Green Matters, Safety and Coffee

Watchers to Nestle: This Ain’t Over

After a disappointing permit renewal that will see Nestle Waters draw precious H20 from the aquifer in Aberfoyle for another five years, many observers expected the Wellington Water Watchers, at least, to keep up the fight. But a short deadline on the appeal, as it turns out, is only one of the reasons why the WWW opted out of further action.

“The Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) system is flawed, and we have decided there is no point in participating in a process that appears to be a window-dressing exercise,” explains Mike Nagy, a WWW Board member in a press release. Nagy cites the fact that his organization was excluded from a March 24th technical meeting as an example. “The MOE should have been leading these meetings and ensuring that all stakeholders were invited and able to attend,” Nagy adds. “It’s obvious to us that ‘the proponent’ has a vested interest in keeping specific parties – particularly those seeking restrictions – from participating.”

In it’s response to Nestle’s permit renewal, the Watchers were pushing for the Ministry of Environment to deny their request, or at the very least set in place measures through which the amount of water Nestle is allowed to draw, 3.6 million litres daily, to be rolled back on an annual basis. The only concession the Ministry made in the end was to only renew the permit for five years rather than Nestle’s request for 10. Regardless of the defeat Nagy says that he, and the other Watchers, will indeed be watching Nestle for those five years.

“We’re not going away,” he adds. “We’ll continue to do everything we can to protect our watershed, and to properly regulate this wasteful, unnecessary industry.”

Meet Greens

Having trouble deciding between who would best represent the local Green Party in this fall’s provincial election, then maybe getting up close and informal with them will change your mind. Both Mike Salisbury and Steve Dyck will available live and in person at the Hallman Room in Dublin Street United Church from 7 till 9 pm tonight. The setting is informal, and you don’t already have to be coloured Green to enter. “We are very excited to have a contested candidacy, a sign of our strength and momentum toward electing a Guelph Green MPP,” says a post on the Guelph Green website. “The next Provincial election is scheduled for Oct. 6, 2011 so we have 6 months to learn from past election campaigns and move The Greens forward in Ontario.” The Green candidate will be selected at the party’s AGM on June 7th.

Everything Falls Apart

In a rare and almost improbable move, the city closed seven "high risk" structures last Friday out of safety concerns. They include the standalone washroom buildings at Silvercreek Park, Margaret Greene Park, Hanlon Creek Park and Norm Jary Park, as well as the combination washroom/concession buildings at Exhibition Park and Riverside Park and the Riverside Bandshell. This is after the grandstand at Hastings Stadium was closed for safety concerns as well. What's the problem? Mario Petricevic, the city’s general manager of corporate building maintenance, says that the issue is the buildings' roofs, or rather the anchors that keep those roofs fastened to the walls of the buildings in sever wind. There are 34 buildings in the City that are deemed "high risk" and although the engineer didn't order the closure of those seven facilities, the City felt it necessary to act with an abundance of caution. In this year's budget, the City put aside $1.3 million for building repair. Some of the buildings will be able to be fixed right away, others have such extensive damage they'll need to be sent out for tenure.

Bean Lands at a New Location

It might be a Planet Bean before too long at this rate as a third Planet Bean location is set to open in the city’s south end. The new Bean will be based out of 1467 Gordon St., on the west side of Gordon halfway between Arkell and Clair roads, and according to the now-minted coffee chain’s co-founder, co-owner and head of marketing, Bill Bennett, expansion into the southside was a no-brainer. “We’re like coffee missionaries,” he told the Guelph Mercury. “We feel like south Guelph is devoid of excellent coffee, so we have to bring flavour to the people of south Guelph,” The original Bean opened in downtown Guelph in 1998, and its second location opened on Grange Road in 2006. So congratulations to the Planet Bean team on their continued success. Good to the last drop, I should say.

Top 5 Stories to Watch in the Summer

Summer unofficially kicks off this weekend with the Victoria Day long weekend and assorted festivities, so let’s run down the Top 5 news stories that might be making waves in the Royal City this summer.

5) Gas Prices

John Lawson may have come in fourth place in the Federal Election, but he does get first place in being able to prognosticate the future. During our interview last month, Lawson told me that he believed that that gas prices would hit $1.50 per litre this summer, and it seems he’s going to be proven right, as gas prices flirted with the $1.40 mark last week. “There’s no one in the mainline parties that [understands] that this is just the beginning,” said Lawson. “Now there are no alternatives, and what we need to begin now is looking at real alternatives. My vision for Guelph would be one that is largely self-sustainable for each house.” Of course, this isn’t an issue that impacts Guelph alone, but it will add to driver headaches on the road, which are already affected by a redux from last summer.

4) Road Construction

Granted if you head down to Carden Street it might look like the construction monster has come back to Guelph to rooster, but the city swears that this year will be a more chilled construction season. "The Guelph Remastered campaign did what typical road construction signs couldn’t do," says Tara Sprigg, Manager, Corporate Communications. "Guelph Remastered connected people to important information and helped residents understand that more than 20 construction projects were part of one huge infrastructure renewal program." Still, residents are sure to notice, especially if they take a drive downtown. Most major construction projects are expected to wrap by Fall.

3) The Gummer Building

After nearly three years, will this be the summer that will finally see some progress made on the revitalized Gummer Building. “We’re going to get going as soon as possible,” chief operations officer Jason Ashdown said back in April. “I hope to give the crane a test run (Wednesday) and be back under construction within two to three weeks.” I took that from my a post on Guelph Politico on April 6th, and unless something’s changed in the time between me writing this and it getting published in this issue of Echo Weekly, really no progress has been made. The historic Gummer Building was destroyed by fire on Good Friday, April 6th, 2007. A consortium of Skyline employees later purchased the building for redevelopment, getting tax credits form the city for preserving the historic visage. Construction ceased in the Summer of 2008 as the Global Recession started heating up and funds started drying up. The Co-operators will be the majority tenant in the building, which has now been approved to include a number of rental units as well.

2) Provincial Election

Yes friends, our election fun isn’t over, it’s just on hiatus until Fall. Come September, we’ll be gearing up for the Provincial Election, trying to decide whether or not to give Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals the hat trick, or if Tim Hudak’s PCs or Andrea Horwath’s NDPs get the nod. In Guelph, we know that our current MPP Liz Sandals will run again for the Liberals, but it’s a pretty interesting slate shaping up with the rest of the main parties. Well-known singer/songwriter James Gordon looks to be the likely nominee for the New Democrats, and will likely be acclaimed at the party’s nomination meeting on June 13 at 7:30 pm at the Guelph Youth Music Centre. Over at the Green Party, former city councillor Mike Salisbury is going up against riding association vice-president Steve Dyck at the Greens’ Annual General Meeting on June 7 from 7 to 9 pm at Norfolk Street United Church. Meanwhile, a name has yet to be dropped for the Progressive Conservatives, but a nomination meeting is in the works.

1) The Health Unit

When McGuinty came to town last week, the topic of the City’s tiff with the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Unit naturally came up in conversation. The Premier said that the dissolving the Health Unit, as proposed by a recent unanimous motion in city council, is not an option and that it’s his government’s job to help resolve the issue “and to do so in a way that doesn’t compromise public health along the way.” The “issue” is the WDG Health Unit’s push to build a new facility in Guelph, with the city being stuck with the cheque for $10 million. McGuinty’s comments weren’t cool with some members of city council, like Ward 4 rep Cam Guthrie. “I don’t know if the premier’s comments, to me, really can stand. We didn’t ask the premier to be the assessor… I don’t think it’s the premier’s role to jump to conclusions without have a proper process done.” The issue is far from settled.

Scandal Amok

The Well Still Runs for Nestle

Much to the dismay and disappointment of environmentalists and anti-corporatists in the Royal City, the Ministry of the Environment approved a five-year renewal of the Nestle’s water taking permit at its Aberfoyle bottling plant. The good news is that the approval wasn’t for the 10 year stretch that Nestle applied for, but the bad news is that Nestle will be permitted to continue taking the allotted 3.6 million litres per day. Reaction was swift, but local advocates only have a limited time to make their appeal, primary among them the Wellington Water Watchers.

With a limited window to appeal, 15 days from when the decision was announced the Friday before the election, the Watchers quickly sprang into action forming a subcommittee to meet last Wednesday for a strategy session about the matter "The Wellington Water Watchers had made submissions to the Ministry of Environment and it looks to us that a great extent these submissions were almost ignored by the Ministry of Environment in the decision that they made," said Andre Hueniken, a Board Member of the Water Watchers.

The MOE for its part, seems to think that they have been conciliatory to concerns about the aquifer, limiting the permit to five years over ten “to allow a fulsome and ongoing review of monitoring data in a shorter time frame,” according to MOE regional director Carl Slater in the Wellington Advertiser. “It also allows for consideration of the water taking to be re-evaluated depending upon the local conditions and development in the area.”

John Challinor, the Director of Corporate Affairs for Nestle Canada, says that his company has no interest in draining the well, as it were. “When you invest millions of dollars in your plant like we do, you don't want your water source to be impacted,” he said to CTV. “You don't want it to go dry, you don't want to see a reduction, you don't want to harm your neighbours.”

This issue’s unlikely to go away, so stayed for more developments on the water front. (Get it! Oh, never mind. Next issue…)

  

Cam Says Bygones

From a bit of controversy of elections past, Ward 4 Councillor Cam Guthrie posted to the Mercury’s 59 Carden Street blog last week an apology to readers of the blog for posting comments using pseudonyms. “As most of you here are aware, up until last fall I had used other names to represent myself and I was wrong to do that,” Guthrie wrote. “I took swift steps to apologize to those I hurt outside of this arena, but I couldn’t do it individually to people here because I don’t know many of your real names. I want to rejoin you in the conversations here, but before I do that, I owe all of you a heartfelt apology and I wanted to ask for forgiveness.” Forgiveness seems to be what Guthrie has received, so we can now return to our regularly scheduled tirades.

Wanted: New Treasurer and Details

It was a bit under a cloak of secrecy last Tuesday night when, in an in-camera session of city council, mayor and council were informed that Chief Financial Officer and City Treasurer Margaret Neubauer had been terminated after nearly three years of service to the City of Guelph. Chief Administrative Officer Hans Loewig made the announcement to council, but said that there were few details he could release about the reason for the termination. “It is very difficult for us to say anything more than making a basic statement,” Loewig told the Guelph Mercury in a quick interview.

So what’s the story here? As of deadline, we’re still not sure. What we do know is that Neubauer will, according to Mark Amorosi, the city’s executive director of corporate and human resources, “receive an exit package in accordance with the Council approved Non-Union Termination Policy.” What does that mean? I refer you to the City’s termination without cause policy, which is defined as a termination “as a result of the employer’s decision to end the services of an employee for reasons including, but not limited to: reorganization, position elimination, inability of the employee to fulfil the expectations of their position.” So it’s possible that Neubauer was downsized, but a report in January said that her department was understaffed.

Neubauer is one of a number of City employees to leave their high-level positions in the last several months. I think at this point we can officially certify it as a mass exodus, but as to the cause, right now, that remains a mystery.

Post-Election - Madness and McCrae

So Who Won the Election?

I don’t know. My deadline for Echo is on Thursday and the election was on Monday. If you want all the election results and other stuff go to Guelph Politico at http://guelphpolitico.blogspot.com/ This edition of Guelph Beat, meanwhile, is all about local, municipal stuff not even remotely to do with anything falling under the federal portfolio.

Guelphites Like Value for Money

Two-thirds of Guelph residents say they get good value for their municipal tax dollars, while satisfaction with City services is high, with a majority saying they are satisfied with all services in a list of 11. This according to findings of a citizen survey conducted for the City of Guelph by Environics Research Group, and a City press release issued last week.

More than 80 per cent of residents surveyed expressed satisfaction with parks and trails, police, garbage collection, fire protection, and library services. Satisfaction with sports fields, ambulance services, snow plowing, and arts and heritage services ranged from 70 to 79 per cent. Additionally, 64 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with road maintenance, and 57 per cent said they were satisfied with public transit, though one-quarter of respondents said they were unable to express an opinion about this service (meaning that don’t use the bus and they don’t have an opinion to offer).

So what other insights did the City gleam from the survey. High tax rates/tax increases is the most important issue facing Guelph according to the slim majority (12 per cent), with urban development/expansion (11 per cent) as a close second. Five in ten residents (51 per cent) indicated that fees and taxes should be lowered even if it means a small reduction in services, while about four in ten (37 per cent) believe that inadequate services need to be improved even if it means a small tax increase. Also, 83 per cent of residents who have contacted the City of Guelph over the past year said they were satisfied with the service they received, which is up from 60 per cent satisfaction in 2008.

To see the full results at this link: here.

City to Health Unit: Peace Out!

Fed up with the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Unit’s unilateral pursuit of new facilities, Guelph’s City Council voted to begin the process of pulling out of the unit and forcing its dissolution. Mayor Karen Farbridge will seek a meeting with the wardens of Wellington and Dufferin counties “to commence a discussion of the process for the dissolution of the health unit.” In a special resolution endorsed unanimously, the City effectively said that they have “concerns with regard to the governance” of the health board.

This move is a follow-up to a temporary injunction last month imposed by Justice Joseph Fragomeni, who wrote that the city “would suffer irreparable harm” if the project proceeded before some “serious questions” were answered. The question is about $17 million for new facilities, both here and in Orangeville, the entire cost of which is being put on the shoulders of the municipalities. The province is supposed to kick in 75 per cent of the cost for all Health Unit expenses, but they’ve opted out of funding the new facilities, and the health unit put it to council that they will precede regardless.

Speaking of the province, Guelph MPP Liz Sandals told the Guelph Mercury that the province can take over a health board if there are concerns over its management. But she said that isn’t the case here. “Quite frankly, the Ministry of Health has not been considering dissolving the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph public health unit.”

Needless to say, there’s more to come on this issue.

McCrae Pushes Poppies and Arthur Currie

McCrae House will be hosting its annual Poppy Push Plant Sale and fundraiser this Saturday, rain or shine, at the Water Street museum from 8:30 am till 1 pm. Poppy varieties available at the sale include Oriental and Allegro perennials and, of course, the “Flanders” corn poppy. Perennials from the historic garden will also be available for purchase. Volunteers that tend the historic garden at the museum will be on hand to talk about the various plants there, all of which were found in Guelph between the years 1850 to 1880.

At 11 am, McCrae House will open up its doors for its new exhibit “Remembering Arthur Currie.” Sir Arthur Currie is recognized as a brilliant military tactician who was knighted in 1917 after capturing Vimy Ridge and he became the first Canadian to attain the rank of General in 1919. After returning from the war he became Principal and Vice Chancellor of McGill University in Montreal. This exhibit looks at the life of Arthur Currie and his connections to John McCrae. Admission on Poppy Push day to McCrae House is by donation.

Burke Still MIA, and Cam Wants a Gun

The Curious Case of Marty Burke

Not to keep beating a dead horse (may Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party candidate Karen Levensen forgive me), but Conservative candidate Marty Burke once again made news last week for not showing up some place. The stage was Guelph Place Banquet Hall, the event was the Guelph Mercury-sponsored all candidates debate. Sure, maybe the 100 or so people, there, at the hall, in person, might have been the only one’s that noticed, but then the whole thing was broadcast live over the internet, and the dreaded press themselves were hosting the darn thing…

Burke’s sudden, last minute bow from the Mercury debate, brought his attendance record for all-candidates forums in the 2011 federal election down to a staggeringly bad two to four count. Burke, the man who would help Prime Minister Stephen Harper secure his majority government, at the time of this writing, couldn’t be bothered to show up for two-thirds of the public debates he was invited to, and that doesn’t seem to care to respond to press requests unless they’re from major local media outlets and by e-mail. Are you still planning on voting for Marty Burke? The question you should be asking is why.

Sure, he had a pretty good reason why he couldn’t come to the Mercury debate. An old back injury incurred during his time in service with the Canadian Forces flared up and on the advice of his doctor and his chiropractor, he avoided the possibility of further injury by sitting in a chair for two straight hours. Just 24 hours later, Burke let the Mercury (and their readers) know that everything was alright and he was back to campaigning, knocking on doors and attending campaign events 12 hours a day. Either Burke has Wolverine-like healing abilities, his back wasn’t that big an issue, or he was just looking for out from another unfriendly debate situation.

But no matter who you vote for, remember to vote on Monday May 2nd. To learn more about where and how, go to elections.ca and for all the latest election news got to my blog at http://guelphpolitico.blogspot.com/
 

Help Cam Guthrie Buy a Gun (Not Like That)

A couple of Guelph politicians are teaming up to bring home a piece of Guelph history. At auction this weekend, a handgun owned by Nathaniel Higinbotham will be put on the block at F.J. Corring in Toronto in a sale of militia artefacts. Ward 4 Councillor Cam Guthrie is leading the charge to buy the vintage Smith and Wesson firearm that was presented to Higinbotham, a prominent developer in the early days of Guelph and later its Mayor and Member of Parliament, in 1866. The estimated value of the gun is between $5,000 and $6,000 but it could go for a much as $10,000.

This where Guthrie’s efforts come in. Gerald Austin, the owner of the firearm in question, has said he was called about a year ago by both the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa and the Guelph Civic Museum. “We tried to work out a deal, but it just didn’t work out,” said Austin, adding: “I always thought it should be in the Guelph Museum. I just wasn’t in the position to give it to them.” In other words, there wasn’t enough cash on the table, which isn’t surprising considering that the acquisitions budget for the Civic Museum is $1,000 per year.

But there is support for Guthrie’s efforts. Fellow councillors Todd Dennis and Gloria Kovach have already pledged $100 each, and Guthrie himself pledged $500 to get the ball rolling. Paul Schmidt, owner of Winmar Restorations, has also stepped up promising to match donations dollar-for-dollar. “If we can bring something from Guelph back to Guelph, I think that’s an awesome thing,” said Schmidt who’s a self-described history geek said. “I came to this city 15 years ago, and it’s been nothing but good to my family and my staff. I just want Ontario to recognize how great our city is.”

If you can help out, get in touch with Councillor Guthrie at his City Hall number 519-822-1260 x2513, or his e-mail Cam.Guthrie@guelph.ca

Valeriote's Missing Work and Burke's Just Missing

Frank Valeriote Would Rather Be Working, But…

It’s hard to say if Liberal candidate Frank Valeriote is an enviable position this election. Sure, he’s the incumbent candidate, and one that still has that new Member of Parliament sheen having just been elected for the first time in October 2008. But that victory, hard fought though it was, was by a narrow 1,788 votes, and with the Conservatives identifying Guelph as a piece on the board they need to take in order to win a majority, this fight is going to be tougher than ever. But in talking to Valeriote while he was taking a break from the campaign trail, it sounds like a fight he’s ready for.

“I don’t think Canadians realize how significant a moment that was, how historical a moment that was, being found to have lied to Parliament,” Valeriote says of the contempt of Parliament charge that ended the minority government of Stephen Harper. “Mr. Harper has an attitude that he’s above it all, he’s above the need to tell truth, he’s above the need to be transparent and he’s above the need to be accountable. The opposition is nothing more than an irritant to him.”

On the budget put before Parliament before its dissolution, Valeriote says that Harper and his government put forth a document that he knew was “not palatable to any party, [and] he knew it would provoke an election.” Valeriote added that it only paid lip-service to seniors and the economy, and had almost nothing to offer the environment, students and people of low-income. These are the very people that the Liberals want to win over, he says.

One of the items on the Liberal proposals that Valeriote is most passionate about comes out of his work with the Compassionate and Palliative Care Committee. The Liberals Family Care Plan will allow people to stay at home for six months to look after dying parents, as well as give them $1,350 towards expenses like travel costs. For students, Liberals will offer $1,000 for every year, from grade 9 to 12, in an RESP to “kick start” parents in saving for university and college while their kids are still in high school. The Liberals also want to give people an incentive to invest in local, environmentally-friendly businesses with a $13,500 credit and the option to write off the first of investment in green technologies.

But where is the money going to come from, you might ask. Simple, says Valeriote, no money for mega-prisons and fighter jets, and no huge, corporate tax cuts. “Of course, you know that the Conservatives will spin a message anyway you want and misinform people,” says Valeriote. “But the fact of the matter is we’re not going to give the $6 billion dollar tax cut to the largest corporations like he wants to. The fact of the matter is that over 60 per cent of the jobs created in Canada, are created by small business, not large business.”

To hear the whole Valeriote interview, go to my blog at http://guelphpolitico.blogspot.com/

This Space Reserved for Marty Burke

The second of this week’s space in Guelph Beat should be taken up with excerpts from my interview with Conservative candidate Marty Burke. The problem with that is it would have required Burke’s Communications Director Michael Sona to give me the courtesy and respect of retuning any one of my seven phone calls to the Burke campaign office. Journalistically speaking, there’s no crying in covering a political campaign, it is, however, nice to know that I don’t have to go through it alone.

Last Thursday, CFRU 93.3, which has been doing its own weekly election show Monday mornings on your FM dial, sent out a press release to other media outlets (including me) saying that they have been having troubles getting Burke to take the proverbial hot seat. “[W]e are very disappointed that Conservative candidate Marty Burke has not responded to e-mail invitations and a personal office visit to come on the show to discuss his candidature,” said the release. “It should also be noted that in 2008, Conservative Gloria Kovach was one of the first candidates to respond, and, indeed, our first guest.”

The line for Marty Burke is to see if one can get him to respond at all. Three all-candidates debates were held last week, and Burke showed up for exactly one of them. He came out to a debate at Our Lady of Lourdes last Wednesday (where we was shellacked by various third party candidates for being racist), but skipped a University of Guelph forum for “personal reasons” and couldn’t make a Centennial C.V.I. debate because he was “booked.” So I guess the lesson here is give Marty Burke lots of advanced notice is you’re having an all-candidates debate in the near future.

The Slate

Speaking of Election Day, this is the list of confirmed candidates for the riding of Guelph in the 41st General Election: Philip Bender (Libertarian), Marty Burke (Conservative), Drew Garvie (Communist), Kornelis Klevering (Marijuana), John Lawson (Green), Karen Levenson (Animal Alliance Environment Voters), Bobbi Stewart (NDP) and Frank Valeriote (Liberal).

The Candidates Part 1

This week’s Guelph Beat begins the first of two parts that will look at the four major party candidates. In sequential order of when each of the candidates returned my request for an interview, we’ll begin this week by talking to the Green Party’s John Lawson and the NDP’s Bobbi Stewart.

John Lawson Chooses the Right Direction

The day I met John Lawson at his campaign headquarters on Woolwich St., was the same morning the consortium of broadcasters announced that Green Party Leader Elizabeth May would not be a part of the leaders debate this election cycle. From Lawson’s point of view, the banning of May and the immediate outrage from Canadians coast to coast to coast it provoked, is part of a larger discontent with the current political tone. “It’s not just partisan,” Lawson explains, “It’s coming from a broad spectrum that the democracy we treasure here in Canada is about voices coming to the table and having a chance to speak and sadly we’re not seeing that represented in Ottawa.”

Lawson, a pastor at Dublin Street United Church, has big shoes to fill as the local Green candidate. Mike Nagy, who ran in the last two elections, took the Greens to their best showing ever with 21 per cent of the vote in 2008. “I think I’ve been part of a Green movement for a long time, but finding a political expression for that is new for me,” says Lawson. The candidate has a deep concern for the environment, although he notes that his is not a “one issue party.” In fact, Lawson says, solutions to both environmental and economic concerns can be found in the same place: more Green jobs.

“There are real jobs for young people,” he explains. “As I’ve been talking to people who are reading Echo, the reality is that some of them are really quite hopeless in finding work that feels like they’re really contributing. They’ve got ideas, they’ve got energy and they’re told to go work at the mall.”

As for that change in tone on Parliament Hill, Lawson hopes people will vote with their heart in this election. “There’s a great sense of the politics of fear right now with strategic voting, ‘We don’t like Harper, we’ll do anything to get rid of him,’” he says. “At some point we’re hoping, and we’re hoping that this is the election that will do that, to be able to say, ‘We need you to vote your heart. We need a breakthrough to put a Green member in Parliament to signal that the same-old, same-old is not going to be there any longer.’”

Bobbi Stewart has Corner Store Values

NDP Candidate Bobbi Stewart was born and raised in Niagara Falls, where her father had a small grocery story. It was the kind of corner store where the man behind your counter knew your name, knew your story, and gave you the kind of personal service you just can’t get from the bigger chain stores. It was here, says Stewart, where she learned the values as a person, and the values she wants to stand up for as a New Democratic Party Member of Parliament.

“I always tell people that this is where I believe I got my start in community development,” she says of her father’s store. “Everybody would come into the store and tell my dad their stories, he would give them store credit, he would deliver to seniors, and all sorts of great things. There was a Dominion store up the street, but people liked coming to this small store and get that kind of service.”

As for her own background, Stewart was a graduate of the University of Guelph with a BA in Music, and though she volunteered with local music festivals, it was in other volunteer opportunities that Stewart found her true calling. She’s worked with at-risk youth, seniors, families, and new immigrants, and like Lawson, Stewart sees engagement, or lack thereof, as a key issue in this campaign. “I had a big conversation with a young fellow just outside here the other day,” she remembers, “And it was neat because I got somewhere with him and cut down on the cynicism just a little bit.”

But mostly, Stewart wants to focus on the economic inequality and social justice. She referred specifically to the Poverty Elimination Strategy brought before Parliament by Sault Ste. Marie MP (and New Democrat) Tony Martin, as well as affordable housing and the environment as her priorities. “If you look at Guelph, we have an amazing plethora of social justice groups,” Stewart says. “One of the things I think we need to talk more about is how we can people in poverty. I know that it’s a provincial and municipal issue as well.”

As for going to the polls after being ready to run for nearly a year, along with the constant threat of election, Stewart says that for her it was now or never. “It’s been a steady gear up and frankly it would have been a bit of a let down if we hadn’t go now.”

You can listen to the full interviews at http://guelphpolitico.blogspot.com/