Why MMP sounds good to me

View from the Strip
By Casey Lessard

For the most part, I am not well-represented at Queen’s Park. I’m an environmentalist and a vegan (and admittedly a bit of a hippie), and I am not aware of any sitting politicians who represent my views in the legislature. To be honest, vegans are a pretty small minority in this country, but I’m still a citizen and a voter. Shouldn’t I expect to be represented?
Okay, probably not as a vegan, but we shouldn’t fault the citizens’ assembly for recommending that underrepresented people should have our ideas presented in the legislature by someone who actually agrees with us. The Green party, for example, will need a lot more than three per cent to take a riding victory, but with three per cent across the province, doesn’t it make sense that someone from that party should be at the table to present their concerns and ideas? Three per cent is a lot of people: according to Statistics Canada, London is just over three per cent of the population of Ontario. Does London not deserve a place at the table? In fact, London will elect four MPPs this year.
Like you, I don’t agree with everything the Green party says. In fact, I don’t agree with everything presented in any of the party platforms I’ve read this election (or any other election, for that matter). Do you? If so, I suggest you’re in the minority. I believe most people have at least one thing they don’t like about what their party of choice stands for, and that’s equally true when we’re talking about a local candidate, even if they’re your neighbour or friend.
MMP, or mixed member proportional representation, will give you the opportunity to vote for the party you like and pick a candidate from a different party if you think they’ll serve you better at home.
Another plus is that it will give more people a reason to vote. If you know that there’s a chance someone with your ideals will be heading to Queen’s Park, you’re more likely to help make that happen.
The proposed electoral system change has made me pay attention to this election, and I think it would be good to force the big parties to listen to the rest of their legislative colleagues. As is the case in the journalism business, you don’t get an accurate sense of reality by always listening to the same people.

Apple wine a natural fit

Twin Pines Orchards and Cider House
(519) 296-5556 or (519) 296-5558

Story and photos by Casey Lessard

There’s a wonderful surprise fermenting on a dirt road northwest of Thedford, and it won’t be long before the wines being made at Twin Pines Orchards and Cider House are well-known in this area. The only winery (to our knowledge) in the near vicinity, the Vansteenkiste family at Twin Pines started stocking their signature dry apple wine and hard apple cider over the weekend.
“There have been many steps to getting here, and they’re all part of the same direction,” says Mark Vansteenkiste, who lives at the property at 8169 Kennedy Line. He and his brother Mike saw an interest in fruit wines developing and incorporated it into their business as an agricultural attraction.
“It was sort of something we both came up with,” he says from the store the two built four years ago that also houses the wine making facilities. “People are looking for good food and entertainment and this is more of a personal experience. People want to learn about what we do and this is where we excel. It’s forward thinking in a traditional way.”
Surrounded by orchards and growing one million pounds of apples a year makes you think of new ideas to use the fruit, especially considering the current economic climate is not favourable to apples as a commodity.
“You won’t go bankrupt,” Mark says, “but you won’t make any money.”
“You get enough to do it again next year,” Mike says.
That’s why they’ve been working for the past decade to develop their wine and hard cider (many readers will be familiar with the sweet cider they sell at the Thanksgiving weekend farmers’ market in Grand Bend).
“We started pressing apples for sweet cider,” Mike says, “and eventually you move toward hard cider. The goal was always to create wines and hard cider.”
The technology requires a large investment, but it’s one that allows for complementary processes.
“Now we have the technology and the produce to start making other wines also,” Mark notes.
Visitors can sample their dry wine (12.6 per cent alcohol) and hard cider (6-8 per cent) in the upstairs tasting room, and by Christmas, Twin Pines will launch a sweet wine (12.6 per cent) and an iced wine (10-11 per cent). After that, expect an apple brandy and other fruit wines using produce from their farm. There’s also the longer-term goal of producing organic products using apples from trees currently growing on a plot nearby (organic wines would be at least two years away). The farm grows a variety of organic vegetables, including squash, tomatoes, potatoes, onions and peppers, all available seasonally from late August to early October.
The Vansteenkistes view their wines as premium products, and lean toward the natural side of processes if they have the choice. They rely on integrated pest management to avoid pesticide spraying. Plus, to increase sugar content for the fermentation process, they had the choice of adding sugar or removing water; the latter choice is more natural and preserves the quality of the product, so that’s what they’ve done.
“We pick by taste for our place here,” Mark notes. “Instead of a date on a calendar, we look at how the apples taste that day. That’s completely different than what you get at a grocery store. We can pick what we want to the standard we want and that gives us a much better tasting product for our shelves here.
“We have a unique climate, which goes from extremely hot to extremely cold, so that allows us to grow a wide range of apples so we can get a lot more variety in flavour for our ciders and wines.”
With their recipe 10 years in the making, what can people expect from this year’s wine?
“It’s a dry apple wine with a nice apple nose,” Mark says. “What we’re very happy with is that it has a very long finish. It’s something that, for a dry late harvest apple, it’s reflected the fall very well.”
Considering the nature of his business, you might expect Mark to be familiar with the taste of his wine from intimate experience, but he’s not a heavy consumer.
“I don’t drink much, but I love flavours, and we’ve been experimenting for 10 years. And I don’t think we’ll ever stop experimenting.”
Don’t expect to see their wines on the LCBO shelves any time soon. Twin Pines is a small-scale winery and it’s going to stay that way.
“We never want to be a factory. It’s not what we’re about. We always want to be small and personal.”
To experience the wine for yourself, you’ll have to visit the store at 8169 Kennedy Line, which is open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. A 750 mL bottle of wine is $11.95 and a 1L bottle of hard cider is $9.95 (return the bottle for $1 off your next one).

Legends of the fall

Advice from mom
By Rita Lessard

Fall - what a great time of the year. Not too hot, not too cold. Standard time is approaching and thus we’ll fall back an hour. The word fall is used in so many ways, for example, fall in love, fall out, fall from grace, fall back, etc. This column will address the physical act of falling.
Tom has had many falls in his lifetime. My first experience with Tom’s falling problem was when he was attempting to carry me over the threshold. Isn’t that the perfect time to trip and fall? I only weighed 105 lbs. at the time, so that couldn’t have been the problem. I ended up falling on top of him, and I think the fall knocked him out. I ended up dragging him over the threshold – there was no way he was going to get away from me. I was a little feisty even at that time.
When we moved to Huron Park, Tom would ride his bike back and forth to work or to the local pub and he sometimes didn’t get home in one piece. He was in and out of the ditch; I believe he had a balance problem. One Friday night, I was watching TV with the kids and we heard this big bang on the side of the house. Sure enough, it was Tom on his bike, so I said to the kids, “Your father’s home.” The kids looked out the window and said, “Yep, you’re right, mom.” He seemed to be fine, but I suggested he should either get his brakes checked or his eyes checked.
After we had five kids, we needed a bigger house, so we moved across the street to a four-bedroom. The layout of the new house was a little different. In the old house, the bathroom was on the main floor, but in the new house the bathroom was upstairs. The night before we moved in across the street, Tom and a couple of our boys decided to camp out in the new house (they slept in sleeping bags in the living room). It was Friday night, so Tom was a little tipsy. In the middle of the night, Tom woke up and had to go to the bathroom. Thinking he was in the old house, he made a left and then a right turn to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, in the new house, this was the way to the basement. He opened the door and stepped in, or rather dropped in, because the next thing he knows he’s falling down the stairs. I swear Tom has seven lives because all he got out of the fall was a bloody nose. He did manage to get back upstairs without peeing himself and went back to sleep, not going to the bathroom until the next morning. Amazing!
One more story about falling: my friend, who has false teeth, was out shopping in the mall one day and was checking out the cosmetics and smelling the various perfumes. Suddenly, she had a sneezing fit, and before she knew it, her teeth fell out of her mouth. As the kids say, wouldn’t that bite? Hoping no one noticed, she delicately picked them up and went about her business.
I hope you enjoy this nice fall weather and if you have to fall, do it on your knees in church, where at least you have padding.

The Warning - a poem by Theresa van Koeverden

(Theresa van Koeverden wrote the poem The Warning after the drowning death of Julie Marie Kovar of Fort Gratiot, Michigan in August. The 14-year old slipped under the surface as she swam in rough waters at the Grand Bend beach near the pier.)

The Warning
By Theresa van Koeverden

Soft warm sand
Shifting shards of rock
Under toes
Lying, drifting, twirling
Pressing against the pole
Where the red flag waves

Light, warm breeze
Crossing over the lake
Over heads
Flowing,
Catching against the pole
Where the red flag wves

Blue rolling water
Capturing the sand
Against bodies
Jumping, curling, moving
Rolling toward the pole
Where the red flag waves

Feet on sand
Standing suddenly still
Between waves
Churning, enfolding, trapping
Forgetting the pole
Where the red flag waves

No way out
Curling with the cap
In water
Reaching, pulling, touching
Missing, warning
From the red flag’s wave.

Meet the candidates: Lambton-Kent-Middlesex - James Armstrong

James Armstrong, Green
Hometown: Bothwell (45 years)
Occupation: 17 years at Sarnia Suncor refinery - currently Operations Program coordinator (management’s representative on the back shifts). Twenty-five years farming.
Political experience: Three years on the Lambton Kent District School Board Oct 2003. Ran as independent in the LKM riding with one school board platform. That, along with the rest of the Green Platform, is why I support the Greens this time. Six years on the executive of the Suncor employees bargaining association.
Community involvement: Alvinston Fair volunteer, member of the Alvinston Hackers, hockey coach.

What is the best way to stimulate the economy in your riding?
Lobby the federal government to lower the interest rate so our dollar value goes back down. The dollar where it is will eventually spell layoffs.

What is the biggest environmental issue facing your riding and what can be done to solve it?
Coal-fired generating stations: we should be investigating burning corn in them.

What is your solution for Ontario’s energy needs - nuclear power, coal, wind/solar?
Wind/solar/biomass. The Green Party and I believe in conservation of energy and renewable fuels.

Taxation: The Green party says it will cut income and corporate taxes in favour of pay-as-you-go consumption taxes. What is your opinion of that?
This will have to be phased in, today we are living in a convenience society and the packaging is contributing to the garbage problem

Do you think the minimum wage should be raised to $10 per hour?
Yes.

Do you support public funding for all faith-based schools?
NO. There should only be one school board. I am a new member of the Green party. I am frustrated with the flip-flopping of the Liberals and the Conservatives when it comes to funding of education. In 2000 the Liberals wanted to fund faith-based schools and the Conservatives would not. Now it’s a complete switch. I feel that at some point in time the public will catch on to the misleading promises that these two parties continue to campaign with, in order to get themselves elected and find alternative parties to support. I believe that if a party comes out with a campaign promise during the election campaign and it becomes a lie, the leader must resign.

Which electoral system will you be voting for: Mixed member proportional representation (MMP) or first past the post (FPTP)?
MMP.

Meet the candidates: Lambton-Kent-Middlesex - Brad Harness

Brad Harness, Reform of Ontario
Hometown: Strathroy & Ailsa Craig
Occupation: Publisher
Political experience: Ran in past municipal elections, sought Conservative nomination in riding in 2003.
Community involvement: Active volunteering with minor soccer, hockey & baseball; co-founded Ailsa Craig & District Historical Society.

What is the best way to stimulate the economy in your riding?
By increasing the population through immigration and home building to attract city residents. There is a serious shortage of labour in the eastern parts of the riding. In Wallaceburg, I am proposing a third bridge to cross the US border just north of Walpole Island.

What is the biggest environmental issue facing your riding and what can be done to solve it?
Water levels continue to drop. This is a long-term global issue affecting Canada and in this riding it affects agriculture in a major way, as well as shipping on the Great Lakes, and to a lesser extent, the commercial and recreational fishing industries. Sadly solutions are national/international in scope, geared to global warming and reducing its causes.

What is your solution for Ontario’s energy needs?
A better mix of all sources; a lesser reliance on nuclear power. Increased green power, in a decentralized generation format across Ontario, and an eventual decentralization of electrical distribution as well.

Should we favour consumption taxes over income and corporate taxes?
Taxes are too high and should be cut. Large government surpluses are not favoured by Reform (neither are deficits) and surpluses should go towards debt reduction and tax rebates to taxpayers.

Do you think the minimum wage should be raised to $10 per hour?
No. Established business knows what it needs to pay to attract the type of labour it requires. The $10/hour is an artificial limit that does little except make things exceedingly difficult for new businesses to get off the ground.

Do you support public funding for all faith-based schools?
We believe the solution to this is through a binding province-wide referendum with three choices: status quo (four public systems), two linguistic systems, or a single public system.

Which electoral system will you be voting for: MMP or first past the post?
We do not support the MMP solution, even though it plays in favour of smaller parties. MMP is a means of extending party control of democracy in Ontario. We propose alternate electoral reforms such as referenda, recall, and citizens initiatives, as well as preferential ballots. MMP would see 30 per cent of MPPs unaccountable and possibly unelectable individuals swept into the legislature through this back door. MMP would also preclude any recall system affecting these 30 per cent of our representatives.

Meet the candidates: Lambton-Kent-Middlesex - Joyce Jolliffe

Joyce Jolliffe, NDP
Hometown: Raised in rural Thamesville. Residing in Strathroy for 25 years.
Occupation: Retired from manufacturing sector.
Political experience: Ran in 2000 federal election to get my feet wet. Ran in 2003 provincial election. I also served as president of USWA Local 3313 for 14 years. I have been an advocate for Health and Safety, and Women’s Rights.
Community involvement: Served on a national and international women’s committee and actively fundraised for local women’s shelters. Help with the local VON by serving Meals on Wheels. I also sat on the labour participation committee for the United Way.

What is the best way to stimulate the economy in your riding?
In my opinion, the economy in our riding has three major components: farming, tourism and manufacturing. All of these areas are in trouble because of the high Canadian dollar and Canadians are not getting the benefit of more purchasing power from our higher dollars.
The first thing that needs to be done is to put the farming community on a level playing field with U.S. farmers. We could compete with U.S. farmers if the government would give our farming community the same deal the U.S. farmers get from their government. If that can be done, an import tax on U.S. farm products needs to be put in place to ensure U.S. farmers can not dump their products in our marketplace. The rules must be the same for everyone. The government needs to encourage more companies to set up workplaces that process farm products ready for store shelves. Our farmers should not have to rely on foreign producers to process our farm products. If elected, I would work to put our farmers on equal footing with their U.S. counterparts.

What is the biggest environmental issue facing your riding and what can be done to solve it?
Environmental issues in this riding are as wide ranging and varied as the riding is big. Residents of Coldstream are concerned about a proposed human waste dump. People in Bothwell are concerned that they will have to pay for sewage treatment when there is no problem evident. People in Wallaceburg are concerned about what chemicals they may find in the St. Clair River. The answer in many cases is the NDP proposal to extend the Right to Know legislation. We believe the people of Ontario have a right to know what is in the river and what affects a human waste dump have on groundwater and surface water. It is through the attainment of knowledge that we can protect ourselves and our children from environmental threats.

What is your solution for Ontario’s energy needs?
Nuclear power is expensive, unreliable and most importantly, environmentally risky. We need a significant boost in clean, renewable electricity such as wind, solar and water power, including a practical and ambitious plan to install 100,000 solar hot water heaters in homes by 2012.

Should we favour consumption taxes over income and corporate taxes?
The Green Party, to my knowledge, has not stated what the percentage would be! This is the wrong way to go. Lower income families and middle income families will pay more in the long run. We need to remember that you will be paying a consumption tax on everything you purchase.

Do you think the minimum wage should be raised to $10 per hour?
Yes, I do think the minimum wage should be $10 per hour and I would go as far as calling it a fair wage. Minimum wage increases have not kept up with inflation. In real terms, the minimum wage has decreased by eight per cent since 1995 and 20 per cent since 1976.

Do you support public funding for all faith-based schools?
I support a complete overhaul of the unfair Harris-McGuinty education funding formula – and annual hearings to ensure it’s working properly for all of our children.

Which electoral system will you be voting for: MMP or first past the post?
MMP.

Meet the candidates: Lambton-Kent-Middlesex - Bill McMaster

Bill McMaster, Family Coalition
Hometown: Bothwell
Occupation: Self Employed Mechanic
Political experience: Limited
Community involvement: Fire department, minor hockey in the past

What is the best way to stimulate the economy in your riding?
Cut taxes.

What is the biggest environmental issue facing your riding and what can be done to solve it?
Dumps.

What is your solution for Ontario’s energy needs?
We need wind power and to convert the coal plant.

Should we favour consumption taxes over income and corporate taxes?
I agree on cutting taxes. We already have high consumption taxes called GST and PST, more would hurt purchasing power.

Do you think the minimum wage should be raised to $10 per hour?
No.

Do you support public funding for all faith-based schools?
Provided that faith schools not be required to teach sex education as is taught in the public school system.

Which electoral system will you be voting for: MMP or first past the post?
Unsure as of yet.

Meet the candidates: Lambton-Kent-Middlesex - Monte McNaughton

Monte McNaughton, PC
Hometown: Newbury
Occupation: small businessman
Political Experience: Elected to Newbury municipal council in 1997 at age 20, serving three council terms.
Community Involvement: Has served on the board of directors at Four Counties Health Services and as chair of the Newbury Economic Development Committee. Board of directors for Beattie Haven Retirement Home, the Strathroy and District Chamber of Commerce; has served as Co-Chair of the Advocacy Committee on the Chamber of Commerce. General manager and co-owner of McNaughton Family Shopping Centre in Newbury and was awarded the 2005 North American Retailer of the Year Award.

What is the best way to stimulate the economy in your riding?
Since 2005, Ontario has lost more than 140,000 manufacturing jobs and in 2007, a RBC forecast placed Ontario dead last in Canada in economic growth. I believe Ontario can be a world leader again but we must plan for the future. John Tory’s plan to build a more prosperous Ontario will address two important areas: providing the strong business fundamentals that make investors choose our province, and investing in the cultural, educational, health care and environmental benefits that make people choose Ontario as their home. John Tory and I will eliminate Dalton McGuinty’s phony, so-called ‘health’ tax, putting money back into your pocket, and creating jobs for Ontario.

What is the biggest environmental issue facing your riding and what can be done to solve it?
Dalton McGuinty promised to shut down our coal plants – but the plants are still open, the air is still dirty, and technology that could have made a difference was delayed. Ontario’s coal-fired plants are still as dirty as ever, they still contribute to 1800 premature deaths year and they still cost our health care system billions of dollars - another broken promise. John Tory and I will clean up Ontario’s coal-powered plants, something that should have been done years ago. Where Dalton McGuinty has failed Ontarians, we will install clean air technology, such as scrubbers where they will do the most good. We will look at how we can use the latest technology to further improve our environment. For the environment, leadership matters.

What is your solution for Ontario’s energy needs?
We need clean, reliable and affordable energy in Ontario. John Tory and I have a realistic and ambitious plan. It starts with expanding the role of all renewable energy sources, including wind power, solar power, natural gas, biomass power that helps turn waste into a resource, and geothermal and ground source heat pumps that draw energy from the Earth itself. John Tory will also replace Ontario’s aging fleet of nuclear stations. Nuclear power is safe, reliable, affordable and greenhouse-gas free. Where Dalton McGuinty has dithered for four years, we will meaningfully advance the process for building new nuclear capacity right away to replace the capacity that is reaching the end of its operational life.

Should we favour consumption taxes over income and corporate taxes?
Fairness is a basic value for Ontarians. It means that government should respect Ontarians by taxing them fairly and being careful with their money – something we haven’t seen from Dalton McGuinty’s four years of waste and mismanagement. In 2004, Ontarians saw the biggest income tax hike in history when Dalton McGuinty broke his ‘no new taxes’ promise. Dalton McGuinty increased our taxes by $2.6 billion a year with an unfair, regressive tax that places a higher burden on lower-income people. That is why John Tory and I have announced major initiatives to deliver more fairness to Ontario’s hard-working families. These include eliminating Dalton McGuinty’s regressive, unfair, so-called ‘health’ tax, capping property tax assessments at 5% and being fair to rural and urban residents alike.

Do you think the minimum wage should be raised to $10 per hour?
Ontario needs a realistic minimum wage that allows Ontarians at that income level to live with dignity and that ensures that our small businesses can grow, prosper and create jobs. John Tory and I believe that a sudden increase in the minimum wage to over $10 will hurt Ontario’s small business owners and will result in job losses. John Tory and I believe that it is time to take politics out of the game of setting the minimum wage by creating a special commission that would determine what the appropriate wage level should be and how fast the wage level should increase.

Do you support public funding for all faith-based schools?
Today in Ontario, 53, 000 students are attending faith-based schools totally outside our public education system. John Tory and I believe these kids deserve an education that meets the very same standards we all embrace. Right now, there is no way to be sure of that. There is little oversight of faith-based schools, what they teach, or who is teaching it. Our plan would invite these schools and the 53,000 kids into the public education system as long as they: teach the Ontairo curriculum; hire only fully qualified Ontario teachers; and agree to ongoing accountability (student testing, inspection, etc.). We can’t go on leaving these 53,000 kids out. They need and deserve an education that is consistent with our accepted Ontario public education standards.

Which electoral system will you be voting for: MMP or first past the post?
The Ontario PC Party has no official position on the upcoming referendum. I believe there are benefits to both systems and look forward to reviewing each in the weeks ahead.

Meet the candidates: Lambton-Kent-Middlesex - Maria Van Bommel

Maria Van Bommel, Liberal
Hometown: Our farm is located just north of Strathroy.
Occupation: Currently the MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex and poultry farmer with my husband Rene; mother of 5 and grandmother of 12.
Political experience: Two-term municipal councillor in former East Williams Township and MPP from 2003 to present; former Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and currently Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
Community involvement: Founding member of Middlesex’s Women for the Support of Agriculture and the Ontario Farm Women’s Network; past director of Middlesex Federation of Agriculture and former provincial director of Ontario Federation of Agriculture; trustee on the board of governors for the Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital, becoming its chair in 2001 and then the chair of the joint board of the Middlesex Hospital Alliance.

What is the best way to stimulate the economy in your riding?
Ensuring our youth are highly educated and our workforce has the apprenticeships and skills training available to them so that they are able to market themselves.

What is the biggest environmental issue facing your riding and what can be done to solve it?
Source Water Protection. We have implemented all the recommendations from the Walkerton Inquiry and are working with our communities to ensure our drinking water is safe.

What is your solution for Ontario’s energy needs?
We need to continue to invest heavily in green energy. In Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, this has resulted in investments in both solar and anaerobic digesters (which convert animal manure to energy).

Should we favour consumption taxes over income and corporate taxes?
(No.)

Do you think the minimum wage should be raised to $10 per hour?
Yes, but as our government has recommended, this must be phased in to allow our small businesses the ability to afford and adapt to the change.

Do you support public funding for all faith-based schools?
I support further strengthening the existing publicly funded education system.

MMP or first past the post?
I have concerns about how MMP will further reduce the representation in rural Ontario and for that reason, I will be choosing to support the existing method of voting or FPTP.

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