Meet the candidates: Huron-Bruce - Rob Morley

Rob Morley, PC
Hometown: Whalen Corners
Occupation: Cash crop farmer, former trucking company owner. Shop supervisor at Lavis contracting in Clinton
Political experience: 18 years municipal: nine as councillor (Usborne Twp.), three as reeve (Usborne), six as mayor (South Huron). The last year I was mayor (2006), I was also the warden of Huron County.
Community involvement: Cemetery board, Zion West United church committees, OFA

What is the best way to stimulate the economy in your riding?
Stabilize the economy for agriculture. There’s a risk management plan for farmers. We need to promote tourism in our riding – that’s a big thing. Promote nuclear power… that’s a big thing in the north of our riding.

What is the biggest environmental issue facing your riding and what can be done to solve it?
Clean air and water. One of the things we need to do is clean up these coal plants for hydro production. Part of the process we’re going through is to get all the environmental hotspots cleaned up by 2015. As far as water’s concerned, we need to enforce al the recommendations that came out of the o’Connor report. There are a lot still standing from that. We need to be looking at the lake shore and see what’s going on there and the reasons for lake shore issues. That will keep us busy the first four years for sure. We’re also looking at implementing a waste management strategy. We need to figure out how we’re going to deal with all this waste and figure out diversion. There’s a lot of energy from waste technology that we might need to get into.

What is your solution for Ontario’s energy needs?
Nuclear. That’s the cleanest source we have. Unfortunately, the wind power just doesn’t produce enough and it’s not constant enough. It’s destroying our shorelines and using up a lot of agricultural land. I think we need to stop and look at wind turbines and learn more about it than we know. There’s a lot of technology out there. There are 3000 wind turbines proposed in our riding. We need to step back and take a ahrd look at what’s going on. It’s a very expensive source of power, too.

Should we favour consumption taxes over income and corporate taxes?
I’d have to know a lot more about this before I could comment on it.

Do you think the minimum wage should be raised to $10 per hour?
Minimum wage needs to be raised, there’s no question. But we need to go to industry and see whether it’s a good idea. It needs to be discussed with business because every time it’s been raised, it has hurt industry.

Do you support public funding for all faith-based schools?
If they meet the criteria. They have to become part of the public system, they have to use the curriculum and hire certified teachers. They have to go through the standardized testing programs and agree to publish the results. If they do all that, I believe it’s fair to fund them. Otherwise, no. It’s a matter of integration, not segregation. They have to join the public system. It’s about fairness.

Which electoral system will you be voting for: MMP or first past the post?
I’ll be first past the post, which is status quo. MMP calls for more MPPs, larger ridings, and appointed politicians. I don’t think that’s a good representation of what people want.

Meet the candidates: Huron-Bruce - Victoria Serda

Victoria Serda, Green
Hometown: Port Elgin, raised: Owen Sound
Occupation: Homeschooler, municipal councillor; was an organic farmer, private school teacher, personal care attendant for the disabled
Political experience: Lobbying of municipal government on pesticide by-law 2001-5; past federal Green Party candidate, 2006; policy coordinator for the Green Party of Ontario 2006; deputy leader of the Green Party of Ontario 2006-present; municipal councillor 2006-present.
Community involvement: One of six Ontario Climate Change Messengers trained by Al Gore, having given 64 presentations to date, speaking to over 11,000 this year across Ontario. Board member of the Lake Huron Learning Collaborative; membership secretary for the Saugeen Speakers Toastmaster Club; core group member of the Creating Community Network; past member of the Owen Sound Little Theater; pianist/singer, fundraisers for charities & community groups, homes for the aged, the Bruce County Museum; founder/spokesperson for Green Horizons Eco-Action www.greenhorizons.ca.

What is the best way to stimulate the economy in your riding?
Bringing post-secondary education into our communities, encouraging green-collar jobs by promoting renewable energy sources and technological advancement, implementing good agricultural policies to ensure that farmers get a living wage and have opportunities to make money on value added products produced locally.

What is the biggest environmental issue facing your riding and what can be done to solve it?
Climate change is the biggest environmental issue, and we need to encourage everyone to become more efficient by using the taxation system to shift taxes off of income onto pollution and resource use (pay for what you burn, not for what you earn).

What is your solution for Ontario’s energy needs?
Energy efficiency in homes, businesses, industry; more small water power generation, more small wind and solar, better standard offer contracts, raise the electricity prices to what the real cost is and help people of low income to become more energy efficient as well as ensuring that all people have their basic needs met.

Should we favour consumption taxes over income and corporate taxes?
I agree Al Gore supports this concept, and it works well in European countries. Tax the bads, not the goods.

Do you think the minimum wage should be raised to $10 per hour?
Yes, and even higher until all workers in Ontario have a living wage.

Do you support public funding for all faith-based schools?
No, I believe that our education system needs money so our students are receiving a good education while having the funding they need to have textbooks, as well as environmental education and other subjects like music that were dropped in the past. We need to have one school system that is secular so we can cut administration costs, keep more rural schools open, and have the money to properly fund our students.

Which electoral system will you be voting for: MMP or first past the post?
I will be voting for MMP. It will engage more people in our democracy, because they will be able to vote with their head and their heart: for their favourite local candidate and the party with which they connect.

Meet the candidates: Huron-Bruce - Dennis Valenta

Dennis Valenta, Independent
Hometown: Clinton
Occupation: Truck driver for 27 years
Political experience: Past member of Reform, Alliance, Conservative parties. Worked with Alliance riding association. Worked extensively in Perth-Middlesex by-election 3-4 years ago. This experience opened my eyes for the need to run as an independent.
Community involvement: Raised money for Juvenile Diabetes for several years. Did visitation at Huron View for about eight years. Currently developing the former Triangle Discount in Clinton into an office which, when finalized, will be used to lobby government to reform so-called “family law.”

What is the best way to stimulate the economy in your riding?
Work at eliminating the waste of our tax dollars, and then reduce personal and business tax by same amount. Building a couple of highways connecting us to other major highways to London and Toronto would also be quite helpful. Which in turn would encourage business to locate here. While we’re at it, why not set up a community college to teach youth at home?

What is the biggest environmental issue facing your riding and what can be done to solve it?
This is a farm riding that uses a lot of sprays on the land. I think the government should be looking for ways to change that. We also border Lake Huron, which is a large source of fresh water. We should prosecute polluters and make them pay for cleanup. Also work with business to ensure there is a way to deal with environmental waste safely.

What is your solution for Ontario’s energy needs?
Not so sure I have the right answer for this other than to say, as long as people expect the lights to come on at the flick of a switch, we need hydro. Common sense should tell us that if wind or solar will supply our needs then we can shut down nuclear and coal-fired plants. If not, we better keep going with nuclear and coal until a better way is developed.

Should we favour consumption taxes over income and corporate taxes?
I think it is a good start. We should at the same time be looking at eliminating all government waste of our money. Pay as you go taxation would give us a measure of choice, which is a good thing. I would think that food and necessities would not be taxed so they would remain affordable for the working poor.

Do you think the minimum wage should be raised to $10 per hour?
The concept for the increase is to help the low-income earner. I believe an increase would have the opposite effect. It would just force employers to raise the price of their goods to cover the increase. A much better way to help the low-income earner would be to reduce or eliminate the income tax they pay.

Do you support public funding for all faith-based schools?
No, I do not.

Which electoral system will you be voting for: MMP or first past the post?
I will be voting for FPTP, not because I like it, but I think the MMP system will further erode the little bit of democracy we currently enjoy. The bottom line is I don’t like either, and that’s why I am running as an independent, free of the party line, to give the majority a voice at Queen’s Park.

To MMP or not to MMP - that is the question

By Casey Lessard

How will the legislature look in a few years? It’s a question voters have to take seriously at this election call as they face a referendum on the future of the electoral process.
A move to elect members of provincial parliament (MPPs) using mixed member proportional representation, or MMP, could see more MPPs in larger ridings, with 30 per cent of our elected representatives being chosen from a list.
The pros and cons are currently being debated by voters and pundits, some of whom prefer the current system of first-past-the-post. It’s a system that frequently results in majority governments that can make decisions without consulting the opposition parties.
“The big benefits of MMP are that we get – for the first time – something approximating a general form of proportional representation in Ontario,” says Paul Nesbitt-Larking, chair of political science at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario. “Everyone benefits from this, irrespective of party stripe.”
Joseph Angolano disagrees. He’s the media director for a campaign to fight the adoption of MMP called No MMP.
“There are accountability issues that have to be looked at with this proposal,” Angolano says. “It takes 30 per cent of seats and makes them filled by a list. Voters won’t know who fills a seat – it could be the first or fifth person on the list. In a democracy, the voter should choose who represents them, not a party choosing them. It hurts the average Ontario voter who does not have a party affiliation. At best, the makeup of the list would be made up by the party members, but at worst it could be created by the party leader. The cititzens’ assembly made no provisions for how that list is created.”
Nesbitt-Larking believes those concerns will be a non-issue.
“The citizens’ assembly has said the list must be created in a transparent way,” he says. “Parties that don’t do this will suffer at the polls as a result. This will guarantee the list is a balanced mix of representatives.”
But there’s also the issue of distribution, Angolano points out.
“While we are getting more representatives, we are losing ridings and that’s a problem. That sort of representation could be a problem for rural and Northern Ontario especially.”
Nebsitt-Larking sees the other side of the issue.
“If you live in an area where the party and ideas you favour are the minority,” he says, “you’ve been out of luck for 100 years. Under the new system, you can vote for the person and the party. Some element of your choice will end up being represented at Queen’s Park.
“With MMP, women’s representation does better because the makeup of the list will be more proportional with women. Minority groups can also expect to be represented on the list as well.”
Angolano is concerned about the possibility that fringe parties – if they get enough votes – will control a minority government.
“Any party that can rustle up three per cent of the vote - which is about 150,000 votes - will get a seat,” he notes.
Nesbitt-Larking says this is a good thing, noting that most voters want their MPPs to have more power.
“Some form of cooperation will be necessary,” he says. “You avoid the propensity for executives and premiers driving too hard in extreme directions. Voters don’t want backroom people running the province.”
But that’s where Angolano predicts MMP will lead, noting that it will become impossible to beat the leader of a major party because he or she will always be at the top of the list. Since they will always get more than three per cent of the vote, they’re guaranteed a seat in the legislature.
“It will be very hard to get rid of the top four people on the list for a large party because this system allows for dual-candidacy – the candidate can run both locally and be on the list.”
There’s a lot to this issue, and you should do your own research to make up your mind. Visit http://www.yourbigdecision.ca (official government information site), http://www.nommp.ca (pro-FPTP site), and http://www.voteformmp.ca (pro-MMP site) before you vote October 10.

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