As Councillor, Austin would welcome the opportunity of working with the
merchants of Elmvale as they develop strategies to keep the downtown a vibrant and
thriving core of the village. The same applies to the group working to keep our local high
school, which is also vital to the life of the community. As well, she would like to be
involved in promoting the village farmers’ market as it encourages citizens to support the
farmers of Springwater Township and Simcoe County by buying local produce.
Most importantly, Austin sees the need for a long-term vision for the township as
our society moves towards a new way of living: how can we meet the challenges and
opportunities of peak oil, climate change, the green economy and the new jobs it brings,
and the need for zero waste?

As a retired teacher, Austin has the time to devote her energy to the job as
Councillor. A board member of Zero Waste Simcoe, she has spent a great deal of time
over the past year explaining and promoting the ideas of zero waste to municipal councils
in Simcoe County. She has also developed political experience at the provincial and
federal levels as the NDP candidate in the past three elections in Simcoe Grey.
Austin’s three children grew up in Elmvale and have blessed her with four
grandchildren. Along with her partner, Stew Netherton, she has been an active member
of Good Vibes Coffeehouse in Mount Saint Louis and the former Don’s Coffeehouse in
Hillsdale and Elmvale.

If you wish to share your concerns and visions for Springwater and Elmvale, you
can contact Katy at katy.austin@sympatico.ca or 322-3365.

A properly functioning government should be able to balance its books without having to profit from gambling to pay its bills. Dwight Duncan’s argument that prohibition doesn’t work is a poor excuse; the government should be setting a example for the electorate, not raising money off its vices.

It’s bad enough that some of our public funds come from alcohol and cigarettes. What’s next …. government run brothels?
Katy Austin,

Simcoe Grey NDP

While salary and budget cuts are being applied to all other government departments for the sake of reducing the deficit, the budget for the Privy Council is going up by more than 20%. The Privy Council provides support and advice to the Prime Minister and his ministers on policy, legislation, parliamentary issues appointments and the machinery of government. Its budget will go from $61.1 million to $74.5 million in the next year. Why is it not being asked to show the same restraint as other government departments must ?

In the 2008 federal election, Rahim Jaffer and his Conservative colleagues campaigned on a “getting tough on crime” platform, especially on drug dealers. Did Mr. Jaffer tell us who the dealer was who sold him the cocaine he was reported to have when he was stopped for dangerous driving? Don’t the Conservatives want to get tough with that drug dealer?

How can Canadians believe the Conservatives really mean what they say when they won’t apply their policies to their own people?

Climate change is real, it is caused by human activity and it needs to be reversed if we are to continue to exist as a human race on this planet. For over 15 years this has been the position of highly respected climate scientists all over the world, including Canada’s David Suzuki and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Climate change deniers, on the other hand, are generally not climate scientists; rather than publish in peer reviews and debate at conferences, they focus their attention on the media and the general public. They receive significant funding from coal and oil companies, who would benefit from a reversal of the trend away from non-renewable energy.

We can’t allow ill-informed climate change deniers to stop us from beginning the changes we need to make now. That would be like doing nothing about smoking because a few doctors disagree that it causes lung cancer.

Ed Clark is the chief executive of Toronto-Dominion Bank and a member of the CCCE who recently stated, “We had a meeting two weeks ago, and almost every single person said raise my taxes, get this deficit done.”

But the only ones whose taxes should be raised are the ones who caused the recession in the first place: those financial and corporate big shots whose salaries and bonuses skyrocketed in the past decade at the expense of so many Canadians who lost well-paying jobs through downsizing and sending jobs offshore.

In the meantime, let’s get the government back to work developing an economy which gives average Canadians decent jobs.

 Several years ago I read a book called Ten Stupid Things People do to Mess up their Lives.  The author was a counsellor who empathized with her patients when they listed all the terrible blows life had dealt them.  But then she looked them straight in the eye and asked, “What are you going to do about it?”            

And that’s what we’re seeing today – ordinary citizens saying, “ I’m going to do something about it.”  I can’t tell you how heartened I am to witness the re-birth of participatory democracy across this country, especially here in Simcoe County.  The fight to stop Site 41 in Tiny and Springwater.  The fight against spending federal infrastructure money  on a state-of-the-art soccer field at a private school in Collingwood. ROSSCORE, the citizens’ movement in the southwest corner of the county, protesting the massive amounts of water being drained from the Oak Ridges Moraine to keep golf courses green.  The formation of Zero Waste Simcoe, whose mandate is to eliminate the need for landfill sites.            

We are using the internet, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and even old-fashioned letters to the editor to share our ideas and to organize quickly.  We are discovering that there are many other who think as we do and we are mobilizing them            

This change is exciting!  But there’s something else that needs to change as well.  We need to leave behind us the word “enemy”.  We need to leave behind us the mindset that they are always wrong and we are always right.  We need to leave behind us labels such as “right-wing bastards”, “tree huggers” and “left-wing bleeding hearts”.  We need to remember that we are all Canadians; they may not see things as we do, but they are nevertheless our sisters and brothers.            

I think it’s fabulous that here today I see colleagues from the Liberal Party, the Marxist Leninist Party, the Green Party, Labour Council, the Council of Canadians, the NDP, young people and old.  And I’m sure there are supporters of the Conservative Party as well.  It reminds me of a story I once heard about John Turner when he was the Minister of Justice under Pierre Trudeau.  Before tabling legislation in the House of Commons, he would invite for dinner the justice critics of the opposition parties to ask their opinions on his proposals.  What a fine example of using great minds from all sides for the betterment of the country!            

Unfortunately, we have a log jam in Parliament today. We need politicians and their parties to be more respectful of each other and to put the needs of the country first. Perhaps then we can attract the kind of people we need to replace Tommy Douglas, Pierre Trudeau, John Diefenbaker and their like.            

So I challenge you when this rally is over to read a newspaper with a different point of view; read a blog by someone who argues from the other side; watch the news on a different TV channel.  Engage your friends, family, neighbours and co-workers in meaningful political conversations (whether they like it or not!).  We must dialogue if we are ever going to get them to change their minds.              

Coming here today is an example of what Canadians need to be doing.  We need to be informed and involved and encourage others to do the same.  Only then will our country re-gain its democratic strength.  

Horwath has been conducting a campaign against the HST for months, both in the Legislature and in public.

Her arguments have been reasoned and passionate, unlike Hudak’s theatrical gesture of having his caucus leave the Legislature instead of remaining to debate the issue.  On the federal level, Jack Layton and his caucus have also demonstrated the same consistent and reasoned opposition to the HST.

For his part, Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals are still sitting on the fence trying to decide where they stand. 

Let’s be fair.

Give credit where credit is due. Give the NDP more press.

Austin says she is tired of Liberals and Conservatives insisting that they can only work if they have a majority government.  “ If 18% of  Canadians vote for the NDP, 6% vote for the Green Party, 8% vote for the Bloc, 35 % vote for the Conservatives and 33% vote for the Liberals, then 18% of legislation should mirror NDP policy, 6% mirror the Green Party, etc. etc.  In other words, the people are telling the parties to compromise!”

At best, says Austin, the Liberals might get a minority victory, in which case they would need the Bloc and the NDP to stay in power. At worst, she warns that a fall election could actually backfire on the Liberal Party and result in a Conservative majority.  A coalition now would be a much more reasonable and productive alternative.