Random Access

Some random ramblings today on things electoral.
Nice to actually see some election signs for a mayoralty candidate around town. Roy Willis has recycled 500 of his old Ward 5 signs, changed the name of the office he’s seeking on them, and posted them strategically in Wards 1, 2, 5 and 6.
Willis has been working hard to distinguish himself from the other anti-Hazel candidate, Don Barber, and has largely been successful. Over the years Roy has become eerily diplomatic in his criticism of the mayor and the City, but still manages to make his points.
In this run, his first for mayor after innumerable forays in Ward 5, he has carefully avoided the personal attacks that have marred Barber’s campaign. He opponents have both pointed out effectively that the mayor’s platform can be boiled down to one simple concept: more of the same.
It will be interesting to see how many people who think that Hazel McCallion’s time has come and gone, and want to quietly register that opinion, park their votes with Mr. Willis.
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Imagine Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board Vice-Chair Anna Abbruscato’s surprise when she was reading her copy of the Make Your Mark candidate information section of The Mississauga News and came across some of her own words in the response from another candidate.
Two sentences from Abbruscato’s flyer appear virtually word-for-word in the response which Ward 4 Dufferin-Peel trustee candidate Thomas Thomas gave to The News, including the verbatim sentence, “Co-operation between the school, the home and the church are the necessary ingredients to mould sound Catholic youth.”
Thomas, a former trustee himself, lives in Abbruscatto’s ward. The vice-chair doesn’t know what she can do about it but says, “I just feel ripped off that he would do something like this. I cannot believe that he has the gall to do that.”
Thomas says that there was no plagiarism involved and that he submitted his material to the News some time ago. Abbruscatto began distributing her brochure shortly after Thanksgiving. The deadline for candidate submissions was two weeks later on Oct. 23. “Everybody has their own ideas and nobody was copying from anybody,” says Thomas.
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There are some mighty exercised folks in Ward 10. Elias Hazineh accuses Sue McFadden of using school board resources to write to parents in the Oscar Peterson community to promote her council campaign because the last sentence says, “Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to being able to continue to serve the Ward 10 community.” McFadden will declare the postage as an election expense for council. She says the letter just means she will support parents’ fight for new schools even if she loses.
Craig Lawrence says McFadden misleads in her Rogers TV blurb by saying she has lived in the ward for the last 10 years. McFadden replies that she has lived in the existing ward for that long. On election day, the ward will be split and she will live in Ward 9, not Ward 10 where she is running. It’s one of those statements that, while technically true, clearly leaves the wrong impression.
McFadden wonders if Lawrence has permission from the mayor for the photo of the two of them together on one of his pieces. The mayor has said she is not granting such authority. (see earlier item Say Cheese)
Lisgar voter Dave Belcher wants to know why Hazineh is running as, “our liberal in Ward 10” complete with red campaign signs. He’s asked MPP Bob Delaney if there was a nomination meeting he’d missed, if the Liberals suddenly decided they didn’t like the upper case or if party politics was introduced at the municipal level when he wasn’t looking. “To me, it’s a bit of trickery,” says Belcher.
• • •
Carolyn Parrish is fuming over a campaign piece by the so-called Committee For Accountable Municipal Politicians (a Cliff Gyles front?) that’s arriving in mail boxes across Ward 6.
It attacks her for speaking only 1,433 words in the 138th Parliament, comparing her unfavourably with the garrulous Paul Szabo. It also questions her poor attendance at question period.
“Your attendance at question period is irrelevant,” says the former MP, who spent time in her office doing real work, she says, instead of playing to the media. Since she was kicked out of the Liberal caucus about a third of the way through her last term as Mississauga-Erindale MP, her name could not be submitted by a party under the normal procedure to ask a question. Every Wednesday, she used the time allotted for independents to ask a single question. All of which probably means nothing to the voters of Ward 6 who are voting for councillor Monday, not MP.
Ms. Parrish should look on the bright side. For possibly the first time ever, somebody is complaining that she didn’t speak out enough.

Mea Culpa: In an earlier posting, I incorrectly stated that an assault charge against Donald Barber came after his appearance at a council meeting in November. It was actually in June.