Cornwall ON – It was a scary night for those candidates that braved the topic and focus on the Environment and it isn’t often that a Federal Leader tosses a question into the mix as Green Party Leader Elizabeth May did for the Cornwall Ontario Candidates last night at the Army Navy club. Her question also led to some actual discussion about our neighbors on Akwesasne.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7MehjNnQno
What was the most surprising was the depth of knowledge and caring that the group shared on the environment. You don’t have to be David Suzuki to care about where you live and try and make it better and this group as a whole deserves a lot of kudos and credibility for their answers.
Jason Setnyk Gary Samler Denis Carr on Saving Energy Dollars
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgW5JYD_YrM
The questions were only supplied as they sat down which meant no researching answers in advance with their teams which gives them an even bigger reason to be proud of their responses.
Elaine MacDonald
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4DRV07fIW4
Mike Bedard on Akwesasne
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FinmD2Q-r5s
David Murphy and Madeleine LeBrun
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeHyppgrqQQ
Denis Thibault and Claude Poirier
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3RqnS9Rd78
Bernadette Clement, Denis Thibault, Gary Samler, Mike Bedard at Environment Debate
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wmd_VR4gPE
Claude Poirier and closing statement from moderator David Rawnsley
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD3PxdszH5g
The format of the debate wasn’t as structured as some of the others and the council candidates had an opportunity to answer the same questions as the mayor.
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It was sad to see the event attacked by Bill Kingston of Corus in his coverage. It’s a shame in a city like Cornwall for this type of behaviour to occur. Tonight belonged to the candidates, but mostly to the people of Cornwall Ontario as they can rest assured that those that they’re voting for do care about the environment.
What do you think Cornwall? You can post your comments below. And please remember to vote on October 25th and when you go to vote please remember to bring your identification.
Dear Green Party,
Thank you for hosting last nights debate with a focus on the environment. The more the community gets to see the candidates the better informed they are and the better our community will be. It is important for Cornwall to see how the world is changing and also to hear ideas of how we can turn Cornwall into a ‘Green City’ while staying ahead of the economic curve.
Being Green can help the economy and if planned properly can also reduce spending and create employment! Do the leg work and you will see that anything is possible and impossible is nothing!
Thank You,
Mike Bedard
We do need to do leg work. However, if attendance at this event was any measure, we may be a few legs short. But that being said, I wasn’t disheartened by attendance, I was disheartened by what I heard from the stage.
While many candidates’ carefully inclusive, sometimes rambling, and generally shallow answers may be written off to the limited and inadequate time to prepare and answer meaningfully, there were also some outlandish and hypocritical responses; responses that were just an insult to everyone’s intelligence, to anyone sincere, and to those actually putting an effort into environmental protection.
Outlandish in the case of Bob Kilger, who tried to associate himself with a cleaner St. Lawrence and Cornwall’s more breathable air — but unless it was Bob that introduced Zebra Mussels, or Bob that convinced Domtar management to “shut ‘er down”, I’d say that his rhetoric and “hot air” just make him another contributor to global warming.
And Hypocrisy in the case of former councillors (excepting Mark MacDonald, to be fair).
— When I began asking this and the former council to make Domtar step up and pay for the cleanup of their Paper Mill and N-co-rode sites, there was no support.
— When I appealed to the Ministry of Environment to prevent increased and toxic dumping at Big Ben, council treated me like a gadfly.
— When I finally appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board to examine the impact of building the Benson Centre on ground proven to be continually polluted by the leaking Big Ben, in the middle of industrial operations, Council turned their backs on me and the community.
Now I don’t fault candidates that trumpet their successes or winning abilities, but I also encourage people to take up the good fight even in the face of failure, and to support others that do.
And consider this, any time you’re knocked down…
“I am hurt, but I am not slain; I’ll lay me down and bleed a while, And then I’ll rise and fight again.”
– John Dryden, from his poem “Sir Andrew Barton”
here here Jim! your points were thought by a few of us. i am worried about Cornwall’s environmental future. the city is already far behind in a lot of the developments other city’s are and with some of the candidates so out of touch as to what the impact could be if Cornwall doesn’t make an attempt to catch up is for me frightening.
In an obsecure way Gerald Samson made the most important point of the evening. Environmental initiatives are not for us it is for our children, their children and the people we are trying to attract in order for the city to grow.
Hi Jim,
Do you have any issues with my campaign? You commented on my last two posts by starting off with a contradiction to something I said! If you do not like my comments please say so directly; so that I may clarify any of my statments! I am truly interested in your tactics and would love to talk about Cornwall’s future with yourself or anyone who is interested. However, I will remain professional and I am truly not interested in long rants about the past because my goals are to make changes in the future; more specifically after October 25th, 2010.
I admire your determination and the fact that you are willing to donate your pay; if elected! Is it just coincidental that you have posted directly behind me twice in a row? I really want to know!
Thank You,
Mike Bedard
Is Jim baiting? Did he finally get a bite?