Because the other thread got locked.
3 candidates have declared for the Liberal nomination:
Charles Finlay
http://www.torys.com/OurTeam/Pages/FinlayCharlesW.aspx
www.charlesfinlay.ca
A lawyer with Torys LLP.
Eric Hoskins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoskins
www.erichoskins.ca
President of War Child Canada, Officer of the Order of Canada, unsuccessfully ran as a federal Liberal in the last election in Haldimand-Norfolk.
Judith Moses
www.judithmoses.ca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Moses
Former Senior Assistant Deputy Minister in the department of Agriculture, has served in several different ministries, unsucessfully ran as a federal Liberal in the last election in York-Simcoe.
Has anyone heard anything about PC/NDP/Green nominations?
Regions:
Stuart Parker's Facebook page:
Stuart Parker used to be leader of the Green Party in BC, then saw the light and joined the NDP and is a leading figure in the electoral refrm movement - I think he would be a good candidate.
Are there no Liberals that live in the riding of St Pauls? The Two Liberal Candidates where Parachute Candidates in 2008.
Now they are dropping into St. Pauls... JUST VISITING .. LOL,
Hoskins ran in a former Liberal Stronghold against Diane Finley and he was CRUSHED. Clearly its a good thing, as he was not committed to the riding, and his words were lies. Just another "I am good on Paper" candidate. Of course.... isn't this how Ignatieff got started.
Rumour has it the party brass for the Liberals are lining up behind Moses.
Rumour has it the party brass for the Liberals are lining up behind Moses.
Hoskins wasn't "crushed"; he only lost two points off the previous Bob Speller tally, and Diane Finley's margin actually shrunk (thanks in part to an independent candidate spurred by the Caledonia situation et al).
And besides, Haldimand-Norfolk federally wasn't so much a Liberal stronghold as a fortuitous beneficiary of (a) the 1988 free trade + dawn-of-the-CHP election, and (b) the Chretien/Speller power dynamic versus the disunited right. Provincially, it's been a different story in the past (think Bob Nixon agrarianism); but currently under Toby Barrett it's about as solid as PC seats get...
This is a pleasant surprise! I turn up and discover there is already a byelection thread.
We'll have stuartparker.ca up soon. In the interim, here's some fun stuff to read about the campaign:
http://www.straight.com/article-245038/former-bc-green-party-leader-seek...
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stuart-Parker/107462027883
While Judith Moses is the only candidate currently within the St Paul's boundary, Charles Finlay grew up in St Paul's and his parent's still live in the riding, and Eric Hoskins lives right in downtown Toronto - they were hardly 'parachuted' in. Let's stick with the facts shall we?
I've actually gone out and met all of the Liberal candidates this week - as I live in St Paul's - and they are a surprisingly strong trio of individuals. The riding would do well with representation from any of them.
How 'madmax' can say that Dr Hoskins is simply 'good on paper' is beyond me given what he's actually achieved - against the odds! - for children in war torn areas around the world. He's not just a talker - he's a doer who has achieved much, and we could use a few more people of action in Queen's Park. He has a lot of real world experience - it's amazing what he's achieved given his age.
Judith Moses has a lot of experience in government and clearly is a policy person - which is great. We need clear ideas for change. And having another qualifieid and intelligent woman in Queen's Park can only help.
Charles Finlay is a strong generalist - which I like - but also has gone out there in the local Toronto community and made a positive difference for people with mental health issues. Again, not just a talker.
You'd be hard pressed to find another party nomination with three such strong candidates.
Good luck with your bid Stuart.
According to Wikipedia, Toby Barrett actually had the widest margin of victory for a PC incumbant in the whole province. From what I have heard, a lot of people are just upset at government as a whole over the Caledonia situtaion, which helps explains Gary McHale's strong showing as an independent and Findlay hemoraging votes, as well as the Liberal candidate getting crushed provincially.
Not me you can be sure.
Sounds like a great candidate. I just sent invitations to 31 people.
Josh Matlow has declined to run, but seems to be supporting Finlay.
Stuart's personal story is that he left the Greens because in his opinion they became too right-wing.
And it sounds like Parker wants the NDP to move leftward as well:
There purpose was to beat the Conservative machine, and it should have occured. The choice of the riding association cause their own demise.
Meanwhile.... the Candidate left the riding as he appeared.
And.... Hoskin certainly wasn't a "Nixon" Agrarian.... which is what you run in a centre right Agricultural riding....
Not Elitist parachute candidates with no hope of winning, let alone actually caring about the riding.
This opportunist has now found his way to ST. PAUL ....
Perhaps he can have coffee with John Tory... LOL.
Well there's one strike against Finlay.
Yes, he parachuted into Haldimand...
Thats true of many candidates...
That is good on paper... is it not? Doesn't the resume read well? That does not mean you wish to committ yourself to a community and work on its behalf? Clearly, Hoskins had no intention of using these good character traits in Haldimand.... as he was just visiting the riding. That is how the term Parachute candidate comes to mind.
Great... and has he done anything for the people in St. Paul other then forward his nomination? How much local work has he done in the riding? What programs has he created, started, been involved in?
And if he has .... good... if not.... then he has done good things around the globe and can do good things here whether elected or not. Clearly, his goal is now politics.... either Federal or Provincial.
Whenever I hear the term... Policy Person... people need to run for the hills.
A strong "generalist".
I'd be hard pressed to find a Liberal supporter say anything different. I'd say, people are looking at a sure thing into government office in a Liberal Stronghold.
That's about it....
Uh, I think you're letting a partisan (or something) chip on the shoulder blind you to the psephological truth. Look: we're talking 2008, the Dion election, in rural Ontario. Under the circumstances, and even with McHale factored in, even a REAL Liberal candidate couldn't have taken out Diane Finley; indeed, judging from the results in other Tory-held rural Ontario ridings that year, such a candidate (even Bob Speller?!?) might have done even worse. (Compared to the 32.35% here, look at non-parachute/opportunist Liberal neighbours: 23.53% in Elgin-M-L; 23.97% in Niagara West-Glanbrook; 19.39% in Oxford; even the losing Liberal incumbent in Brant got less than a percent more than Hoskins.)
So, stop venting your bile, and look at the 2008 results across Ontario. Except by miracle or with some hyper-populist phenomenon (whether Grit, or indirectly through McHale himself doubling his vote count and allowing Hoskins up the middle), No. Liberal. Could. Have. Won. In. Haldimand-Norfolk. In. 2008. And it's because of Dion, not because of Hoskins.
As a parachute candidate he left the riding as failed parachute candidates do. And Parachute Candidates land in other areas.
Opportunity lost....
I don't see Matlow as being any worse than your average Liberal. Do Libs feel differently?
I agree. My guess if Hoskins were running for the NDP, we wouldn't be hearing how he "looks good on paper" etc. etc.
Anyway the reality is St. Paul's is as safe for the Liberals as Mount Royal at this point. This byelection does serve as an opportunity for the NDP to take a risk and run a more radical candidate.
I'm not a Liberal supporter, but I see Josh Matlow as exemplifying everything that is slimy and wrong with the Liberal Party. I feel more kindly toward the average Liberal voter.
Essentially a candidate that looks good on paper is a person with strong credentials. A choice that is better then running a paper candidate. That does not dismiss the fact that he was a parachute candidate and had no committment to the riding.
Sometimes parachute candidates get elected, but other times you have to work and have committment to win a riding.
There is an advantage in Strong Liberal Ridings as once receiving the nomination, you can mail in your victory.
Haldimand was looking for change... and it collapsed on many fronts. I would fully expect the riding association has learned from this mistake and chosen a local candidate for the next federal election.
In the meantime, the Liberal Candidates in St. Pauls will effectively be on their way to being the MPP the moment they win the Nomination.
Parachuting into Toronto has less stigma then parachuting into a rural, agricultural riding.
To me, Finlay, a Bay St. lawyer, seems like the best Liberal candidate from an NDP point of view.
Anyway I'm curious if they're going to be scheduling the federal and provincial nomination meetings around the same time.
But to repeat, Even. A. Non-Parachute. Liberal. Candidate. Would. Have. Lost. And. Maybe. Even. Done. Worse. In. Haldimand-Norfolk. And to reemphasize, if H-N was looking for a change and the Grits failed them, blame Dion, not Hoskins--given the end result relative to other similar seats in Ontario, Hoskins' "parachuteness" probably helped more than it hurt, whether you like it or not.
It wouldn't have taken a mere local Liberal candidate to win it in 2008: it would have taken an extraordinary local Liberal candidate, beyond even Bob Speller, and maybe a populist party-bucking Blue Dog type a la Paul Steckle that'd make Babblers cringe, to boot. But what's the chance of that? Is there any such figure out there? (There would be next door in Elgin, if Steve Peters ever decided to go fed. But that's next door, not here.)
As it stands (and to invert Lord Palmerston's "if Hoskins were running for the NDP" point), to claim that the Liberals would have won H-N in '08 if not for Hoskins is as absurd as a more Babble-stereotypical hypothetical claim that the NDP could have won H-N with a "strong local candidate" once voters discovered how Liberal/Tory was the same old story. (Okay, they did, provincially, in 1990 ;) )
And re Palmerston's point once again and more apropos this thread: if one considers Paul Summerville as an unlikeable "H-N Hoskins" figure within St Pauls in 2006, it isn't like a less fairweather NDPer would have done any better that year unless the party somehow managed to snag Joe Mihevc or something...
A disappointing piece in the local neighbourhood rag:
http://www.mytowncrier.ca/three-grits-vie-for-st-pauls-seat.html
I have so far e-mailed everyone at NDP provincial office and the local paper's reporters about my candidacy. But apparently, there are no declared NDP candidates in the race, according to the provincial secretary as quoted by the local paper. However's it's nice to know that once they've lined up a favoured candidate and the fix is in, then and only then will they call a nomination race. I understand that this is how things work but usually there's at least an effort at a facade of inclusion and democracy.
Oh -- did I mention my sending e-mails to the riding executive members via their web site, the party web site and their Facebook group?
Actually the article says there are no 'nominees'. That is a factual statement- you are not the nominee yet. The article also states that a meeting is planned for September. And it also seems to suggest that someone or several someones are also considering but are waiting to see the lay of the land - that could easily include you too from the way the comments read. None of this in anti-democratic or unusual in these situations.
Also never under-estimate the ability for reporters- especially someone doing a clear puff piece for the Liberals - to get the comments wrong.
Throwing around accusations and flying off the handle is probably not the best way to secure a nomination. If you want the nomination start calling members and talking about why you would make a good candidate. Running others down is not the answer.
Edited to add- you might want to have a picture on facebook that isn't a shot of your butt. If you want one of QP in the background then go out front and face the camara. Look friendly and approachable. Having one of those hats on that holds two beer bottles and has a hose going down to your mouth is probably not a good idea.
People will not be attracted to a candidates butt no matter how fine they might think it is.
Thanks for the edit. That's what I get for having my girlfriend pick my photo. I'll get a different one put up.
But I'm still calling it as I see it. The article is about who is seeking the nomination for each party; hair-splitting over how the NDP phrases its comments indicating that no one is publicly campaigning doesn't really get us anywhere. By the logic you are employing, the Liberal Party has no "nominees" either and the article should be about no one. I'm not waiting to see the lay of the land; I'm not keeping a low profile; I'm publicly campaigning, having announced my candidacy in an hour-long radio interview on CFRB and followed it up with a raft of news releases so it is very hard to see the Provincial Secretary's comments as anything other than a denial of that situation.
Also, the idea that the timing of the nomination meeting will be based on who provincial office officials want to win it does strike me as less than fully democratic. Of course, "democracy" is a malleable term.
I don't see how you can make that claim when they stated that the meeting is in September?
And the question she was likely asked was have you nominated anyone? My guess would be, given the way the article is written, that the writer didn't want to print anything about other parties but felt they had to mention something.
If you really want to be proactive call up the reporter and suggest they do a story on you. Give them something to work with like a meet and greet, or you doing something that illustrates your priorities for the community. Being angry guy is not a vote getter.
Also the piece is clearly a Liberal puff piece- no one at provincial office would have had the slightest control over how it was spun.
I made the suggestion of calling up members for a reason. Media releases and so on will never replace the personal touch in a nomination. And talk to them about their hopes and dreams for themselves, family, friends, the riding and so on. Listen. If you feel the urge to talk - stop and ask them a question about what they think. The least important part of any campaign is the candidate themselves. Listen and then when you have done that talk to them about how what you believe in fits with their concerns. Have a conversation.
You know it seems kind of strange that the centrepiece of you campaign seems to be an attack on the NDP itself.
Do you think that maybe riding NDP members might wonder if you have a whole other agenda going on and that is making them nervous?
I think that the St. Paul's byelection represents a great opportunity for the party to move in a different political direction in order to regain relevance for voters. The fact that questioning the party's current direction and seeking to articulate a course for returning to broad public relevance is being interpreted by some as "an attack on the NDP" only reinforces my view that the party needs a serious course correction.
We are in the nomination phase of the contest -- this is the phase that is about the party and what face it chooses to present. If I make it to the next phase, the campaign will obviously exclusively focus on promoting the New Democratic Party as the best option in St. Paul's but I think it would be both dishonest and unproductive for me to spend this phase of the contest acting like I already have the nomination.
Ah, but that is not what you are doing in this thread. You have not questioned the direction of the NDP - something in my experience is neither novel or new- instead you have attacked the NDP itself, its staff and it would seem the members of the St Paul's riding association.
All of which would tend to reinforce the idea that maybe you have another agenda.
As well you don't have to act like you have the nomination - you do need to act like you have something to offer. This is not the Green party where they are just happy to have someone to put on the ballot. Contested nominations are not all that unusual in the NDP.
My read on the article is that it was a Liberal Powder piece and the author was likely hoping to put the same answer in for the NDP as they put in for the Progressive Conseravites. The fact that the PCs didn't return a call by press time, doesn't read well. The fact that the NDP says it has people coming forward sounds somewhat positive. Essentially this is a big article about who will be the next Liberal. If you did get your name it, it would have been a single sentence.
In September either you or if there are other declared nominees might be able to make some headway without having to share media space with the Liberals.
Stuart please ,tell me a bit more about why you are seeking the NDP nomiantionb in St. Paul's? I asusme you bnow are a card carryign member of the ONDP and live in St.Pauls's or at least in Toronto. and have some involvment with the riding?
When it comes to a nomiantion meeting for a general election each NDP riding assoiation is supposed to sets up a serch commitee and approaches prospective cnadiates. There is some discussion about the rules and some "screening" of candiates- you have to provide a picture, a bio ,a statment about any ctriminal or civil proceedigns you are involved in that might emabaras the party.etc. there are guidebooks avialble for those interested in seeking the nomiantion. .When the riding has completed a fair search they send the material and a reprot to provincial office and request permission ot hold a nomiantion meeting. Permission should not be granted if the riding ahs not conducted a fair search or if there is no affirmative action candisate.
Once permission has been granted to hold a nomination pemeeting notice must be maield out to all members in the riding at leat 14 days before the meeting. Only those NDP members in good standinf who live in the riding can vote at the nomiantion meeting. I strongly recommend you start snnging up members now and get the memberdhip and other paperwork into provincial office.pronto. given this is a by-elecion provincial ofice will be playing ane ven stonger role than usual.
solidarity
Peter
Well, good news. It's amazing what twenty-four hours of being a cranky bastard can get me in attention from the party that six weeks of polite requests could not. Finally, I have a nomination kit and lines of communication to both the riding and the provincial office, none of which I had 24 hours ago. So I'm not exactly sorry about being rude -- maybe that means I'm not a proper Upper Canadian but I think I can live with that.
I am a paid-up member of the NDP and have been for most of the period from 1985-88 and 2000-09. In between those times I was a member of the Green Party. I have lived near the corner of Bathurst and St. Clair (pretty much the dead centre of the riding) since August 2004.Although I did serve on the riding executive in 2005, I have generally not been involved in partisan NDP politics because the overwhelming focus of my political activity has been promoting improvements in democracy through proportional representation and other measures. I've served on the board of Fair Vote Canada and campaigned very actively in the 2005 and 2009 BC referenda on voting reform and the 2007 Ontario referendum. I've been more focused, however, on democratic reform at the municipal level because I consider our civic institutions to have even greater systemic problems than our provincial ones. To this end, I helped form the Toronto Democracy Initiative last year to campaign not only for greater proportionality in civic elections but also the legalization of parties and an end to the ban on non-incumbents campaigning during 38 of the 48 months in the municipal electoral cycle.
I've been submitting members to provincial office for over a month but have only received my kit today. I'll be heading in to the office on Monday to hand over my formal nomination papers as well as the latest raft of members I've signed-up. I would be very surprised if we can get away with holding our nomination much later than September 10th because I think the call is imminent. Otherwise, the Liberals wouldn't have held a nomination meeting on seven days' notice in the dead of summer.As for why I'm seeking the nomination, I think that, as a party, New Democrats need to seriously re-evaluate how we are making a case for our relevance and how we are working to assemble a majority of voters.
- I think that we need to talk about how we are being squeezed from the Greens on one side and the Liberals on the other when it comes to "strategic voting" and open negotiations with both parties or friendly factions therein about reaching political common ground
- I think that we need to foreground the need for institutional political reform and democratization. We have gradually transformed ourselves into the defenders of the judges, officials and mandarins our party was once constituted to take on. This means attacking appointive policy-making bodies and placing power back in the hands of legislators. And it means reforming the legislative caucus system to end the drift towards the presidentializing the premier's office.
- I think that we need to make ourselves relevant specifically to Torontonians by taking positions on urban governance that shows leadership and vision rather than just responding (affirmatively) to the Miller Administration and (negatively) to McGuinty. We need to modernize our councils by legalizing political parties and ending the ban on campaigning in non-election years. We need to strengthen the relevance of councils rather than accept the drift towards "Strong Mayors."
- I think that as long as we focus on "child poverty" and other appeals to the poverty of specific groups that enjoy public sympathy, anti-poverty programs will fail. We need to speak clearly for everyone who is unemployed, eligible or not for social assistance and explain that one cannot tackle child poverty without tackling parental poverty.
- I think that the recession is being used to cover corporate "efficiency" measures in the way that resulted in the "jobless recovery" of the Clinton and Chretien era. I'd like to use the campaign to tell stories other than mine about how this is shaking down at individual workplaces.
Those are five big areas. Of course there are other issues and other concerns that I bring but I hope this is a decent start.
So you haven't handed in your nomination papers yet and you went on this ranting tear. Not a very good sign.
Again you might want to actually listen to the concerns of NDP members in the riding before informing them of everything that is wrong with the NDP and how you will fix it by being a by-election candidate in a single riding.
Oh -- and to be clear -- I don't have any respect for "party structure."What I respect are principles and persons; corporate entities are not things I have ever fetishized.
Oh - I misunderstood. I thought you had the papers but had not submitted them. Waiting for them is something different.
The party 'structure' is people - and your relationship with them. In an election campaign it is the party structure - regardless of party- that supports the candidate. If you can't respect the people who will be doing the vast majority of the work on 'your' campaign you frankly have no business being a candidate. If you are successful there will be all kinds of people working on your campaign because they believe in and support the principles of the NDP - you will be secondary in some ways. If you want to be successful you might want to check your ego a bit and start to realize that the candidate's role is to articulate the hopes and dreams of the people working in her name in a campaign. In short it is not all about you - although you get to have your names on signs, to participate in debates and do all the fun stuff- even though it is physically and emotionally exhausting. Of course you are important, but you are no more important than anyone else on the campaign team. Less so than many. You represent them just as much as they represent you to the general public.
If you also want to make it clear you are a sincere New Democrat you might want to articulate why you are no longer a Green instead of seemingly spending all of your time being critical of the NDP.
Babblers: while I have never met Stuart Parker, I have heard good things about him from other NDPers. I'm willing to cut him some slack on the nomination front as...well...I have had some bad experiences with the ONDP and their lack of ? professionalism? organisation? giving a shit? That being said patience and a certain degree magnanimity are two political virtues that would serve any potential nominee well. Also, even if Stuart were to win the nomination, he still has a lion's task ahead of him for this byelection. Whoever wins the nomination, the whole NDP (Stuart included), should put their shoulder behind the wheel and try to move this party forward. The ONDP is in a rough way and needs to find a way out. Could Stuart be part of that? I don't know, but I'll listen. The facebook snafu, while I didn't see it, is not the best but hey...it's now in the past. Go St. Paul's NDP go!
Agreed. While I don;t know Stuart I am pretty impressed by what I have hearrd and read. The ONDP should be shouting from the rooftops that we have such an impressive potential candidate
Stuart Parker (born 1972) was leader of the Green Party in British Columbia, Canada, from 1993 to 2000.
Prior to winning the party's leadership at the age of 21, he had been the founder and spokesperson of the party's youth wing, the Young Greens from 1988 to 1992 and was best known for coordinating the group's successful national campaign against McDonald's Restaurants' use of ozone-destroying foam packaging. Parker and the Young Greens received substantial credit from Canada's national media in 1990 when the restaurant giant abandoned the use of chlorofluorocarbon-based foam. The group's continued campaign against the use of CFCs in foam packaging led to CKF Incorporated, Canada's largest manufacturer of CFC-based foam, abandoning the use of CFCs in manufacturing in 1993.
Parker managed to take the party from a tiny group of 59 in 1992 to a party that was only four candidates short of a full slate in the 1996 provincial election. He built links to poverty activists and labour groups. During his leadership, the party's standing in public opinion polls rose from 1% to 11%. During his time as party leader, Parker was arrested in anti-clearcutting blockades in Clayoquot Sound in 1993 and the Slocan Valley in 1997.
Reversing his earlier position, he negotiated agreements with the municipal affiliates of the then-incumbent New Democratic Party of British Columbia (NDP) provincial government and the labour councils of Vancouver and Victoria in 1998 and 1999, resulting in the first and the only Red-Green coalitions in Canadian history in BC's 1999 municipal elections. As part of these coalitions, the Greens won their first-ever municipal seats in Canadian cities.
Ultimately, his focus on building a broadly left-wing green party in BC brought criticism from some members of the environmental movement in the province. Those people played a significant role in the efforts that eventually led to Parker's defeat at the party's March 2000 convention - after previous unsuccessful attempts in 1998 and 1999.
At the time of Parker's defeat, his supporters in the party were in negotiations with the NDP over a potential provincial electoral alliance. His successor, Adriane Carr, cancelled these negotiations.
Parker's departure from the party came as the Greens were perceived to be moving to the political right. He subsequently worked with the NDP in the 2001 provincial election and with the federal New Democratic Party in the 2004 federal election.
Upon leaving the Green Party, Parker initially worked as a lobbyist for Mike Geoghegan. He later became a strong advocate for electoral reform, specifically proportional representation. A co-founder of the BC Electoral Change Coalition in 1997, he has served on the board of Fair Voting BC (2000-2002, 2006-present) and on the board of Fair Vote Canada (2005-2007).
The nephew of Harry Jerome, Parker was the first BC political leader of African descent and gave the keynote speech to the opening ceremony of the province's Black History Month in 1994.
He is currently living in Ontario, where he is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Toronto.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Parker
Give the guy a break, he has an impressive resume, lost of ideas and he's willing to run in a riding that is probably unwinnable. What more do you want?
Wow, somebody has been beefing wiki enteries.
What the heck are you talking about. All I've done is offer what I hope is helpful advice. I went and looked at all the stuff Stuart has on the web, and most of it is attacking the NDP. So my advice includes coming to grips with the fact that while you need a healthy ego to endure an election campaign, you need to be aware of you actual place in things as a candidate and do some reaching out to the membership of the party in your riding.If he is only willing to attack the NDP then maybe that says something to members in the riding.
That is hardly earth shattering for anyone who has ever been a candidate.
Thanks so much for the positive responses to my potential candidacy.
Last night, I was campaigning at an Ethiopian community event (I appear to have been invited to balance the Liberal nomination seeker the Ethiopian community is backing). It seems very clear, based on Liberal Party gossip received not just there but from a variety of individuals well-placed within the OLP, that we're facing a byelection call in mid-August for a voting date before the end of September.
So I'm anticipating that our crew will really need to alter its somewhat leisurely nomination plans what with the Greens, Tories and Liberals all nominating next week in anticipation of an imminent election call.
One more thing: I'm curious to know what issues you guys think I should be focusing on both in the nomination process and in the election. I have to confess that I think the party's current HST focus may be a mistake.
Yes the HST is a mistake-
for the Liberals.
It is going to cost average people a lot more for a lot of very necessary things. It is bread and butter politics. I would hammer it over and over as an issue that shows how arrogant and uncaring the Liberals really are. And then add the cynicism of bribing Ontarians for one year - to get past an election - with their own money and you have an issue that shows why the Liberals are neither progressive of to be trusted.
Another issue is the sleaze the Liberals are revealing in places like eHealth.
Of course there are also issues like green jobs and so on, but I doubt you need much help on that.
By-election success tends to be very local - so make sure you are on top of the issues at the communtiy level. I don't live there so I have no idea what they are.
On the HST activity.
Small busines out here in BC are freaking, so in order to combat that anger brewing, Canwest had a representative from the forstry industry on telling people, it was going to save them hundreds of millions and thus many people their jobs. A similar false trope used over and over agin by forestry industry execs, for every different situation.
Sure enough they are going to save 100's of millions, but it is not going to save jobs, just as the other profit enhancing measures have not. They are too busy shipping their tenured non-processed timber off shore, and they are not interested in maintaining jobs, jobs cost them money too. Moreover, what it is going to do is remove those 100 of millions out of the government coffers and into their pockets. So their timber is going to be even freer than it was before.
Another issue I would stress in St. Paul is the fact that McGuinty has never reversed all the most evil things that Harris did to screw school boards and municipalities. I would point out that social welfare is an expense that needs to be uploaded to the provincial government and that the funding formula for education badly needs to be fixed as well.
Re: general election issues: Part of Michael Bryant's initial success in 1999 was having worked on tenant issues in the community prior to getting into politics. It was one of the reasons I felt comfortable "strategically" voting for him against incumbent Tory Isabel Bassett.
A potential hot button item could be the streetcar right of way construction delays but most of the work is now complete in St. Pauls.
There may also be issues about recreation facilities for youth although it's a problem for more people more north-west of the riding. A small part of the riding was in the pre-amalgamation Borough of York which had invested in before & after-school programs and used the schools quite a bit for recreation programs. York couldn't afford to build many community centres & swimming pools. Harris effectively gutted some of those programs with the education funding formula. With downloading and the megacity's "race to the bottom", lower income residents got shafted.
Forest Hill is also part of the riding and they have their own unique issues.
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