Niagara At Large

A Commentary by Doug Draper

There is that old line – “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”

Canada’s Senate at work – nothing more than pigs ripping Canadian taxpayers off. Contact your MP and demand to get rid of it.

Allow me to alter that line to say – “If it looks like a pig, rolls in the mud like a pig and snorts like a pig, then it is probably a pig.” And that just about sums up the unelected, unaccountable barn of Liberal and Conservative appointed party hacks that make up Canada’s senate.

And the worst of the lot at the moment – the poster pig, if I might say so – is Mike Duffy, a former Canadian broadcast journalist who was a Tory hack then and a Tory hack now, who delivered up a pile of pig manure over where he lives in Canada and his Senate expense, and has now had the $90,000 in expenses he finally said he would pay back to us covered by none other than Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The Ontario Liberal government’s decision two years ago to cancel plans for gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga is enough of a “scandal” to justify the same kind of judicial inquiry that has been investigating and charging politicians in Quebec over corrupt dealings involving public contracts, said Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak during a telephone conference for the media that Niagara At Large participated in this May 16.

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

“I think we need a judicial inquiry into this gas plant scandal,” said Hudak, who leads Ontario’s official opposition party, during the teleconference.

“Perjury and destroying public documents is a criminal offense,” Hudak said before adding that “maybe the threat of having jail cell doors shut behind them” will cause the reigning Liberals in Ontario to be more forthcoming about who exactly was responsible and how much of the province’s tax money – possibly above and beyond the $585 million already disclosed – on closing these plant projects down. Continue reading →

A Submission from the Office of U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – This is arguably good news from U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins, who represents the Buffalo/Western New York area.

Another toll or any other burden imposed on cross-border travellers in the Niagara,Ontario/Western New York regions would have further hurt the economies of communities on both sides of the border.)

Rep. Higgins Wins Approval of Amendment to Block Northern Border Toll Study

Congressman Leads Effort in House of Representatives to Stop Land Border Crossing Fee

U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins from the Buffalo/Western New York region.

May 15, 2013 – Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) won approval for an amendment blocking the U. S. Department of Homeland Security’s plan to study a new land crossing fee at our borders.  Higgins introduced the amendment during today’s House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security hearing to markup H.R. 1417, the Border Security results Act of 2013

“This is a huge victory for Western New York and other communities across the Northern Border that rely on the seamless flow of people and goods between the U.S. and Canada to support our economies,” said Higgins.  “The fee would have put an unfair burden on residents who frequently travel across the border and the cost of the proposed study would have taken resources, already stretched thin, away from significantly more critical security needs.”  Continue reading →

A Submission from the not-for-profit group Wipe Out Poverty in Niagara

On Wednesday, May 22, 2013, the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network (NPRN) will be hosting the Wipe Out Poverty in Niagara Call to Action Launch at the Welland Community Wellness Complex from 8:30am – 10am. You are invited to be a part of the community action working together to wipe out poverty across Niagara.

Join us and take a closer look at the growing poverty issues in the Niagara Region and discuss the options we have as a community to cultivate change and wipe it out. There are four things we know about poverty in Niagara that guide the way we address it and the steps we take to reduce it: Poverty is a complex problem with interlocking causes and effects and solutions must also be interlocking, comprehensive, and preventative. We absolutely must address income to address poverty. Poverty is an individual experience and the whole community’s problem. Poverty comes with a price tag. These four facts help to frame the call to action that will be shared May 22. Continue reading →

A Submission from Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Government

(A brief foreword from Niagara At Large – If you are among those in this region who believes we, the people, should have access to our Great Lakes shorelines, and that they should not just be the monopoly of shoreline developers, you may wish to attned this meeting or at least offer feedback to Niagara’s regional government on this issue.)

Residents are invited to attend Region’s Lakefront Enhancement workshop

Bay Beach in the Crystal Beach area of Fort Erie, Ontario where a high-rise condo is going up that some fear will compromise public access to the beach.

NIAGARA REGION, May 15, 2013 – Media and the public are invited to attend the Lakefront Enhancement Strategy public workshop. The workshop will provide information on how the strategy is being developed and provide opportunities for the public to provide input.

Continue reading →

A Submission from the Office Of Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak

(A short foreword from Niagara At Large – You follow what is such a senseless murder of an Ancaster, Ontario man and you are left with the hollow question – Why?!!! What did they kill this husband and father for? The truck he was selling? Whatever money he had in his wallet?

One individual has already been apprehended and charged with murder. Let’s hope whoever else was involved in this is apprehended as soon as possible so that they do not have time to move on and commit this nightmare on another innocent family.

NAL is running this particular piece because many people in the Niagara area, including Tim Hudak’s riding, became involved in the efforts to search for him and hopefully find him alive until his burned body was discovered this May 13^th.)

Murdered Ancaster, Ontario resident Tim Bosma in file photo with daughter.

On the murder of Tim Bosma, Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak, May 15, 2013 

I want to express my sorrow, and revulsion, at the murder of Tim Bosma of Ancaster.

Tim’s close-knit family had many friends in my nearby riding of Niagara-West Glanbrook. Uncounted numbers of my constituents volunteered to help in the search, which now has come to a terrible conclusion. Continue reading →

A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

It has been a long, cold winter coming into a spring that has yet to warm up, and my fingers are getting a little sore from all of this tapping.

One nice Atlantic beach along the town of Chatham, on Cape Cod. File photo by Doug Draper

So dear Niagara At Large readers, it is time to take a few nice, long walks on the beach to both rest the mind and those sore fingers, and to put all of the craziness that makes up too much of the news we are bombarded with into perspective.

All of this is a way of saying that this site will slow down over the last couple of weeks of May before firing up again this coming June with what I want to be a more daring and edgier version of NAL. Continue reading →