Welcome
Welcome to my website! I am pleased to be the only Ward 43 resident running to be your City Councillor. We need a strong, local voice on Council fighting for our community. I am the only candidate working to improve public transit by advocating for subway expansion into Scarborough. I want to work hard to ensure your tax dollars are no longer wasted. You work too hard, and pay too much for that to go on. I want to improve your community. You deserve good city services, and we can't let them get away with ignoring Scarborough any longer.
Together we have the opportunity on October 25th 2010 to bring change to our community and City Hall. But to get there, I need your support. I hope over the coming days and weeks to earn your trust and confidence so we can move forward together.
Sincerely,
John Laforet
by John Laforet
posted on August 23rd, 2010 at 09:25:24 am
The proposed guidelines are pitiful. There is no science to suggest health concerns or environmental concerns are addressed at this point. The ministry needs to recognize this is our drinking water and not an opportunity for industrialization. Ontarians should have a right to lands to grow food, and fresh water to drink as a base level of environmental protection. What’s becoming increasingly clear is that this government does not care about the negative environmental effects this industry has on our province, or the long term economic damage crippling electricity rates will either. What’s clear is that no setback for lake based turbines makes any sense and this policy has been fatally flawed from the start.
Wind Concerns Ontario will continue to fight against these irresponsible projects and bizarre regulations that literally ignore existing science to advance the cause of a flawed industry that can’t meet any of the basic requirements for most industrial activity as it relates to supply and demand or commodity pricing.
We will look back at these decisions years from now and wonder what could ‘they’ have been thinking while approving these projects. By setting the rules in a way that allows harm to happen, this government is abdicating its responsibility to the people of Ontario. Residents are standing up, and will continue to stand up to protect our communities, our homes, our families and our environment from the destruction happening at the hands of this provincial government.
I do not support the proposed regulations because they do not go far enough. No turbines in the lake would be a far better policy. Decisions around the grid and electricity supply in Ontario need to be based on economics, and cost benefit analysis. Wind is not the answer on land or offshore on an industrial scale.
Tags: Guildwood, Scarborough Bluffs Wind Turbines, Ward 43, Wind Concerns Ontario
by John Laforet
posted on July 21st, 2010 at 17:05:15 pm
I was pleased to see that the Divisional Court which heard Councillor Holyday’s complaint about Toronto City Council’s decision to pay the legal fees of current members of Council relating to compliance audits. The Court has said the City was wrong to pay out over $140,000 to Councillors who found themselves challenged in the legality of their conduct as candidates.
We all know Councillors have a number of advantages when running for re-election and sadly far too many are prepared to abuse taxpayer funds to fight to keep their jobs at election time. This leads to voters essentially being forced to fund incumbents efforts to attempt to prevent meaningful opposition from challenging them.
As a city we’re lucky voters are reaching a boiling point and ready to make the changes that improper use of City funds can’t stop. It will be interesting to see how many Councillors, who ignored the City’s top lawyers legal advice to them when they voted to fund Councillor’s legal expenses, will flip their votes just before the election to try to look like their on the taxpayer’s side now. That will be the best indication of just how vulnerable they are feeling.
I know in my ward residents are ready to break with the last four years and elect a new voice that will stand up and fight for our community. It’s important residents city wide back candidates who are going to act in their best interest, defend their communities and focus on the city and its residents and not lining their own pockets.
In just three months residents will have the ballot boxes to make these decisions, and if we do our job we won’t need the courts to police the next Council as well.
by John Laforet
posted on July 9th, 2010 at 21:01:06 pm
I was humbled to have nearly one hundred and fifty Ward 43 residents come out to a community meeting I held last Thursday on Grey Abbey Trail. The meeting was intended to be held in the park overlooking the Lake, and Toronto Hydro’s anemometer to help educate the community on the impacts of the new offshore regulations.
Unfortunately someone, who the City will not confirm or deny was Councillor Ainslie or a member of his staff, felt the need to apply pressure to the Parks Department and have them call a resident who sent out an invitation to my meeting, telling them that it was against the law for more than twenty-five residents to meet in a park without a permit, permits were never issued for that park, and that no candidate was allowed to discuss an election in a park, wear a button or hand out materials. We asked for a copy of the by-law and asked if they were prepared to have citizens arrested – and they went silent.
They wanted us to shut down our meeting, and not have residents come together to discuss the biggest threat ever to face the community, and hear from the only candidate offering a viable solution.
I am so happy to have such strong support on Grey Abbey Trail that we were able to find a back yard, backing on to the park within a couple of hours to hold the meeting if necessary. Instead, we set up the sound equipment in the backyard, and I stayed about five feet back from the metre tall chain link fence, and spoke to residents from private property about the importance of the issue, thus I did not discuss politics in the park and I was sure to tell them why I had to stand where I was standing.
I promised residents last night that when I defeat Paul Ainslie on October 25th and become their Councillor, the political games will end, and I’ll continue my fight to ensure their rights are respected and their involvement in decision making restored.
Antoinette DiNovo – Paul Ainslie’s Executive Assistant showed up to record and take notes. Once again it appears taxpayers will be paying her to abuse our tax dollars and run his campaign. At least Antonette didn’t have any embarrassing outbursts like Councillor Ainslie did on June 14th and was kind enough to leave after being introduced and called out on her abuse of taxpayer funds to help inflict another four years of failed representation on our community, one neither of them live in. Ward 43 isn’t buying what they’re selling this time and last night’s meeting that had a crowd threefold of the meeting I held three weeks before is a strong sign of the change that’s coming.
Consider that on a night when the heat wave was on it’s forth day, there was a heat alert in place and we were holding a meeting outside, in July that nearly one hundred and fifty residents felt compelled to come out and speak about the issues near and dear to them and the opportunity we have together to reclaim our voice and restore local democracy. Consider that Paul Ainslie doesn’t have a single Ward 43 resident to send to take notes, and is instead either crashing my meetings himself or sending a member of his staff, we’re all paying to do it for him.
I am looking forward to continuing to earn residents trust and support over the coming weeks and months and know that together we can make our community and city a better place to live for all of us.
Tags: Antoinette DiNovo, Councillor Paul Ainslie, Grey Abbey Park, Paul Ainslie, Toronto 2010 Municipal Election, Toronto City Council, Ward 43, Ward 43 Municipal Election
