The NDP has chosen a Business Professor at Trent University’s Oshawa campus, Angus Duff, to be its standard bearer in the Provincial election in Newmarket Aurora on 12 June.

Dr Duff’s CV tells me he is a former Human Resources manager in the private sector, working for companies such as IBM, CGI, and TELUS and that he lives in Aurora with his wife Lisa and their three children.

Duff’s main focus is on the world of work and how employment conditions can be improved. My spies tell me he specializes in "positive and negative" work emotions, and how to make work more enjoyable and productive. We can only assume he is happy and contented in his work.

Intriguingly, Duff is a volunteer with the St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Program.

The entry of the NDP into the election will come as a blow to the Liberal Chris Ballard.  The PC hopeful, the early rising, effervescent and fun loving Jane Twinney will have a new spring in her step as she bounds along the "campaign trail".

Meanwhile, in the wider election, Hudak continues to make the headlines – even if they point to the contradictions in his programme. His tough talk is, apparently, to “shore up his base”.

Polling shows the Liberals and PCs close with the NDP trailing a poor third.

The NDP’s Andrea Horwath, not to be rushed, has yet to reveal the Party’s full programme. You can’t help thinking it is still work in progress.

28 days to go.


Glenway: the post-mortem

While the rest of us are distracted by the Provincial Election spare a thought for Newmarket municipal staff who are charged with the delicate task of organizing a public meeting to discuss the Town’s bellyflop on Glenway.

At the Special Committee of the Whole on 22 April, the Glenway Preservation Association’s Dave Sovran asked for a public meeting to explain the settlement details to the public. A motion moved by Maddie Di Muccio and seconded by Ward 7 councillor, Chris Emanuel, called for a meeting to consider the lessons to be learned. It carried nem con.

That Council direct staff to organize a public meeting after the Ontario Municipal Board releases its written decision and within this term of Council, on what has been learned about the Official Plan Amendment, Zoniong By Law Amendment and Draft Plan of Subdivision for Marianneville Developments Limited (Glenway) process and the effects of future development as York Region prepares for growth.

The OMB adjudicator, Susan Schiller, gave her outline oral decision on 27 March indicating that a more detailed written decision would follow.

The OMB tells me

It tries to issue its written decisions approximately within 45-60 days from the final date of the hearing – some written decisions issue sooner and some issue a bit later.

It seems to me a public meeting at the end of June or thereabouts would fit the bill.

Unfortunately, much of the information the public would find useful is currently confidential. At a closed session of the Committee of the Whole on 7 April, all councillors, with the exception of Chris Emanuel, voted to authorise staff to act in accordance with their “direction”.

Unfortunately, the precise terms of the Council’s direction to Mary Bull (the Town’s outside counsel) giving her authority to negotiate and settle with Marianneville’s lawyer, Ira Kagan, remain secret.

Key memoranda submitted to councilors on 7 April also remain confidential. There is one dated 3 April 2014 from Ruth Victor and another of the same date from Mary Bull and a third dated 4 April 2014 from the Assistant Director of Planning.

I remain unconvinced that the Town will be able to keep everything confidential and, at the same time, explain the background to an inquiring public, eager for the facts.

The ever-helpful Town Solicitor, Esther Armchuk, tells me

Closed session discussions or directions given by Council in Closed Session remain confidential unless Council decides to make some or all of those discussions or directions public.

The way forward, then, is to “declassify” these documents and decisions to allow a proper debate at the public meeting.

That said, I suspect things may not be so straightforward.

As sure as night follows day, councillors will be advised not to rush a decision but to take legal advice, in closed session, which would of course strongly recommend keeping everything under wraps.

I can hear the lawyers and senior staff tut-tutting and shaking their heads, warning that disclosure would prejudice the Town’s future interests. Then the sages would spell out in graphic detail the serious consequences.

The script writes itself.


 

Kathleen Wynne gives three Liberal candidates a dressing down after posting “inappropriate comments”. We are told they are all contrite.

Things said on social media, perhaps in the heat of the moment, leave footprints that don’t go away. They can follow you around for years.

We have some beautiful examples here in Newmarket where there is a treasure trove of material.

The animosity between Newmarket’s Ward 6 councillor, Maddie Di Muccio, and her nemesis, Darryl Wolk, is available for all to savour (if you like that kind of thing).

On 14 March this year, at 8.32am, pushing her Corn Flakes to one side, Di Muccio tweets:

Dirty politics attracts bottom-feeding scum like @darrylwolk. I stay away from that poison.

On 14 April at 10.36pm, Wolk’s boiling resentment against Di Muccio erupts with this ferocious tweet:

You are a master of lies, smears, threats, dirty politics & personal attacks!

Having mulled things over for a further ten minutes, Wolk shoots this dart at Di Muccio, hitting her straight between the eyes:

I can’t wait until Newmarket fires this toxic human being on October 27.

But social media isn’t always a bear-pit.

The early-rising Progressive Conservative MPP hopeful, Jane Twinney, tweets in a happy, non-confrontational way. They are designed to leave a warm glow. They are full of fun! They are vacuous, not vicious.

Up with the larks at 6.12am on 8 May, Jane tweets:

Another day on the Campaign Trail… today is going to be a fun day again. Early start on this gorgeous morning. #keepingitblue #VoteTwinney

Another tweet, typical of the genre, leaves Jane’s keyboard at 7.26am on 5 May:

Looking forward to a busy day ahead on the Campaign Trail! Let’s get this Province back on track! #onpoli #pcpo #million jobs

You get the message.

Elsewhere on the so-called “Campaign Trail” Hudak touts tax cuts as part of jobs plan and promises he would never run a deficit.

The pollsters report that people are sceptical and his support is eroding but at least he has staked out a position and gets people talking.

Meanwhile the NDP focus on so-called “pocket-book” issues.

Horwath’s campaign has yet to catch fire. She is promising to cut out the waste from a bloated bureaucracy.

She puts the figure at $600 million. 

Oh dear! 

29 days to go.


 

Tim Hudak today promises to cut income tax tomorrow.

We are told the 10% income tax cut will be “phased in” after the PC Government balances the budget in 2016-17.

These are all fantasy figures. Just like the 100, 000 jobs cuts in two years. This target is unachievable. From one end of the political spectrum to the other, the 100,000 pledge is ridiculed.

Meanwhile, the NDP “slams the Liberals over auto insurance rates”. No surprises there. Horwath’s well-worn pitch is all about making life “affordable”. She could be re-running the last election.

Don’t expect anything new and different (and specific) from the NDP. Instead of challenging the other parties with fresh thinking there is a policy vacuum.

The NDP locally is selecting their candidate for Newmarket-Aurora tonight.

30 days to go.


 

The humiliation is complete as PC Leader and wannabe Premier, Tim Hudak, is “ushered off” a TTC subway car by transit police.

No permit. No photo op.

This exquisitely humbling “event” is picked up by the news media everywhere. A CBC video records it for posterity. The Toronto Sun reports the PCs blaming the unions. The Toronto Star talks about a campaign event going off the rails. The National Post is the kindest, saying the event was "almost" derailed. 

However it was reported, yesterday’s cock-up becomes a metaphor for Hudak’s campaign. Another day. Another gaffe.

And the Star tops it off with an editorial faulting Hudak’s math.

Meanwhile, Kathleen Wynne sails through a less-than-challenging interview with Matt Galloway.

Andrea Horwath is up in Thunder Bay prospecting for an extra seat or two and complaining the Liberals are “long on promises and short on delivery”. Unfortunately, the NDP platform is being dribbled out in stages to maximise media coverage. I still don’t have the long list of NDP promises.

Here in Newmarket, York Regional Council hopeful, Darryl Wolk tweets

@gordon_prentice To be clear, I have not endorsed anyone in the Newmarket-Aurora Provincial. Listening to issues, putting Newmarket first!

Then, for good measure, he tweets again:

@gordon_prentice I do not support cutting “non-teacher” positions. We must support special needs students. Our candidate should talk policy.

“Our candidate” is, of course, Jane Twinney.

On 11 March 2014 Wolk tweeted to his 3,744 followers:

For the record I plan to vote for @JaneTwinney in provincial election.

Now we know, that in the intriguing World of Wolk, that does not count as an endorsement.

31 days to go.


 

Tim Hudak's pledge to cut 100,000 public sector jobs in two years is a game-changer

It is a bold move - kamikaze more like - designed to grab our attention.

It could – and probably will – blow up in his face.

The Barrie Examiner perceptively reports that Hudak made his breakfast-meeting pledge at Barrie Country Club in front of an audience of the faithful that had been shoehorned into “one of the golf club’s smaller rooms”.

This gets me thinking about how much real support there is outside the PC die hards for a remedy that seems a million times more toxic than the disease it is supposed to cure.

In his “Paths to Prosperity” platform paper Hudak talks cautiously about phasing out 10,000 non-teaching positions to save $600m. That measured approach has been thrown out of the window in his bid to capture the headlines. The precise location of the other doomed 90,000 jobs remains, for now, a matter for conjecture.

All in all, 10% of public sector jobs are to go but doctors, nurses and police officers are to be protected. No forced job cuts there. But teachers are singled out as legitimate targets.

Almost 11,800 teachers and support staff work in York Region – the third biggest School Board in Ontario - and they may feel a tad nervous.

For those who escape the scythe, Hudak is promising a public sector wage freeze.

In her biography posted on her website for the 2010 Municipal Election, PC candidate, Jane Twinney, speaks about being active at Meadowbrook Public School where she ran the school lunch programme. With that background, I am left wondering where she believes the axe should fall in our schools. 

That's not something she should be allowed to dodge.