Ward 43 Residents Raise 240 pounds of food for Foodpoll 2010!
John Laforet with Ward 43′s proceeds to Foodpoll 2010
Below is a news release regarding the success of foodpoll 2010′s challenge to all City Council candidates. I was proud to participate and wish the others running in Ward 43 had gotten involved to make it more interesting. I want to thank everyone who dropped by to donate non parishable food to the foodbank and have to say I was personally amazed by the amount of food donated.
240 Pounds of Help For Scarborough’s Food Bank Collected in Ward 43
SCARBOROUGH, Mon. Sept 20, 2010 – Residents of Ward 43 donated 240 pounds of soup, flour, pasta and other non-perishable food items to local food banks this past weekend as part of the city-wide Toronto Food Poll 2010. This food drive was organized as a challenge to all city councillor candidates in the upcoming October 25th municipal election.
The motto for this year’s Food Poll was “Politics doesn’t matter if you’re hungry…. Everyone needs to eat.” John Laforet was the only councillor candidate in Scarborough’s Ward 43 to participate in this community food drive.
“Helping out our neighbours is a tradition in Scarborough. I want to thank all the Ward 43 residents who dropped off groceries this weekend. I was amazed by residents’ generosity in just two days,” said Laforet.
He congratulated the food drive organizers for taking a creative approach to link urban poverty with the current municipal election. Laforet said food drives are important to many people in Ward 43. The ward includes some of Scarborough’s poorest neighbourhoods. He added that city officials estimate about 3,000 families in the ward’s area depend on local food banks.
“In addition to its low-income residents, Ward 43 continues to lack many of the city services that other parts of Toronto take for granted,” Laforet said. “We have no subway service. Some of the worst roads in Ontario are in this ward. And only one library is now operating in this whole ward.”
All the food collected by the John Laforet campaign in Ward 43 will be delivered to Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank, which supplies food to Scarborough’s volunteer-run food banks. About 40 councillor candidates across Toronto took part in the Food Poll. The final city-wide results of this drive will be announced by the Toronto Food Poll 2010 later this week. More information about this initiative is available at www.foodpoll2010.com
Toronto Sun: Dalton’s green dance: Goldstein
Dalton’s green dance: Goldstein
The premier’s making up the rules as he goes along on the energy file
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, TORONTO SUN
The more you examine Premier Dalton McGuinty’s “green” energy strategy, the more you come to the conclusion his government is faking it.
Making it up as it goes along, often for the sake of political expediency, complete with blatant double standards for urban versus rural Ontario.
The latest example is Ontario’s proposed minimum 5-km setback for offshore wind farms. That compares to a minimum of 550 metres and a maximum of 1.5 km away from any dwelling for land-based wind farms.
A skeptic might suggest the 5-km minimum offshore setback is intended to calm public concerns in the four urban, Liberal-held ridings, centred around Scarborough Guildwood, most directly impacted by Toronto Hydro’s proposal to build a 60-turbine wind farm in Lake Ontario off the Bluffs.
This by putting the project largely out of sight and out of mind.
In addition, Energy Minister Brad Duguid who oversees the green energy file, represents a fifth Liberal-held riding, Scarborough Centre, adjacent to Scarborough Guildwood. In that context, a comment by Duguid when the environment ministry last month proposed the 5-km minimum offshore setback, was shocking.
He told the Toronto Star: “I think it sets to rest the concerns of some moderate people, who were concerned if they go to the beach, they could be looking up at a huge wind turbine.” Huh?
A spokesman for Duguid said he was explaining opponents of the project have been citing worst case-scenarios in the absence of any setback announced by the province, and this proposal helped bring certainty to the issue.
But that doesn’t change what Duguid said. He clearly said public concerns (at least urban ones) about the aesthetics of wind turbines, specifically how they look, given that they are massive structures, are legitimate. After all, it worries even “moderate people.”
There are two problems with Duguid’s statement.
First, it flies in the face of what McGuinty has said — that the only legitimate opposition to wind farms is for environmental and safety reasons and people who object over anything else — including aesthetics — are “NIMBYS” who just don’t want the things anywhere near them for irrational reasons.
This argument has been constantly leveled at rural residents who, among many other reasons, oppose wind factories towering over their homes for aesthetic reasons and their negative impact on property values.
Funny, I don’t recall McGuinty and the Liberals ever going to war against residential neighbourhoods in Toronto, who constantly fight over the height of proposed apartment buildings for aesthetic reasons, and because of fears tall buildings will lower surrounding residential property values.
Ironically, the Liberals are supported in their selective assault on rural Ontarians by Toronto-based environmentalists and media, all from a city with one industrial wind turbine at Exhibition Place, nowhere near any homes, because wind farms aren’t practical in cities. Thus, urban self-righteousness comes easily.
The second problem with Duguid’s remark is aesthetics isn’t one of the reasons the environment ministry gives for its recommended 5-km offshore setback.
The reasons are to: (a) keep turbines clear of drinking water intakes; (b) protect sensitive ecological areas close to shore; (c) provide a sufficient buffer from noise, since it travels further over water and (d) safeguard boaters and swimmers.
Duguid and the environment ministry say Ontario’s recommended offshore setback is in line with those proposed by several U.S. states.
But objecting to wind turbines over aesthetics is legitimate or it isn’t. You can’t suggest, as the Liberals are, it’s legitimate for “moderate” urban residents, illegitimate for “NIMBY” rural ones.
Toronto Hydro is re-assessing its proposed Lake Ontario project in light of the recommended 5-km setback, which could be modified during an upcoming provincial review process.
John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario, ironically a former Liberal and acting executive assistant to Duguid, now a municipal candidate in Toronto’s ward 43, says if the Liberals hope community opposition will end with their proposed 5-km offshore setback, they’re dreaming.
Opponents don’t believe it will stop the Toronto Hydro project, and, in any event, the community is opposed to the project, period, because of pollution, noise, safety and other concerns.
In other words, the size of the setback is irrelevant.
No Comments »Toronto Star: Smitherman’s Words Come Home to Roost
I meant to post this piece from the Toronto Star earlier but I’ve been so busy with the campaign, Wind Concerns and work I just had not had time. It portrays a community sticking to its guns, and a desperate politician clearly regretting the impacts his abusive, dismissive tone will surely have. I said I believed George Smitherman would be chased out of Scarborough, and if the debate last night was any indication, this is in fact the case.
There are many months ahead, and for Guildwood residents the choice is clear. Our community needs someone who isn’t afraid to stand up to this bully and I am the only candidate that has demonstrated that not only am I able to, but I will stand up for our best interests even to George Smitherman.
Here is the link to the piece.
Toronto Star: Smitherman’s Words Come Home to Roost
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