Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Brief Comment by Niagara At Large publisher and environment writer Doug Draper

As much as some, if not many Canadians may be upset with this June 17^th’s decision by the Harper government to approve Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline, the god news is this.

Stephen Harper throws the tar equivalent of a spit ball at our present and our children’s future.

It could very well be the last straw for a Harper government that has already shown more than its share of contempt for everyone from young to seniors across this country. It could be the last straw for a government that has run rough shod over this country’s Native peoples and for our democracy by proroguing shutdowns of parliament whenever it has not wanted to stand up to questions from duly elected members of Canada’s opposition.

And most certainly in this case, it will be the last straw for a Harper government of climate change deniers that will do anything to aid and abet the most filthy tar sands land stripping for petroleum crud than sensibly make a transition to less environmentally damaging and more renewable sources of energy for the 21^st century. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

While Ontario Liberal Party supporters reveled in this June 12ths majority government win for their party, and however number of other voters just sounded relief that the Tim Hudak Tories did not win, Hudak supporters are now living through their own ‘Heart of Darkness’ version of “the horror.” 

In the last half day since Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals swept to victory with a surprising majority rather than the minority seats they hoped they might win to form a government, I’ve had a number of Hudak supporters email me with comments to the effect that this will send Ontario down the drain hole when it comes to over-spending, deficits and so on. One commenter that had the courage to share their real first and last name with Niagara At Large (as per our site’s comment policy) described Wynne’s big win as a “recurring nightmare.

Possibly no front page in an Ontario newspaper depicted the upset and anger of Hudak supporters and Liberal opponents more than the following one w are posting below. Check it out and share your views by following the link below it.

Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

At a time when many of us here in Canada have been getting bummed out over senate scandals in Ottawa, gas-plant scandals at Queen’s Park, a provincial election in Ontario that has to be most un-inspiring in 50 years, here is a bit of news we ought to feel good about.

Ted Cruz, the Tea Party, gun nut senator for Texas, blows away Canada.

Ted Cruz – a Texas Tea Party Senator who, among other things, has joined the likes of other American extremist wackjobs like Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump and an enormous number of others of their ilk, in questioning whether U.S. President Barack Obama was born in the U.S. or Kenya (code for we don’t want a ‘nigger’ in our White House) – has officially revoked his Canadian citizenship.

This is news we Canadians should greet as great. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Despite all of the cutting and gutting corporate boards have done to the resources newsrooms need to properly get to the bottom of the news without fear or favour, fearless investigate reporting is not completely dead in Canada.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford with Ontario Tory leader Tim Hudak at ‘Ford Fest’ barbecue a few years ago. Hudak has more recently distanced himself. What fairweather friends.

On that score, two thumbs up to The Toronto Star for winning one of Canada’s most prestigious news awards – the 2013 Mitchener Award – this June 11^th for its reporting over 2013 on the Toronto mayor Rob Ford train wreck. 

It took a great deal of courage for any newspaper in Canada’s largest city to follow up tips it received on the nefarious activities of the mayor, knowing that there would be retributions, including cutting the paper off from the usual p.r. info. Coming out of the mayor’s office, and all of the accusations of biased reporting, etc. the paper knew it would endure.

In an age when newspapers are unfortunately on their hands and knees for readers and advertising, pursuing any story that could cost a loss of readers and advertisers is heroic.

In awarding The Toronto Star its top prize, the Michener Awards Foundation judges noted that the newspaper revealed the “crack cocaine video… despite intimation and an organized campaign trying to undermine the credibility of the reporting.

The judges said the paper went on to uncover behaviours that “led the council of Canada’s largest city to remove all powers from the mayor, leaving him as a figurehead.”

So once again, congratulations to The Toronto Star and a thumb’s up, while I am at it, to The Globe and Mail for being generous enough to print a story on The Star’s win in the front section of its paper this June 12^th. It has hardly ever been the case that newspapers in Ontario or Canada acknowledge awards other papers win.

(NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)

An Election Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

We’ve all heard the old line that if you don’t vote; you have no right to complain.

Tim Hudak at one of Ontario Tory’s leadership conventions as his old boss Mike Harris leads him on.

There is certainly some truth to that line with at least one caveat I would put you who I hope will go out and vote and vote in this June 12^th’s Ontario election, and the caveat is this. If you vote for Tim Hudak’s Tories and they form the next provincial government, you have no right to complain.

And you will complain, if not in the first one or two months following the swearing in of a Hudak government, then sometime with the next one or two years as you begin to feel the impact of the public services you want and need eroded, and you begin facing escalating user fees and municipal taxes to make up for a loss of revenue due to ill-advised tax cuts Hudak is promising at the provincial level.

This is a certainty because anyone who lived through the Mike Harris/Tim Hudak Tory government years from June 1995 to April, 2002 (when Harris resigned from elected politics and Ernie Eves took over as premier for the next two years), should remember that practically no service or individual or group in the province was not negatively impacted by a Harris/Hudak slash-and-burn program that rolled out of that government’s so-called ‘Common Sense’ manifesto. Continue reading →

A  Final Election Brief from Niagara At Large

To avoid the nigmare of a Tim Hudak Tea Party government in Ontario vote strategically in your riding this June 12th.

In Niagara, Ontario, that means voting for NDP MPPs Cindy Forster and Wayne Gates in the Welland and Niagara Falls ridings respectufally and Liberal MPP Jim Bradley in the St. Catharines riding.

In other ridings across Ontario, determine what NDP or Liberal candidate is most likely to beat the Tea Party Tim candidate in the Conservative camp and vote for them.

For additional information on why you should vote for any candidate other than one in the Conservative Tim Hudak camp like on https://niagaraatlarge.com/2014/06/11/urging-ontarians-to-vote-strategically-a-hudak-government-would-be-a-disaster-foryoung-seniors-and-most-everyone-in-between/ .

(Share your comments on this post below.)

A Commentary by From Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

For the better part of the past two years since the last Ontario election, all we’ve been hearing from Tim Hudak and his Tea Party Tories is how corrupt and scandalous all of this gas plant crap involving former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty has been.

Ontario Tory Leader Tim Hudak at recent photo op, with skids of fake Canadian dollars behind him, at rejected Mississauga gas plant site.

It has been scandalous alright, to the tune of more than a billion dollars of our provincial tax money wasted on cancelling two gas-fired energy plants in Mississauga and Oakville because a critical mass of NIMBYs (Not in my backyard people) from those two communities were threatening to dump two of McGuinty’s Liberal MPPs out of office before the last Ontario election. And if the Ontario Provincial Police and others have grounds to charge McGuinty with misappropriating our funds and/or destroying documents that might have shown he did, by all means lay criminal charges against him. Continue reading →

A Post from Nick Fillmore 

Nancy White performs Hudak song in support of One Big Campaign – We need your help too! Singer-songwriter Nancy White, known for her edgy and often hilarious songs on CBC Radio’s Sunday Morning program for several years, has written a great song about Tim Hudak.

 Nancy came up with ‘Tim, we did the math!’ to help One Big Campaign with its fundraising to try and stop Hudak from winning the election. The link is below.
The link also takes you to our site, where you can please make a donation to support our campaign. We need your support. Help us pay for phone calls to in key ridings where we are asking people to vote against Hudak. This campaign could make the difference.

Nick Fillmore is a veteran journalist and social activist based in Toronto and a good friend of Niagara At Large. We encourage you to visit his site at
Journalist / Social Activist http://nickfillmore.blogspot.ca/ . To learn more about the One Big Campaign to defeat Tea Party Tim and his extremest Tories and how you can support or donate to it visit  http://one-big-campaign.blogspot.ca/  .

 (NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)

A Brief Forward by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Fifty-years ago this spring, a small group of residents and business owners in the Allentown Village of Buffalo, New York launched what would eventually become one of the greatest art and craft festivals on the continent.

In the 1950s, Allentown was the Buffalo equivalent of New York City’s Greenwich Village, a bohemian district of coffee cafes where poets and writers gathered, and of folk and jazz clubs – a perfect place to host an art and craft festival as, in its own 21^st century way, it still is today.

This one-of-the-first great festivals of the season is also a great way to celebrate another spring and summer season, and a great opportunity to walk through neighbourhoods in Buffalo featuring some of the best architecture in North America.

Now here are the details for the dates, times and lcocations for the 2014 edition of the Allentown Art Festival for the great organization of volunteers that host it. Continue reading →

News from the Campaign Office of Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates

Fort Erie, Ontario, June 8^th, 2014 — NDP MPP Wayne Gates called out Tim Hudak today for his record of doing nothing for the Fort Erie Race Track. 

“In November 2013, Tim Hudak skipped a vote on a critical NDP motion to restore the slots to the Fort Erie Race Track,” Gates said. “Hudak also endorsed the findings of the Liberal-appointed Drummond Commission, which called for an end to the Slots at Racetrack program.”  

Wayne Gates and the NDP have consistently stood up for the Fort Erie Race Track, fighting to save jobs in Fort Erie and surrounding communities. Continue reading →

Posted by Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

Correct me if I am wrong, but as I recall the position of Chief Executive Officer and President of the Niagara Health System was once held by one individual.

Incoming Niagara Health System president Suzanne Johnston

Now we have a CEO, in the name of Kevin Smith, making more than $650,000 in salary and benefits, and the Niagara Health System – the more than decade old body responsible for operating Niagara, Ontario’s amalgamated hospital services, has announced this June 3^rd that it has hired another person, in the name of Suzanne Johnston, to serve as NHS president.

You can safely bet any worldly possessions you have on the NHS’s new and separate president’s position commanding a salary of at least a couple of hundred thousands of dollars since those seem to be rates senior hospital administrators across the province and country are awarded these days. And one can only imagine how much more frontline health care services all this extra senior executive baggage would pay for. Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Through their extraordinary bravery and sacrifice, they played a key part in bringing an end to one of the most deranged and murderous regimes that ever haunted this planet.

Canadian soldiers move up a Juno Beach heavily defended by Nazi trooops in Normandy, France on June 6th, 1944.

They are the more than 130,000 soldiers from Canada, the United States, Britain and other allied countries that charged through a hell fire of Nazi bullets on the beaches of Normandy, France, 70 years ago this June 6^th on what will forever be known in history as D Day. 

They were mere kids in their late teens and early 20s then – many not old enough to be served a beer in a tavern back home. Yet in the eyes of their leaders, they were man enough to serve on the frontline of the largest and one of the dangerous invasions of a coastline ever planned. Continue reading →

Ontario’s Welland Riding NDP representiave Cindy Forster.

 News from the Campaign Office of Welland Riding MPP and NDP candidate Cindy Forster 

Welland, Ontario, June 2^nd, 2014 – Today Cindy Forster, NDP incumbent candidate for Welland, wants answers on Hudak’s plan to fire new mothers on maternity leave.

Foster, a registered nurse and past mayor has been very critical of the Conservatives jobs plan that will fire 5,300 firefighters, teachers, and healthcare workers in the Welland – Niagara region. Continue reading →

News from the Campaign Office of Liberal Leader and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

June 1^st, 2014 – Leaked documents obtained by the Ontario Liberals indicate the inspiration for PC Leader Tim Hudak’s radical 100,000 job cut platform: the extreme-right Republican movement.

The private schedule for Hudak’s April 2012 trip to Washington, D.C. was leaked by a PC insider unhappy with Tim Hudak’s hard-right turn. It reveals a series of meetings with leading Republican and Tea Party strategists

While Hudak did disclose to the Toronto Star last year that he had consulted with the Republican firm, Greener and Hook; he failed to disclose that he traveled to their office for a full-day of media training. Continue reading →

From Nick Fillmore and the ‘One Big Campaign’ movement

Dear Friends from Ontario,

One Big Campaign needs your financial support and the support of your friends and colleagues if we are to raise the funds needed to help stop Tim Hudak from becoming Premier of Ontario. The latest poll shows him tied with the Liberals!

Please appeal to anyone you know in Ontario to have them go to our blog — http://one-big-campaign.blogspot.ca/ – and make a donation today so we can continue contacting voters across the province and urge them to vote against Hudak.

If you have access to an email list, a website, a blog or a Facebook page, please post some of the following information. Please use each of these stories at different times during the next three or four days. Please look for new places and new ways to post the appeals. Continue reading →

A Brief from Niagara At Large

If you are wired to Cogeco Cable 10, the station is airing three candidate debates at its studios this May 27^th, May 28^th and May 29^th.

While there are no seats available for the public – not in the studios, at least – these debates will be aired live at the following times and those watching will have an opportunity to use social media or email in questions for the candidates in the three Niagara ridings of St. Catharines, Welland and Niagara Falls. Continue reading →

News from the Campaign Office of Niagara Falls Riding MPP Wayne Gates

(A Brief Note on this one from Niagara At Large – In fairness to Ontario Tory Leader Tim Hudak, he has reportedly said he couldn’t make this leader’s debate because he had a pre-scheduled campaign rally to attend in the Peterborough area to attend at the same time.)

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario, May 26^th, 2014 – Wayne Gates, NDP candidate for the riding of Niagara Falls, said he’s not surprised that Tim Hudak is avoiding tough questions today by skipping the first leaders debate.

Niagara Falls Riding MPP Wayne Gates. File photo by Doug Draper

 “It’s not surprising that Tim Hudak is ducking Ontarians’ questions at the first leaders debate today. The Hudak Conservatives have been ducking our questions in Niagara Falls for days,” said Gates. “They refuse to answer which Niagara Falls nurses, teachers, firefighters and other service providers are among the 100,000 they plan to fire—just like they refuse to answer our challenge to provide year-round daily GO trains.”

“Tim Hudak is not a voice for Niagara.” Continue reading →

News from the Campaign Office Of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

Premier Kathleen Wynne released her comprehensive plan for Ontario today. The Liberal Plan is built on the priorities laid out in the 2014 Budget and will create jobs and grow the economy by investing in people and partnerships, will build modern infrastructure and will provide income security in retirement.

Ontario Premier and Liberal Party Leader Kathleen Wynne

The Liberal Plan for Ontario is fully-costed and consistent with the fiscal framework in the 2014 Budget. Ontario Liberals will balance the budget by 2017-18, while continuing to make the necessary investments in our people and in our infrastructure to provide opportunity and security to all Ontarians. If re-elected, an Ontario Liberal government will re-introduce the Budget, providing investments in: Continue reading →

A Brief Reflection by Niagara At Large Doug Draper

He was, through his many years as a front-line reporter and news anchor in the last half of the 20^th century, our very own Canadian equivalent of legendary American news broadcaster Walter Cronkite.

CBC news legend Knowlton Nash

His name was Knowlton Nash and he played a lead role in steering CBC Television through its best years of national and international news. And with his death this May 24^th, at age 86 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, it is a reminder that those golden years of news coverage at CBC and other broadcast and print media across the country, have all but died with him.

Nash dedicated many years to covering some of the most important stories of his era, from the Cuban Missile Crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster in the early 1960s to the separatist movement in Quebec and the Watergate scandal during his years as a Washington correspondent before taking over as anchor of The National and bringing it to fruition as CBC’s flag-ship television news program. Continue reading →

News from the Campaign Offices of St. Catharines, Ontario NDP Candidate Jennie Stevens, and Niagara Falls and Welland NDP MPPs Wayne Gates and Cindy Forster

NIAGARA FALLS, MaY 23, 2014—All three Niagara-region NDP candidates (Cindy Forster in Welland, Wayne Gates in Niagara Falls, and Jennie Stevens in St. Catharines) joined together that Niagara Falls GO station to announce that Niagara now has a plan on offer for daily, year-round GO service.

NDP St. Catharines Riding candidate Jennie Stevens and NDP MPPs Wayne Gates for Niagara Falls and Cindy Forster for Welland Ridings at Niagara Falls train station where they promise full Go Train service by 2015.

They also challenged the other parties to show the same commitment to the real needs of Niagara families and businesses.

“This is a growing region, but also a struggling region—and for both reasons, it makes perfect sense to bring year-round daily GO service to Niagara families,” said Gates. “It’s supported by 12 mayors, it’s needed by families and businesses, and it’s now clearly possible thanks to our plan. The unemployed and underemployed can’t wait any longer.” Continue reading →

News from the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority

May, 2014 – At the Board of Directors meeting held on Wednesday, May 21, Carmen D’Angelo, Chief Administrative Officer of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) announced the acquisition of a 24 acre parcel of land adjacent to the Ball’s Falls Conservation Area in Lincoln, Ontario. The parcel of land is located to the south-east of the conservation area and also borders Seventh Avenue, private agricultural and residential lands.

The NPCA’s Ball’s Falls Centre for Conservation

The NPCA paid $362,577.71 for the parcel which is approximately $15,107 per acre. The was funded through the NPCA’s Land Acquisition Reserve.

Mr. D’Angelo stated, “We are absolutely thrilled to add another 24 acres to the existing 200 already in place at Ball’s Falls. This is a beautiful site and one of the cornerstone properties of the NPCA.” He added, “The purchase will enhance the property by providing additional parking during our annual Thanksgiving Festival (October 10-13, 2014) and Children’s Water Festival and other special events.” Continue reading →

News from the Hamilton, Ontario-based citizens watchdog group Citizens at City Hall

(This piece, reprised on Niagara At Large with the permission of Citizens at City Hall or CATCH for short, should be mandatory reading for all of us these days as we do our best to live, work and protect our property in the face of ever more frequent waves of flooding rains, ice storms and other extreme weather – what some of us dare to accept, rather than deny, as symptoms of climate change thousands of emanate scientists around the world agree is exacerbated by growing emissions of petro-chemical fallout and other human-related activities.

The December 2013 flash ice storm caused hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage across southern Ontario and western New York and left tens of thousands of people without electricity through the holiday season. It was just one more example of the severe weather conditions we are experiencing on a far more frequent basis than our parents and grandparents did 30 or 50 years ago.

As NAL read this CATCH piece before asking for permission to post it, we were once again reminded that those in government and other sectors who continue to choose to deny any human complicity in climate change and/or choose to say it would cost the petro-chemical industry and its consumers too much to address it, that the cost of the damage, including damage to public and private property, to our food supply, soaring energy costs and higher car and property insurance rates, is never made part of that increasingly higher cost of the ledger by Canada’s Stephen Harper government and other climate change deniers.)

Residents were warned last week that extreme weather is going to get much worse and city governments are facing sharply growing adaptation costs of which the rock slides that have recently clobbered three mountain accesses appear to be just the latest impacts. The latest global climate news includes a worsening California drought and studies that conclude the West Antarctic ice sheet is doomed. Continue reading →

News from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario

– Researchers to address the evolution of borders and boundaries within and beyond the academy

Campus of Brock Univesity in Niagara, Ontario

 This May 23rd, 2014 marks the kick-off of the 2014 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. This year’s Congress, hosted by Brock University and organized by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, includes more than 8,000 delegates from 75 associations in Canada’s largest interdisciplinary academic gathering.
Continue reading →

News from Dylan Powell and Marineland Animal Defense

(A Brief Foreword Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – As an environment writer who has editorialized for more than two decades against the capture and imprisonement of his world’s most magnificent marine in cement tugs for commercial gain, I applaud the growing number of younger people who are saying no to places like SeaWorld and Marineland.)

This May, hudreds of advocates for the humane treatment of animals marched through the tourist districts of Niagara Falls, Ontario.

 This past May 17^th the captive animal facility Marineland Canada opened for its 53rd season and it was met with the first ever march through downtown Niagara Falls onto the facility!

 Hundreds took to the streets of Niagara Falls – marching from HWY 420 and through the tourist district – to let the public know that we want an end to animal captivity! 
The crowd was electric – driven by chants and a marching band – and the impact was undeniable. A new chapter in the 40+ years of opposition to Marineland has begun. 
Some of the best photos of the day are attached and links to some of the best media coverage is below.

 A huge thank you to everyone who volunteered, participated and supported the #MarchOnMarineland. This could not have happened without a massive team effort and we are so grateful for all of the support! 
Marineland Wildlife “Dying” to Entertain You (Now Magazine) – http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=198064
My Daughters First Visit to Marineland (Niagara At Large) – https://niagaraatlarge.com/2014/05/18/my-daughters-first-visit-to-marineland/
March On Marineland (Video – The Indignants) – https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=717232701651899

A reminder to everyone that this weekend (Saturday May 24 from noon to 2 p.m. in front of the Marineland park) we follow this up with our demonstration on site as part of “Empty the Tanks” – please come out and support this global day of protest against animal captivity! 
Empty the Tanks – https://www.facebook.com/events/599980720088182/
Marineland Animal Defense —

“There’s about as much educational benefit studying dolphins in captivity as there would be studying mankind by only observing prisoners held in solitary.” – Jacques Cousteau 
Donations – we accept donations and email money transfers to our paypal: marinelandanimaldefense@gmail.com

Niagara At Large would also encourage you to visit Dylan Powell’s blog site at http://dylanxpowell.com/ .

(NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)

Made-in-Ontario Pension Plan Means Retirement with Income Security

News from the Campaign Office of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

May 22^nd, 2014 – Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne was at OMERS’ OneEleven in Toronto this May 22nd to talk about the Ontario Liberal plan to ensure people can count on a secure income after a lifetime of work.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

The Premier was joined by former Prime Minister Paul Martin, former OMERS CEO Michael Nobrega and members of the Technical Advisory Group on Retirement Security, to discuss the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP), and what it means for Ontario workers.

Too many middle-class Ontarians have not been able to save adequately for retirement, especially with adult children still at home and parents and grandparents who also need financial support. The Canada Pension Plan is a well-managed program and is guaranteed and predictable; however, the average retiree only receives $6,800 a year in CPP benefits. That simply isn’t enough to cover the basics in life, especially when only 35 per cent of Ontario’s workers have a workplace pension plan. Continue reading →

News from the Campaign Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

Toronto, Ontario, May 22th, 2014 – NDP Leader Andrea Horwath launched her party’s platform this morning, saying Niagara is ready for a plan that makes sense.

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

“People are ready for change, and I believe most people in Niagara are looking for change that makes sense,” said Horwath. 

“Our plan saves more than it spends. Instead of wasting billions on scandals like the Liberals, we will stand up for middle-class families and invest in people’s priorities: jobs, healthcare, education and making life affordable.”  

“Voters do not want to re-elect the Liberals. This election people have a choice, they don’t have to endorse a Liberal party that deserves time in the penalty box, or Tim Hudak’s plan to add 100,000 people to the unemployment rolls.” Continue reading →

News from Willobank School in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Queenston, in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, May 21, 2014 – The Willowbank School of Restoration Arts is honoured to announce that HRH The Prince of Wales has agreed to become its new Royal Patron. The announcement was made on the occasion of The Prince’s 17th visit to Canada this May.

WINNIPEG, MB – Julian Smith, Executive Director, Willowbank School of Restoration Arts, and Lisa Prosper, Director of Willowbank’s Centre for Cultural Landscape, with HRH The Prince of Wales tjhis May 21st. Photo courtesy of Willowbank

Willowbank, situated on the Canada-U.S. border near Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, delivers post-secondary education in the crafting of new futures for old places.

The Prince met this May 21^st with Julian Smith, Executive Director of Willowbank, and Lisa Prosper, Director of its Centre for Cultural Landscape, who are presenting on issues around sustainable urban growth at a meeting of urban designers, planners, developers and civic leaders convened by The Prince in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Continue reading →

A Special to Niagara At Large from Karl Dockstader

With the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls being in the spotlight this year the police have mobilized to start trying to address the mounting public concern over this under-addressed issue.

Click on this image to enlarge the faces of all of these missing and murdered Native girls and women, then ask your nearst Harper government MP why more hasn’t been done to get to the bottom of these crimes.

After the Native Womens Association of Canada released a report showing that over 500 Indigenous women and girls were victimized, and Maryanne Pearce released a report with a higher number of victims at 824, on May 16^th the RCMP issued a report with even more staggering numbers:

• Between 1980 and 2013 1181 Indigenous women or girls are missing, or in most cases, have been murdered
• Since 1980, homicide has decreased for non-aboriginal women and increased for indigenous women
• Solve rates are comparable for either Indigenous or non-Indigenous women
• Aboriginal women are 4 times more likely to be murdered than non-Aboriginal women

The report was conducted with the help of over 300 separate police agencies from across Canada, and confirms much of the information that has been made widely available over the past few months is just the tip of the iceberg. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

If the definition of good governance includes the sound management of public monies and resources, then Canada has very bad governance.

Dr. Danielle Martin

The manufactured health care crisis is a case in point. Solutions to challenges of cost, quality, and access are fairly straightforward but wilfully ignored, and current trajectories towards corporatization are leading us in the wrong direction.

If the challenges are responsibly addressed, every Canadian will have access to exemplary health care, based on need rather than ability to pay. Additionally, Canadians will save money, and the economy will be positively impacted.

Dr. Danielle Martin — family physician, V.P of Medical Affairs and Health Systems Solutions at Women’s College Hospital, and Assistant Professor in Medicine and Health Policy at the University of Toronto — is eminently qualified to offer solutions. Continue reading →

News from the Campaign Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

Toronto, Ontario, May 20^th, 2014 – Andrea Horwath, Leader of Ontario’s New Democrats, says after ten years of Liberal government patients with complex needs still spend more than 10 hours in ERs to get care they need. The New Democrat Leader says it’s time to focus on the fundamentals and laid out her goal of cutting ER waits by half.

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

“Families waiting for hours in an ER are tired of seeing health dollars spent on CEO pay hikes and the multi-million dollars scandal at ORNGE. It’s time to focus on fundamentals to improve health care,” said Horwath. “Our plan provides targeted investments that will make sure ER beds are available for ER patients and they can be seen quickly and effectively. It’s a plan that makes sense.”

An NDP government will cut ER wait times in half by hiring 250 new nurse-practitioners, opening 50 new 24-hour family health clinics, creating 1,400 more long-term care beds, and implementing a 5 day home care guarantee. These steps will keep ERs moving and make sure that Ontarians are getting the right care they need, when and where they need it, to reduce pressure on ERs. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Shame on her!

Ontario’s Premier Kathleen Wynne returns to site of Walkerton drinking water disaster

That was the response of Ontario Tory leader Tim Hudak and many of his partisan supporters after the province’s Liberal leader and Premier Kathleen Wynne visited the rural community of Walkerton this past May 15^th and slammed Hudak’s promise to wipe out 100,000 public service jobs if his party wins this June’s election.

Walkerton, as every person eligible to vote in Ontario should know, is a town of 5,000 where, in May of 2000, seven people died and more than 2,000 others became sick when a deadly strain of fecal coliform linked to cattle droppings upstream contaminated a well of water used the local residents for drinking and preparing food.

At a Clean Water Centre the province established in Walkerton in the years following the disaster, Wynne warned an audience of supporters and town residents that Hudak’s public job cuts will affect public services.

“Decisions (to cut government services) have consequences – sometimes more than we could know, sometimes worse than we could fear,” Wynne said. Continue reading →

A Special to Niagara At Large by Karl Dockstader

So my oldest daughter Kathryne and I took my youngest daughter Amelia to Marineland today. We caught wind that Marineland Animal Defense had a parade/march planned for this Victoria Day weekend so we figured we would tag along on this nice day.

Kathryne Dockstader on her first trip to Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Photo courtesy of Karl Dockstader

What a fitting way to start the day as “Marineland Mom” told her simple and humble story. She had asked if her child could not be sent to Marineland for an “educational” field trip and that Stoney Creek school decided that there would be no more trips to Marineland.

That mom’s thoughtful act of objecting to her child’s class trip to Marineland caught the hearts and minds of the public and the debate resumed catapulting Marineland’s dated practice of using animals for the joy of spectators to wrangle cash back into the spotlight. Enslavement is not entertainment, which was a theme of this day, and it’s not education either, which was her important point. Continue reading →

 – Hudak Promises include draconian new powers to cancel projects and retroactively revoke approvals

News from the Campaign Office of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

Mississauga, Ontario, May 18^th, 2014 – Tim Hudak has learned nothing from the gas plant cancellation decisions and is irresponsibly exposing the province to costs well over 20 times as large as the Mississauga and Oakville cancelations which were supported by all three parties.

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak follws his former leader Mike Harris down the line. Gut everything to do with green energy or environmental protection and get back to 19th and 20th Century versions of coal, oil and nuclear.

The cornerstone of Tim Hudak’s reckless agenda includes new powers for the Minister of Energy and / or municipalities to retroactively violate terms of signed contracts.  Those powers include sections permitting the outright “reconsideration of contracts” and draconian powers allowing them to unilaterally: “alter the terms and conditions of a renewable energy approval after it is issued; impose new terms and conditions on a renewable energy approval; or suspend or revoke a renewable energy approval.”  (source: PC Million Jobs Act) Continue reading →

Submitted to Niagara At Large by Joanne McDonald 

Momentum Choir, a group of 50 singers with developmental disabilities is ready to shake some creative foundations with “Building Momentum,” two year-end concerts, Sunday, May 25 at 3 p.m. and Wednesday, May 28 at 7 p.m. at Bethany Community Church, 1388 Third Street Louth, St. Catharines.

The Momentum Choir in performance

Momentum Choir has packed numerous concert halls, sang on Parliament Hill and is ready to wow audiences once again with another profoundly emotional experience.

Now in its seventh season, Momentum continues to inspire and break new ground as a powerful and professional platform where disability takes a back seat as soon as the music begins. Continue reading →

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

News from the Campaign Office of Ontario Conservative Party Leader Tim Hudak

Mississauga, Ontario, May 18^th, 2014 – An Ontario PC Government will launch a judicial inquiry into Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne’s billion-dollar gas plant scandal. 

“It is time we had a government that puts your interests first – and not the jobs of the Liberal Party,” said Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak today while visiting the planned site of the Mississauga gas plant.  “An Ontario PC Government will strike a judicial inquiry into the billion dollar gas plant scandal.  I expect both Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne will have to stand before a judge and testify about their actions.” Continue reading →

From the Campaign Office of the Ontario Liberal Party

(A Brief Foreword Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – A number of months back I read a column in The Globe and Mail or one of the other mainstream newspapers that dubbed Ontario Conservative leader TimHudak – notice I left the word ‘Progressive’ out of the Conservative title – Tea Party Tim.

Tea Party Tim Hudak. Raise a cup of tea to seeing services, from those for seniors, to young children, and many in between being gutted like a trout.

So to those who might find some sugar candy in Hudak’s simplistic promises to gut 100,000 public services jobs, slash corporate taxes in a province that already has among the lowest coporate taxes in the developed world, and cut Ontario’s deficit at the same time, heed what some of your parents said all those years ago. Be careful who you may take candy from.)

Toronto, Ontario, May 13, 2014 – Tim Hudak released his Paycheques-To-Pink-Slips Plan that was signed off by, and based on calculations from American “independent” economist Ben Zycher.

Zycher is a “resident scholar” at Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, funded by Tea Party billionaires the Koch Brothers.  (LINK) Continue reading →

News from the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

Niagara, Ontario, May 15^th, 2014 – With the approach of the annual Victoria Day long weekend kicking off the unofficial start of summer, the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce received support for a policy aimed at supporting Niagara’s quickly-expanding craft beer sector.

Regional brewed craft beer stocks retail shelves right across the border in Buffalo, New York.

At the recently concluded Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) Annual General Meeting and Policy Convention in Sault Ste. Marie, the Greater Niagara Chamber submitted a policy calling for the OCC to work with the Ontario government to reduce barriers and challenges for Ontario’s craft brewers. The policy was enthusiastically endorsed by the more than 120 Chamber representatives from across the province. Continue reading →

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

News from the Campaign Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

Sarnia, Ontario, May 16^th, 2014 — Andrea Horwath, Leader of Ontario’s New Democrats, says  the facts that Ontario loses a billion dollars a year exporting discount electricity to neighboring jurisdictions is just another example of an electricity system that doesn’t make sense to middle class families. She laid out her plan to merge agencies, cap CEO pay and use direct trading to get a better price for Ontario’s electricity exports. Continue reading →

News from the Office of Welland Riding NDP federal representative Malcolm Allen 

Ottawa, May 15^th, 2014 – This May 15^th, Welland MP Malcolm Allen introduced a Private Member’s Bill to strengthen victims’ rights in relation to offences committed in Canada by a permanent resident or foreign national.

Malcolm Allen, NDP representative for the Welland Riding in Niagara, Ontario.

The bill is the result of Allen’s work with one of his constituents, Dawn Colson, who had several threats made against her and feared for her life when her ex-husband – a Cuban national with a violent criminal record in Canada – was arrested after subjecting Colson to repeated physical and sexual abuse.

“Ms. Colson suffered unbearable hardship due in large part to the lack of information she was able to receive from Canadian authorities about the status of her attacker,” said Allen. “It is our hope that this bill will help prevent others from suffering in the future.”  Continue reading →

News from the Campaign Office of Ontario Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne

A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Hardcore Tim Hudak/Mike Harris Tories across Ontario may not welcome this, but Ontario’s longest-serving mayor and a respected municipal leader across Canada – 93-year-old Hazel McCallion, who is serving her last term as Mississauga’s mayor after 35 years in that office – today, this May 14^th, welcomed Ontario Liberal Premier to her city and endorsed her campaign to win a majority Liberal government in this spring’s provincial election.

Legendary Mayor of Mississauga, Hazel McCallion, endorses Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne.

“I supported her (Kathleen Wynne) as leader of the Liberal Party and I still support her as leader of the province, McCallion was quoted by major Ontario media orgaizations saying this May 14^th as Wynne stood near her side.

“The last thing the province needs is a minority government. … A minority government leaves municipalities hanging out there, not knowing what legislation will get through the House,” said McCallino as she went on to slam Ontario Tory Leader Tim Hudak’s promise to gut public service jobs and services.”

“Yes we can look at the staffing and decide reductions, but you better look at the services as well,” said McCallion. “The people of Ontario have become accustomed to a quality of life that I think is sacred to them.”

Now Here is the News Release from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office on her visit with Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion this May 14^th.

SUPPORTING ONTARIO COMMUNITIES – Hudak PCs Would Slash Municipal Jobs 

Premier Kathleen Wynne met with Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion today to talk about how the future success of Mississauga, and all of Ontario’s municipalities, will be shaped by the outcome of Ontario’s June 12 election. Continue reading →

NAL

 News from the Campaign Office of Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

Toronto, Ontario, May 14th, 2014 – Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak today released the full Million Jobs Plan.  The Million Jobs Plan is the Ontario PC action plan to create jobs, balance the budget and get Ontario working better.   The full Million Jobs Plan can be read at OntarioPC.com/millionjobsplan.

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

“In order to build a compassionate society and improve the services that matter most, like health and education, we have to take urgent action on a turnaround plan to balance the budget and create jobs,” Hudak told a packed town hall meeting at the launch of his platform. “This is why job creation is the sole focus of the Million Jobs Plan.”

The Million Jobs Plan contains 31 action items focussed on a single priority – creating one million new jobs over the next eight years.  The Million Jobs Plan divides these actions across three themes: Continue reading →

News from Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission 

Niagara Falls, Ontario – The Niagara Parks Commission (NPC) is pleased to offer free guided hiking tours of the Niagara Glen on Saturday, May 17, in partnership with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s (RASC) solar viewing exhibit. 

Guided hiking tours depart from the Niagara Glen Nature Centre at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and will take visitors on a search of rare and unique spring blooms, birds and other wildlife found within the magnificent Niagara Glen. From week to week, the variety of blooming wildflowers is constantly changing, and spring ephemerals (flowers) such as Red and White Trilliums, Wild Columbine and Dutchman’s Breeches only bloom for a short period of time each spring. Continue reading →

News from the Campaign Office of Ontario’s Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

This morning Premier Kathleen Wynne zeroed in on Tim Hudak’s reckless and radical approach that would cut jobs, reduce important services and plunge Ontario back into a recession.

Under the Hudak PCs vital services would be dramatically slashed, impacting all Ontarians. Jobs that would be lost and services that would be cut under the Hudak PCs include: Continue reading →

News from Marineland Animal Defense organizer Dylan Powell

(A Brief Foreword Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – As I have argued in column after column for more than two decades now, the inprisonment and degrading circus treatment of whales and other of this world’s most magnificent living beings will not end until we humans stop paying tickets at the gate of places like Marineland and Seaworld to support this kind of pornography.

For families out there who want their children to learn more about these wonderful creatures, go on a whale watch with your kids, sit down as a family and watch many of the great nature documentaries on them and, yes, as painful as it may seem in this day of 130 word tweets, read books about them for earth’s sake.

Read a book about them? I am confident you and your children or grandchildren will learn to respect these wondrous beings more – and not be a bad idea for a young to still read a book every now and then – from reading about them, viewing them in nature video documentaries, or viewing them in their natural habitat, than watching them be used as water skis by trainers or for balancing balls from their nose for a treats by way of fish tossed in their mouths by same said trainers.)

Niagara Falls, CANADA, May 12^th, 2014 – For the third straight year Marineland Animal Defense will be greeting the opening day at Marineland Canada on Saturday May 17 with a mass demonstration. This year, however, will be the first time in 40+ years of protest at the park that advocates will be marching through downtown Niagara Falls onto the facility. Continue reading →

Ontario Liberal MPP for the St. Catharines Riding, Jim Bradley

News from the Campaign Office of St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley

 This May 9th, Jim Bradley officially opened his re-election campaign headquarters in St. Catharines’ Grantham Plaza.

 With over 80 supporters and volunteers, Bradley spoke of his unwavering commitment to our community and his proven record advocating on behalf of St. Catharines at every opportunity.

 “Elections are an important part of the democratic process and I am honoured to have the opportunity to build upon the results we have achieved together and our shared goals for the future. I will continue to provide the people of St. Catharines with an experienced, dedicated and committed choice to represent our community.” Continue reading →

News from the Campaign on Niagara Falls Riding NDP candidate and MPP incumbent Wayne Gates

Niagara Falls, Ontario – This Friday, May 9^th, Niagara Falls Ontario New Democrats nominated Wayne Gates again as their provincial candidate for the up-coming June election.

Wayne Gates, Niagara Falls Riding’s MPP. File photo, Doug Draper

“I’d like to thank you for nominating me as your candidate to run for re-election on June 12th,” Gates said to crowd of supporters. “I’m standing here tonight to tell you that I will continue to fight to create local jobs, make life more affordable and make sure people have access to local healthcare where they need and when they need it.”

In a speech to Niagara Falls ONDP members after his nomination, Gates outlined his main concerns for the region. Daily GO train service to Niagara Falls, a long-term sustainable plan for the Fort Erie Race Track and Buy Local policies to help support farmers and wineries in Niagara, are all priorities Gates has committed to. Continue reading →

News from the Campaign of Ontario’s Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne 

Math 10^th, 2014 –Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals have released a “sneak preview” of a 30-second television ad that will start running on May 21.

The Ontario Liberal’s Finance Minister Charles Sousa

Today is the fourth day of a provincial election triggered by Andrea Horwath and the NDP when they rejected the 2014 Budget. Liberal Finance Minister and candidate for Mississauga South Charles Sousa showcased an ad in which Premier Kathleen Wynne questions the NDP’s decision to put her clear plan to support families and create jobs at risk. Continue reading →

NAL hudak latest on jobs

New from the Campaign of Ontario’s PC Leader Tim Hudak

Durham, Ontario, May 10^th, 2014 – Only the PC Party will create 120,000 new jobs by making Ontario the lowest tax jurisdiction in North America for job creation, said Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak today, as he was joined by Durham Candidate Mike Patrick.

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

“High taxes are driving jobs out of Ontario,” said Hudak during a visit to a Durham-area manufacturing company.  “High taxes mean more jobs they won’t create or keep.  That’s why our Million Jobs Plan will replace corporate welfare with fair and lower taxes to create jobs and get Ontario working better.”

Hudak noted that the McGuinty-Wynne Liberals play favorites and hand out hundreds of millions of dollars to the biggest companies just because they have the best Liberal lobbyist. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

So they are job creators, are they?

Mike Harris leads his comrade in arms and Ontario’s Mike Harris lite, Tim Hudak

That’s all we have been hearing from the Conservative’s Mike Harris, Stephen Harper clone Tim Hudak.Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak announced during a campaign stop this May 9^th that some of his agenda would include eliminating about 100,000 public sector jobs in the province without, he insists, crippling “vital services.”

Excuse me for not having the memory of a fly, but I seem to remember a script like this back in the mid-1990s when Mike Harris, who was Hudak’s Tory boss at the time, promised that he would slash our taxes ant, at the same time, take a meat axe to the public sector. And everyone, from people working for the most minimum of wages to teachers and other public servants, thought that was just plain dandy until Harris ultimately came after their jobs, wages and benefits.

Now we have this privileged kid, who grew up with two teachers as parents, saying he is going to pup the boots to these people. Meanwhile, his Harper government friends at the federal friends have just presided over net job losses across Ontario and Canada totalling 29,000 – not too mention thousands more who have simply given up on finding a job and no longer show up on the unemployment lists.

Stephen Harper and frend Tim Hudak. Where are the jobs for Canadians this April? Have they gone to temporary foreign wokers? Where does that fit into Hudak’s job creation plan?

But then again, you never hear Hudak slamming his friends in the Harper government for losses of jobs in Ontario do you. It is always the fault of what he likes to define as the Mutiny/Wynne government, as if he is not a member of the Hudak/Harris government.

And while all of this is going on, the United States is booming ahead with reports of around 280,000 new jobs this April – one of the best monthly job reports since the crash of the ‘Great Recession’ in 2008.

What Ontario voters might want to study is the fact that the U.S. economy has done this with corporate tax cuts that are hardly as low as those Hudak’s federal buddy, Stephen Harper, has already allowed here in Canada. And Hudak is promising to cut corporate taxes in Ontario even lower, at the expense of revenue needed for services for seniors, health care, education and other things many normally expect a government to deliver.

Enough on this for now. I will have more to say on the topic of cutting corporate taxes and slashing public service resources in Ontario later.

(NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)

News from Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission

(A Brief Foreword by Doug Draper to the rest of us – We should also use this time to press Canada’s prime minister Stephen Harper and defense minister and Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson to at long last provide our veterans with the support they need to cope with the physical and mental impacts of serving in combat.)

Photo of Falls by Doug Draper

Niagara Falls, Ontario – In commemoration of the contributions and sacrifices made by those members of the Canadian Armed Forces who served in Afghanistan, the Niagara Falls Illumination Board will light Niagara Falls in red and white, as part of the National Day of Honour.

The Illumination Board is proud to help pay tribute to those men and women of the Canadian Military, as well as to those of our American friends, who have served with distinction in the war against terrorism, by serving in Afghanistan,” stated Illumination Board Chair Jim Diodati. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

I can hardly hold back tears as I post this.

Canadian author and nature advocate Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat, who was about to see his 93^rd birthday and who was one of Canada’s most engaging voices for protecting and preserving the precious natural resources on this plane, left the woods and fields, and lake and seashores he loved so much this May 7^th, 2014.

And this man, for anyone who still gives a shit about nature and the wonderful species we humans have the privilege to share life with on this planet, was a natural treasure.

Through such books as ‘A Whale for the Killing’ and ‘Never Cry Wolf’, which were embraced as much by my fellow environmental reporters and activists in the United States as they were here in Canada, Farley Mowat left a profound mark. It was a mark that left us feeling as ashamed at what we as humans are collectively doing to other creatures on this earth as it did with how humbled we should feel to share an instant of time with all this other wonderful life here. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

Now it is official.

The NPCA’s Conservation Centre at Balls Falls, Photo by Doug Draper

Thirteen days after the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s board of directors held a special April 24^th closed session to decide on a new chief administrative officer for the 45-year-old agency, and 12 days it released a scolding media release that a report in local newspapers that Carmen D’Angelo, a fellow former board member, had been chosen for the job, the agency has announced that the new CAO is indeed Carmen D’Angelo.

D’Angelo, who has served on NPCA’s board for the Hamilton area of a sprawling Niagara watershed the agency has some jurisdiction over, and who has also taken a leave from that board in recent times to function as a consultant for the NPCA’s strategic planning and restructuring efforts for yet-to-be-disclosed amounts of public money, has a management and working background in the field of paramedics. Continue reading →

(A Brief Foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – In an era of ugly blog comments and knee-jerk contempt for almost anyone in government, I will fight this raging tide of contempt by saying there are still some very good and noble people in government. One f them is Lora Beckwith, someone I got to know as the director of Niagara Region’s partner agency, Niagara Regional Housing, and a true advocate for affordable housing for all of this region’s residents.

Niagara Regional Housing director Lora Beckwith

 She is truly one of the very good ones ,and I am sorry to hear she is resigning as we have already seen a number of other good ones recently leave Niagara’s regional government. But the imporant thing to remeber is that she did great things for people in need – the record is there for anyone willing to do some online searching or go to whatever archives are left in local libraries – across Niagara, and we who give a damn about affordable housing should whishLora Beckwith well. She is one great lady.)

NIAGARA REGION, May, 2014 – The Niagara Regional Housing (NRH) Board of Directors has announced the resignation of General Manager, Lora Beckwith, effective the end of July. Beckwith has served as General Manager of NRH since affordable housing was transferred from the Province in 2002. Continue reading →

Election News from the Office of Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

(A Brief  Foreword by NAL publisher Doug Draper – The Ontario NDP, through the late Mel Swart and Peter Kormos have had a strong hold on this riding in Welland, Ontario for mre than 30 years, and MPP/NDP representative has so far  carried it on. Now it is left to see if Cindy Forster can carry it on against a profile, veteran Welland councillor Frank Campion.)

 May 4rth – Tim Hudak congratulated Frank Campion on his nomination as the Ontario PC candidate for Welland and applauded his commitment to making Ontario job-friendly.

Ontario Conservative candidate Frank Campion

 “As a successful businessman and community leader, Frank understands the priorities for a brighter future and the urgent need to create the private sector jobs that will lead Ontario back to prosperity,” said Hudak.  ““While the McGuinty-Wynne Liberals continue to deepen Ontario’s economic crisis, only the Ontario PC Party has a plan to create new jobs and rein in government spending.”

“I have been in business for more than 35 years and have been a part-time instructor at Niagara College in the business division.  I have a lesson for the McGuinty-Wynne Liberals: reduced government spending and lower debt boosts investor confidence and attracts new businesses and jobs to Ontario while enabling tax dollars to be spent on services instead of debt interest,” said Campion.  “But worse still, the NDP actually want to increase taxes on businesses.  The Liberals and the NDP continue to fail Ontario.” Continue reading →

From the Office of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Note that Wynne views, posted below, define this election as a fight between her minority Liberal government and Tim Hudak’s Conservatives. The third place NDP party of Andrea Horwath is so low in the polls at the moment, it hardly factors into the equation here.)

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

On June 12^th , the people of our province will have a choice – a choice between safe hands and risky tactics.
It’s a choice between the balanced approach of a Liberal government that will create jobs and nurture our economic recovery and the opposition parties, who would put that recovery in jeopardy with reckless schemes and irresponsible choices. Continue reading →

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

 The following is a statement from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Delivered this May 2^nd, 2014

Good Afternoon.

I have just met with the Lieutenant Governor and he has agreed to dissolve the 40th Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

On June 12, the people of our province will have a choice – a choice between the balanced approach of a Liberal government that will create jobs and nurture our economic recovery… 

And the opposition parties, who would put that recovery in jeopardy with reckless schemes and irresponsible choices. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

“Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here.
Here comes the sun. …”

–         from a song by George Harrison    

One might say that this past winter has been a long and brutal one, and as much as many of us across Ontario might just want to enjoy the unfolding of spring, it is now obvious that we face a provincial election.

Ontario’s minority Liberal Kathleen Wynne government tabled a budget this May 1^st and it was clear, before the budget was fully unveiled, that the opposition Tory party of Tim Hudak would vote against it.

That left Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath and her caucus in the position of pulling the trigger on Wynne’s government and this May 2^nd she did. Continue reading →

News from the Friends of the Greenbelts Foundation

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – As much as the more influential stakeholders in the farming and development community for the Niagara Peninsula Coonservation Authority would like to get rid of a Greenbelt zone that has won international congratulations, there is support for it in Ontario. Check out the following piece.)

The green on the map is Ontario’s internationally honoured Greenbelt area. You can cllck on the image of this map to view it full screen.

After nine years, support for Ontario’s Greenbelt remains strong. Ontarians want to see more land included in the land protection policy according to a recent poll conducted by Environics Research Group.

According to the survey, three-quarters of Ontarians (74%) feel it is very important to continue to grow Ontario’s Greenbelt. Polling results align with Mississauga, Oakville, and Toronto taking the necessary steps to grow the Greenbelt. These cities have begun work to include areas along Fourteen Mile Creek, Credit River and Etobicoke Creek river valleys, and the Don, Humber and Etobicoke Creeks as part of Ontario’s Greenbelt. This is in addition to the recent inclusion of Glenorchy Conservation Area to Greenbelt protected land. Continue reading →

By Joanne McDonald

(A Brief Foreword from NAL publisher Doug Draper – For those of you in the rural regions of Niagara and other parts of Ontario, if you have not yet heard the term ‘fracking’ – short for hydraulic fracturing for extracting oil in layers of shale rock below ground – you may want to key the word ‘fracking’ into Google or whatever search engine you may have and do a little research.

Why? Because this deep-well method of extracting oil from deep layers of shale below ground may very well be coming to a tract of land near you – especially if you live in a rural area.

The current Liberal government of Ontario has hardly said no to the petro-chemical companies that would like to do this kind of oil drilling here and I’m just willing to bet that if Ontario Conservative opposition leader Tim Hudak becomes the next premier of Ontario – which he could if, according to most polls, a provincial election was called any time in the next few weeks or days – he will be more of a champion for letting “special interests” into rural communities to do fracking than he has been to do wind or solar energy farms. All the potential risks to groundwater quality and health to humans and other lifeforms not withstanding.

So please check this post, by Joanne McDonald, out and stay tune for more on this issue.)

The drilling equipment is primed, favourable policy has been written, pockets of shale gas have been mapped down to the cubic foot across Ontario, oil companies are staking their claims and the wheels of investment are turning. Continue reading →

News from the South Niagara Chapter of the Council of Canadians

Welland, Ontario – All those interested in the future of healthcare in our community are invited to a free forum the coming Sunday, May 4^th from, 1 to 4:30 p.m. in the Atrium at the Welland Community Wellness Complex, 145 Lincoln Street, in the Niagara municipality of Welland, Ontario.

The Council of Canadians, South Niagara Chapter, is organizing the event, open to all who would like to learn more about the changing face of health care in the Niagara Region, and especially to those who might have ideas about better ways of utilizing and integrating the services that may already be in place. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

 Canadians are forever being informed, explicitly or implicitly, that the solution to the crisis of the day, or decade, is a freedom-sounding word called “privatization”. This, the free-marketeers tell us, will solve our problems.

The reality is invariably the opposite. “Privatization” — also known as bailed-out, highly subsidized corporatism – is in fact the problem, not the solution.

Furthermore, the crises being addressed are often manufactured for the express purpose of rolling out a parasitical regime of corporatization that profits from calamity, even as its “host”, the public, is fleeced. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Let me begin this short sermon by saying that when it comes to religion, I fall into the George Carlin and Bill Maher camp.

Pope Francis

I never was a Catholic and whatever other religious church teaching I received as a child was ended, quite voluntarily, by me a few years after I got passed the Sunday school colouring book stage and reached the age of reason.

Yet I have always felt that there some important things we can learn from religious leaders and theologians, even though so many of the modern-day, right-wing, evangelical Christian leaders dominating the big-box church scene today deliver messages around the idea that you get closer and closer to God by accumulating more and more personal wealth in terms of money. Don’t know what ever happened to those warnings about the money lenders and that line I remember from my old King James version of the Bible that read; “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

In all due respect to popular North American evangelicals like Joel Osteen, who reportedly has accumulated enough worldly wealth from the faithful to live in a three-storey home with elevators, I guess the ‘eye in the needle’ line and warnings about money leaders might, to channel George Carlin, might be the kind of stuff Jesus would say.  Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

Some of you may know that Herb Gray – a former Canadian cabinet minister and deputy prime minister from an era when politics was less partisan and mean-spirited than it seems to be now – died this past April 21^st in his hometown of Windsor, Ontario at age 82.

Herb Gray, speaking at one of many events as Canada’s International Joint Commission co-chair. Photo courtesy oof the IJC

 What many may not know is that in recent years, Herb Gray was still working very actively as the Canadian co-chair on the International Joint Commission – the official Canada-U.S. watchdog body for caring for the country’s shared waters, including our precious Great Lakes. 

Five years ago this coming June, Gray joined a gathering of Canadian and U.S. signatories, and environmentally minded groups from all around the Great Lakes basin in our Niagara area to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Canada-U.S. Boundary Waters Treaty – a treaty that created the International Joint Commission and the first binational agreement of its kind in the world for protecting the environmental health of shared waters.

While Gray and the IJC were here, they hosted a whole afternoon and evening of town hall sessions where environmental groups from here and around the Great Lakes could raise their concerns and what they felt should be done to address some of the more pressing threats facing these largest of all fresh bodies of water in the world. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”

This line, from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the great Columbian novelist who died earlier this April, was sent to me by a good Niagara At Large supporter in the form of a poster I’m posting below. It was sent to me by someone who I’m sure had no knowledge that I was facing another 60-something birthday and the dread losing whatever is left of the mojo and youthful ideals that have fueled my work as a journalist.

 I plan on hanging this poster above my desk and I recommend that any aging person out there in danger of burying their dreams in a mud pile of grumpy, cynical, negative name-calling jabs, hang this poster up, somewhere close to the computer they use to fire off those jabs, too. Continue reading →