A News Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper
Posted August 22nd, 2022 on Niagara At Large
(A Brief Foreword to Our Good Readers – With all of the candidates for municipal office now registered (as of this past August 19th), Niagara At Large will begin to highlight those that this on-line news outlets hopes will win in municipalities across our region.
In this fall’s municipal election, let’s make sure we fill Niagara regional council seats who place people first, and who care about affordable housing and preserving our natural heritage, and health care and sustainable public planning above the greed of the creeps in the land speculation and development and paving and building industry. It is long past time we put healthy, sustainable planning for our future first.
We would rather place most of our focus on good candidates that we know will listen to people and not big business interests on issues like affordable housing, good urban planning, health care, waste management, and protecting and preserving what is left of our food-growing lands and natural heritage.
We will also focus on those candidates we feel will demonstrate the kind of honesty, openness and integrity that was so sorely lacking during the Al Caslin administration at the regional government level from 2014 through 2018. We hope to never see that brand of fascism at work at the municipal government level in Niagara again.
Having said that, we will not hesitate to red flag candidates we feel will not serve us well at all at a time when our Niagara region faces a number of challenges that need to be addressed openly and intelligently for the sake of our community, for all of us who live her now and will leave here for generations to come.
So here is the first of many news commentaries on candidates we hope will win in this fall’s municipal elections.)
A News Commentary by NAL’s Doug Draper-
Niagara Falls Regional Council candidate Kim Craitor
For the first time in at least two or three municipal election cycles, Niagara Falls has at least three candidates running for Niagara’s regional council that voters can support with a sense of pride.
That certainly wasn’t the case in 2014 when the three directly elected seats Niagara Falls has at the regional council level were filled by the likes of Bob Gale, Bart Maves and Selina Volpatti,who went on to fit in quite well with what at least some citizens across Niagara called “the cabal” that latched on like a sea lamprey on a trout during the Al Caslin administration.
Those were the days, weren’t they? At least here, at this on-line news site, we hope we never see their like again.
But here is the good news.
Niagara Falls regional council candidate Barbara Greenwood
This time out, there are at least three fine candidates running for those regional councils seats in Niagara Falls,
The three candidates are (in alphabetical order); Kim Craitor, with more than two decades of experience as a Niagara Falls city councillor and a member of the Ontario legislature for the Liberals, Barbara Greenwood, who served on regional council during this current term and served earlier on the council under the chairmanship of Gary Burroughs, and Carolynn Ioannoni, who has taken her share of hits as a fearless, outspoken member of Niagara Falls’ city council and who has been a strong supporter of saving green places like Thundering Waters Forest.
Niagara At Large will have more to say about these three regional council candidates later.
For now, just one note that, to our dismay, Bob Gale has decided to run for a regional council seat in Niagara Falls again.
Niagara Falls regional council candidate Carolynn Ioannoni
This is after , having wallpapered the Niagara Falls riding with his signs, he was crushed by Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates when he ran in that riding this spring as a provincial Conservative candidate for Doug Ford.
It is also after the daily Torstar newspapers in this region foolishly ran a tonne of crap by him this past June that he was not running for a regional council seat again because, among other things, “I found that politicians are different from me. … I don’t fit in.”
As mentioned earlier on, he, along with Maves and Volpatti, certainly fit in with the Caslin gang.
Bob Gale. Almost anyone but him. Enough with the Caslin-era B.S. and bullying.
However, he was right when he said he is not a fit with the current regional council, run so much more civilly under the chairmanship of Jim Bradley.
He should stick with his own position that he does not now fit, and Niagara Falls voters should echo that position by at long last firing him in this fall’s municipal elections.
More on these candidates and others in municipalities across Niagara in the days and weeks ahead.
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
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This fall with the upcoming election I hope the residents of Niagara Falls remember that Mr. Gale cost the taxpayers over $900,000 back in 2018 with the power hungry move to buy out Police Chief Jeff McGuire before his term was complete and replace him with someone more to his liking. https://niagaraatlarge.com/2019/01/26/four-years-of-bluster-and-b-s-from-certain-members-of-niagaras-old-police-board-and-what-have-we-got/
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Wallpaper really???better than a blank Wall ?time will tell?
Will you?c u at the Polls ,pss you have a choice,,CHOOSE WISELY,,but Vote,,if not,,shame on you,,,,
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