In checking out the two gerrymandered federal electoral districts in Barrie, we find that one riding is about as badly off as the other. Each riding is about two-thirds urban and one-third rural. Every one thinks those rural voters are all die-hard Conservatives. The surprise is that they might not be. The new riding for the south half of Barrie might surprise the pundits.
This was the part of the Barrie riding that appealed to Ontario Conservative Leader Patrick Brown when he was still a do-nothing federal Conservative. The mistake was made when Brown went to Queen’s Park as a provincial Conservative, the Tories had to quickly fill the slot. They picked a Barrie fire-fighter who is a municipal councillor. That seems to be the tradition here in Barrie. Conservative councillors are expected to go on to better salaries in Ottawa or Queen’s Park. There might be a problem with that though in the Innisfil area.
A few years ago the Ontario government allowed Barrie Council to annex a large area of land that previously belonged to Innisfil. The Innisfil citizens who disliked that land grab now get to meet the Barrie councillor who voted for that land grab ever step of the way. They should have a special welcome for him.
Another problem for him is a special welcome from a community called Sandycove Acres. This area is 300 acres of affordable housing in Innisfil that is a well-established adult type community with prefabricated housing. Many of these home owners can appreciate the anguish of the residents of the Burton Avenue Trailer Park in Barrie when the Barrie councillors voted to evict them from what was effectively the last affordable housing property in Barrie. The Conservative candidate voted for that eviction leaving more than 100 residents with nowhere else to go.
This is the same Conservative candidate who gave a harangue to a seniors’ audience last week about politicians going around offering goodies to Canadians for their vote in the October 19 election. He could have been more specific as at about the same time as he was saying this in Barrie, his Leader Stephen Harper was offering single seniors in Vancouver a tax credit if they elected a Conservative government.
If this guy is so unlucky as to be elected on October 19, He is going to need supplementary oxygen he will be seated so far back in the House of Commons away from his leader.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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