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FIGHT BACK

Rebels and Reindeer

by Jeff Goodall

November 3, 2003

I will be almost glad when all this political upheaval is over and done with.

The Liberal landslide in the recent provincial election brought an abrupt end to Common Sense Revolution traitor Ernie Eves, and to his mushy-middle 'Red Tory' brand of politics. Our best bet now is that the spend-spend-spend Liberals of Dalton McGuinty's new government will cause enough grief and revulsion to allow a rejuvenated Tory party, this time led by Jim Flaherty, to win the next election. And we can only hope that this will happen without the 'glibberals' increasing the provincial debt to the levels of Bob Rae and his elitist buddies such as Jeff Rose, of whom I wrote in The Great Pretender on January 6 of this year.

At a meeting of the Oshawa Alliance riding association last week, we welcomed several Progressive Conservative members, and discussed the wonderful possibilities presented by the proposed merger of the two federal parties. Present was Alliance House Leader John Reynolds, who noted that David Orchard, who together with Joe Clark is mounting a furious opposition to the merger, is a Green Party supporter whose membership in the PCs can only be construed as a strategem to undermine and sabotage the conservative right. As the PCs need a two-thirds majority to approve the merger, people like Orchard can do immense damage to Canada's future well-being if they can ruin the only hope for a credible and united official opposition that we are likely to see for some time to come. By working for a continuation of the sleaze and corruption of the dictatorial, top-down politics of the mutated wreckage of what was once a great party, leftist imposters like Orchard are doing the Devil's work.

I suspect a tie-in between Orchard and fellow-environmentalist Maurice Strong, soon to be the power-behind-the-throne when Paul Martin becomes Prime Minister after being elected Liberal leader.

Well, at least the municipal elections will be out of the way soon. I attended an all-candidates meeting recently, at which Oshawa's five mayoralty hopefuls were there to present their platforms and themselves. The serious candidates are incumbent Nancy Diamond, Councillor John Gray, who in my opinion scores well on name recognition but is otherwise bland and 'safe', and Michael Clarke, the 'rebel candidate' of whom I wrote on October 20.

Clarke will be holding a press conference at his campaign headquarters on November 3 to discuss the massive cost over-runs and poor planning in connection with the proposed Oshawa Cancer Centre and the Oshawa General Hospital re-development project. His wife, Councillor Cathy Clarke has been taken to court twice, and the then-President of the Durham Labour Council was also sued after he spoke out on Durham-area TV station CHEX about what he called the 'dirt-bag politics' employed by Nancy Diamond in her efforts to silence the Clarkes. He is expected to be present at the conference.

After 10 years, the proposed Cancer Centre is just a four-storey-deep hole in the ground, and the construction cranes are long gone. In the meantime, rumours abound that large amounts of money for the project have been lost on the stock market and in real estate. This is causing some speculation as to why the results of a three-year investigation by the Provincial Health Minister's office, (which concluded almost a year ago), have not been released.

It's a great story, but I have a dental appointment in Toronto and will have to miss the conference. Too bad, it should be a real eye-opener!

The other candidates for mayor are well-meaning, but doomed. One person's 'qualifications' include running a Becker's store at the age of 12, plus her car has been stolen twice and she feels that "you need a rookie like me who is not corrupted by politics."

Amongst those running for the city and regional councils are Rob Tite, whose slogan "Do it right, vote for Tite!" Reminds me of a long-ago Toronto candidate and his unofficial slogan "Don't be squeamish, vote for Beamish!" Also running is a man whose list of accomplishments includes participation in the Santa Claus Parade, and whose leaflet proudly announces "I'm on the last float with the reindeer!"

Well, anybody who's reindeer-friendly can't be all bad, so I'll vote for him. I just wish they were all that easy to figure out!

Jeff Goodall worked for the Metro Treasury and City Finance Departments for 25 years, and served as a member of the CUPE Local 79 Executive Board for 14 of those years.