Elgin/London West provincial all-candidates meeting

Went to an all-candidates-&-referendum-info meeting for Elgin-Middlesex-London and London West this evening, sponsored by "Women - Our Votes Count," among others.

The sitting MPPs for the two ridings are Steve Peters (Elgin - Labour Minister, formerly Agriculture Minister) and Chris Bentley (London West - Training, Colleges & University Minister, formerly Labour Minister).

Candidates from the PCs, NDP, Greens and Freedom Party were also there, as well as someone from the referendum education body who gave a 5-minute summary (which I'm not going to repeat here; you can get it all at yourbigdecision.ca).

Overall impressions of the candidates . . . I can't pretend to be objective or unbiased, but boy, I really don't like those PCs. The provincial ones are just as prone to revisionist history, fairy-tales and self-righteous finger-pointing as their federal cousins.

Allison Graham, for instance (PC candidate in London West) - decries poverty and homelessness and talks about her experience working with the Salvation Army. Yet it was a PC government under Mike Harris that cancelled affordable housing projects (the minute they got into office as I recall) and slashed welfare payments, putting thousands of people out on the streets because they could no longer afford housing. Ms. Graham didn't mention that part.

Ms. Graham's solution for poverty and homelessness? Entrepreneurism.

Both Ms. Graham and Bill Fehr (PC candidate in Elgin-Middlesex-London) talked a lot about clean air and water. So, ah, anybody remember what government it was that privatized water testing and degraded environmental lab services to an extent that the Walkerton scandal could happen? Oh right, it was the Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government.

Neither Conservative candidate acknowledged their party's responsibility for the messes that they're now blaming the Liberals for - in health, education, housing, poverty, the environment, downloading to municipalities. I don't think too many people in the audience were fooled though - our memories aren't that short.

It certainly doesn't say much for the PCs' devotion to principles of accountability and transparency.

OK, so I've vented about the PCs, I'll move onto the environment.

As my neighbour mentioned to me, we really wish that the provincial Liberals would borrow some of the NDP's and Green's environment policies, e.g. no more new nuclear plants, more renewables, more conservation etc. Or to put it differently, maybe the provincial Liberals could borrow some of the federal Liberals' environment policies! Dion's policies seem to me to be much more environmentally-friendly than the provincial Liberals.

Gary Brown, the London West Green candidate introduced an interesting idea. Not sure of the exact numbers but something like this - They would take the ???$40 billion??? earmarked for new nuclear power and give it to homeowners ($12,000 each) for renewable energy projects to take their homes right off the grid. I'm sure there are lots of bugs - e.g. getting enough solar panels etc. and trained technicians to actually implement this - but I like the direction. And it's great to get some innovative ideas out there for discussion. [Anybody who actually knows anything about this - feel free to set me straight on the details.]

Although I've converted to big-L Liberalism federally, I'm still partial to the provincial NDP and I was impressed with the Green candidate. But after listening to the PCs, I'm more determined than ever not to do anything that would help them win, so I'm leaning toward a strategic vote.

And I'm planning to vote in favour of MMP, hoping to see some Greens in the legislature eventually because they have a lot to offer.