put the close-up behind this link, but he's actually in pretty good shape, considering.

I called the Town to come and collect him (he's been exposed there for days), but they said they might not be able to come right away because they're busy... with flood issues.

Local Environmentalists Ban Dirt

Here we go again.

Region committee has turned down a proposal to accept bottom ash from Peel's energy-from-waste facility in Halton's landfill.

The planning and public works committee endorsed a motion to that effect Wednesday. Region staff had recommended the bottom ash -- an inert byproduct from the incineration process that's collected from the bottom of the furnace -- be trucked to the Halton Waste Management Site to use as a daily cover, which is a material placed over the garbage in the landfill each day to control things like blowing litter.

And who exactly is responsible for this? Why none other than the same group who nixed the construction of a low-emissions gas-fired power plant in Milton, resulting in a different and possibly worse-polluting gas-fired power plant being built just north of the Milton town line.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you P.O.W.E.R.:

Before passing the motion, the committee first heard from two local residents' groups -- Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources (POWER) and Oakvillegreen. Both are strongly opposed to using the bottom ash at the local landfill.

"It makes no sense to choose cover that contains toxic material," said POWER past president Barbara Halsall. "Vote no on this report."

Liz Benneian of Oakvillegreen shared similar sentiments.

"Bottom ash is not adequately tested and may pose health and environmental hazards," she argued. "There doesn't appear to be any benefit to Halton citizens."

A brief reality check here:

1) Bottom ash from incinerators has been tested and re-tested for decades by every country that uses waste incinerators. The most hazardous thing about bottom ash is the presence of metals like zinc and lead, but these are tested for regularly and are well below the levels that could pose any risk to the environment even if they did manage to leach into the soil. Which they probably couldn't because...

2) This is a LANDFILL. It is full of GARBAGE. In fact, it is full of exactly the same kind of garbage that is being burned to produce the bottom ash - except that in an incinerator all the really toxic crap is either burned off or removed with the fly ash.

In other words, bottom ash is considerably less toxic than the garbage it is being used to cover. If you dared me to I would probably eat it. Saying it ‘may be’ hazardous is like saying is like saying the earth ‘may be’ hollow or the moon landing ‘may have been’ a hoax - just because someone said so on a website doesn't make it true.

Yet despite all evidence and rational analysis, those who believe these things can simply point to ‘studies’ by the one or two people who agree with them, and dismiss the overwhelming scientific consensus to the contrary as part of a vast government and corporate conspiracy to poison them and their children. And they always manage to talk the local politicians into going along with them because face it - would you vote for a guy who wants to poison your children?

This sort of thing is particularly endemic to Milton for some reason. Over the years, various factions of the local ‘That Shit’ll Kill You’ Coalition^TM have come out against lawn pesticides and cell phone towers, and for decades have managed to preserve Milton as one of the last remaining municipalities in Canada without water fluoridation - thus guaranteeing it’s perpetual dominance as the Dental Decay Capital of Halton. Hell, when I first moved here 14 years ago they didn’t even chlorinate the water. Just ask the people of Walkerton how dangerous they think chlorine is.

(And please - do NOT just run out and Google up a bunch of links to send me proving that this shit really will kill you. I've seen it. It's rubbish.)

Now, I should mention here that POWER is not nearly as irrational as some of the other citizens groups which have formed themselves around such imaginary threats. In fact, POWER does some good work on escarpment water quality and pushing back on local quarry expansion, which makes their bizarre obsession with marginal issues like this so frustrating. Not only does it damage their credibility by making them look like a bunch of ‘nimby’ crackpots, but the best they can hope to achieve is to banish these projects to neighbouring jurisdictions, making them someone else’s problem while still affecting us here in Milton.

Worse, they may well be damaging the environment by actively discouraging potentially beneficial technologies like energy-from-waste incineration.

In trying to figure out just what motivates an otherwise rational person to suddenly decide that cell phone towers cause brain cancer or that public water fluoridation is a chemical industry plot, I thought I’d Google the words ‘environmental’ and ‘hypochondria’ and see what popped up.

Looks like I’m not the only one to make this connection.

Unfortunately, the perceived line between legitimate and imaginary or exaggerated environmental hazards can be pretty thin unless you actually examine all that complicated sciencey stuff, so the term ‘environmental hypochondria’ is used pretty freely by anti-environmentalists to bash any and all environmental legislation. However, I did run across a fascinating article in ‘The Environmental Practitioner’ that takes a serious look at the problem from an environmentalist’s standpoint (emphasis mine).

As a general environmental practitioner, I have encountered many environmental hypochondriacs over the years, most of whom fall into one of the following categories:

1. Clients, generally promoting major projects, who have a limited appreciation of environmental issues, are concerned about threats to the project caused by bureaucratic delays or legal challenges, and are prepared to pay the necessary price to eliminate such threats.

2. Members of the community opposing a development for environmental reasons. In some cases the environmental hypochondria reflects genuine concern based on ignorance and sometimes fuelled by provocative or imaginative media reports. In other cases, it is contrived as an excuse to mask the real reasons for such opposition, which may relate to real estate prices or basic ‘nimbyism’. Such contrived concerns can be compared with the child who feigns illness to avoid having to go to school.

3. Staff of consent or advisory authorities who either lack the professional experience to make confident decisions in relation to environmental issues or, like the community- based malingerers, deliberately play up their concerns to support a hidden agenda of personal or institutional opposition to a proposal.

…As a consultant, I find that about one third of my time is devoted to addressing issues arising from environmental hypochondria, and that the results of this work contribute nothing towards better environmental outcomes. In some cases the net effect is negative, as human resources and funding are diverted away from discretionary projects which would enhance the environment or the state of environmental knowledge (e.g. rehabilitation projects, monitoring or research). This is one of the tragic aspects of environmental hypochondria

(‘Environmental Hypochondria’ by David Hogg, from ‘The Environmental Practitioner’, journal of The Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand, Issue 1, June 2006)

I may just run off a few copies of that article and hand them out at the next Halton Regional Council meeting.

2007 Detritus, Part 2

Apparently a number of the major newspapers spent the holidays putting their 2007 articles behind firewalls, so there are a number of items in my file that I just can't get at anymore. Here's what I could salvage:

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February 20th - Milton Crosswalks

One item that passed pretty much unnoticed this spring was a decision by Milton Town Council to do away with all but one pedestrian crosswalk in town.

The line that made my jaw drop was this one:

Mayor Gord Krantz voiced support for removing the crossovers, noting every time traffic has to stop it creates gridlock and pollution.

I see. So, our Lord High Mayor figures the best way to decrease pollution is to discourage pedestrians.

I actually took the trouble to check the original committee report, and my reading of it is that they recommended looking into replacing the yellow light, push button crosswalks with pedestrian activated red lights. But that would involve spending money. More than the $150,000 they spent ripping out the existing crosswalks, that is.

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September 22nd - Tom Flannagan

This was the day that Harper's Brain finally stepped out from the shadows and shared with us all his Ten Commandments of Conservative Campaigning. I especially liked Number 4:

4. Incrementalism

Conservatives must be willing to make progress in small, practical steps. Sweeping visions have a place in intellectual discussion, but they are toxic in practical politics.

Incrementalism is the twin of moderation. Small conservative reforms are less likely to scare voters than grand conservative schemes, particularly in Canada, where conservatism is not yet the dominant public philosophy. In any case, incrementalism is intrinsically the right approach for a conservative party.

And lo, we were nauseated.

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October 5th - The One Cent Solution

Intellectual property gone mad:

Mint wants $48,000 for use of penny pic

The City of Toronto says the Royal Canadian Mint wants almost $48,000 in compensation after the city used the image of a penny in a prominent ad campaign, without proper authorization.

The ads, seen throughout the city in bus shelters and TTC vehicles as well as on buttons and bumper stickers, feature a blown-up picture of the penny. The ads are part of Mayor David Miller's push for one out of every six cents of GST revenue to be returned to the municipality where it was collected.

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October - Random Thoughts on Food

I live in Ontario, and the other day I noticed that the Loblaw's Supercentre had garlic from China, and onions from Peru. Peru! I know it's been a terribly dry summer here, but the local and organic growers at the weekly Milton Farmer's Market didn't seem to have any trouble stocking local garlic and onions.

The fact that it's apparently still cheaper for Loblaw's to ship produce from half way around the world than pay local farmers a decent price just serves to illustrate how exploitive agribusiness is in the developing world.

Unfortunately I don't live in BC, so my options for fresh local produce are about to narrow to nearly zero. I am seriously considering building a greenhouse.

(and on that note, here's a link to the Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry from March talking about big agribusiness and rural poverty in Alberta.)

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October 15th - Health Care Myths Debunked

Here's a link to a point by point evisceration of a fake email making the rounds that purported to be from a Canadian complaining about our health care.

Great for those parties where you find yourself in a screaming argument with one of those Americans who still thinks public health care is a Communist plot.

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October 26th - Rick Salutin Is My Home Boy

More pearls from the far left office at the Globe & Mail, this time on the rising dollar and the retailization of Canada. A taste:

Peter Mansbridge furrows his brow but doesn't wonder why a country without workers who make anything has to pay higher markups on iPods than America does. We're on the way back to producing only what we always did: unprocessed resources like oil, wheat and wood. But the knowledge purveyors prefer to focus on the cost of Levis, obscuring rather than exploring any connection between making and buying.

What will an all-retail economy look like, when that day arrives? My stretch of College Street in Toronto is pretty much restaurants and cafés, rarely broken by even a futon store or 7-Eleven. Can a society survive by serving each other lattes?

Seriously, how is it this guy works for the GLOBE?!

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November - Random Thoughts on History

I have become convinced that there is no such thing as a definitive history of the world, or even of a particular period or event. Every historian, no matter how objective they may, will always have a particular point of view. No one can simultaneously encompass all the sociological, economic, political, religious and other causes and effects that weave together to represent a single event or sequence of events.

That’s not a bad thing.

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December 11th - Why So Many Poor People Are Obese

Admit it - you've wondered.

This article in Newsweek entitled "Living in Junk Food Country" provides an illuminating analysis that brings into focus a whole host of problems including urban sprawl, corporate hegemony, and the psychological effects of 'food insecurity'.

And what was that I was saying about the grocery store situation in Milton?

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December 22nd - Food Banks in Crisis

I found this post in DailyKos particularly disturbing. Apparently food banks in the U.S. have experienced a 50% - 100% increase in demand over the past year. The author quotes articles from over a dozen cities from Georgia to Connecticut describing the same situation, then offers this:

Hunger relief organizations are reporting that a "perfect storm" of circumstances is keeping them from meeting demand for food ... at the same time demand is surging.

The perfect storm?

Rising food prices.
Rising fuel prices.
Unemployment.
Underemployment.
Stagnant and declining wages.

Funny, that.

Meanwhile ...

Economic reporting on cable news mostly consists of scantily clad damsels screaming from the floor of the New York stock exchange about how "valuations remain strong," followed by news anchors with empty expressions on their faces, asking, "Why don't Americans understand how good this economy is for them?"

I think that we are all getting the idea that something has gone wrong here. What kind of country can't afford to feed its own citizens? A failed country. And what if that country is one of the richest in the world?

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I think the theme for this year's blogging might just be... food.

Halton Catholic School Board Bans 'The Golden Compass'

The following letter was sent to the editor of The Milton Champion in response to today's front page article.

Dear Editor,

I was dismayed to read of the Halton Catholic School Board’s recent decision to ban Philip Pullman’s award winning books from their school library shelves. While I’m sure they had the best of intentions, I am concerned that by trying to protect their students from ‘atheist indoctrination’, they may be inadvertently promoting someone else’s agenda.

I find it hard to believe it is a coincidence that the Board received its single complaint about Pullman’s books at precisely the same time that the right-wing Catholic League in the U.S. began its email boycott campaign against them. These are the same people who have targeted everything from South Park to Rosie O’Donnell to the infamous ‘chocolate Jesus’ sculpture as being ‘anti-Catholic’. I would not be at all surprised if the complaint originated from either the Catholic League or from someone who had received an email from them.

I would have hoped that most Canadian Catholics were capable of seeing through this kind of reactionary neo-conservatism, but apparently not. At least not in Halton.

I was also shocked to read that the Board made their decision in direct opposition to the recommendations of their own Book Review Committee. What exactly is the point in having such a committee if their recommendations are simply going to be ignored? From what I understand, the committee members were all required to actually read the book. Did all of the trustees do the same, or were they simply reacting to what they had heard about the author and his views?

Ironically, it is precisely this kind of suppression of uncomfortable and controversial ideas that has led Pullman to be so critical of religion in the first place. By banning his books, they have proven his point.

I wonder what will inspire more Halton Catholic students to question their faith: reading ‘The Golden Compass’, or being forbidden to read it.

Your truly,

Jennifer Smith