Will Paul Ainslie Run for City Council in Ward 44?
Today was the first day for municipal candidates to make it official and file their intention to seek public office as a Mayoral, Council or School Trustee candidate. So far no candidates have filed to run in my home ward, Ward 43.
Councillor Ainslie currently ‘represents’ (a term I am using lightly here based on his record) Ward 43 – a community he does not live in. He was elected with an underwhelming 39% of the vote in November 2006, meaning 61% of voters had the right idea last time around.
This isn’t the first ward Paul Ainslie has represented and not lived in. You see in January 2006 Paul Ainslie was appointed to Toronto City Council in a 5-4 vote of Scarborough Community Council (that resulted in an investigation by the integrity commissioner into his former boss and one of his five votes – David Soknacki) to represent Ward 41 – another community Paul Ainslie doesn’t live in.
When his nomination went to City Hall for approval, Paul Ainslie gave a speech. After promising to be ‘fair and honest’ he went on to say:
“In the last month I’ve made a number of different commitments if appointed to this position, I will not run in Ward 41 or any other ward in the city.”
If by different he meant ‘bald faced lie’ as Eye Weekly described it he was correct.
In true Paul Ainslie tradition he went on to lie about the lie when I called him on it through the media. He claimed he promised not to run against incumbents, or that he wouldn’t run in Ward 41 – this was after saying he didn’t say anything to this effect at all.
Here is a video showing what he says. After watching him lie repeatedly for six weeks, I went to City Hall, bought the video of that day at Council and a very talented member of the campaign team put the following together for distribution to the media. His response to the video was he was nervous and didn’t mean to say it – but he’s reading.
If you’re going to run for public office, know yourself better than your opponents – and generally speaking lying never works and is wrong, so don’t do it. In fact when Councillor Ainslie wrote provable lies to me in a private email six weeks ago, I offered him this very advice. I told him that making statements that are provably untrue hurts his credibility and therefore the ability of him to represent my community as people can’t trust him if he can’t stick to the truth.
His term as Ward 41’s representative saw him fight to have the pictures of the former Scarborough Mayors placed in the former City Council chamber, trying to get a bi-law regarding aged or tattered Canadian flags. His most bizarre vote was against a pay increase that passed 23-20, then only to change his vote in favour, making the vote 24-19, which was promptly followed by his former boss David Soknacki changing his vote in favour to against, making it 23-20 again.
Currently Paul Ainslie holds the office of Ward 43 – as I previously stated a community he does not and has not lived in at all during the 2006 election or the term. He does not represent the views of residents, or their best interest and continues to lie about his involvement or lack there of – to paper over his failings.
Paul Ainslie lives in Ward 44 – where he has for years and is raising his family. Considering he is about as attached to Ward 43 as he was to Ward 41 – it only seems reasonable that the failed ‘representative’ would once again find a new community to play City Councillor in – as nominations open.
I will tell you this much – his chances are far better where he lives, than in Ward 43 or Ward 41 as I imagine with these residents and Paul Ainslie the old saying ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me’ is in full play and many residents are lined up and ready to fight to ensure this so-called Councillor, elected on a lie, and publishing lies in hopes of being re-elected doesn’t get that chance again. Maybe that’s why he flipped from Ward 41 in the first place.
He already has lawn signs that say ‘return’ a phrase he chose instead of ‘elect’ like everyone else who ran and had never been elected before and he wisely did not put a ward number on them – making them fully re-useable this time around in his home Ward.
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Tags: Councillor Ainslie, Councillor Ainslie Ward 43, Councillor Paul Ainslie, Paul Ainslie, Paul Ainslie Lie, Paul Ainslie Ward 41, Toronto 2010 Municipal Election, Ward 43, Ward 44
January 4th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Nice work on the video! Ainslie is more scum than Rob Ford. At least Ford will tell you what he thinks with honesty.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
I met a voter in 2006 who referred to him as ‘another useless shit head’ when I asked why he had a Paul Ainslie sign on his lawn if he wasn’t going to vote for him.
January 5th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
The video aside, that he doesn’t live in the ward is rather common, other councillors do it. Jack Layton does it. John Tory does it. etc
This blog tilts to the shrill side sometimes – rendering it ineffective. Keep your shrill in check, and you’ll do better.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Not only did he run, but his slogan was “RETURN PAUL AINSLIE”. He couldn’t say “Re-elect”, since he had never been elected, but he still tried to cash in on perceived incumbency. What an absolute jerk. He’s the ONLY person who I have ever refused a FaceBook ‘friend request’ from. He brought municipal politics to a shameless low.
Here’s a letter I wrote to him in 2006:
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Dear Councillor Ainslie,
I was shocked and disappointed to see the slogan “Return Paul Ainslie” on your website (http://www.paulainslie.com/) and literature for election in Ward 43. You should be ashamed of yourself for disregarding the principles of the agreement that gave you the privilege of being a temporary City Councillor in Ward 41. The technicality of which ward you’re running in is irrelevant. You are clearly taking advantage of an appointed position to produce the false impression of elected incumbency.
This creates an unfair advantage that reduces the chances of all the other candidates who are running in your ward, including Amarjeet Chhabra whose campaign I am supporting. No one has ever voted for you, so you should be at the starting gate with the rest of the rookies.
I encourage you to remove the word “Return” from your campaign literature and website. It violates the intent and nature of your appointment as Councillor.
Behavior like this re-enforces people’s cynicism about politics and politicians.
Dave Meslin
January 5th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
how far does he live from the border?
You do know borders change right?
You do know that EVERY Councillor has changed their mind on at least one issue right?
I live in Ward 40 Scarborough-Agincourt.
Municipally/provincially and federally S/A’s north and west borders are the same.
Provincially and Federally the southern border is the 401. Municipally the border is Ellesmere Road.
So if I lived in Lupin Drive, Municipally I would be represented by Councillor Kelly, but MPP Phillips and MP Karygiannis would not be representing me, they would if I lived north of the 401 (which I do), in Lupin Drive (which is south of the 401) it would be Scarborough Centre provincially/federally.
Scarborough East (43/44) municipally, but provincially 44 is part of pickering-scarborough east. I think 43 is Scarborough-Guildwood (municipally Guildwood is Scarborough-SouthWest).
See the differences and borders? stop splitting hairs.
By the way, the whole “I know more about the ward/riding/region/area because I live in” is complete bullshit.
My office is in Ward 43, Ward 43 was one of the first locations I lived in when my family lived in (Kingston/Lawrence) when we came to Canada.
I consider W43 my second home, which is one of the reasons why I am looking for a home in that ward since I am moving this year out of W40.
I also have family in W43, I have friends and I think I have put the children of all the timmies employees in the area through medical school with all the amount of xl tripple tripple I drink.
So if someone living in Lupin drive wants to run for MPP or MP, I mean they do live in Scarborough-Agincourt but at the same time they don’t.
Wards/Ridings are based on population. They have changed throughout the times and I am sure by the time I hit 80, they will change at LEAST ONCE.
I lived in about 23 wards since the 90s so I do have a connection to those 23 wards in different levels. Would you have a problem with me going for anything outside Scarborough-Agincourt?
By the way, this is no attack towards you, just stating my opinions on the post. I met Ainslie at the Scarborough Council meetings and brought him some concerns/issues with the Scarborough-Malvern LRT line. I have shook his hand at the Levee.
He does not have a tail sticking out of his ass, doesn’t have horns sticking out of his head and usually holds a timmies not a pitchfork.
Why don’t you run as Councillor for Ward 43? I personally hate people who bitch and complain and do NOTHING ELSE to solve the problem/issue. He is not the only politician not living in their ward/riding.
MPP Gerry Phillips (Scarborough-Agincourt) lives on the Pickering/Ajax border (Ajax side technically). He used to live years ago in Agincourt.
You seem to split hairs with Ainslie.
I am not on your side, I am not on his side. If I find a place in W43 before the election then I will go up to his and ask him the same questions I would ask all W43 candidates. This post seems one sided and from previous Ainslie posts you have made that you have a personal agenda against him.
January 5th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
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January 6th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Ainslie registered.
December 18th, 2011 at 10:44 am
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