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9 W ednesday , O ctober 20, 2010 O A KVILLE BEA V ER w w w .o akvillebeaver .co m www.omh.ca Congratulations to our friends at Hush Homes winner of the Toronto Star 2010 Ontario Project of the Year for Avalon & The Gardens at Coronation, presented by The Ontario Home Builders Association. Well done! 700 KERR STREET, OAKVILLE, ON L6K 3W5 WWW.OMH.CA Main Street Relationships, Bay Street Results. CORPORATE & COMMERCIAL FAMILY LAW CIVIL LITIGATION CRIMINAL LAW LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT REAL ESTATE ESTATES & TRUSTS ENVIRONMENTAL & MUNICIPAL (905) 842-8030 previous party affiliations running for each posi- tion, as well. There are various examples of party politics around the town. One example shows a picture of Liberal sup- port on Town council. Burton and five other councillors Tom Adams (Ward 6), Alan Johnston (Ward 1), Ralph Robinson (Ward 1), Allan Elgar (Ward 4) and Roger Lapworth (Ward 4) publicly announced their support for Ward 6 Councillor Max Khan during his suc- cessful bid for the Oakville federal Liberal riding nomination for the upcoming federal election. This did not sit well with Ward 3 Councillor Mary Chapin, who was also seeking the Liberal nomination. Just like the Grits, there are also examples of Tory colours around the town. Lee St. James, president of the Oakville Provincial PC Riding Association recently sent a letter endorsing candidates to Tory supporters. This is an excerpt of the letter: While municipal politics is traditionally non-partisan, the current mayor has made his Liberal parti- sanship an unfortunate and destructive aspect of his leadership. Here is a list of small c con- servative candidates you may wish to support through volunteering or donating to their cam- paigns (most are not members of our associa- tion, but are listed based on my understanding of their inclinations). The list includes Cathy Duddeck and Stephen Sparling for Ward 2, Dave Gittings and Keith Bird for Ward 3, Brian Burton for Ward 4, Mark Straub and Jeff Knoll for Ward 5, Ross Bragdon for Ward 6 and Ann Mulvale for mayor. Knoll, who considers himself non-partisan on Town council but has past affiliations with the Conservatives, said there is a need to be wary of partisanship on council. He said he switched from party politics to municipal gov- ernment because it is non-partisan. It is about providing service, such as waste disposal, rather than creating policy that the party must follow that he said may not serve a politicians con- stituents in the best way. However, he said hes noticed slight traces of partisanship on the current term of council. He identifies Burton, Johnston, Khan, Chapin and Elgar as Liberals. Id say theres definitely a voting block and everybody thats Liberal is part of that block. They vote almost always together, he said. Here is a deeper examination of the candi- dates running for mayor. Ann Mulvale was the federal candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party for the Oakville-Milton riding in 1993. She said she has been a member of the federal PC Party from 1990 until its merger with other Tory parties to become the Conservative Party in 2003. She added she has not held a provincial party mem- bership since the late 1970s. Rob Burton, on the other hand, is a Liberal supporter. He recently supported Ward 6 Town Councillor Max Khan to run for the Liberals for Oakville in the upcoming federal election. The other two mayoral candidates Raymond Ray and John McLaughlin have indicated no previous party affiliations. Ray was quick to voice his opinion of the state of Oakvilles municipal election. The timing is so perfect that the power plant stopped right before election, he wrote by e-mail, referring to the Oct. 7 provincial Liberal governments decision to stop the gas-fired power plant in Oakville. Now (Premier Dalton) McGuinty will have the vote from Oakville when Burton will be re-elected. What a dirty world. I feel sick. However, Burton said he has seen no party influence in the current term of Town council. I have seen no evidence that local decisions have been influenced by provincial or federal party positions over the last term, he wrote in an e-mail. Even though council members are affiliated with more than one political party, most of our decisions were unanimous. For example, we did not split along party lines when we voted to protect the town against the impacts of the provincial Liberals decision to put a power plant in (southeast) Oakville nor when we voted to protest the federal Conservatives decision to scrap the long-form census, whose data was so important for our planning department and social agencies. Ward 1 There are two frontrunners for the Ward 1 Town council position with John McMullen indi- cating no previous party affiliation, while Ralph Robinson has indicated involvement with all of them. In the past, Robinson said he has supported the provincial Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation as well as the federal NDP, Conservative and Reform parties. Little is known about the third candidate Michael Loomans. Ward 1s town and regional council position has also drawn a mixed bag of candidates. On the Oakville Federal Liberal Riding Association website, Alan Johnston is listed as a policy chair. Over the past 40 years, Bob Aceti has been a member of the Liberal, NDP and Five councillors and mayor backed Khan for Liberal nomination Continued from page 1 While municipal politics is traditionally non-partisan, the current mayor has made his liberal partisanship an unfortunate and destructive aspect of his leadership. Here is a list of small c - conservative candidates you may wish to support through volunteering or donating to their campaigns. (most are not members of our association, but are listed based on my understanding of their inclinations. Lee St. James, president Oakville Provincial PC Riding Association See Councillors page 10