Current federal election news - all the federal parties in one location

[keoadmin]

Looking for current election news on all the federal parties in one location?

See www.electionfocus.ca (http://www.electionfocus.ca)

[Lydia]

Thank you Karen, for this wonderful website
http://metaball.ca/measureofprogress/#

This site allows everyone who has a CONSTRUCTIVE suggestion or concern to post letters to their Ministers. A full list of Ministries are listed and also the Minister who is currently in charge.

Finally a website that can make our Government accountable.


Measure of Process works in the following way:


You will write a short letter, maximum 800 words, describing your concern, issue, or compliment. If you have an idea of how to do things better, send that along too. Insults and long diatribes of unproductive judgment are not necessary.

Send that letter by email to your MP and carbon-copy (cc:) democracy@metaball.ca

Your letter will be added to this web site under the appropriate MP's name or Cabinet position.

When you receive a response to one of your letters, forward it to us and we'll add it to your original letter. If you feel like they're ignoring you or taking to long to respond, we will apply pressure on them for you.

Common themes or issues that emerge will be featured in the regular issues of The <meta>Ball to bring more attention to them. Complicated issues will be discussed so that we can close rifts and heighten awareness within divisive topics.
Tip for Electorate: If you want to make sure your MP is going to get things done, always cc the appropriate Cabinet Minister and Opposition Critics in your letters.

Tip for Members of Parliament: Make sure your constituent knows about all the other organizations they can contact to assure their concerns are addressed. Also make sure you send them the appropriate information about creating new policy, submitting new legislation, and the process involved therein.

*NOTE - Due to an unfortunate propensity for people to write in fake letters under fake names, if you do not include a valid telephone number with your email (number will NOT be published on this site), we will not be able to post your letter. It is doubtful you will receive a serious response from your MP if you don't give them some sort of alternative contact information as well.

[Lydia]

Please SPREAD THE WORD!!!!



December 4, 2008

Kingston, ON

-- For Immediate Release --



Progressive Coalition to Host Meet and Greet in Kingston

This Sunday, December 7 at 2:00PM, Kingston's Memorial Hall will play host to a 'Meet and Greet' in support of the proposed Progressive Coalition Government.

The event has been coordinated by representatives from Kingston's Liberals, Greens and New Democrats, and is supported by the Kingston District Labour Council. It is aimed at helping concerned Kingston and area residents to better understand what is behind the current political crisis and how we can best work together to resolve it. Speakers will include prominent local political figures and an expert on Canadian constitutional practice.

According to Kim McFarlane, President of the local federal Liberal Association, “Only a week ago, all parties signalled their willingness to work with the current Government by accepting its Speech from the Throne. Rather than building on that, Mr. Harper responded with destructive partisanship that irretrievably cost him the confidence of the House. Under our parliamentary system, that requires his resignation. The Coalition Accord represents a sincere effort on the part of the majority of the members of the House of Commons to make this Parliament work for Canadians to deal with the real problem, which is the state of the economy. We fail to understand how Mr. Harper’s move to shut down Parliament for almost two months will help those Canadians facing job losses.”

Eric Walton, the Green candidate in the last election added that “by prorouging Parliament primarily for reasons of self-preservation, Stephen Harper has deeply damaged Canada's democratic system and for that reason alone should be voted out at the first opportunity.”

The local gathering has been designed with a focus on socialization, education, and community spirit. The event is open to the public and refreshments will be provided.

“We all agreed that rather than holding another rally, the wide-range of political support in Kingston might be best-served by a more social event where we can get to know one another and commit to working together on a local level.“ said Daniel Beals, President of the local New Democrats.

It should be noted that Kingston has a history as a site of unification and cooperation, having hosted the first meeting of the Parliament of the united Upper and Lower Canadas on June 13, 1841.

"Now is not the time for political posturing. In the face of an economic crisis it is crucial that we work together for the good of all Canadians. Nobody can question the sincerity that underlines the Coalition Accord." said Debi Wells, President of the Kingston District Labour Council.



- 30 -

Inquiries: Ron Hartling

Policy Director - Kingston & the Islands Federal Liberal Association

613-384-5710


Daniel Beals

President - Kingston & the Islands New Democrats

613-549-8399 (h)



Eric Walton

International Affairs Critic - Green Party Shadow Cabinet

613-542-9365



Debi Wells

President - Kingston District Labour Council

613-548-4952

[Lydia]

From: ron.hartling@gmail.com
To: hilydia@sympatico.ca
Subject: Beyond Prorogation
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:04:21 -0500

Dear Lydia,

Thank you for participating in the public information meeting that we organized with the help of other concerned local riding associations on January 23rd at City Hall. At that time you indicated that you would like to be kept informed on that and related issues.

Since that time, our local efforts on prorogation have been focussed on a letter writing campaign to maintain public awareness of the issue and to ensure that the Conservative government is aware that Canadians take Parliament seriously.

As explained in the press release that I have copied below, the Liberal Party has taken an official position to the effect that the rules governing prorogation must be tightened up when Parliament resumes in order to prohibit more such abuses of our democracy in the future. If you agree with these proposals, you could best demonstrate your support in a letter to the editor and/or to the Prime Minister. If you believe that the Liberal Party should go even further on this issue, you are welcome to send your suggestions to Michael Ignatieff at the House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6.

Many of us have come to regard prorogation as just one element of a broader undermining of Canadian democracy and stifling of all real debate and questioning of the narrow Conservative agenda. Wayne Easter, an MP and former Solicitor General speaks of “the politics of fear” in which the government seeks easy votes in a “tough on crime” agenda by frightening voters with the spectre of violent crime, conveniently ignoring the plain fact that crime rates have been declining for years. It seeks to replace the Canadian rehabilitative corrections system which works with the US incarceration model of incarceration which at ruinous cost demonstrably makes communities less safe by increasing recidivism.

That same politics of fear is manifested in the muzzling of watchdog agencies (e.g. the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the RCMP Complaints Commission) and mounting pressure on publicly-funded non-governmental agencies to toe the line and refrain from any criticism. Even business leaders come under vicious attack from the Prime Minister’s Office when they make statements that contradict Conservative positions (e.g. TD Bank CEO Ed Clark’s admission that most of his peers believe that tax increases will be necessary to deal with Canada’s ballooning structural deficit).

Liberals have always believed that good public policy requires open consultation and the expression of the widest possible range of views. To that end, we are sponsoring the Canada at 150 conference on the weekend of March 26-28 to explore what kind of nation we want Canada to by its 150th birthday, and what we need to do over the next seven years to get there. While the conference is physically centred in Montreal, satellite sites will be set up across Canada, including Kingston, to enable local discussion and input into the national debate.

If you choose to participate in these discussions, you will be making a statement that Canadians care about their future, demand to be involved in the decisions that affect their lives, and will not be silenced. For more information, see www.can150.ca. To attend the Kingston session, please confirm your interest by replying to this message. Feel free also to forward this message to others who you think might be interested.

Democracy can be fragile. Retaking the ground that we have collectively lost in the past four years requires broadly-based political engagement. If you are willing and able to help, please so indicate in your reply as we both need and welcome new members and volunteers.

Yours sincerely,

Ron Hartling

President

Kingston and the Islands Federal Liberal Association

[Lydia]

Importance of local reps a shallow argument for existing system


When the Ontario referendum on proportional representation failed in 2007, one of the arguments in favour of our existing first-past-the-post system was the importance of our local representatives.

Paul Schliesmann's article "We're being punished" (Feb. 24) shows how shallow this argument is.

The "punishment" in the title is the closure of the Bridge House, presented as Kingston's punishment for not having a Conservative member of Parliament right now. According to this point of view, we elect members of political parties that, when in power, reward the districts that vote for them and punish those that vote against them.
In this case, the election of Peter Milliken in the 2008 election did not help. Instead of voting for whom they think is the best representative, Kingstonians should have read the surveys, guessed that the next government was to be Conservative, and voted accordingly for Brian Abrams, the Conservative candidate. So much for freedom of choice.

With this view of our system, even voting for the right representative at the wrong time can be bad. Indeed, Kingstonians will remember a 2006 town hall meeting when mayor Harvey Harvey Rosen read a letter of Milliken, our Liberal representative in a Liberal government. The letter stated that federal funding for the Kingston Regional Sports and Entertainment Centre would be given due consideration, and drew considerable applause. The vote to proceed with the project was passed with the hopes that such funding would materialize.

Later, the government had changed, and with construction underway, no federal money was forthcoming.

Thus, if we view our MPs as local representatives, it is hard to find any benefit to free elections in a multi-party system, that is, democracy as a whole. Another point of view presents our elected representatives as policymakers grouped in parties sharing common views. The two roles -- local representative and policy maker -- are sometimes incompatible. For instance, if Abrams had been elected as Conservative MP for Kingston and the Islands, would he even have listened to the pleas of the board of Bridge House? And if so, would he have gone to his party to ask that it change its views and policies?

According to the article, the Conservatives (called the Stephen Harper government) have tough-on-crime policies, under which the prison system has seen a swing to a more punitive orientation. This is contrasted with the view that "family visits are important for helping prisoners prepare for release and reintegration into their communities," which was presumably shared by the previous governments who established and maintained fundings for the Bridge House.

Along with MPs with conflicting roles, our system has brought us mostly fake, single-party majorities and a growing emphasis towards adversarial stance rather than compromise and consensus- seeking. Thus it is common to see a government destroy the accomplishments of its predecessor, be it for ideological reasons or because their beneficiaries voted on the wrong side.

The alternative would be proportional representation, under which the absence of a single-party majority would be standard rather than a chaotic interlude between artificial majority governments. The parties would have to adapt, and coalition governments would become the norm rather than a pretext for prorogation. So, the policies of previous governments could be revised and adjusted, but there would be neither the incentive nor the power to destroy them for no reason, to have them replaced by something that would in turn be destroyed when the next government comes.

Claude Tardiff Kingston

[Lydia]

Kingston New Democrats Annual General Meeting - with MPP Peter Tabuns
Friday, March 26th, 2010 - 7:00 PM
Wilson Room - Kingston Frontenac Public Library - Bagot/Johnson

The Kingston New Democrats have officially announced the call of their Annual General Meeting, at the Wilson Room in downtown Kingston. Ontario New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns will be in attendance speaking about the Economics of a New Energy Economy in Ontario.

Kingston & the Islands New Democrat Federal Candidate Daniel Beals will also address the membership and guests about his activities in the riding.

“Daniel has not stopped since his nomination back in September,” said Kingston New Democrat Executive Member Jamie Masse. “It will be great for the membership to hear what sorts of activities he’s been up to. I believe that they will be inspired to become even more involved with the campaign”

Also at the meeting Ontario New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth) will be speaking with members. Tabuns has been engaging communities across the province surrounding the economics of environmental policies. The former deputy mayor of Toronto has been a member of the legislature since 2006 following his work as executive director of Greenpeace Canada.

Masse went on to say that “Kingston New Democrats and guests will have the opportunity to elect their new executive at this meeting as well. It’s going to be an incredibly eventful night.”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MayWorks Kingston Calling on Local Artists

The Kingston MayWorks Festival of Labour and the Arts is currently seeking submissions from Kingston and the surrounding area for two art exhibitions, in which works will be showcased over the course of the festival and through the month of May. For more information, please visit http://opirgkingston.org/mayworks/

Works will be displayed at Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre and The Sleepless Goat Cafe and Workers-Cooperative that fit within the stated goals and themes of the Mayworks Collective. We encourage submissions from artists of marginalized identities and work experiences.

Please submit works in jpeg, or by linking to them directly if they are hosted online, and include a brief artist's statement, description of your piece (including materials used, and dimensions) and bio. Submissions close Monday, April 12th, at 4:00 pm and should be sent with "Art Showcase" in the subject line to mayworkskingston@gmail.com

[Lydia]

Ted Hsu, (Copy of Information from his campaign literature

Candidate For Federal Liberal Nomination Kingston, and the Islands.

Ted Hsu (pronounced "shoo) is the Executive Director of SWITCH, a non-for profit, sustainable energy association. His work at Switch
applies his training and professional experience as a scientist, along with his expertise and leadership in finance to foster job creation and a strong
and sustainable economy in Kingston and the Islands.

Background

Growing up in Calvin Park area of Kingston, Ted attended St. Thomas More, LCVI, and Queen’s University and later earned his PhD in Physics from Princeton. He has lived in four countries, working both in finance and as a research physicist. As a former Executive Director at investment bank Morgan Stanley, Ted gained global business experience, complementing his scientific background and giving him a unique perspective on the difficult issues facing our country.


Family

Ted is supported and inspired by his family: his wife Tara Sharkey, daughters Ella-Valentine, and Vera-Claire, parents Jim and Marjorie, and brothers Bobby and Leon. Seeing political. Economic and environmental trends through the eyes of a parent motivated Ted to become involved in politics. He is committed to ensuring future generation inherit a Canada that offers the same opportunities as generations before them were afforded.

Additional Facts About Ted


Building a community of supporters is one of Ted’s special abilities. Under his leadership, the membership of SWITCH has tripled in size.

Ted’s broad experience and diverse networks will enable him to assemble a wide base of support for the Liberal Party in this riding.

Friends of Ted describe him as honest, hard-working, and intelligent. People who have seen Ted at work describe him as a leader with vision.

After working abroad in four countries, Ted chose to return home to Kingston to raise his family and give back to his community.

Ted even has the experience of being a stay-at-home dad for 3 years with his daughter, Ella.

Ted grew up in Calvin Park Area of Kingston and his family has been here for 46 years. After working and living abroad, he CHOSE to return to Kingston to raise his children in this city he loves.

Contact Him at:

e-mail ted@tedhsu.ca
Telephone 613- 484-5605
www.tedhsu.ca
facebook.com
twitter.com/tedhsu

[Lydia]

Copy of Ted's annoucement to his friends:

Dear Friend,

Very soon we will be selecting the next Federal Liberal candidate for Kingston and the Island. I am writing today for your help in seeking that nomination.

I have a unique combination of knowledge and leadership experience. My background includes working as a research physicist, an international business manager, and the Executive Director of a not-for-profit association promoting investment and job creation in Kingston and the Islands. My broad experience and diverse networks will enable me to assemble a wide base of support reaching beyond the conventional political divisions.

As Member of Parliament, I will place myself at the service of municipal leaders in Kingston and the Island to work for local priorities. As Executive Director of SWITCH, I am already working to build up the sustainable energy sector, a sector that has a great potential for the Kingston region’s economy in the 21st century. I am committed to seeing that future generations growing up in Kingston and the Islands have the benefits and opportunities that I enjoyed. I am committed to the creation of a federal government that works for Kingston and the Islands; one that is fiscally, socially, and environmentally fair to all Canadians today and to future generations. The goal of a government should not be just to hold power, but to invest in people, knowledge, institutions, and the preservation of our natural environment.

Please consider taking five minutes today to join the Liberal Party so that you can vote at the nomination meeting. Ask your family and friends to do the same. Supporting my nomination does not commit you to vote one way or another in the general election.

For more information about me and why I am the right candidate for the Liberal party, go to www.tedhsu.ca. I also invite you to join me and Team Ted as we work to build support for our campaign.

I hope that I can count on your support!

(Hand Signed by him)
Ted Hsu

[Lydia]

To hear Ted's visual and audio presentation to his supporters
http://vimeo.com/13181463 to view his address to his supporters.

My own views regarding Ted:

I have just recently met Ted although I have heard supportive comments about him, I wanted to speak with him and listen to his views.

Yes, the literature above sounds wonderful and very interesting. However, What has stricken me with total admiration of this young man are these facts that I have seen during his annoucements:

1: People actually took the time to come to his annoucements even though they just came back from China
2: Scientists I met briefly there has nothing but great phrases about him.
3: Ted met me for the first time at this annoucment and STILL spoke TO ME rather than at me.
4: Ted was proud to come into his presentation with both his beautiful wife and wonderful children
5: His Team Ted group members where friendly, supportive, and welcoming
6: I have attended many, many, candidate annoucments, but I never before seen , YELLOW SIGNS place along the walls which were signed by people who gave him nothing but praises and support for Ted, It seemed to me that every wall in the room was covered with these signs and there were plenty of them to read. The people who supported him were from various fields of interests and spheres of industry and science
7: People who I actually spoke to about Ted, were Hypnotized and Eager to start working for this man because he is so dynamic.
8: People who attended this annoucement came from different cultures and experiences.

Ted, All I can add to this is that the Liberal Party of Kingston and the Island, will not only benefit from having your on their side but also All of Canada will as well.

[Lydia]

Hi, prison farm supporters,

The fight goes on to save our prison farms, and to save our cows.

We have made plans for a couple of events this week -- a civil disobedience workshop on Wednesday evening and a blockade of traffic going into CSC regional headquarters on Friday morning.

We need a large turnout of supporters, to make the events a success.

1. Civil Disobedience Training -- updates, civil disobedience training and sign-making
7 to 9 pm on Wednesday, July 21
at Zorbas banquet facility, 1474 Bath Road, across from Collins Bay Penitentiary

BACKGROUND -- CSC has scheduled the sale of the dairy herd for Tuesday, Aug. 3, at an auction centre in Waterloo, Ontario. The auction service plans to videotape the cattle over the next two weeks. Buyers will come to the auction centre in Waterloo, and bid on the cattle, based on seeing them on video. CSC plans to truck the cattle in groups to depot points for pickup by the new owners.

We will not allow the cows to be removed, so we are preparing for action to demonstrate the resolve and will of the community. Join us to learn about and practice successful peaceful civil disobedience. We will be role-playing possible scenarios and discussing strategy and tactics for a blockade. We will practice outdoors if the weather is suitable, or indoors, if not.

Those who do not want to participate in the civil disobedience workshop are welcome to stay to make more signs, and repair some of the old ones.

2. Traffic Blockade at CSC Regional Headquarters, King Street
Friday, July 23 at 7:30 am

We plan to block cars entering Regional HQ to indicate to CSC that we are serious about keeping the dairy herd at Frontenac.
Those who do not want to block cars can demonstrate away from the entrances on either side of King Street.

A large turnout is critical to the success of this action. Please attend and bring friends. Please circulate this message to others.

[Lydia]

http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplayGenContent.aspx?e=17383

If you were part of the Protestors regarding Prison Farm closers, I congratulate you. The website above shows the people who participlated today at the site. They will be back again to ensure that cattle are not moved off the site in August

This is from the Kingston, location. Prison Farm