From Nepean This Week: 'But the surprise for the evening was the engaging Lori Gadzala of the Green party.'

 Read more: http://www.nepeanthisweek.com/NepeanThisWeek/article/6523 

This question was from a senior, who lives on a fixed income consisting of CPP and Old Age Security. Since his income tax bill is less than $200 a year, he is worried that Mr. Dion's carbon tax will cost him far more than any income tax reduction he may get. Does the Green Party have a better plan?

 I answered: Of course! The Green Party's vision for Canada includes a variety of measures designed to make taxation greener while at the same time help seniors, low-income Canadians and stay-at-home parents: 

The front page of the Ottawa South Weekender has the headline "Dredging up the past 'smacks of dirty politics' says Osgoode resident". According to the community paper, Joe Banks, respected author, journalist, and former President of the Osgoode Village Community Association, was bounced as moderator from the Osgoode all-candidates debate on Wednesday because Pierre Poilievere complained that Joe was partisan. Apparently Mr. Poilievere was concerned that Mr. Banks might be influenced because his wife worked for former Nepean-Carleton Liberal MP David Pratt four years ago.

Listening to Stephen Harper during the leaders' debate it seemed like he was desparately hoping that the financial credit crisis sweeping the world economy would somehow ignore Canada. He offered nothing but "steady as you go" responses to this problem. Perhaps he believes that since this is a crisis of confidence, he can exude enough confidence to calm everyone down. That isn't a plan, that's wishful thinking.

I got an email from an undecided voter. She was leaning towards the Green party, but she felt our climate change stance was wrong because carbon dioxide was not a pollutant, and she also was very concerned about the economy and whatever impact our plans might have on it. Since I spent some time on the answer I thought I'd share it with you.

Crime. This is not an issue I have heard about once at the door. People have asked me questions about the economy, health care, tax policy, waste and inefficiency in government, the environment, traffic and transportation, food safety, and Afganistan and the role of Canada's military in general. Nobody has asked me about crime. But because the Conservatives keep asking about crime, the media keep asking about crime. I did a half-hour segment with the other candidates for CBC yesterday, but the 5 minutes that aired was on crime. It seems it must be discussed. So here are the facts:

Tuesday, Sept. 30, from 6:30 pm to 9p m, Walter Baker Centre, Malvern Drive, second floor cafeteria
Hosted by the West Barrhaven Community Association

Wednesday Oct. 1, from 7 pm to 10 pm, in the basement of St. James United Church 5540 Osgoode Main Street
Hosted by the Osgoode Village Community Association

Wednesday, Oct. 8, St. Leonard's School on Long Island Drive in Manotick
Hosted by the Manotick Community Association

You are cordially invited to our volunteer appreciation party and Annual General Meeting (AGM). The outgoing EDA executive are cooking supper and celebrating you, the volunteers, who gave their time for the 2008 election campaign. We will also be electing a new executive. The outgoing EDA executive will report on the past year.

When: Sunday, October 26 2008 6pm-8:30pm
Where: Manotick United Church Basement, 5567 Manotick Main Street
Agenda:
Supper 6-7
Volunteer appreciation 7-7:30

I know that after the last provincial referendum voters are tired of talk about proportional representation and electoral reform but the current election has a vote splitting problem that reminds us why some want to reform our current “first past the post system”. The Ontario voters in their wisdom, voted against the replacement of our current system with mixed member proportional representation. I imagine that they decided it was too much of a risk since even the experts couldn't predict what the implications would be for our democracy.