Some lasting impressions
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, stumping for Vaughan MP Julian Fantino, dropped in on the Joe and Mary Padone household in Woodbridge on Thursday.
That’s what this election campaign was missing: a good media scrum.
The campaign cycle leading up to the May 2 federal election has only a little better than three weeks to go, but the faceoff between Conservative incumbent Julian Fantino and Liberal challenger Mario Ferri in Vaughan hasn’t seen a lot of firepower. The promised explosion from Tony Genco’s breathtaking defection to Fantino’s camp hasn’t really panned out, the NDP has been silent and the showing by the Greens (they with the multi-purpose Norbert signs) has been as yet a circus. The leading candidates have both had occasion to publicly state their positions, but there hadn’t been any events.
Enter Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who knows how to stage an event.
When the Conservative re-election buses rolled into town on Thursday, the whole affair — from Fantino’s re-election effort in Vaughan to Harper’s national agenda — took on an air of importance, and the election seemed to be about something after all.
I was part of the media scrum that descended with the Harper-Fantino entourage on the Padone family residence on Embassy Drive in Woodbridge. While a few brief sentences can do no more to describe the scope of the event than they could to capture the entirety of the Conservative platform as outlined by Harper and Fantino in the Padones’ backyard, I do believe two impressions I came away with pretty well put into perspective the essence of this election.
First, the entire event was a picture of efficiency. For all the negative press Harper gets for his tendency to control his environment, I was impressed with the choreography (not to mention the courtesy and good humour of his people) in moving a lot of people and equipment in and out of the staging area inside a very tight window of opportunity. And watching the prime minister, himself well-choreographed and prepared, I was struck by this thought: Harper’s brought his A game. He’s in it to win it!
The other thing of note was a remark by Fantino. Yes, he mentioned “coalition” probably as many times as Harper did in referring to the opposition parties — without ever feeling moved to define the transgression — but a remark he made about the spirit with which members of the Bloc Québécois occupy the House of Commons was sobering: Bloc members won’t even come into the House in the morning, he said, to sing the national anthem with the rest of Canada’s MPs; they wait until the anthem is done, and then file in.
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff will be in Vaughan to stump with Ferri on Saturday. I haven’t had occasion to be part of an Ignatieff event so far in this election cycle, so I have not yet formed an opinion. I will say this: Harper is going to be a tough act to follow.
For his own sake, if not for yours, Ferri needs to have Ignatieff draw a do-not-cross line between himself and the Bloc when he is here on Saturday. Coalitions by definition are not contrary to the spirit of parliamentary democracy, so the “coalition” idea the Conservatives use as a wrecking ball may not be fairly used against either Ferri or Ignatieff, for all I know. But coalitions forged such that a party which makes a point of not pledging allegiance to the country gets a hand in its governance should be a concept that disgusts any potential prime minister.
— Dan Hoddinott
Signs of disarray
Claudia Rodriguez-Larrain, and not Norbert Koehl, is believed to be running for the Green Party in Vaughan.
Leave it to the Greens to mess with form. People like me, who have an inexplicable soft spot for the Green Party in spite of their best efforts to dissuade us, are tempted to spin their constant state of disarray as "thinking outside the box". The evidence suggests, however, that the frustrated fan base wants victory more than does the party itself.
Norbert Koehl’s election signs at the corner of Jane and Rutherford were on the ground this morning. I don’t know if it was the work of an angry god, or merely someone in Claudia Rodriguez-Larrain’s camp thinking better of posting signs that promote someone else as the party candidate in a riding in which she is to run.
I suspect the latter, even for a brand that appears to value party over personality, and percentages gained over actual seats, election to election. I only suspect these things; I don’t really know, because making contact is easier said than done.
On Monday I received an email response from Rachael Lave, who identifed herself as Rodriguez-Larrain’s campaign assistant. She told me that Rodriguez-Larrain is indeed running, but did not mention the signs proclaiming Koehl as the Green Party candidate. The email went to my personal account; ignored was a request to be contacted at Vaughan Today. Furnished were a phone number (unattended and without voice mail when I called), a Twitter handle and a website URL (which won’t be active until Friday). And in case anyone's counting, the link to the Green Party Association of Vaughan website was also a dud.
Just to be clear, the soft spot for the Green Party doesn’t extend all the way to love, so I stop short of allowing myself to indulge in irrational hope. But even if it is just once, I’d like to see the party demonstrate that it takes the election process as seriously as do its faithful followers.
— Dan Hoddinott
Getting ready for prime time
Finding information as basic as just who is running, and where, in the May 2 federal election has been surprisingly difficult, considering we’re living in an era of supposed instant information. I’m sure we’ve been spoiled by sure hits all the time in other aspects of information hunting, so when we encounter disarray in data-dishing for a very public event, such as an election, the shortcomings may seem more glaring than they really are.
Take the riding of Vaughan as an example. We told you, pretty much as it happened, that Mario Ferri, running for the Liberal party, would be challenging Conservative incumbent Julian Fantino. But that was a week ago. In an election cycle that will last scarcely a month and with the rapid-fire action characteristic of Vaughan political races, that feels like a lifetime. So it does come as a surprise to see the Elections Canada website still listing Fantino as the only registered candidate in Vaughan.
There is no controversy there; Ferri has been registered. Elections Canada simply hasn’t updated the site. In fact, a final list of candidates won’t be posted until Wednesday, April 13.
Now, if my eyes don’t deceive me, a third player has appeared on the scene in Vaughan: Green Party signs promoting candidate Norbert Koehl began popping up on Maple street corners on Sunday. However, no supporting evidence could be found on the Internet; to the contrary, the party’s website lists Claudia Rodriguez-Larrain as the candidate in Vaughan, and Koehl in Thornhill — both realities of previous elections, not this one. And an email attempt at making contact with the party (Gmail…ugh!) also failed to yield results.
Is it possible that the Internet is simply not ready to take over as the primary platform for communicating major events? Eek! Or is this relative chaos more to do with the usual suspects not being able to get themselves ready for prime time? While I would wish to make the case that content providers sometimes need reminding there is an audience ready, waiting and expectant, I am sobered by the tepid response I’ve seen to online polls, both here and on other local sites.
Ready or not, the Internet is going to be the primary platform for election coverage in Vaughan Today — here and on the main site. This abrupt election call has been a rude imposition on our magazine’s publishing schedule, so we consider ourselves sort of ’Net-rescued: a website, a blog and a flock of Twitter birds will see us through.
We are ready. Were we not is when you would have noticed. And that is why more than our curiosity has been piqued when we find the organizers and some of the players in this national drama a little out of step.
— Dan Hoddinott
Suddenly, the politics becomes local
Tony Genco, who ran against Julian Fantino in November, is now supporting his former rival.
Say what you want, politics in Vaughan is never dull.
Just in case you were expecting the May 2 federal election to be all about a power play unfolding in Ottawa and having no play worth mentioning at the local level, Tony Genco enters the picture on Wednesday — and makes spinning heads everywhere stop on the action about to develop in the riding of Vaughan.
Genco is the Liberal candidate Conservative Julian Fantino defeated in the Nov. 29 byelection to end a 22-year Liberal stronghold in Vaughan. On Wednesday, Genco went public to announce his support for — get this — Fantino, and not Mario Ferri, who is carrying the Liberal banner this time. He used what he termed an Open Letter to the People of the City of Vaughan to transmit both his endorsement of his former rival and his disillusionment with the Liberal party.
In the letter, Genco praised Fantino’s work as an MP and expressed faith in the Conservative party’s ability to form a majority government, while lamenting what he considers the disappearance of the values that drew him to the Liberal party.
“The Liberal Party that I joined over 20 years ago in university has disappeared,” he wrote. “The ideas that I tried to represent of balance, diversity and nation building no longer exist in this version of the Liberal Party.”
Of course, the cynics were quick to suggest opportunism was behind Genco’s big switch (as they are wont to do), and Liberal party insiders muttered about being disappointed, though they stopped short of smearing him. And this being Vaughan, it didn’t take long for someone to wonder aloud whether his newfound love for Fantino was more a matter of the enemy of his enemy being, by default, his friend. For me, there is no evidence one way or the other yet, so I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt for now and presume sincerity.
It has to come as a blow to Ferri to see his party undressed like this before his campaign can even get off the ground. I wouldn’t be too worried about him, though. He’s a big boy, seasoned in municipal politics, and now probably going to draw a lot of attention he might not otherwise have got.
Who knows what this all might mean? The fortunes of many a hopeful candidate have turned on less. If this tremblor through the self-satisfied ranks of tradition-based Liberalism in Vaughan has delivered the jolt I expect it has, we may see significant self-examination of the habit of rote voting along party lines.
By the way, am I alone in feeling Fantino’s aloof comments about Genco’s public declaration of support were off-putting? It’s not like I spend my time waiting for an invitation from Fantino to a baby-kissing photo op or anything, but Genco having stuck his neck out for him like he has done was a courageous move and deserved recognition, not an arrogant remark that could be construed as suggesting Genco has, instead, merely come to his senses.
— DH
If I only had a sign
Mario Ferri, left, and Julian Fantino
Call me the first to get with the program. You might even call me a seer, or at least someone attuned to the times — just before they arrive. (Just don’t robo-call me.)
I went out last night looking for some signs that might indicate the onset of an election campaign somewhere in the Vaughan area.
I found them. In my own garage.
They are lawn signs. Two of them: one decked out in Conservative blue, the other in Liberal red. The blue one, as you might expect, proclaims Julian Fantino as Vaughan’s best voice in Ottawa, while the red one calls for a vote for Mario Ferri.
A little early for lawn signs, you say? Actually, they’re left over from earlier campaigns: the Fantino sign from the Nov. 29 byelection in which he defeated Tony Genco, and the Ferri sign from the Oct. 25 municipal election in which he ran unsuccessfully for regional council.
I remember how I came to have those election signs on my lawn. You say yes or no to those requests for all the timeless/momentary, philosophical/impulsive and traditional/temporal reasons you vote the way you do. I just can’t remember now the reasons for not giving them back at the end of the respective campaigns.
I was a free agent back then, so considered myself free to participate or otherwise indulge in a political event however I saw fit. That changed when I came onboard at Vaughan Today. Now, instead of getting to enjoy having the corner on repurposed election signs, I have to wait for the neighbours to catch up, and then take pictures of theirs.
By the way, in case it matters still, I have two slightly used election signs ready for pickup.
— DH
And they’re off!
The federal election that few seem to have an appetite for is officially under way, and the NDP, in Vaughan, is the only one of the major parties in Vaughan Today's coverage area not to have a candidate out of the gate.
While Mario Ferri was ready before the writ was dropped on Saturday to carry the Liberal banner in a quest to unseat Conservative Julian Fantino in Vaughan, the NDP riding association said on Monday it is hopeful that a candidate will be named within the next two weeks.
All three top parties in Thornhill were ready to start campaigning when the word was given. Peter Kent, the incumbent Conservative candidate, will face competition from Karen Mock (Liberal) and Simon Strelchik (NDP).
More later...
— DH
M Carnovale again
Maria Carnovale
By Joshua Freeman
Maria Carnovale is the new Area 3 trustee for the York Catholic District School Board.
“I’m thrilled. I’m very honoured my community has given me this vote of confidence,” Carnovale said.
She beat out 13 others Monday to win the spot previously held by her husband, Micheal Carnovale. A special by-election was called after the five-term trustee lost a battle with cancer in September.
“It’s hard to fill Micheal’s shoes, because he really was a giant in the community,” Carnovale said.
However she said the idea of running was not new to her.
“We had talked about me running years ago,” she said. “I’ve always had a passion for politics. I’ve always listened and watched Micheal at work. I’ve always shared that passion with him.”
Carnovale said after her husband passed away, supporters convinced her to run.
“I was approached by so many people saying ‘you’ve got to run,’” she said.
Unsure she’d be able to grieve and run a campaign at the same time, Carnovale was hesitant at first.
“But I think it was the best thing for me. I just felt this closeness to Micheal campaigning and continuing his work. It’s a challenge I had to take up, encouraged by all of our supporters, community and the church.”
With 32 per cent of the vote, she took far less than her husband’s 84 per cent vote share in the 2006 election. However with so many candidates vying for the open job, the vote was spread thin. The nearest competition, Margherita Thurlow, finished with 20.05 per cent.
Overall voter turnout was also low, with just 10.7 per cent, or 2,101 eligible voters showing up at the polls.
However Carnovale said it was difficult to expect otherwise given the election was the third in as many months for Area 3 voters, as well as the fact the campaign overlapped with the holiday season. She also said it was difficult to meet people on their doorsteps in the cold of winter.
“A lot of people did have election fatigue,” Carnovale said. “And nobody wants to talk to you before Christmas. They’re too busy shopping!”
Moving forward Carnovale said she’ll work to keep open lines of communication between parents and school officials.
New MP Fantino happy to be part of Vaughan’s political changes
PM Stephen Harper welcomes Julian Fantino to parliament
There’s change on Vaughan’s political horizon, and newly elected Member of Parliament Julian Fantino says he’s proud to be part of it.
With the new Conservative MP sworn in last month, and a new mayor and four new councillors at city hall, it seems Vaughan voters want change, Fantino says.
“The voters are taking notice that so much of the negativity that has gone on and goes on in politics needs to be re-focused on doing what we are supposed to do: provide the best quality service and support for the people we represent,” he said. “If that’s the change that’s being reflected, I’m really glad to be on board.”
POLL: What’s your favourite outcome of the 2010 Vaughan municipal election?
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