Next Federal Candidates and Protest Fall-Out

Parties move on next election

As Michael Ignatieff continues to try, unsuccessfully, to bring down the government of Stephen Harper, two local riding associations are lining up the people their putting forward once the writ is cast. Last week the Guelph Federal Conservative Party Association nominated Marty Burke to be its candidate in the next federal election. The 49-year-old Air Canada pilot, who moved to Guelph with his family in 2000, has solid Conservative credentials as a professional, and a family man; additionally, Burke has 23 years of service in the Canadian Armed Forces under his belt. It’ll be interesting to see how Burke will fair up against Liberal incumbent Frank Valeriote who’s well-liked with years of community involvement to his credit as well as being a natural born Guelphite. In the 2008 election, then Conservative candidate City Coun. Gloria Kovach lost by a little over 3,000 votes.

Meanwhile, Guelph’s Federal Green Party will be holding its nomination meeting on Tuesday, October 27th at 7:00 pm at Norfolk United Church downtown. Nominations are now open, and anyone that’s currently a member of the Green Party is eligible to put their name forward for the consideration of the riding association. Remember to allow at least a week for the Green Party of Canada to review your nomination, so don’t doddle with your paper work. Unfortunately, for potential Greens sitting on the fence, one must become a member, or renew their membership, 30 days before the nomination meeting to be able to vote. For more information, head to the Guelph Greens’ website at http://www.guelphgreens.ca/
 

Remember when I said “This ain’t over…?”

Two little nuggets came out of the orbit of the old Hanlon Creek Business Park controversy from last summer. One involved two activists that delivered a letter to the home of the owner of Drexler Construction asking him to part ways with the City in developing the HCBP lands. Julian Ichim and Kelly Pflug-Back returned to the police station where they tried to surrender themselves early in September to let Guelph PD know that they’ve filed two "notices of action," each seeking $30,000 in damages. The dynamic duo say that police defamed them, were negligent in their "investigation of criminal charges" and violated their Charter rights. “[T]he premise of our recent actions has to do with the fact that the media's vilification of activism is unacceptable, as is the police force attempting to take on a political role rather than one of impartial law enforcement,” said Pflug-Back in a response on the Mercury’s 59 Carden St Blog. Paradoxically, the one thing that Pflun-Back didn’t address is that it was she and Ichim that identified themselves to media, they weren’t named in any police press release.

Later that week, a concerned citizen tipped of the Mercury to some movement of dump trucks and heavy equipment on the HCBP lands. The concern was that maybe work was being done on the DL (that’s down low) to avoid a fuss from protesters. After some investigation, City staff told a Mercury reporter that the mounds of top soil dropped off at the site was being used to stabilize the Road A culvert site and would be spread evenly between McWilliams Drive and the Road A Culvert and then it will be seeded to prevent any erosion and sediment issues over the winter/spring months when the development (and the development protests) are expected to continue. Case closed.

Trees Saved, Critical Valeriote, and Washrooms Closed

A lot of time, effort and energy over the last month have been absorbed in that little snafu on the south end involving the Hanlon Creek Business Park, but that doesn’t mean time stopped through the rest of the Guelph Beat. Here’s what’s been going down in other areas of interest.

Trees Saved (without protest)

Paradoxically, as the City was fighting to mow down some trees in the Hanlon Creek Business Park site, it was fighting to keep them up in the area around Goldie Mill. Last week, the City announced that a revised plan for the parking lot at the Guelph Youth Music Centre and the Goldie Mill Park will allow for the majority of the mature trees to remain. Moreover, the changes came in consultation with area citizens through comments and input at a meeting on August 5th. The City will implement measures to minimize construction impacts on the trees adjacent to the parking lot, said a City of Guelph press release. The City is also committed to replacing any transplanted trees that do not survive, and planting new trees adjacent to the parking lot.

Valeriote Gets Critical

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff announced last week that our local MP Frank Valeriote had accepted the role of Liberal Critic for the Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. The agency, which will be based in Kitchener, had been announced in January’s Federal budget and will spend $1 billion over five years to promote new jobs and economic growth in Ontario. It was only on August 13th that Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially launched the agency along with Minister for Science and Technology, and Cambridge MP, Gary Goodyear. Valeriote’s first act as the new critic was to criticize what he called the government’s “inaction plan at work,” saying, “Southern Ontario has been waiting six long months since it was first announced in the budget to get this agency underway – the government has wasted precious time determining a site for it while thousands more jobs have been lost.”

Valeriote also talked about the sale of Nortel’s assets to Swedish film Ericsson, saying that if Goodyear and Harper really wanted to the Canadian economy a solid, they’d try and make sure those assets stayed in Canadian hands. “If Minister Goodyear is serious about Southern Ontario, he should turn his attention immediately to assisting Minister Clement with a review of the sale of Nortel’s wireless assets,” said Valeriote in a press release. “This review should exhaust all efforts to find a made-in-Canada solution involving one of Southern Ontario’s success stories, Kitchener-Waterloo’s Research-in-Motion.”

City Updates on Public Washroom Repairs

In the ongoing appraisal of public washroom facilities on city land following the death of a teenage girl earlier this summer, the City has released an update for the community. Based on the recommendations from the structural reports from Gamsby and Mannerow Engineers, the City of Guelph has contracted Action Construction Company of Kitchener for the demolition and rebuilding of the partition walls of the public change/washrooms at Guelph Lake Sports Field, Hanlon Creek Park, and St. George’s Park. The repairs began this week at Guelph Lake Sports Field and will be followed by repairs to Hanlon Creek Park and St. George’s Park with all repairs scheduled to be completed by the end of September. The City is also requesting a quote from Action for repairs to the public change/washrooms at the Norm Jary Splash Pad, and another company Group Eight Engineering Limited is performing the structural investigation work at the Larry Pearson Baseball Complex washroom facilities.