Ways to Elect a Leader

From today's Star:

June 27 vote for Tory leader

[...]

The [Provincial Conservative Leadership] race will be decided using a one-member-one-vote system with Tories casting preferential ballots in all 107 Ontario ridings on June 21 and June 25.

Ballot boxes will be sealed and opened in Markham on June 27. Riding association presidents from the 107 constituencies will then read aloud the tabulated results in a move designed to give the event the excitement of a U.S. presidential nominating convention. "We want to be able to present the party in a way the public can tune in on TV or on a special website," said Zeise.

[...]

This is interesting in an academic, political junkie kind of way. Besides 'generating excitement', this will also create an interesting data set that will show the geographic breakdown of each candidate's support. From an academic perspective, it might then be interesting to map that against donations and so forth.

It's also an interesting experiment in openness. Does anyone think this would be a good idea on our side of the floor? What if there was an a breakdown from our convention how our leadership candidates did in each riding? Or a detailed breakdown of the union vs. membersip vote? (And speaking of openness, how much of that for the NDP leadership race will be publicly released? After some quick looking around, there is no detailed breakdown online at the ONDP website.)

I also wonder how this "reading aloud the tabulated results" will work if the convention goes to a second ballot. Or are they just counting on one, now that Mike Harris is busily putting all the ducks in a row?

Is there much precedent for what the PC's are doing in a leadership context before? From the viewpoint of a detached observer, it looks like an interesting experiment.

Events in Parkdale-High Park

Some upcoming events in Parkdale-High Park:

"Hearts & Minds"

Kudos to our friends over at the Parkdale-High Park NDP for putting together a really snazzy-looking and info-packed newsletter. I haven't had time to do more than flip through yet, but it looks like there's a lot of well-written stuff to digest here. Check it out!

Hearts & Minds - Issue 1

The Parkdale-High Park NDP Riding Association presents issue one of its new newsletter: Hearts & Minds.

Read it on the web at http://phpndp.ca/Issue1/ or download and read or print out the pdf.

Vote! (and other notes)

Just a reminder -- mail-in balloting is now complete, but you can still make your leadership vote online or by phone. You can vote up to 8 p.m. on Friday, after which there is a blackout period until the "live" voting begins at 3 p.m. Saturday.

If you vote before the blackout period, you will complete one preferential ballot for up to four choices; if you wait until Saturday, you will vote for one candidate on each ballot until there is a winner.

You need the PIN sent out with your voting package to be able to vote; if that has gone missing or you have any other problems, you can get assistance at 1-888-281-8683. You can also get more information here.

There will be a final debate between the leadership candidates on Friday night; it should be available live online at the ONDP website. Does anyone know if any television will be covering the vote live from the convention?

I hope that everyone from our riding attending the Convention has a good time!

---

In other news, Linda & I went to the Metro NDP meeting last night. I'll pass along the minutes from that as they become available.

Local Interest

Two recent articles from The Star:

It's a Jungle in here

Students bring life on the street to stage


Pioneering Jewish group fading, victim of its success

Minutes and other updates

The minutes from this week's executive meeting are now online. Let me know if there are any questions or any corrections to be made.

Just a head's up: looking to the future, we will soon be gearing up for the Federal NDP Convention, set for August 14-16, 2009 in Halifax. At our next general meeting we will be debating resolutions, so if you want to change or update the party's policies, this is your chance! Similarly, it's time to start planning if you think you would like to go to Halifax as a delegate.

Meanwhile, check out these official NDP blogging tools. Any of them look interesting enough that I should try and set them up here?

Executive meeting next week

We are holding an executive meeting next week - Wednesday, February 25. Executive meetings are open to all members in good standing of the riding association.

If you are interested in joining us, please email for the location.

The agenda for the meeting is online.

Hey Glen Park!

The Toronto Star website has another in their series of "interactive Google Maps", showing the city's neighbourhoods.

Most of our riding is covered by names that are familiar and I have an understanding of where they are (Lawrence Heights, Bedford Park, Lytton Park, Allenby and so on) but my neck of the woods (north end of Marlee) falls into "Glen Park".

In ten years, give or take, I've lived in these parts I've never heard anyone actually use "Glen Park" as a neighbourhood name. If someone asks what neighbourhood I live in, I always just default to geography ("Lawrence and Allen").

Google "Glen Park" and you get the street and the school (which, slightly confusingly, isn't on the street) -- which are, admittedly, good places to start for a neighbourhood. But otherwise, it's pretty much real estate listings and/or city documents breaking things down into "official" neighbourhoods. Not what I'd reckon I'd find if I googled a vibrant "name" neighbourhood.

So - am I just disconnected? Is this in the common parlance and I've been missing out? Does the map jibe with what you consider your neighbourhood to be?

(Things could be worse, mind you -- the north-west corner of our riding, north of Lawrence, west of Dufferin is a blank on the neighbourhood map. What do denizens of that area describe themselves with - Outlet Store-ites?)

Upcoming Events with Ontario's NDP

Important Upcoming Events With Ontario's NDP

Scroll down for more Information

• Sun. Feb 22 - Second Annual Skate Day with Ontario's New Democrats
• Sat. Feb 28 - Celebrate Black History Month: Free movie screening in York South-Weston
• Now-Mar. 5 - By-election in Haliburton - Kawartha Lakes - Brock
• Mar. 6 - 8 Ontario NDP Leadership Convention
• Now - Mar. 13 - Call for nominations for the 2009 J.S. Woodsworth Awards
• Tues. Apr. 7 - J.S. Woodsworth Awards Night

Notices

• Watch NewDemocratTV Episode 3 trailer on wwww.ontariondp.ca
• Episode 3: 5 Point Plan Comining Soon!
• Be friends with Ima Dipper on Facebook and stay connected every day

Looking Forward with Ontario's NDP - Upcoming Events
	Sunday, February 22: Second Annual Skate Day	Enjoy a fun-filled afternoon of skating, free hot chocolate, live music, laughs, political discussion & networking. 1:30 pm - 4:00 pm Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto
	Saturday, February 28: Celebrating Black History Month	Ontario's NDP and our York South - Weston Riding Association invite you to a free screening of two beautiful documentaries. 11:30 am - 1:30pm York Civic Centre, 2700 Eglinton Ave. W.
	Today - March 5 - Provincial By-election	A provincial by-election is underway in the riding of Haliburton - Kawartha Lakes - Brock.
	March 6 -8 - Ontario NDP Convention	New Ideas - New Leader - New Democrats Guaranteed to be the most exciting event of this year. Are you a delegate? Have you submitted your credentials yet? Are you planning to attend as an observer? Be sure to be a part of the excitment
	Today - Mar 13 - Nominations for 2009 J.S. Woodsworth Awards open	Nominate an individual and/or an organization for the Annual J.S. Woodsworth Awards in commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Award is presented annually to a person and/or organization for their outstanding commitment to eliminating racism and in advancing the rights of minorities and immigrants.
	Tues. April 7 J.S. Woodsworth Awards Night	The 2009 winner(s) of the J.S. Woodsworth Award will be announced at a reception at Queen's Park.

For more information contact:
Rowena Santos
NDP Caucus Outreach
Room 461, Main Legislative Building, Queen's Park
o) 416-325-2765
e)santosr@ndp.on.ca

Are we dull?

Or, more accurately, how dull are we?

In this week's Now, Andrew Cash casts a slightly-jaundiced eye over the crop of NDP leadership candidates, and assesses the state of the party generally:

This party is so, so unhip, so spectacularly devoid of even the smallest hint of style, groove, charisma.... Okay, I'll say it. This is a boring party, someplace you'd only be if you'd drawn the short straw.

I wouldn't say I find anything in this piece particularly contentious. Nor would I say that I have any particularly novel ideas about how to change matters. Any reactions? Arguments?

(it also looks like there are some audio links from last weekend's leadership debate at the bottom of the article, if you're inclined to check that sort of thing out.)

An interesting story at The Tyee, out of B.C., this week. They do good work - I subscribe to their weekly headlines package, and there is always something worth reading there. Anyways, this certainly conforms to what we saw in Eglinton-Lawrence in the last election, but it's a bit sobering to see in the big picture how bad things were:

New Rules Stopped 450,000 Canadians from Voting

(Also there this week, those interested in Extended Producer responsibility and e-waste might find this story interesting.)

Provincial Convention Delegates / Ed Broadbent talk / YSW Fundraising Dinner / 2nd Annual Skate Day

1. Provincial Convention Delegates

Linda notes that "because of an increase in our membership we are entitled to yet another delegate." We still had one spot unclaimed, so we are now seeking two delegates. If you are interested in attending the Convention, please get in touch with us! Help us build Eglinton-Lawrence's reputation as a riding that speaks out!
_________________________________________________________________________

2. Barbarism Lite: the political attack on social rights, 1979-2009
A talk by Ed Broadbent, former leader of Canada's New Democrats
An engaging academic and political discussion about the attack on social rights over the past 30 years.
Thursday, February 19th , 2009
7:30 pm
Schulich School, York University, 4700 Keele St.
_________________________________________________________________________

3. York South Weston 2nd Annual Fundraising Dinner
Live Music, Guest Speakers, Good Food and all for a great cause!

AMBIANCE BANQUET HALL
501 Alliance Avenue
(East off Jane Street; between St. Clair and Eglinton)

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2009
Reception @ 6:30 PM / Dinner @ 7:30 PM

FINE PRINT! By purchasing one or more tickets, not only are you supporting a GREAT CAUSE, meanwhile spending a wonderful evening and eating good food, but you will receive a tax receipt of $53 for each ticket purchased. What could be better than that?
Tickets are $80.00 . If you can't attend please consider purchasing a ticket and having it donated to a low-income supporter.

PLEASE SEND YOUR COMPLETED ORDER FORM TO:
YSW NDP, PO Box 34501, 1565 Jane Street, Toronto, ON M9N 1R0

________________________________________________________________________

4. 2nd Annual Skate Day

Last year's skate day with the NDP was such a success that we are making this an annual event!

Please join our Leader Howard Hampton, your NDP MPPs, and fellow New Democrats for our...

2nd Annual Skate Day
Sunday, February 22nd
from 1:30-4pm
at Nathan Phillips Square

Enjoy a fun-filled afternoon of...
* skating
* free hot chocolate
* live music
* laughs
* political discourse
* networking

Please forward this invitation to friends and family. This is a free event and everyone is welcome.

We hope to see you there!

Local News

Battle erupts over future of Yonge and Eglinton

TTC booth robberies prompt more patrols

Join us for Earth Hour 2009!

Join us for Earth Hour 2009! Thank you Canada for making Earth Hour 2008 a huge success! Collectively, we have the power to send an even stronger message with Earth Hour 2009! Join WWF for Earth Hour 2009, by turning out your lights for one hour on Saturday, March 28 from 8:30-9:30pm! Earth Hour is a global lights-out phenomenon that will bring together millions of people from around the world to show support for action on climate change. This symbolic event will demonstrate to governments around the world that we want action on climate change now. Already, hundreds of cities in more than 70 countries have pledged their support for Earth Hour, including Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. In 2008, millions of people in more than 35 countries participated. This year already, the number of countries participating has more than doubled, putting Earth Hour 2009 well on the way to meeting WWF's global goal of one billion participants! This year there is special significance, as Earth Hour will also provide a global call to action to world leaders meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009 to strike a new global deal on climate change. A new agreement is pivotal because in 2012, the Kyoto Accord, the most significant international agreement to control greenhouse gas emissions, will expire. Sign up for Earth Hour Saturday, March 28th 8:30 pm - 9:30 pm Tell your staff and friends! Forward this e-mail to your colleagues and staff, family and friends. Get your Earth Hour Corporate Communications Kit Today! Download your company's Earth Hour corporate communications kit. The kit includes several documents created to help your business communicate the Earth Hour message. Getting Your Business Involved Businesses are integral to making Earth Hour a success and there are many ways businesses can support Earth Hour. We are encouraging businesses to turn off their exterior lights, including signs, as well as internal lights (excluding lighting for safety), and to ask their employees and customers to participate. What you can do: Sign up for Earth Hour at www.earthhourcanada.org and commit to turning off unnecessary exterior and interior lights on March 28 at 8:30 p.m. (mindful of safety and emergency lighting). Promote Earth Hour to your staff, customers, suppliers and tenants by using internal communication channels. Collaborate with members of your organization to consider what else can be done within the workplace to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Tell us what you are doing for Earth Hour and we may use your company as an example to others in media opportunities and on our website. Inspire your community by telling your customers what you are doing for Earth Hour. Post a link on your website, add the logo to your advertising, let the world know that you support action on climate change. Make sure to take advantage of the tools available at www.EarthHourCanada.org including downloadable posters, logos, guides and toolkits. This will enable you to make your own Earth Hour a memorable event. Make every hour Earth Hour Our hope is that Earth Hour will inspire people to keep taking action to fight climate change every day. Your company has a role to play through actions such as recycling, using compact fluorescent light bulbs, etc. To help support your continued efforts, WWF-Canada has created The Good Life - a fun and interactive online community for concerned Canadians who want to stop just talking about climate change and start taking action. Registrants on the site can access tips, information, and even track their company's reduction in carbon dioxide over the long term. For more information visit wwf.ca.   © Earth Hour 2009 Unsubscribe Privacy Contact

 

Leadership Debate this Sunday

There is a Leadership Debate this Sunday (February 8th):

Sunday, Feb. 8

Toronto

The Great Hall, 1087 Queen Street West, 2-4 pm

The Great Hall is on the south-east corner of Queen and Dovercourt. There's a streetcar stop right there.