It was looking like a pretty clean municipal election campaign in Kanata South until this morning. I found the photo below in my mail box in what is a blatant attempt to tie the right leaning candidate, Allan Hubley, to the Liberal Party in an attempt to discredit him as a candidate. Well I hate to disappoint someone but people have photos taken with prominent politicians all the time and pulling one out of the hat from 7 years ago doesn’t hold much water. Especially when they can’t even spell Allan’s name properly.
I can’t say which candidate’s supporters put this in my mail box but I just want to tell them that it will not be switching my vote. Our Ward needs a new face that won’t vote for Crack Pipe Kits, that won’t vote for North-South LRT, and who won’t flip flop like a fish.
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Yes, it’s ridiculous what lengths some people go to.
Right up there with kvetching over tiny matters in the hopes of generating steam.
Let’s get a few things ironed out:
Re. crack pipes: the point of the program was, at least, to reduce blood-borne infections, not stop crack use cold. Why would you rather not have this small mercy to fellow human beings?
Re. north-south LRT: you seem to enjoy ranting about “tax-payers’ dollars”; would you have stopped your ridiculous shrieking had the cost for what was essentially a trial run at even having LRT been increased (maybe even “failed”) by having a more costly east-west corridor laid down?
Re. “flip-flopping”: Hubley’s argument, strangely, builds up a Feltmate strawman, arguing as if she and she alone were responsible for tax increases, more graffiti, fewer police, etc; the whine goes on and on. I’m a little surprised he didn’t simply call her Empress Feltmate and froth about a lack of democracy.
The rest of it, Hubley’s unverifiable accusations, the anti-union propaganda, the “ultra right-wing Bitch-for-the-Rich”/Reform Party attitude (“Money for the Wealthy; Police for the Poor”) speak volumes.
You really want a man who can’t even argue coherently (either because he’s afraid of confusing his followers or can’t do it himself) trying to make arguments and be persuasive at City Hall?
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Todd (#1) I think you’re iron is on “tepid” because you ironed nothing out.
1) Crack pipe kits are for crack users. Crack use is illegal. No ifs ands or buts. Giving out kits is handing out drug paraphernalia any way you want to cut it and it should not be happening. Many jurisdictions ban the sale of drug paraphernalia. Yet our community proudly gives it out. It says a lot about the type of people we want to attract to our city. As for compassion, I am probably more compassionate to Hep C victims than you will ever be. My father was one of the tainted blood scandal victims so I know all too well what Hep C can do. I am just not willing to compromise my morals as you are to provide a law breaker with the tools to continue to break the law safely. What’s next? Free rollies so that pot smokers don’t have to share joints?
2) I wouldn’t advocate a glorified streetcar east west either so don’t put words in my mouth. This city has worked hard to minimize overhead wiring. Why bother adding it now? A system to move electricity from a station through the whole grid is far less efficient than a diesel electric system that would generate the power only when and where it was needed. I don’t want the ugly wires. I don’t want the increased smog vs. diesel electric and I don’t want a $600M program to cost my city $1.5Billion.
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If we extend Todd’s arguments than we shopuld immediately provide murders with the weapon of their choice, provide rapists with the names of suitable victims, provide people who like to assult people with the brass knucle of their choice, provide drunk drivers with booze and a new car. This can go on forever. And all for the sake of a crack pipe.
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You said:
“I am probably more compassionate to Hep C victims”
From your words, I’d say you’re probably more compassionate to the right victims only.
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Todd (#4) Damn straight. I am far more sympathetic to the Hep C VICTIM who got it from our health care system when that system did not properly screen blood donations used in surgery than I am from the CRIMINAL who got Hep C from sharing drug paraphernalia while they got whacked out high next to some dumpster in a back alley downtown.
If I was given the decision to save one vs. the other I would pick the tainted blood victim over the drug criminal 100 times out of 100 and I’ll be damned if I am going to let you think you can shame me into choosing wrong over right by making it look like I am choosing right over left.
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Todd, thanks for the selective hearing demonstration, but here is what the full sentance read: I am probably more compassionate to Hep C victims than you will ever be. I’m not sure if that was your attempt at spin or if you mistakenly didn’t read the full sentance, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.
Steve, quick question:
“I can’t say which candidate’s supporters put this in my mail box”
Does this mean you can’t tell, or you refuse to say?
gerry: thanks for the laugh!
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Having also received that “literature-drop” this morning, I wonder how much of Kanata South got anonymously carpet-bombed with that flop of a weapon-of-mass-deception.
Whoever was responsible for distributing that shoddily-copied and irrelevant photo into mailboxes across South Kanata this morning neglected to take their due credit. Not surprising, perhaps: My first impression after retrieving that gratuitous piece of innuendo from my mailbox was that someone was resorting to slime-ball tactics in a desperate 11th hour attempt to drive votes away from their opponent. After quickly dispensing the insulting message into the recycling box, I literally washed my hands of it.
The Drive-By-Slur delivered by anonymous messenger(s) in the pre-dawn hours of Nov 11 was clearly a feeble attempt to link Allan Hubley, a candidate for City Councilor in Kanata South (and ideological opponent of the incumbent), with the former Prime Minister tainted with political scandal and indecisiveness. However, many recipients of the drive-by will recall that the photograph was taken in 1999, when Paul Martin was still widely considered to be a competent Minister of Finance.
The handwritten note scribbled onto the propaganda piece references the Kanata Kourier Standard, June 7, 2002 issue. Unfortunately, the KKS, launched in 1993 by current mayoral candidate Alex Munter, the man that incumbent Peggy Feltmate proudly proclaims as her ”mentor” does not seem to post its four year old archives online, so we might not find out before Monday’s election whether the referenced article was in fact complimentary of Mr. Hubley.
Will this depraved attempt to sway voters away from Allan Hubley backfire? Perhaps Kanata voters are not a gullible as some people might think (or hope).
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I wonder who thought it was a big deal that somebody who lives in Ottawa and is involved in politics got their picture taken with Paul Martin?
I know nothing about this candidate because I live in another part of the province but if that’s all they have he must have a pretty clean record.
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Matt (#6) I meant that I don’t know who did it.
Caveat (#7) You said it. Photos of people with politicians happen all the time, especially in Ottawa.
Add in the fact that since the photo was taken over a million people have gone from supporting the Liberals to supporting the Tories and it makes the photo even more moot.
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You said:
“If I was given the decision to save one vs. the other I would pick the tainted blood victim over the drug criminal 100 times out of 100”
Well, thank Heavens for small favours . . . .
“and I’ll be damned if I am going to let you think you can shame me into choosing wrong over right by making it look like I am choosing right over left.”
Oh, I’m sorry; you think I’m interested in _shaming_ you? That faint hope tanked when I read some of the comments your regulars left here (and which I presume you agree with since you were pretty quiet), conflating “The Left” ie liberals with the Taliban.
Whenever I think I’ve reached the nadir of human thought, I always check twice.
I feel shame I’m not disappointed.
Matt: don’t even try. If that’s the best you can pull, I’m a mite out of your league.
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Hmmm Todd I think you must have been using one of those free crack pipes you mentioned in an earlier post. When you start touting intellectual superiority, I always have to shake my head and tell myself that dillusional people ( especially those on crack) always imagine themselves as the
harbingers of all that is true. Truth has a fleeting quality which escapes us all more often than not.
I seriously enjoyed reading your initial post and thought you had some valid arguments but sadly as is the case with most comments, reason and argument disappear and personal attacks flourish. I apologize for being fascetious in an earlier comment and I really should have focused on your arguments. Ah what the heck I live in Alberta, what the heck do I care about Toronto ( i assume we are talking about Toronto).
I’m going to bed…
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Ok this might sound a bit harsh but:
If someone is determined to begin a downward life spiral though the use of addictive, illegal drugs, in spite of the widespread dissemination of information which indicates the inevitablity of same, should I presume to dissuade them?
In view of my strong belief in personal freedom of choice, the only answer can be ‘no’.
Should I become an enabler of this behaviour, in view of the fact that the choice resides solely with the user? Again, my only answer can be ‘no’.
If a suicidal personality, who has a willing victim, is determined to either ruin or end their life there is little I can do to prevent that and any attempt to do so is an exercise in futility.
Would I offer the user who has a desire to change the tools with which to puruse that option? The only answer is ‘yes’.
Just as providing the alcoholic or gambling addict with the tools they need to pursue their path of self-destruction (as the Ontario government, for example, appears more than willing to do) would be anathematic in the face of a belief that this is wrong, so is providing the paraphernalia and locations which enable the unfortunate to further degrade themselves while falling prey to the carrion-eaters who supply their habit.
IMHO
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Excellent points, Caveat, and not harsh (at least, not openly advocating for the death or illness within a certain group of people).
As I stated above, the pipe program, like any other drug “exchange” program, isn’t meant to stop or slow down crack use. What it is meant to do is slow down or stop the spread of diseases associated with sharing the associated paraphenalia eg hepatitis, and it apparently succeeded at doing that.
Allow me to reframe this in another context. Not too long ago, abortion was illegal in most places in North America, yet women still had the procedure done in droves. Because of its clandestine nature, most of those who wanted abortions had to “make do” with back-alley hacks, incompetents, and “self-done” procedures (wealthier patients could afford better, or at least anonymity). No doubt certain conservatives (men more than likely) reacted to this reality with spiteful relish: “What they’re doing is illegal, so any additional bad stuff that happens to them is their own fault! It’ll act as a further deterrent!”
Leaving aside the whole question of whether or not abortion/drug use is a “good thing”, should be legalised, etc., is it really fair to punish doubly those people who, for whatever reason, use abortion or drugs?
(Uh, Gerry, both the host and I live in a particular suburb of Ottawa.)