Guelph Now!

 

 

The leading issue in this election is education. Excellence in the public school systems provides the foundation for a strong and engaged citizenship in Ontario. 

 

In this province, we have four publicly-funded systems – English Public, English Catholis, French Public and French Catholic. All four systems bring students from diverse backgrounds together. All four systems serve students regardless of their race, ethnic origin, socio-economic status or special education needs. We are committed to supporting these four systems.

 

The McGuinty government has already made significant progress since 2003. We hired over 5,000 new elementary teachers, created smaller classes, improved test scores, increased support for students with special needs, made investments in tutoring programs, library resources, textbooks/classroom supplies and more students are graduating from high school.

 

 

Improvements aside there is still significant work that needs to be done to further strengthen education in this province. It is a Liberal priority to ensure that Ontario schools will be places where all of our children come together to learn. Our goal is to make our education system one of the very best in the world. We commit to the following:

-        invest an additional $3.1 billion annually by 2011

-        create a $150 million Every Student Fund to close the gap in supports for students in grades 4-8

-        hire more support workers and vice principals to ensure schools are clean and well-supervised

-        double the funding for our community use of schools programs

-        raise the graduation rate to 85% by 2010

 

 

 

In 2003, the Ontario Liberal Party ran on a platform that included giving Ontarians a choice through a referendum, for the first time ever, on how people are elected in Ontario. When asked to study our electoral system, a randomly selected group of 103 Ontarians came forward with the suggestion of using the MMP system. I am not advocating for either side in this debate. We called the referendum to ask voters which system they prefer, and I will follow the direction of the voters.

 

 

The concept of mandatory voting was raised during the Citizen’s Assembly’s public consultation process as a way to improve Ontario’s electoral system – it is not a direct result of MMP. The main argument for mandatory voting is that elections will reflect the will of all people, and not just those who choose to participate on the day of an election. From my perspective, citizens should not be mandated to vote but rather be motivated to become fully engaged in the election process. Participating in the selection of a governing party is the privilege and responsibility of all Ontarians.

 

 

What I can offer is four years of proven results as the provincial representative for this riding. Under my leadership, Guelph has seen 288 new long term care beds, a new CT Scanner and MRI machine, 3 new schools, more than 285 new elementary and secondary teachers and over 3700 new jobs being created at Linamar, Denso, Skyjack and the Ontario government data centre in Guelph.

 

 

 

The Ontario Liberal Party has created a plan that marks how far we’ve come. We thank Ontarians for working with us for the past four years. Our plan is founded in keeping this province moving forward in five key areas:

-        A Smart Ontario: Excellence in publicly funded schools

-        A Stronger Ontario: Creating jobs in today’s economy

-        A Healthier Ontario: Strengthening medicare for the future

-        A Greener Ontario: Leading on the environment

-        A Better Ontario for Families: Improving quality of life

 

 

 

I may be a white-haired grandmother but I can still cut a mean course on my slalom water ski!

 

 

 

Growing up I wanted to be able to do something with my math skills. I count myself lucky to have been able to have many different ‘math’ experiences from working as a computer programmer/analyst and teaching computer science at the University of Guelph, to working on the school funding formula and serving on the Management Board of Cabinet and the Province’s Public Accounts committee.

 

 

One of my favourite books is Elizabeth George’s What Came Before He Shot Her. Right now I am reading Where the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald.

 

I would like my tombstone to say that I was a loving wife and mother.

 

I enjoy solving problems for my constituents and for my province (maybe it’s the math background!)

 

 

A majority of Ontarions agree with the Green Party in saying that immediate and real actions must be taken to stem climate change. More people rank environmental issues as having the greatest importance to them than at any time in history.

 

 

While the old conventional Parties consider the environment to be simply one of many issues competing for their attention, the Green Party recognizes the inherent connections between the environment and most every other function of our lives.

 

For example, the Green Party sees the connection between environment and illness. Healthcare only starts when we are sick, yet a more effective approach is to prevent illness by removing the poisons responsible at the source. To do so we will apply an annually increased 2% carbon tax on fossil fuels to encourage reduction of use while earning $4.5billion in revenues over four years to apply to health services and business efficiency incentives. 

 

The Green Party also sees the connection between income and health. Income level impacts on personal health more than any other factor. The best and least expensive health care thus starts with poverty reduction. Actions we will take to eliminate poverty include raising the minimum wage to $10.25 by June ’08 and continue until it meets “living wage” requirements.

 

Importantly, the Green Party seeks to alter these connections not simply by spending more, but by shifting priorities with achieve sustainable results.

 

 

The Referendum that parallels this year’s election has the potential to make enormous positive change in Ontario. 

 

Already a demonstration of democracy, the randomly selected 103 member Citizens Assembly considered the existing First Past the Post system (FTPT) as well as investigating a variety of other alternative methods of voting. In the end, this representative group themselves voted more than 95% in favour of proposing that a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system be placed on the Referendum ballot.

 

The Green Party and I personally am in favour of the proposed MMP system for a variety of reasons:

1)     Every vote will count. This will help ensure that on balance the province receives the representation that it seeks.  

2)     No more strategic voting and voting against a candidate or a party. Instead you can feel good about your vote

3)     More varied voices in the legislature. Having more opinions and needing to find common ground will help make parliament more collegial and effective.

 

 

To my knowledge the current proposal includes no proposal for mandatory voting.

 

 

I am seeking to represent all of the people of Guelph, not just special interests or narrow constituencies. I am guided not by old ideas of Left or Right. Instead my guide and that of the Green Party is to work for the common good and to use simple common sense.

 

I am also the Green Party’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship critic. As the only local candidate who is part of his or her Party’s Caucus, I continue to work between elections to develop new and progressive policies. And given the attention currently provided to green issues, some policies previously championed only by the Green Party have in turn become part of recent government policy, notably: elimination of cosmetic pesticides and tax reductions on personal wind turbines. So through the Green Party, every vote together with my continued presence has impact.

 

 

Included above

 

I currently own and operate a thriving construction business that among other things, builds homes using straw bales. Harvest Homes has doubled in size for six consecutive years and this years is spawning three new divisions while our full time staff of 11 continue to develop new alternative building techniques.   This business is helping create an entirely new industry of truly alternative home building in Ontario.

 

As a child, I had wanted to be an architect. My parents who at the time were avid garage salers would then bring me home old copies of Popular Mechanics to read about futuristic housing. At that time, PM regularly featured the “underground” home as a type of housing that would save us from a future energy crunch. Consequently, I drew dozens of plans for my future dream underground home. 

 

My friends and family will probably tell you with some relief that I am out of my underground home phase, and into something more “mainstream,” like straw bale building.

 

“The Guns of Normandy” by George Blackburn is a first-person account of a young Ottawa Valley boy heading to war on a continent he had never before known. It is personal which in turn also makes it poignant as you know that every soldier he describes and every scene that he sets are part of someone else’s real stories too; and of course in war, these stories are too often without happy endings. We owe an incredible debt to our veterans and I wonder what will become of their memories as more distance is put between us and that horrific war.

 

On the flip side, I am currently beginning to read David Suzuki and Holly Dressel’s “Good News for a Change.” Positive thinking and real demonstrative examples of exciting potential for our future is the perfect reading in the midst of an election campaign.

 

He made a difference.

 

I always mean what I say.