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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday January 27, 2007 - 17 Halton Liberal president resigns to seek riding nomination By Melanie Hennessey SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER While a federal election has yet to be called, the first contender for the Halton Liberal nomination has thrown his hat in the ring. Oakville resident Jose Zlatar announced late last week that he has resigned from his position as the president of the Halton Federal Liberal Association to launch his campaign to represent the Grits locally in the next election. "We need a Liberal member of Parliament for Halton so we can support our leader, Stephane Dion," said Zlatar, noting that Dion wants to put the Kyoto Protocol back in place, amongst other things. He also said he strongly supports Dion's proposal to shape the nation's future by following a Jose Zlatar three-pillared approach -- work hard for social justice, develop economic prosperity and make Canada a leading nation in environmental sustainability and technology. And following in Dion's footsteps, Zlatar has already laid out his own three-point platform that he said would lead his actions in Ottawa if he's ultimately chosen as the local Liberal candidate and then elected as MP. The first plank in the platform focuses on women, family and society. "There is still much to do to raise women professionally to leading levels in the private and public sectors in enough numbers that reflect their actual half share of our population," he said. "We need to develop strategies to improve training for women, access to work, eliminate salary differences between genders and get more women involved in politics so our population is better represented at all government levels." Zlatar also said Canada needs to develop more efficient ways of supporting families with children, such as free daycare before and after school. The second part of his platform deals with the workplace, such as developing a system that allows new Canadians who are skilled workers to obtain the professional recognition they need quickly. He acknowledged that the federal government has developed a program to retrain workers who are fired, but said he thinks people shouldn't have to wait until they've been let go from a job to take part in the program. "We should allow workers to access retraining programs based on the time they had contributed to employment insurance," he said. Rounding out his platform is what he calls "Canada in action" -- working together to promote Canadian values, bringing in environmentally-friendly technologies and diversifying the country's eco- nomic base. Zlatar, a married father of one, was born in Lima, South America. He arrived in Canada in 1988 and joined the Liberal Party of Canada in 1993. When the Halton riding was created, he became a founding member and joined the executive as the membership secretary. He also held the position of riding director and was elected Halton federal riding president last year. Since 1992 he has been involved in exporting Canadian products to overseas markets, specializing in Canadian grains and dairy products. In 2002, he founded Great Lakes Food Trading Inc., which expanded its operations into the United States a few years later. For more information or to contact Zlatar visit www.josezlatar.ca. Join us in Oak ville ! Artist's conceptual rendering. Indulge Yourself. PRIME VILLAGE LOCATION BOUTIQUE-HOTEL STYLING Mosaïc. Blue at its best. Blue Mountain, Intrawest's premier four-season Ontario resort, is coming to Oakville! See the architect's model and talk with our real estate team about flexible ownership opportunities and the revenue-generating potential of Mosaïc resort homes. Mosaïc Showcase Event Wednesday, January 31, 2007 Holiday Inn Select 2525 Wyecroft Road | 6 ­ 9 pm Pre-construction pricing begins in the low $200,000s. RSVP at 1.888.Own.Blue (696.2583) or email VillageAtBlue@Intrawest.com www.MosaicAtBlue.com Playground Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage | 220 Jozo Weider Blvd. | Collingwood, ON L9Y 3Z2 | 1.888.696.2583 This is not an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of an offer to buy, to residents of any state or province in which restrictions and other legal requirements have not been fulfilled. This offer is void where prohibited by law. Prices are accurate at the time of printing.