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adma
Guest
I guess Sylvia Watson and Natascha Kampusch were both kidnapped by creepy Norman Bates types, in a matter of speaking
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spmarshall
Guest
I never liked Silvia, especially when she pushed to pave over the Western Beaches. Did she resign her council seat? if not, I'm not sure whether I want the Liberals to win, or for her to lose and stay on council.
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adma
Guest
Well, she's probably the most "winnable" Liberal there is, i.e. the kind that Mayor Miller can be content with, even if he doesn't vote for her. If the candidate were, say, Bill Saundercook, or Chris Korwin-Kuczynski or some flunky, the NDP would clean their clocks but good...
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scarberiankhatru
Guest
"going provincial"
Is that the Canadian version of "going postal"?
Is that the Canadian version of "going postal"?
U
unimaginative2
Guest
Mayor Miller endorsed her in her run for council.
M
Mark Dowling
Guest
I believe Gord Perks is running to replace her - give up the eye column this time Gord eh?
U
unimaginative2
Guest
You're right about that. Great news about Holyday, too. What a treasure. Last time I saw him in council, he said that not a single person in his ward supports public housing.
Toronto in Brief
Environmentalist Perks joins council race
OLIVER MOORE
Environmental activist Gord Perks has officially joined the race for a council seat in Parkdale-High Park, saying that elected politics will allow him to better serve his environmental causes.
"The real innovation in pursuing sustainability is coming from cities," he said last night. "Generally, environmental issues are driven at a municipal level."
The Ward 14 seat has been held by Sylvia Watson, who has taken leave to run in a provincial by-election on Sept. 14. Mr. Perks plans to contest the seat even if Ms. Watson loses that race and decides to seek re-election to city council.
Also this week, veteran politician Doug Holyday, the Ward 3 councillor who once served as mayor of Etobicoke, confirmed that he will run again.
Toronto in Brief
Environmentalist Perks joins council race
OLIVER MOORE
Environmental activist Gord Perks has officially joined the race for a council seat in Parkdale-High Park, saying that elected politics will allow him to better serve his environmental causes.
"The real innovation in pursuing sustainability is coming from cities," he said last night. "Generally, environmental issues are driven at a municipal level."
The Ward 14 seat has been held by Sylvia Watson, who has taken leave to run in a provincial by-election on Sept. 14. Mr. Perks plans to contest the seat even if Ms. Watson loses that race and decides to seek re-election to city council.
Also this week, veteran politician Doug Holyday, the Ward 3 councillor who once served as mayor of Etobicoke, confirmed that he will run again.
M
Mark Dowling
Guest
glad to see he gave up his eye column this time for the campaign, unlike his Davenport Fed campaign.
S
spmarshall
Guest
The race is pretty nasty, Liberals are resorting to parading the cabinet and even bringing Karla Homolka into it through statements carefully edited and taken out of context by the NDP candidate.
I hope Watson crashes and burns - I dislike her more and more.
Homolka' sermon polarizes byelection
Sep. 12, 2006. 12:42 PM
FROM CANADIAN PRESS
Premier Dalton McGuinty is refusing to distance himself from a Liberal attack on an NDP candidate in Thursday's byelection in west Toronto.
The Liberals distributed comments by NDP candidate Cheri DiNovo, a United Church minister, comparing media treatment of Karla Homolka to the persecution of Jesus Christ.
McGuinty says his staff weren’t handing out the comments from DiNovo, which the NDP say were taken out of context from a sermon she delivered last year.
Despite being asked repeatedly this morning if he wanted to distance himself from the smear tactic, McGuinty said only that the Liberals are campaigning on their record.
The Premier told reporters he had no comment on the allegations the Liberals were making against DiNovo.
The Liberals easily won the Parkdale-High Park riding in the 2003 general election, but face a serious challenge from the NDP’s DiNovo in Thursday’s vote.
Liberal candidate Sylvia Watson says she won’t apologize for telling voters about DiNovo’s comments as a minister.
New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton called on McGuinty today to put an end to the “mudslinging.â€
“He promised to restore faith in the democratic process by raising the tone of debate. Instead, the Liberal party has gone into the gutter,†charged Hampton.
“That’s not what Ontarians want."
I hope Watson crashes and burns - I dislike her more and more.
Homolka' sermon polarizes byelection
Sep. 12, 2006. 12:42 PM
FROM CANADIAN PRESS
Premier Dalton McGuinty is refusing to distance himself from a Liberal attack on an NDP candidate in Thursday's byelection in west Toronto.
The Liberals distributed comments by NDP candidate Cheri DiNovo, a United Church minister, comparing media treatment of Karla Homolka to the persecution of Jesus Christ.
McGuinty says his staff weren’t handing out the comments from DiNovo, which the NDP say were taken out of context from a sermon she delivered last year.
Despite being asked repeatedly this morning if he wanted to distance himself from the smear tactic, McGuinty said only that the Liberals are campaigning on their record.
The Premier told reporters he had no comment on the allegations the Liberals were making against DiNovo.
The Liberals easily won the Parkdale-High Park riding in the 2003 general election, but face a serious challenge from the NDP’s DiNovo in Thursday’s vote.
Liberal candidate Sylvia Watson says she won’t apologize for telling voters about DiNovo’s comments as a minister.
New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton called on McGuinty today to put an end to the “mudslinging.â€
“He promised to restore faith in the democratic process by raising the tone of debate. Instead, the Liberal party has gone into the gutter,†charged Hampton.
“That’s not what Ontarians want."
S
spmarshall
Guest
If you didn't think this could get any nastier....
Candidate's LSD use latest spark in by-election
NDP accuses Liberals of double standard
Parkdale-High Park vote is tomorrow
Sep. 13, 2006. 01:00 AM
ROB FERGUSON
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU
Liberals are being accused of having a double standard for slamming NDP candidate Cheri DiNovo over past use of LSD when she was a "street kid," after Health Minister George Smitherman's recent admission he once was addicted to illegal drugs.
The latest flashpoint in the campaign for tomorrow's by-election in Parkdale-High Park came yesterday in an Ontario Liberal Party statement urging DiNovo, now a United Church minister, to "come clean" on controversial remarks she made in the past.
Among other things, she admitted during a Vision TV program last March and again in a sermon at her church to smuggling LSD from California.
"We did it in hollowed-out Bibles," DiNovo is quoted as saying, calling the psychedelic drug "good stuff, not ... crap."
She did not deny the remarks yesterday, saying "I was a street kid. I never hid that fact."
The statement from the Liberals, who have stepped up their campaign to keep the riding in party hands after Gerard Kennedy resigned to run for the federal leadership, says "voters have a right to know how her values will affect her ability to represent this riding."
DiNovo called the statement a double standard and "a last desperate attempt" by Liberals to stave off an embarrassing defeat in the riding for candidate Sylvia Watson, a city councillor.
"When George Smitherman admits to taking drugs he's hailed as a hero by (Premier) Dalton McGuinty," said DiNovo, 56.
"I pulled myself up and got myself back to university and accomplished a successful career in business and in the ministry."
Smitherman revealed in May that he spent five years fighting — and finally beating — an addiction to illegal street stimulants used as "party drugs" on the gay scene in the early to mid 1990s after his father died. The revelation took McGuinty by surprise, but he did not hold it against his health minister.
"I hope that he will serve as an inspiration to others in Ontario and wherever else who find themselves in a grip of a drug addiction," McGuinty told reporters at the time.
Allegations of dirty tricks in the campaign shadowed the premier yesterday at an announcement in Mississauga of $109 million to further improve medical wait times in the province.
McGuinty ignored calls from NDP Leader Howard Hampton to censure Liberal activists who on Monday distributed comments from DiNovo lamenting the media frenzy around freed child killer Karla Homolka.
"The Liberal party has gone into the gutter," Hampton said in a statement, adding the remarks comparing Homolka's treatment to the persecution of Jesus Christ were taken out of context.
McGuinty said he had nothing to do with the Homolka remarks excerpted from a DiNovo sermon last October.
Liberals have campaigned feverishly in the riding in recent days, with Kennedy and leadership rival Bob Rae greeting commuters with Watson at the Keele subway station yesterday morning. On Monday, 11 cabinet ministers went on a door-knocking blitz.
"The government is in full disaster mode," said Conservative Leader John Tory, whose party is running former city councillor David Hutcheon.
Candidate's LSD use latest spark in by-election
NDP accuses Liberals of double standard
Parkdale-High Park vote is tomorrow
Sep. 13, 2006. 01:00 AM
ROB FERGUSON
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU
Liberals are being accused of having a double standard for slamming NDP candidate Cheri DiNovo over past use of LSD when she was a "street kid," after Health Minister George Smitherman's recent admission he once was addicted to illegal drugs.
The latest flashpoint in the campaign for tomorrow's by-election in Parkdale-High Park came yesterday in an Ontario Liberal Party statement urging DiNovo, now a United Church minister, to "come clean" on controversial remarks she made in the past.
Among other things, she admitted during a Vision TV program last March and again in a sermon at her church to smuggling LSD from California.
"We did it in hollowed-out Bibles," DiNovo is quoted as saying, calling the psychedelic drug "good stuff, not ... crap."
She did not deny the remarks yesterday, saying "I was a street kid. I never hid that fact."
The statement from the Liberals, who have stepped up their campaign to keep the riding in party hands after Gerard Kennedy resigned to run for the federal leadership, says "voters have a right to know how her values will affect her ability to represent this riding."
DiNovo called the statement a double standard and "a last desperate attempt" by Liberals to stave off an embarrassing defeat in the riding for candidate Sylvia Watson, a city councillor.
"When George Smitherman admits to taking drugs he's hailed as a hero by (Premier) Dalton McGuinty," said DiNovo, 56.
"I pulled myself up and got myself back to university and accomplished a successful career in business and in the ministry."
Smitherman revealed in May that he spent five years fighting — and finally beating — an addiction to illegal street stimulants used as "party drugs" on the gay scene in the early to mid 1990s after his father died. The revelation took McGuinty by surprise, but he did not hold it against his health minister.
"I hope that he will serve as an inspiration to others in Ontario and wherever else who find themselves in a grip of a drug addiction," McGuinty told reporters at the time.
Allegations of dirty tricks in the campaign shadowed the premier yesterday at an announcement in Mississauga of $109 million to further improve medical wait times in the province.
McGuinty ignored calls from NDP Leader Howard Hampton to censure Liberal activists who on Monday distributed comments from DiNovo lamenting the media frenzy around freed child killer Karla Homolka.
"The Liberal party has gone into the gutter," Hampton said in a statement, adding the remarks comparing Homolka's treatment to the persecution of Jesus Christ were taken out of context.
McGuinty said he had nothing to do with the Homolka remarks excerpted from a DiNovo sermon last October.
Liberals have campaigned feverishly in the riding in recent days, with Kennedy and leadership rival Bob Rae greeting commuters with Watson at the Keele subway station yesterday morning. On Monday, 11 cabinet ministers went on a door-knocking blitz.
"The government is in full disaster mode," said Conservative Leader John Tory, whose party is running former city councillor David Hutcheon.
S
Suicidal Gingerbread Man
Guest
This is my riding. Anyone else have to make the choice tomorrow?
Well, you have to admit, comparing Karla Homolka to Jesus Christ is a bit of a bad move. I would love to hear the context where this would be appropriate.
Ignoring this mud-slinging, I am reasonably happy with how the Liberals are doing, and would like to see my riding continue to be on the government's side of Queen's Park.
I hope Watson crashes and burns - I dislike her more and more.
Well, you have to admit, comparing Karla Homolka to Jesus Christ is a bit of a bad move. I would love to hear the context where this would be appropriate.
Ignoring this mud-slinging, I am reasonably happy with how the Liberals are doing, and would like to see my riding continue to be on the government's side of Queen's Park.
S
spmarshall
Guest
I'm north of the riding, in a very safe provincial and federal Liberal seat. I don't mind the provincial Liberals too much (though certain things like the GTTA Act do make me suspicious) but I detest Watson and the games being played here.
Ian Urquhart of the Star has an interesting take, and provides more about the actual context of the surmon in question.
By-election gets down and dirty
Sep. 13, 2006. 01:00 AM
IAN URQUHART
On the surface, it would appear that the New Democrats are well positioned to win tomorrow's provincial by-election in the west-end Toronto riding of Parkdale-High Park, formerly occupied by Gerard Kennedy.
It is, after all, a riding that has gone to the NDP before — in 1990 provincially and as recently as this year federally, with the election of Peggy Nash.
And it is a by-election, which New Democrats are very good at winning. By-elections allow them to concentrate their formidable organizing resources and to invite the electorate to lodge a cost-free protest vote.
NDP canvassers in Parkdale-High Park are coached to remind voters at the doorstep that their ballots "will not defeat the government."
Nevertheless, the Liberals want desperately to hold onto the riding, apparently at any cost.
Kennedy won Parkdale-High Park in 2003 by a whopping 42 percentage points — the sixth widest margin in the province — before quitting as education minister earlier this year to run for the federal Liberal leadership.
To replace Kennedy, the Liberals are running Sylvia Watson, a humourless one-term city councillor and former city bureaucrat. Suffice it to say that she ain't no Gerard Kennedy.
So she is getting help, plenty of it. This week, Premier Dalton McGuinty made his fourth campaign appearance in the riding — an unusual number of visits by a premier in a by-election.
As well, 11 cabinet ministers were dragooned into the campaign this week for an event in a Bloor St. W. café and subsequent canvassing.
"I'm very confident we're going to win this by-election," said an unconvincing Finance Minister Greg Sorbara.
Yesterday, Kennedy himself and former New Democratic premier Bob Rae (who lives in the riding) took time out from fighting each other in the federal Liberal leadership race to campaign for her.
It is not these high-profile interventions that are raising eyebrows at Queen's Park, however. Rather, it is the smear campaign being waged against the NDP candidate, Cheri DiNovo, a 56-year-old United Church minister.
At first, the smears — including references to her youthful indiscretions and carefully edited excerpts from her sermons — appeared only in blogs and anonymous flyers. That made it easy for the Watson campaign to deny any connection to them.
But this week the Watson campaign handed out a press release, on Liberal party letterhead, that dredged up a year-old sermon in which DiNovo allegedly said that the media treatment of child-killer Karla Homolka was "comparable to the persecution of Jesus Christ."
DiNovo said the remark was taken entirely out of context by the Liberals and suggested she might sue them over it.
But the press release almost immediately backfired by putting the Liberals, not the New Democrats, on the defensive.
At an all-candidates' meeting Monday night, even the Conservative candidate, former city councillor David Hutcheon, castigated the Liberals for trying to "assassinate the character" of their NDP opponent.
"This is not fair," Hutcheon told the 100-plus in attendance. "It is not the Canadian way ... They (the Liberals) have lost their moral compass."
(An aside: Although the Conservatives ran second in the 2003 provincial election, party insiders admit that they are long shots to win tomorrow. It would be a nice consolation prize for the Conservatives, however, if DiNovo were to knock off the Liberals.)
The negative reaction clearly threw McGuinty for a loop. Pestered by the press on the smearing of DiNovo, the best response he could muster was: "Look, it's a tough by-election for us."
As for Watson, the candidate, she tried to distance herself from the smear. "It wasn't my idea," she told me, while declining to say whose it was.
The opposition parties are pointing their fingers at Warren Kinsella, the lobbyist who ran the Liberal war room in the last provincial election.
As evidence, they noted that his blog yesterday included an attack on DiNovo (whom he referred to as "DiNutso") and a link to Waton's web site.
But Kinsella denied any involvement in the Watson campaign. "I've never met or even spoken to her (Watson)," he said in an e-mail response.
Of his shot at DiNovo, Kinsella said: "I'm entitled to an opinion about her candidacy." As for the link to the Watson web site, he explained it as an automatic function of a Google advertising program to which he subscribes.
I'm predicting that we haven't heard the last of this.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ian Urquhart's provincial affairs column appears Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. iurquha@thestar.ca.
Ian Urquhart of the Star has an interesting take, and provides more about the actual context of the surmon in question.
By-election gets down and dirty
Sep. 13, 2006. 01:00 AM
IAN URQUHART
On the surface, it would appear that the New Democrats are well positioned to win tomorrow's provincial by-election in the west-end Toronto riding of Parkdale-High Park, formerly occupied by Gerard Kennedy.
It is, after all, a riding that has gone to the NDP before — in 1990 provincially and as recently as this year federally, with the election of Peggy Nash.
And it is a by-election, which New Democrats are very good at winning. By-elections allow them to concentrate their formidable organizing resources and to invite the electorate to lodge a cost-free protest vote.
NDP canvassers in Parkdale-High Park are coached to remind voters at the doorstep that their ballots "will not defeat the government."
Nevertheless, the Liberals want desperately to hold onto the riding, apparently at any cost.
Kennedy won Parkdale-High Park in 2003 by a whopping 42 percentage points — the sixth widest margin in the province — before quitting as education minister earlier this year to run for the federal Liberal leadership.
To replace Kennedy, the Liberals are running Sylvia Watson, a humourless one-term city councillor and former city bureaucrat. Suffice it to say that she ain't no Gerard Kennedy.
So she is getting help, plenty of it. This week, Premier Dalton McGuinty made his fourth campaign appearance in the riding — an unusual number of visits by a premier in a by-election.
As well, 11 cabinet ministers were dragooned into the campaign this week for an event in a Bloor St. W. café and subsequent canvassing.
"I'm very confident we're going to win this by-election," said an unconvincing Finance Minister Greg Sorbara.
Yesterday, Kennedy himself and former New Democratic premier Bob Rae (who lives in the riding) took time out from fighting each other in the federal Liberal leadership race to campaign for her.
It is not these high-profile interventions that are raising eyebrows at Queen's Park, however. Rather, it is the smear campaign being waged against the NDP candidate, Cheri DiNovo, a 56-year-old United Church minister.
At first, the smears — including references to her youthful indiscretions and carefully edited excerpts from her sermons — appeared only in blogs and anonymous flyers. That made it easy for the Watson campaign to deny any connection to them.
But this week the Watson campaign handed out a press release, on Liberal party letterhead, that dredged up a year-old sermon in which DiNovo allegedly said that the media treatment of child-killer Karla Homolka was "comparable to the persecution of Jesus Christ."
DiNovo said the remark was taken entirely out of context by the Liberals and suggested she might sue them over it.
But the press release almost immediately backfired by putting the Liberals, not the New Democrats, on the defensive.
At an all-candidates' meeting Monday night, even the Conservative candidate, former city councillor David Hutcheon, castigated the Liberals for trying to "assassinate the character" of their NDP opponent.
"This is not fair," Hutcheon told the 100-plus in attendance. "It is not the Canadian way ... They (the Liberals) have lost their moral compass."
(An aside: Although the Conservatives ran second in the 2003 provincial election, party insiders admit that they are long shots to win tomorrow. It would be a nice consolation prize for the Conservatives, however, if DiNovo were to knock off the Liberals.)
The negative reaction clearly threw McGuinty for a loop. Pestered by the press on the smearing of DiNovo, the best response he could muster was: "Look, it's a tough by-election for us."
As for Watson, the candidate, she tried to distance herself from the smear. "It wasn't my idea," she told me, while declining to say whose it was.
The opposition parties are pointing their fingers at Warren Kinsella, the lobbyist who ran the Liberal war room in the last provincial election.
As evidence, they noted that his blog yesterday included an attack on DiNovo (whom he referred to as "DiNutso") and a link to Waton's web site.
But Kinsella denied any involvement in the Watson campaign. "I've never met or even spoken to her (Watson)," he said in an e-mail response.
Of his shot at DiNovo, Kinsella said: "I'm entitled to an opinion about her candidacy." As for the link to the Watson web site, he explained it as an automatic function of a Google advertising program to which he subscribes.
I'm predicting that we haven't heard the last of this.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ian Urquhart's provincial affairs column appears Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. iurquha@thestar.ca.
C
cdl42
Guest
Here's the sermon excerpt from which the Karla quotes were taken. Emphasis was not added by me, but I'll include it anyway (as those lines are what the controversy seems to be based around). I'll report, you decide...
-----------
"Now I know it sells papers but every day we pick up the Star or the National Post or the Globe and we see the picture of Karla Homolka on the front cover. I can only imagine what this does to the families of the victims. I know what it does to me. Here's what it does to me, trying to follow Christ. What it does is detract from the news on the 8th page in much smaller type and smaller headlines that says things like '800 People Have Died Since the Iraqi Elections'. It detracts from headlines on page six that talks about what's happening in Cuba at the American detention camp in all of our names. It detracts from the news on the fourth page about the horrors of what we have done to our Islamic brothers and sisters. That's what it does and it allows us to create a scapegoat, remember Jesus was a scapegoat, and just pour all our hatred and frustration on this one woman. How sick is that? What it prevents us from doing mostly is to look in the mirror at our ownsinfulness/separateness from God and do something about that.
"I did a wedding a couple of weeks back and one of the musicians sat down and told me that a sex offender had just been released from prison and was going to take up residence on her street and she was saying, "I've got a twelve year old daughter." And I said to her, "You know that sex offender is probably the least likely person in all of Canada to do anything to your daughter." Karla is the least likely person in all of the world right about now, to do anything to anyone. She going to be dogged by paparazzi everywhere she goes. She's going to be hunted like a wounded animal. It's going to be sick. She's not going to be going anywhere and doin' nothin'.
"Who is, meanwhile? The people most likely to abuse children are in the children's own house, relatives, stepfathers, people they know. The second most likely people to abuse children or to hurt someone are people inpositions of respect, that's right, doctors, priests, ministers, lawyers, people that families turn to and trust. Isn't it weird that we focus on this one woman's image and we forget all about that?"
-----------
"Now I know it sells papers but every day we pick up the Star or the National Post or the Globe and we see the picture of Karla Homolka on the front cover. I can only imagine what this does to the families of the victims. I know what it does to me. Here's what it does to me, trying to follow Christ. What it does is detract from the news on the 8th page in much smaller type and smaller headlines that says things like '800 People Have Died Since the Iraqi Elections'. It detracts from headlines on page six that talks about what's happening in Cuba at the American detention camp in all of our names. It detracts from the news on the fourth page about the horrors of what we have done to our Islamic brothers and sisters. That's what it does and it allows us to create a scapegoat, remember Jesus was a scapegoat, and just pour all our hatred and frustration on this one woman. How sick is that? What it prevents us from doing mostly is to look in the mirror at our ownsinfulness/separateness from God and do something about that.
"I did a wedding a couple of weeks back and one of the musicians sat down and told me that a sex offender had just been released from prison and was going to take up residence on her street and she was saying, "I've got a twelve year old daughter." And I said to her, "You know that sex offender is probably the least likely person in all of Canada to do anything to your daughter." Karla is the least likely person in all of the world right about now, to do anything to anyone. She going to be dogged by paparazzi everywhere she goes. She's going to be hunted like a wounded animal. It's going to be sick. She's not going to be going anywhere and doin' nothin'.
"Who is, meanwhile? The people most likely to abuse children are in the children's own house, relatives, stepfathers, people they know. The second most likely people to abuse children or to hurt someone are people inpositions of respect, that's right, doctors, priests, ministers, lawyers, people that families turn to and trust. Isn't it weird that we focus on this one woman's image and we forget all about that?"
A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
I honestly hope this episode sinks dear Sylvie's political aspirations for now.
AoD
AoD
A
adma
Guest
Given how I can see a little bit of a Sissy Spacek quality in Cheri's election-sign visage, it's a wonder that no dumb Liberal blogger's taken to using "Carrie" slurs yet...