Gordon Prentice at Large - Politics in Newmarket
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
Advance voting in the Federal Election begins today and, astonishingly, none of the parties has yet published their election platforms. 
Another convention thrown overboard.
Nevertheless, I shall be voting Liberal because of the existential threat facing the nation. Donald Trump is a dose of anthrax to Canada.
Deranged
I am not a member of the Liberal Party and never have been.
But I believe the centrist Liberals are best placed to keep the deranged Trump at bay. I am not going to split the vote and let Pierre Poilievre sail through the middle.
The Liberals have a leader who – as a former central banker - appeals to Conservatives. They see him as the man with the credentials. He is careful with money and has the quiet demeanor and rectitude to do the job.
He was appointed by former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Governor of the Bank of Canada and by the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, as Governor of the Bank of England.
Tighten
Last night’s debate didn’t change anything. The election will “tighten” as the pollsters say but that always happens as voting intentions harden as we get closer to polling day.
Importantly, Mark Carney is not Justin Trudeau and he takes pains to underline that fact – as he did last night.
Trudeau’s sunny ways darkened over his ten years as PM.
It is impossible not to disappoint people over a decade. I have my own personal list of disappointments; others will have their own.
He promised electoral reform straight out of the gate in 2015 and it was quietly shelved.
Triangulation
After the worst gun massacre in Canadian history at Portapique when 22 people were brutally slaughtered Trudeau equivocated on whether or not to ban handguns. It didn’t happen. We got, as usual, Clintonesque triangulation.
Then there were the controversies over indigenous peoples, the trans-mountain pipeline and everything in-between.
Trudeau’s former Finance Minister, Bill Morneau, said the longest meeting he ever had one-to-one with the Prime Minster was the one arranged on his resignation from the Government.
His valedictory book “Where To From Here: A Path to Canadian Prosperity” is full of interesting revelations.
Dilettante
Trudeau, a dilettante, was more interested in polling numbers than economic policy and left Morneau to get on with it.
When our former Liberal MP in Newmarket Aurora, the bland banker, Tony Van Bynen, said it was time for Trudeau to go, I knew the game was up.
Trudeau spent all his energies clinging on to office when everyone knew it was time for him to go.
And now we have Mark Carney, steady at the wheel.
He says he is interested in policy outcomes, not the performative aspects of the job of PM that Trudeau revelled in.
We shall see soon enough.
Graphic below from Smart Voting.
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
Last night’s All Candidates Forum at the Royal Canadian Legion in Srigley Street produced one clear winner, Jennifer McLachlan. 
She was the only wannabe MP to turn up.
Disgracefully, the Conservative’s Sandra Cobena was a no-show. Nothing was more important than this event, organised by a group of local Christians because no-one else was prepared to do so.
Cobena should have cleared her diary to make this event a priority. She had nothing to lose. The Conservatives are trailing in the polls.
The NDP candidate was, predictably, also a no-show. Anna Gollen is a paper candidate with, literally, nothing to say. The NDP can’t win here and a vote for Anna Gollen is a vote for Sandra Cobena.
Weirdly, the organisers had asked one of their own to fill the spot on the stage where Sandra Cobena would have been sitting had she bothered to turn up.
Positive
I came away with a positive impression of Jennifer McLachlan though I prefer my politics more astringent.
Her credo is neighbourliness just like her mentor, the former MP Tony Van Bynen who was far too bland for my taste.
When she was asked questions she glanced at the folder in front of her to make sure she said the right thing.
I overheard someone complaining she was just reading from a script.
When reciting the prepared answers she came across as wooden, referring to the Liberal leader deferentially as “Mr” Carney.
Balancing the Budget
She was asked - to a ripple of laughter - how she planned to balance the budget.
“Mr Carney is an economist and I will follow the leader’s lead.”
She is the ultimate Party loyalist. If you like Mark Carney there is no reason not to vote for Jennifer McLachlan. There’s no danger she will ever step out of line.
Jennifer McLachlan was so much better when she threw the away the prepared notes and went skiing off-piste.
She said she would “go off script a little bit here” before describing her volunteering in BC, doing environmental work.
“I did so for a bigger picture on what the environment problems were. I have a 26 year old and a 24 year old daughter and I'm telling you the environment is essential to their future.”
Prepared notes
Then it was back to the notes with nods to energy efficient housing; zero emission vehicles, expanded public transit systems, ten new national parks and all the rest. And you can’t talk about the environment these days and shut out the unfolding disaster in the Arctic with thawing permafrost and collapsing ice-roads. But I sensed no urgency about the climate emergency. It was just something on a long list of to-do-points.
“We will closely collaborate with indigenous communities and municipalities to enhance climate resilience, disaster preparedness and sustainable land management.”
Of course, all politics is local and this was where Jennifer McLachlan hit her stride.
Walk the walk
She was asked what she would do for the poor and for homeless people. She spoke about taking a homeless man off the streets and into her home for two years.
“I am just going to speak personally here… I don't know if anyone is aware of Larry Woodcock. He was homeless and hung out on Main Street for the majority of his life, drawing the great pictures for everybody. At the tail end of his life I invited Larry in to live in my home. Larry lived with us for the last couple of years his life. I’m only sharing that because I care about homeless people. I care about the vulnerable. I genuinely walk the walk. And I gave Larry that moment in his last days surrounded by the community. An hour before he passed at Southlake Hospital he was given a Maid’s Cottage Butter Tart by a member of the community that I had sent to the hospital… if you wanna go visit……
"When I owned a restaurant (Cachet on Main Street) I hired Inn from the Cold to come and do the maintenance and lawn maintenance. I support Blue Door's construction program where people in transition learn a new skill. Or you get refreshed and get out there and start earning. I think addressing mental health is important but not everybody that's going through an economic crisis has a mental health problem either. So I've done significant support to the food pantry. I was project manager on the Cereal Centre Kitchen and donated a lot of my time to build that as well.
So again, it's really key for me, as your Member, to bring this whole community together... I want to back up the not-for-profits, the charities and foundations in our community that are doing great work and I want to make sure they continue to get some federal investments. I want to advocate on their behalf but I want everybody to really start working together a little more as well.”
This is her life experience. Helping others. Not as a one-off but over many years. And it is clearly laudable.
She would bring that perspective to Ottawa.
I found her authentic.
Note: In today's polling update from the Writ, Eric Grenier has Newmarket-Aurora leaning Liberal - down from "likely". So it is not in the bag.
Update at 3.30pm from Newmarket Today: Newmarket-Aurora voters disappointed Conservative and NDP candidates skip Forum.
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Newmarket Today’s Joseph Quigley reports that a group of local Christians of multiple denominations is organising an all-candidates forum at the Newmarket Legion, 707 Srigley Street from 7 to 9 p.m. The doors open at 6.30pm. 
“All candidates in the riding have been invited and will be asked a range of questions, along with some questions submitted by the audience at the event.”
This is excellent news and the organisers deserve a hearty round of applause. Our democracy thrives when there is open debate and candidates’ views and opinions can be tested and challenged.
My advice to Sandra Cobena and Jennifer McLachlan is for them both to say what they mean and mean what they say.
Think of it as an interview for a job with a base salary of $210,000 a year.
I hope there is a good turnout.
Palestine
Newmarket Today also reports on Shameela Shakeel’s efforts to get Palestine on the agenda in this election:
“Shakeel and other locals are asking for pledges to the https://votepalestine.ca/">Vote Palestine platform for both Newmarket-Aurora and Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill candidates. The platform is a grassroots campaign aimed at getting the issue to the forefront in the election. The platform, being circulated to candidates across the country, asks candidates to support five points:
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- A two-ways arms embargo on Israel;
- Ending Canadian involvement in illegal Israeli settlements under international law;
- Recognize the state of Palestine;
- Address anti-Palestinian racism and freedom of expression on the topic;
- Fund relief efforts in Gaza, including the UNRWA.”
Consultation
Joseph Quigley writes:
While some NDP, Green and Liberal candidates have endorsed the platform, including former Liberal minister of housing Nate Erskine-Smith, local candidates have not yet done so.
Liberal candidate Jennifer McLachlan said, “I am a clear advocate for human rights,” but did not wish to expand further before further consulting with fellow local Liberal Leah Taylor Roy.
My heart sank when I read the response from Jennifer McLachlan who only last Thursday hosted a meeting here in Town with Nate Erskine-Smith on Liberal housing policy. She is on record saying she wants to be Prime Minister one day.
She will not be able to get away with those evasions in a two-hour meeting on Tuesday – especially if there are only two candidates on stage.
NDP no-show
I don’t believe the NDP’s invisible Anna Gollen will turn up.
How are the organisers supposed to contact her with no website, no contact number and with her name missing from the NDP’s official list of candidates?
But if I'm wrong I shall dance in the street.
Update at 8pm on 13 April 2025: Anna Gollen has now appeared on the NDP official list of candidates. No website.
