Just read in todays Sun Times on pg A3 by Phil McNichol that the South Bruce Peninsula council is going to look at getting rid of the ward system or at least change the ward boundaries. Pardon me if I'm wrong but didn't we have a referendum about this at the last election and we,the people, voted to keep the ward system. So much for the referendum. What's more interesting is who is spearheading the recommendation--Councillors Kerr and Harron. Can you guess, if it comes to a vote, which other 3 councillors will be voting for this ?? Why could these 2 less than effective individuals want this ?? So far neither one of them has done anything to move us ahead but plenty to mire us down. Kerr campaigned that he would get to the bottom of everything. So far, what has he got to the bottom of other than his drink glass. If Councillor Harron didn't have the agenda for each council meeting so she could color in all the alphabetic letters containing circles, she would accomplish nil also.

Another suggestion by these 2, is that we elect a deputy mayor as well as a mayor. Leads one to wonder which one of the 2 would be the mayor and the other his or her deputy.What about the cost?? From day 1, Kerr has been campaigning for the next election and appearing to try and make the present mayor look bad in the process. Is that why he was elected??? Is the shadow council of losers behind this too?? It's about time people who care about this town start letting those who are holding the visionaries on council back , to call these blockaders and tell them to get on with the job of moving us ahead or resign. Why do the silent majority stay so silent and let the stumbling blocks continue to get in the way of progress??

in today's sun times, Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound chief returning officer Linda Van Aalst says:

Van Aalst confirmed computers caused enormous inconvenience for both election workers and a large percentage of especially rural voters. The computer program that created the voter cards and lists electronically could not seem to accept many rural addresses, often sending voters to polling stations often far from their homes.

Even after local Elections Ontario workers rewrote addresses to remove lot and concession numbers and used new county fire numbers and updated municipalities since amalgamation eight years ago, the computer in many cases added wrong addresses, Van Aalst said.

Same old, same old, the political map of Ontario not only didn't change, if anything, the colours got re-inked a little darker, just for extra measure ...

The Liberals under Dalton McGuinty won the election with a majority government. ... In the same election, there was a provincial referendum on whether to change from first-past-the-post to mixed member proportional representation ... This measure failed by a wide margin.
[ Ontario general election, 2007 - Wikipedia ]

And so it goes. Locally, The Globe reports Bill Murdoch miles ahead at 46.7%, with Shane Jolley thirteen points behind him, and the Liberal guy another nine points behind that, with four-fifths of the slack to the NDP. No real surprises there.

Could Bruce-Grey be teetering on the edge of Green? Another on-the-spot report from theOwen, this time a thoughtful podcast of the all-candidates meeting for those who may have missed it, but also a novel indicator of public support (among those present) in a graphic illustration out of the Applause-o-meter:

There was also a few remarks regarding the audience support for candidates as indicated by the applause following each final remark. Here is a screenshot of the recorded audio file for comparison...

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Elections Canada intends to allow Muslim women to wear their religious headgear during the voting registration process and in the voting booth. Again, in order to appease a minority group and show stupid political correctness, long standing Canadian traditions are being turned upside down.
I wonder whether or not I would be challenged by Canada Election officials, if I were to try to exercise my voting rights at the next Provincial elections wearing a"ZORRO" mask,hat and cape.

you have probably read about the recent greenpeace protest over delivery of coal to the nanticoke generating station. three arrested, scores of police in boats and helicopters, etc. too bad the protesters weren't natives, there would probably be an entirely different response. two systems of justice is not right.
i have no problem with peaceful protest, but blocking rail lines, highways, and ships is not peaceful in my opinion as they almost always escalate to violence of some sort. my son read the article in the sun times and laughed at the name greenpeace ... he said it should be called green-terrorism.
kltpzyxm

I lay this one squarely on the shoulders of the losers in the last election for mayor and on the get the Mayor at any cost faction of Council that cooperates with them.

There is some pressure to keep all discussion of the inquiry into Mayor Gilberts election expenses in closed session to keep the details from the public. The total cost to the taxpayers`for the inquiry could end up at $30,000. It is very unlikely that any changes will be made that make a difference to the material outcome of the original statement. The inquiry has yet to start.

What is the purpose of this exercise? It adds no value to the community. It wastes time and resources. No good will come of this.

August 10th last, I tried to encourage folks into offering some of their thoughts on MPP. Dan O. sofar is the only member who took the time to post his comments on this topic.
It would appear that the October 10th referendum is not considered important enough to many area residents.
Looking at the sky, Sauble washooms and dead gulls seam to be of more interest then a proposed major change in the way we vote for our representaives.
The Citizen's Assembly on Electoral reform might just prefer that many people do not consider this to be a real political issue.

Gary provided interesting information on a number of voting systems. Since the MMP question apparently will be part of the October 2007 Provicial elections, I was wondering how people in the hinterland feel about the proposed change.
I think such a change would be an interesting experience. We might even have to learn the art of governing with a " coalition" of political parties.