Van Loan out as Minister of Public Safety
Cornwall Ontario – Peter Van Loan is no longer the Minister of Public Safety. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced his cabinet shuffle this morning and Van Loan his now the Minister of International Trade. This apparent demotion came as a result of the PM’s dissatisfaction with Van Loan’s handling of the prison system.
Locally, Van Loan will be remembered for his unwillingness to negotiate with the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (MCA) about the arming of border guards. Last spring when the government decided to arm all of its borders, the people of Akwesasne protested.
The protest resulted with the border guards vacating their post because of fear of an uprising. Rather than visiting Cornwall and resolving an issue that has cost local businesses dearly with cross border traffic, Van Loan decided to stay firm and leave all the negotiating to the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA).
This type of hard ball politics combined with M.P Guy Lauzon’s silence on the issue has left a foul taste in the mouths of many locals. Perhaps the new Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews will be more willing to discuss this issue with the MCA and end this border dispute.
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A demotion wasn’t enough for Van Loon. He should have been sacked. With all the bungling he did as Minister of Safety, just imagine how he’s going to make a joke now of the Ministry of International Trade.
grimalot, they can’t sack him….only the people can at the next election. It won’t be long now…..
It may be that no one will read this post, but I am the NDP candidate running against Peter van Loan in this 2015 election. I have been fighting for 10 years now, and cannot understand why people in the riding of York Simcoe continue to vote him in. The unwillingness to see anything from someone else’s point of view is astounding. I thought leaders should be masters at conflict resolution.
I am a long-time proponent of a just society in whiche everyone wins, and we embrace conflict when it arises for the opportunity for change it can bring.
If anyone has an idea to offer, I am listening, and hope to bring change.
If anyone wants to help, please feel free.
Sylvia gerl….you do not understand why York Simcoe continues to vote for Peter? The answer should be obvious to all…there has not been a viable alternative that voters could get behind. You represent the far left, greater government involvement and control for starts and from there it snowballs to include radical socialist economics. Maybe one day communism or a mutated form will prevail, who knows? In the mean time I will enjoy the freedom and opportunity that capitalism has provided me and a system that my family fought for to protect.
God bless our veterans. They deserve so much more.
What part of radical socialist economics, Mr. Oldham, would you like to live without? The part that delivers your drinking water, the part that checks if the supermarket has no rats, the part that takes you to the hospital in an ambulance, or the part that checks if the nuclear plant is meeting safety standards? Oh, and don’t forget you have to form your own bucket brigade if your house may set on fire. You are amazingly lucky that those of us who believe in a fair society believe that ALL SHOULD BE PROTECTED, even the ornery and unlikeable. The freedom that capitalism allows people should be tempered with the knowledge and wisdom that we are all in this together, like the soldiers in the trenches knew when they created their own truce at Christmas. You are just not paying enough attention to what is actually happening in Canada now if you think these Harper conservatives care more about you than about the banks and oil companies.
I do wish for God to bless the veterans, and I don’t believe for a second that they were fighting for a dog eat dog life, where only the strongest survive. We can all have a decent life by sharing. They do deserve more than Stephen Harper has been willing to give them. Listen to those actual veterans talk. You have no right to speak for them.
I represent myself, and want to work for the good of all in this country. I know that some of the things you say come from blind acceptance of words that have been fed to you, and hope that you can think your way out of that corral you have been led to by the “conservatives”. Do not let yourself be played.