Posts Tagged ‘Green Party of Ontario’
It’s Official By-Election Called in St. Paul’s for September 17th 2009
On September 17th 2009 residents in St. Paul’s will elect a new Member of Provincial Parliament to replace former MPP Michael Bryant. Bryant resigned his seat after a decade in elected office to take on a new role with the City of Toronto as head of Invest Toronto. It is shaping up to be a very interesting fight between Eric Hoskins, the co-founder of War Child, former 2008 federal Liberal candidate in Haldimand Norfolk (roughly Niagara to Lake Erie) and Toronto Sun columnist and local resident Sue-Ann Levy.
I don’t know much about Hoskins except that he has an impressive resume and has done a lot of good humanitarian work. As a City Hall watcher, I am more familiar with Sue-Ann Levy and the strength she brings to opposing what she sees as being harmful for the City or all around bad public policy. The NDP has yet to nominate a candidate as their nomination meeting had been scheduled for September 9th. They will need to speed up their process if they are to compete, something I hope they will do as many of the points the NDP have been making since Horwath’s election as leader have been well put and make a lot of sense to a number of Ontarians.
This will be a dog fight and one that will be fought on a number of issues that favour the opposition. The average income in St. Paul’s is over $100 000 with the median income being closer to $60 000. It can be expected if the average income is over $100 000, and half of resident’s household incomes are over $60 000 that the HST will be a non starter with many as folks with incomes that high are certainly consumers and many due to income will not even be eligible for the money the Provincial government will be handing out to try to ease the pain of this tax increase.
As a heavily urban riding with a number of condo developments, it can be expected condo owners will also overwhelmingly be opposed to the HST as it adds an 8% tax to their monthly maintenance payment, effectively creating a ’13th month’ for the Provincial government’s share.
There is also the matter of E-health, the economy and the general malaise Ontarians tend to have with a second term premier mid way through.
Considering both the Ontario NDP and PC party’s have been carrying very similar messages on the negative impacts of the HST on condo owners and everyday Ontarians and speak in near unison on the e-health scandal and each are calling for a stronger focus on the economy (obviously from different perspectives), if the NDP nominate a quality candidate that matches the calibre of Hoskins and Levy, democracy will be well served on the streets of St. Paul’s.
I’m not calling this for anyone at this point, I’m just saying it’s going to be one heck of a fight, and if Levy brings to it what she’s brought to her column over the years at City Hall – it will certainly be passionate and hard fought.
I know this Torontonian looks forward to watching this play out.
Chris Chopik – Green Party of Ontario
Eric Hoskins – Ontario Liberal Party
Sue-Ann Levy – Ontario Progressive Conservative
Ontario NDP Candidate to be named
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