That said, I’m no longer on a ballot, have no intention to be on a ballot any time in the foreseeable future and will be focusing my time and energy on advocating through and on behalf of Wind Concerns Ontario. For this reason, I’m happy to re-open the comments section and hope folks will feel free to leave their thoughts on the issues I write about in the future.

680 News: Councillors try to delay the building of wind turbines off the Scarborough Bluffs

Toronto Star: Wind farm opponents blocked again

Toronto Sun: Wind turbine plan blows in controversy

National Post: Windmills get support from executive committee, despite residents concerns

Daily Metro: Wind farm’s foes frustrated again

My Reflection on the Motion and Outcome:

I questioned why Councillor Ainslie would move a motion to the Executive Committee where he doesn’t have a vote, and after watching his fellow Councillors flip his motion into one endorsing Toronto Hydro’s anemometer and off shore wind power, it was clear — he lacks basic political judgement.

You never move a motion you don’t have the votes for. This wasn’t even close. It got zero votes and resulted in a motion explictly supporting Toronto Hydro. The exact opposite of what the community wanted. It was even worse than nothing. Ainslie couldn’t even speak to the new motion, because he wasn’t a member of the committee he moved his motion to. It couldn’t have been more poorly planned.

Ainslie voted for Toronto Hydro’s offshore wind testing (the Anemometer) and wind turbine proposal in December 2009 – as did every other member of the committee his doomed motion was moved to. Again – the judgement of his apporach needs to be questioned.

It isn’t lost on me that he’s had a change of heart since I’ve filed to run against him and literally took the exact wording of a motion that a Wind Concerns group passed at their Council in March.

The City owns this project though and if we had a competent Councillor they could stop this project at the Council level, not fail in an attempt to go to the Province with a request that wouldn’t even impact Toronto Hydro.

Based on Ainslie’s motion, residents were trying to get Council to ask the Province for a moratorium the Minister had already refused to accept, even if the motion passed. It was symbolic at best, which makes no sense because this Council  can act to stop Toronto Hydro.

The motion should have been calling on Toronto Council to stop Toronto Hydro and prevent them from exploring offshore wind projects off the Scarborough Bluffs in the future or anything else related to the fact that the City of Toronto, not the Province of Ontario owns and controls what Toronto Hydro does.

That being said, as President of Wind Concerns Ontario, I did speak in favour of the motion as I was supportive of the identical motion that Paul Ainslie literally copied from Clearview Ontario where it passed unanimously. I do believe a health study is important based on the negative impacts we know of so far.

Guildwood residents need the City of Toronto to stop the City of Toronto owned Toronto Hydro and unfortunately our Councillor’s voting record has been entirely supportive of this project at the municipal level. It is clear he can’t influence even a single vote to our side and it’s time to let someone else try.

So I decided something needed to be done to raise this to the attention to someone in a position to do something about it. I called Toronto’s 311 service in hopes that they might be able to help me figure out who to contact to make sure something was done tonight.

I have to say, service was quick. The phone literally rang once before it was answered. I started explaining the situation and the location but the potential seriousness of this issue hadn’t really hit the person on the other end. I was getting frustrated because it seems pretty clear to me that this is a problem. I was put on hold while the 311 representative got more information on how to handle this and what was playing?

And you can’t always get what you want, honey
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometime, yeah,
You just might find you get what you need!

The 1969 Rolling Stone’s classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (This link will take you to a YouTube recording of a live performance)

I couldn’t help but laugh.

For any organization this is embarrassing for your customer service line, for the City of Toronto it’s a little too honest. In my particular case, not only could I not get what I want, but what I think people need – the hole properly covered with something (like a plywood board? giant piece of metal?). We see this all the time in other parts of the City when folks are leaving open trenches and holes in roads and sidewalks.

The call ended with the 311 representative asking for my name and phone number, saying she would pass it along and if they needed any more information someone would call. There was no commitment to any action being taken, or even appreciation for the issue.

So I went back, with my camera to take pictures of said hole and here they are. If you get bored, call 311 (they are open 24/7) and ask them to send someone to cover the giant hole in the sidewalk at Yonge and Harbour on the southwest corner that could end really badly if they don’t.

Would you like to comment? Please feel free to visit the Contact page on my site and contact me. Click subscribe if you would like to receive daily updates from http://laforet.ca in your inbox.

But some things are changing.

You may notice instead of saying “John Laforet, standing up and standing strong” it now says “Elect John Laforet, For City Council Ward 43.” I still stand up and stand strong, but am hoping to do that as the next City Councillor for Ward 43. It seemed to make sense to make that part clearer.

Donations are now being accepted using paypal at the right hand side of the page. I will post a separate note about this item later with details on who is eligible to donate, and the rebate the City of Toronto will provide donors.

Comments have also been turned off. This was a difficult decision that involved quite a bit of back and forth but was ultimately decided by me. The basic idea is this – I strongly support debate, and exchanges, and I loathe anonymous, baseless attacks. I also don’t like being a censor and until today had only ever deleted one of 1184 comments posted. That being said, the last two days have seen a racist comment, and two factually inaccurate drive by smear attempts on me. Paul Ainslie supporters will need to find someone else to pay the hosting of their anonymous attacks because it won’t be me.

The point of drawing traffic from a community to a site is to allow for residents to read about your plans for the community, and get your take on things. It’s supposed to a tool to facilitate an exchange between the candidate and voter, something I do believe is better done without a comments section.

I imagine there will be a number of other changes to facilitate volunteer requests, ride requests, sign requests and the traditional campaign stuff, but for now using the contact me page will be the best option.

I am looking forward to the enhancements to the site that should also see video entries playing a bigger role, and more reflection on local events as the campaign unfolds.

I will obviously still be talking about the wind turbine issues as my community is deeply impacted by this, and my actions on this file and the inaction of my local representative is what led to me filing my nomination paper in the end.

Our campaign can only be successful with the financial support of those who believe in what we’re trying to achieve.

Would you like to comment? Please feel free to visit the Contact page on my site and contact me. Click subscribe if you would like to receive daily updates from http://laforet.ca in your inbox.

I have a number of views on reform to the municipal system that I would support. Broadly speaking – a broader ability for Toronto residents to participate through ease of registration, location of polling stations, earlier access to the voters list, and a ‘Challenger’s advocate’ working at City Hall ensuring no abuse of public resources or unfair incumbency advantage are used by incumbents. But in this post, I’m going to focus on the voting system as it seems to the the unmentioned reality that is causing this ‘Smitherman/Tory’ thing in the first place.

The voting system allows for a first past the post result that allows someone to win office in an election where a minority of voters vote, and a minority of the minority who chose to vote elect the winner. David Miller’s 2006 election saw him win with 56% of ballots cast by just 39% of the eligible voting population. 56% of the vote in the context of the 2006 municipal election represents the will of just 22% of the eligible voting public.

In an election where nearly forty candidates sought the office of Mayor, and at least three of them staged very serious campaigns – first past the post isn’t cutting it. Consider that 61% of voters are so disallusioned they currently don’t bother to vote. Is the solution for two serious candidates to get together and decide how best to solidify the 1 in 5 Torontonians it would take to defeat the current Mayor ? Or, is the solution to adopt a voting system where voters could rank candidates for Mayor, Council and Trustee by order of preference, embracing the diversity of grassroots opinion found in a municipal election?

I expect no one will be surprised to know casting a ballot for George Smitherman isn’t something I am prepared to do under any circumstances. He and Dalton McGuinty are equally responsible for my current status as a political independent as it relates to the Provincial scene. Smitherman attacked my community, calling residents absurd, accused them of working themselves into an ‘artificial lather’ in addition to lying about the conduct of Toronto Hydro. He politicized an issue we had not, he attacked us as he tried to legislate our rights to participate in our democracy, through decision making, away.

The day before Smitherman’s first attack on Scarborough residents – I still considered myself an Ontario Liberal and was preparing to renew my membership. The day after, with virtually no time to think about it, as I was doing a flurry of press to defend my community, I wrote:

“As someone who has traditionally been a Liberal both in the card carrying sense and the ideological sense, being pitted between my community and party is not a comfortable position to be in. I joined the Liberal Party when I was 14. I came home from the hospital to Guildwood. Choosing between the two was not difficult. It was principled.” On the Conservative Payroll? NIMBY? Nuclear Lobbyist? Unemployed and Without a Life? No, Not Me. – February 11th 2009

My refusal to support George Smitherman for any electoral office is equally principled.

I don’t want a backroom deal to deprive me of my right to have a choice between all interested candidates for Mayor, while knowing my vote won’t be either ‘wasted’ or part of a vote split that elects the person I don’t want to office.

As I wait for Smitherman and Tory to work it out, I can only imagine how positive an impact electoral reform at the municipal election would have at engaging voters, strengthening our democracy and ending the strangle hold incumbents have on democracy in our City.

I can say with some certainty, should George Smitherman seek the office of Mayor, I will be actively involved in that campaign in addition to the by-election to replace him in the legislature. I know I will not be alone. I encourage anyone else with strong views on this to contact me and get involved in the future of our City.

My hope is that our next municipal council, or provincial legislature will decide after this election to modernize our voting system in Toronto, something I support and hope you do too.

Continuing a tradition of last year, I will spend the final days of August blackberry free and out of contact for a few days.

There are many interesting pots on the stove, and I look forward to returning to all of them when I return early next week.

John

On one side of the fight you have folks like Keith and Ina Wood from in and around Tiny township, Beausoleil First Nation, Chiefs of Ontario, Council of Canadians, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, David Suzuki Foundation, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Green Party of Canada, Native Women’s Association of Canada, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, United Church of Canada, Ontario NDP – this list goes on trust me.

On the other you have Simcoe County, the Premier of Ontario, and the OPP.

The process has been tainted beyond repair and if groups like the above mentioned were not prepared to stand up and risk arrest, this untouched piece of land atop some of the freshest water in the world would become Ontario’s latest dump site. It’s known as site 41, and the coalition of groups opposing is it can be found at Stop Dump Site 41.

It disgusts me to know that citizens standing up for the environment in the face of a tainted process and a total lack of leadership from Premier McGuinty and Minister Gerretsen, either of whom could require a proper process that would on it’s own prevent this irresponsible site selection from going forward, are now being arrested.

Folks like Keith and Ina Wood – retirees in their 80′s, Anne Ritchie-Nahuis, Bob Ritchie, Vicki Monague, Danny Beaton and others who are being jailed and charged for standing up for the environment should be celebrated for their actions, a peaceful protest, a blockade of land that needs protecting whether the government is prepared to or not.

The fact that government is having individuals with a differing political view arrested and charged when they are simply unable to answer the accusations and facts that point to Dump Site 41 being an inappropriate choice, is a very scary shift – one that hurts democracy, and the environment in one draconian move. We should all be very concerned.

This isn’t a municipal issue, it isn’t a provincial issue, this is an issue of national importance, which is why it has attracted folks like Andrea Horwath, Elizabeth May, Maude Barlow and many others to come out and help. We as citizens need to actively engage government in decision making and oppose bad projects when they crop up.

I urge you to visit Stop Dump Site 41 to read more about the proposal, the community’s struggle and what you can do to help.

You can also visit ‘Living at the Barricades’ a community radio show produced by the good folks at Lake Ontario Waterkeeper to listen to an episode they did on Dump Site 41 a couple of weeks ago.

The Mayor presenting this as a good news story also seems to miss the point that allowing a strike to go on for over a month has hurt a lot of people including residents affected by service disruption and workers who are going without pay until the City bends from an unfair position even the Mayor now publicly recognizes could not pass muster with arbitration. 

It has also been reported that the City will begin issuing refunds to the families that have paid for summer camp and recreation programs they have been unable to access. To me, it seems unconscionable to ‘hold cheques’ from residents when its clear the service could not be provided. In the mean time, these individuals have had to shell out again for another program, before receiving their refund. 

It seems to me refunding money to folks who have paid for things they aren’t getting during the strike should have been the first priority when surplus workers became available. Issuing building permits is a great way for City’s to bring in money however, and it seems pretty clear that the folks in the Mayor’s office want a long strike in hopes of saving up money to cover the massive deficit they have had no plan for in the upcoming budget. 

If David Miller believes arbitration would hurt the City, and a 12% pay increase would be crushing, then he needs to get the City’s negotiation team off it’s collective butt and working on a sensible plan, like say – meeting contractual obligations to date, and not retroactively taking money from workers. Who in their right mind would vote to take thousands of dollars away from themselves because some hypocritical City Council that is well stocked with rhetoric, but lacking leadership asks them to. You will recall David Miller refuses to allow Council to vote to take thousands of dollars they gave themselves this year back.

If Miller grandfathered in full payouts for the current sick bank, I’m sure he could get his way on the future treatment of sick leave and his proposed 7.2% increase, even if the year one and two increased represent just 40% of what Councillor’s just gave themselves this year and next.

I did get my hands on a couple of the ‘Frank Klees Leadership Kits’ I had seen Liberal Caucus Services Bureau and Minister’s Office staff handing out earlier in the day. That’s what you’ll see in the video below. It’s another bizarre attack and a total waste of taxpayer resources by Dalton McGuinty to advance his partisan interests. This has nothing to do with policy, or even Queen’s Park for that matter – it’s taxpayer money doing the bidding of the Ontario Liberal Party. It is also literally a ‘skin deep’ attack on a man who had the courage to seek to lead his party.

For a guy whose running the largest deficit Ontario has ever seen, I have a really good idea – cut crap like this right out. Stop using public tax dollars for partisan purposes, stop sending taxpayer funded staff to your opponents events and conventions in hopes of slamming them right out of the gate and respect the fact that using public resources to cling to power is both highly improper and totally undemocratic. Sure you probably wouldn’t win without it, but that doesn’t make it right, and frankly it makes this crutch all the more pathetic.

I recognize me speaking out on this likely makes the threat of Liberal Caucus Services Bureau’s highly improper use of public resources against me, should I seek public office, all the more likely – and my simple response is this – I’ve exposed LCSB’s actions this weekend on principle in my role as accredited media. If I was the victim of a campaign using public resources highly improperly, I would seek a legal recourse, and publicly expose and condemn it as well. That would be both principled and personal.

It is my hope that both the Ontario NDP and Ontario PC parties will help ensure this cat is routinely let out of the bag, so that the people of Ontario know what the Premier and his staff are up to. It not only levels the playing field, but also ensures elections in Ontario are both free and fair – something they are not if one party has a massive publicly funded arm that would make it so even if the NDP and PCs played the same game in response – their resources would not compare.

Update: Big City Lib finds humour in this bigcitylib.blogspot.com/2009/06/where-does-he-keep-his-crucifix.html

I don’t seek martyrdom, or the political equivalent. I don’t own a crucifix, and have no intention of ‘one day getting them all’ – whatever that means. But I do believe in fairness, and free and fair elections. Elections without fear, intimidation, cheating etc.

I think that’s important. It should be a pre-condition to accepting a victory, because a victory without a free and fair election is not a victory at all, its a seizure of power. Some folks are so focused on winning they lose a sense of what’s right. I’d rather lose an honest fight, than win an unfair one. My point in this post and others over the weekend, is that some folks have lost sight of that – the good thing is Ontarians are good at sniffing out tired governments and have a tendency of not electing them.

Below are exchanges between the four candidates on reaching out to GTA voters and their plans on the Human Rights Commission that occurred at last week’s debate in Markham Ontario.