Checking out Mississauga Centre electoral district for the coming provincial election, I see I have an old friend voting there. She is 97-year old former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion. Hazel claims no political affiliation but conservative Tanya Granic Allen is just not likely Hazel’s cup of tea.
Hazel is the only politician I have ever met who was more interested in what she could do for me than what I could do for her. I never voted for her, though she wanted to change that. Hazel was mayor of Streetsville when we first met and soon afterwards, she was mayor of Mississauga for the next 36 years.
Hazel’s objective in those early years was to show me a home for my family in Mississauga that we could not resist. She was not even in the real estate business. She was just the best booster for the city, it has ever had. She also thought it was terrible that I had a long commute across a clogged Highway 401 coming to work in Mississauga.
Mississauga Centre Conservative candidate Tanya Granic Allen could not be more different from Hazel. This wannabe is a social conservative. She is an extremist. She is against abortion. Her views on sex education are something from the distant past. Her support for the LGBT community seems nonexistent. She is going to have to eat some of her comments on Islamists when she finds that 16 per cent of people in the electoral district are Muslims. She is not fit to run for a member of the legislature. She is not interested in constituents. She only wants the platform for her archaic views.
Some people might think that Doug Ford deserves Granic Allen. Neither of them has any experience or training that could possibly help them to do a responsible job at Queen’s Park.
What gives Granic Allen a chance in Mississauga Centre are the changes in demographics in that part of Mississauga over the years. Only about a third of the population today are described by Statistics Canada as ‘white.’ The next largest group is described as ‘South Asian’ and the third as ‘Chinese.’
Both the conservative and liberal candidates are from outside the riding and they are both female. Premier Wynne appointed Bobbie Daid, the liberal, who is from the Bolton area, and if hard work pays off, she might have a good chance at beating Granic Allen.
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Copyright 2018 © Peter Lowry
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