NDP LFLA - Federal Riding Association for Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington

Naomi Klein on the World Bank

2007-07-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

It's not the act itself, it's the hypocrisy. That's the line on Paul Wolfowitz coming from editorial pages around the world. It's neither: not the act (the way he disregarded the rules to get his girlfriend a pay rise); and not the hypocrisy (the fact that Wolfowitz's mission as World Bank president is fighting for "good governance").

full story at the Guardian.http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2066703,00.html

Provincial Campaign Update

2007-07-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

July 18, 2007.

The campaign is off to a great start. We are involved in the uranium
exploration in North Frontenac, and Arif has made good contacts with the
CAW local at Hershey's and opened up some exciting prospect for
producing fair trade chocolates and workers ownership of the factory.
We will keep you posted on developments. The link between uranium
mining and nuclear power has been well received. I have been impressed
at the strength of opposition to nuclear power. Jack Layton's Press
secretary came to the Algonquin blockade of the mine exploration site
and offered the parties support.

HELP NEEDED

We need volunteers to help in three main areas over the summer:

* Write and produce literature. We have a volunteer who is going
to do layout, but proof reading and input are needed;
* Going to fairs, either with the candidate, or to sit at a table
with NDP literature and talk to anyone interested; and,
* Helping with phoning members and contacts.

If you can help with any of these, or would like to help out in any
other way, drop a note or call 613-374-5211.

UPCOMING EVENTS

First all-candidates meeting - Saturday, July 21, 10am, Bedford
Community Hall, 1381 Westport Road, organized by the Bedford Mining
Alert.

Tamworth Festival, July 21 in Tamworth, Ross will be there in the
afternoon

Stewart Park Festival in Perth - Ross hopes to be there for a couple of
hours on July 22

Lanark landowners Farmers market, July 29, Beckwith Sportsplex. Ross to
be there for a couple of hours around noon.

Saturday August 4 - Carleton Place Fair. We have a table. Ross and
Arif to be there and we need help staffing the table. If you can sit
there for a couple of hours please drop a note.

Sunday August 19- 4-8, meet the candidate, barbeque and campaign
discussion - John and Mary Platt's house - 3756 Copper Kettle Drive,
Inverary.

Sunday August 26, 4-8, meet the candidate and campaign discussion in
Carleton Place. Location to be announced.

IF YOU CAN MAKE ITO ANY OF THESE EVENTS, DROP BY AND SAY HI. IT WOULD
BE GREAT TO SEE YOU. ROSS.

Ross Sutherland - elbe@web.net

Article by Randy Hillier and Reply from Fair Vote's Steve Withers on MMP Electoral Reform

2007-07-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

Randy Hillier authored a letter which appeared in the Napanee Beaver, in opposition to the proposed electoral reform.

Steve Withers replies from the Yes side below. Published here from e-mail liststerv with Steve's permission

Politicians who don't do their homework are the problem - Steve Withers

Reading Conservative Party candidate, Randy Hillier's letter, it seems to me he is attempting to peddle vague, voluntary "democratic reform" instead of understanding and endorsing the compulsory improvements the Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) system certainly will impose on our MPPs if adopted on October 10th. Mr Hillier's voluntary, "let's all play nice", substitute for real change has been tried before in Canada and proven to be hollow promises every time. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

At risk of seeming harsh, having read Mr. Hillier's claims about MMP, he clearly hasn't done his homework. I say this because I've spent the last 11 years living under a very similar MMP system used in New Zealand. I'm from Ontario, but have spent many years there. In fact, I like MMP so much as a citizen and voter, I've returned to Ontario to share the good news with my fellow Ontarians. I would hate see people not support MMP, a very worthwhile improvement to Ontario's democracy, having been mislead by the flatly wrong assertions made by people like Mr. Hillier.

So how does MMP really work in actual practice? Nothing like what Mr. Hillier says. Let me tell you about where I live.

I live in the Otaki riding on the west coast of the North Island, New Zealand. Otaki is a mainly rural riding. The locally elected MP is Labour's Darren Hughes.

Not far away, in another riding office is Nathan Guy. He is a list MP for the Opposition National Party. Mr. Guy came second to Mr Hughes in the local race, but was high enough on the party list that he was also elected by his party's vote nationally. Far from being a "loser", Mr. Guy is a popular local Councilor and is a very popular MP, despite not getting quite as many votes as Mr. Hughes locally.

But wait, there's more. Sue Kedgley, a list MP from the Green Party, also serves the Otaki electorate as well as the other 9 ridings of the Wellington region. Her ads are in the weekly give-aways inviting Otaki voters to talk to her on issues of concern.

All of these MPs were democratically chosen as candidates (list or local) by the votes of party members prior to being elected by voters generally. None are party hacks chosen by party bosses in back rooms. That isn't how MMP really works. Voters and party members wouldn't stand for it if they tried. Mr. Hillier would know this had he bothered to check it out. He clearly didn't. So what is Mr. Hillier trying to tell us? Will his Conservative party choose its list candidates in back rooms and without consulting party members? Is he saying his party will be corrupt and undemocratic? I hope not. They won't get many votes under MMP behaving that way!

Under MMP, each of us will get two votes. A local vote to keep our local MPP in line and a party vote to keep the party we support in line. We don't have to mix the two functions in in one vote, as we do now. Even better, the party vote decides how many seats each party gets overall AND it counts toward representation no matter who won our local seat or where we cast it. Under MMP, because very party vote counts, the whole concept of appealing to swing voters in marginal seats becomes obsolete. Every voter is a swing voter.

If Mr. Hillier's party insisted, despite good advice to the contrary, on offering us corrupt old party hacks chosen in back rooms, as he claims we will certainly see, then the good news is that under MMP, we don't have to vote for any of them. We will have several other viable choices. Mr. Hillier would, in effect, have us believe that voting for just one candidate in just one riding out of 103 is as good as democracy can get. Never mind that the other 102 MPPs are utterly unaccountable to each of us. Never mind that our favoured candidate very likely didn't win and we elected no one anyway with our one vote.

Whereas under MMP, my party vote will apply to the entire province for the party I cast it for. Not just one riding. The whole province. My party vote helps decide the total number of seats my party will get. Not just one.

Mr. Hillier talks about paralysis under MMP. He clearly hasn't done any homework at all. More than 80 countries use proportional voting systems and they get along just fine. In New Zealand there is no paralysis. The economy is booming. Unemployment is the lowest in 35 years. The annual operating surplus of the NZ government during the past 5 years has been at times over NZ$11 billion on a NZ$35 billion annual budget. These surpluses are going to be used to fund the state-funded pension needs of baby boomers. That sounds like good management and growing prosperity, to me, not paralysis.

I could go on, but I think I've already demonstrated very clearly that Mr. Hillier needs to go back and do some homework before he risks further damaging his credibility by saying things publicly that are flatly wrong.

-- Steve WithersVote for MMP on Oct 10thhttp://www.VoteForMMP.caPh: +1-416-644-1034 (option3)Mo: +1-519-282-1078mhtml:%7B0CBA0CBD-644A-4808-9DAD-FCA138344C39%7Dmid://00000095/!x-usc:mailto:steve.withers@fairvote.ca mhtml:%7B0CBA0CBD-644A-4808-9DAD-FCA138344C39%7Dmid://00000095/!x-usc:mailto:sbwithers@gmail.com

Fair Vote Campaign Launched - Ontario Referendum Oct. 10th

2007-07-07T07:59:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been frustrated at election time because your vote will count for nothing? Do you feel that the representation in government should more accurately reflect the wishes of Canadian voters? On Oct. 10th, you will have the opportunity to cast a vote in a referendum on electoral reform in Ontario. If Ontarians vote Yes, we’ll be the first jurisdiction in Canada to adopt a Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP) system proposed by the Ontario Citizens Assembly. In future elections you’ll be able to cast two votes, one for a riding candidate and one for a party. A third of the seats will be filled according to the proportion of votes for a party and each party will post their list of candidates for proportional seats. You’ll still have MPP’s accountable to constituents and you will be assured of a vote that matters. This is an exciting and refreshing time for democracy in Ontario.

Here are some good reasons to change the electoral system so that it represents your vote. Currently, the Liberals hold roughly 70% of the seats at Queen’s Park with just 46% of the vote. Conservatives have only 24 of the 103 seats with 34% of the vote. If you’re an NDP voter, you’ll be frustrated to find that your party holds half the amount of seats the proportion of the vote suggests they should have. If you’re a Green party supporter, you’ll worry that though your party is polling at 10% in Ontario and still may not win a seat. On the federal front, Liberal voters in Alberta must wonder what happened to their votes, with Conservatives taking every single seat.

Our first-past-the post system undeniably favours the winning party. Not surprisingly, parties holding power have been reluctant to change to a system that would make voting more fair. This may be short-sighted. At one time or another, in federal or provincial politics, everyone has felt the pain of lopsided representation and the arrogance of a government that doesn’t quite deserve the power they hold. Women, First Nations, disabled and minority candidates are under-represented in government compared to the composition of our province, and MMP improves this picture. Mixed Member Proportional representation systems are successful in many modern democracies around the world such as the Scottish Parliament in the UK, New Zealand and Germany. If Ontario succeeds, this could be the model for better democracy in Canada.

The campaign for electoral reform is a multi-partisan initiative supported by the likes of Lloyd Axworthy, respected former Liberal foreign affairs minister, Hugh Segal, public policy guru and former Chief of Staff for Brian Mulroney and ethical Ed Broadbent of the NDP! Here in the provincial riding of Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington, we’re inviting all citizens to join a multi-partisan campaign to vote Yes in the October referendum on electoral reform. If you want to join the Yes campaign, let us know!

Arif Jinha
Carleton Place

Contacts
Arif Jinha Fair Vote Yes Campaign co-captain North LFL&A
donna.arif@rogers.com 613-889-7506
Hugh Jenney Fair Vote co-captain South LFL&A
hcjenney@hotmail.com 613-384-7830.

G8 leaders lack 'moral anchor' on Africa: Stephen Lewis

2007-06-13T18:11:00.001-07:00

The Canadian Press The former UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa accused the G8 Sunday of abandoning its commitments to health and social equality in Africa, suggesting its leaders are having trouble finding their "moral anchor." The leaders of the world's top industrialized nations have reneged on promises to have-not nations, particularly those in Africa, to help improve the health, social and equality conditions in those countries, said Canadian Stephen Lewis. see the rest of the story

HOPE!!

2007-06-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

Forwarded e-mail from avaaz.org,

Dear climate-saver,Our campaign against global warming is on fire! World leaders meet at the G8+5 summit this week--and they're listening to us. Friday morning, we banged boxes of 265,000 names down on the top German negotiator's table in Berlin. Taken aback, he promised to bring our voice into the negotiations, and said he'd track how fast our petition grows.

On Saturday, with another 10,000 signatures overnight, we marched at the head of the climate march in Rostock, with tens of thousands peacefully demanding urgent action. Now we're in touch with top officials from France, the UK and Brazil, all following our campaign as they decide on a strong stand. Let's turn the heat up even higher. Can you help us get to 333,333 voices for change--the biggest global climate petition ever--before the summit decision? One last push, together, to avert a planetary catastrophe.

Take a moment and tell five friends to go to this page-- http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_summit

The energy here in Germany is electric. Every few hours, new reports come in as governments manoeuvre. Amidst the politics, our campaign draws a clear line: a swift global agreement with binding emissions targets. When we met with Chancellor Angela Merkel's top representative who chairs the talks, he promised us Germany wouldn't compromise-- then on Sunday Merkel came through for us, the Brits followed suit, and now Brazil and China have joined the call for a global UN-led process. Bush has started to move but his proposals would be a step back, the US people and Congress are already way ahead of him.

The summit leaders can tell a global movement is brewing. Our petition, this simple list of names from every corner of the globe, is a sign politicians can see and touch. These talks always come down to the wire-- so it's crucial for world leaders to know how much the global public wants them to stop the climate crisis. The summit opens Wednesday, ends Friday. This is crunch time. So just for a moment, put aside whatever you're doing and help us get to a third of a million signatures-- urge your friends and family to sign the petition here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_summit

We know leaders are watching. Let's make their jaws drop.

With hope,

Ricken, Paul, Ben, Graziela, Iain, Hannah, Galit and the whole Avaaz team

Speak With Spokes Passes Through LFLA

2007-06-07T06:41:00.000-07:00

I'm really honoured to know Rainer Tan, a tremendous student I worked with at uOttawa and the inspiration for my idea of biking around the riding this summer.

He's biking across Canada!

He's blogging about his trip on Dogooder, at www.dogooder.ca/rainer and raising money for Canadian Federation for AIDS research. I hoped he could have stopped by my house, but he's moving so fast, I couldn't believe it when I read his post that he was already in Renfrew!

More info at www.speakwithspokes.org

Cheers,

Arif

Upcoming Events

2007-06-06T00:12:00.000-07:00

Bath

National Clean Air Day Celebration - Family Fun Night!

When: Friday June 8th - Centennial Park in Bath starting at 4:30 p.m. until 8:00
What: BBQ - Children's Activities (Face painting, Cookie Decorating, Fish Pond, Games, and much much more!) The Queen's University Solar Car will be on display!!!

Community Garage Sale

When: Saturday June 16th - St. John's Hall in Bath
What: garage sale - One person's junk is another person's treasure - donated items for sale - BBQ - etc.

Canada Day

Clean Air Bath will be running children's activities on Canada Day at Centennial Park - more to follow.

We need your help! We are looking for volunteers for the following:

1. People to bake cookies for the June 8th cookie-decorating table.

2. People to help with BBQ on June 8th and June 16th

3. Someone willing to work at a ticket table on June 8th

4. People willing to help with set up and tear down for June 8th, June 16th and/or Canada Day.

5. Someone to work at children's activities on June 8th, and Canada Day (we will be having an Air Castle on Canada Day - all day long and will require people to work at it for short intervals during the entire day - plus other activities - let me know if you are willing to help and at what times you will be available!

6. Any face painters/balloon animal makers, etc. out there - let me know.

7. ITEMS FOR GARAGE SALE (no clothes please) - a great way to clean out your house and garden - perennials are always a good seller!

8. People willing to pick up items and store them until the garage sale.

9. People willing to work at a table during the garage sale as well.

Please contact us by email at cleanairbath@hotmail.com

Carleton Place

Wednesday June 8th.

Advocates Against Apathy Art show - more details at www.artscarletonplace.com

Lanark County Community Transit Meeting - see www.communitytransitsolutions.ca

more to come, please send any info to allpeoplegetready@gmail.com

Arif

Press Release of June 1st: NDP LFLA Nominates Arif Jinha to run in next federal election

2007-06-05T22:23:00.000-07:00

Arif Jinha, a Carleton Place resident, has been acclaimed as the Federal NDP candidate for Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington.

Mr. Jinha works at the University of Ottawa coordinating programs in international development and health care. He started working in social services in 1999 and has worked for several agencies in Ottawa and Lanark County. He’s getting a solid education in economics, development, political science, conflict and international human rights as a graduate student in Globalization and International Development.

Arif feels that being an underdog candidate is a perfect opportunity for genuine politics and democratic conversation in the riding. That’s why he is running. "I get the opportunity to meet people, to talk to them, to raise issues. I’ve got the responsibility of representing the party of Tommy Douglas, the Greatest Canadian and my intention is to do so well, so that there is democratic choice in this riding."

Arif plans a 'low-carbon, high-impact' week-long bike tour to engage voters in the beautiful riding later this summer. Part of his job will be to convince fellow residents to vote at all. On the one hand, there is no shortage of pressing problems that are hitting us hard: rural poverty, declining agricultural incomes, unfair competition for Canadian manufacturers, unfairness for small enterprises, local producers and sellers, a shortage of doctors and nurses, chaos in parliament, procrastination on the environment, and worsening global poverty and insecurity. On the other hand, getting government to be responsive, to implement real change, to play its role in fairness in the economy or to do anything truly satisfying and good, in its most basic role in serving citizens, seems improbable to the voter. Arif believes the worst thing to do at this time, however, is to disengage.

”To quote Leonard Cohen, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.’ This is your government, question your representatives if they tell you what is in the public interest can't or shouldn't be done. Give the today's youth a voice in this election. Give them hope that they will inherit a better world. Take your voice back, practice your freedom to discuss, debate, vote and don't forget to make friends."

- Arif Jinha, candidate for LFLA.

:)Democracy is coming to the LFLA...

June 4th Movement: Tiannamen Square - Forgotten Massacre

2007-06-05T11:05:00.001-07:00

In 1989, if we are reminded, we will remember tanks rolling over students, killing students trapped in Tian'anmen Square. The Government of China killing its own students, it was a chilling news story, but I do not think any of us would have guessed how little impact that tragedy would have on the government of China, that those deaths appear to be largely lost in vain and forgotten. There is a verse in the Koran which says, 'to kill an innocent person is to kill all of humanity'. It kills me to think of that day, doubly so as a student myself and it angers me to this day. There has been no apology, and that is bitter my friends, bitter. The only thing to do, is to hold fast to the intention that we would have their courage, and that we shall overcome.

China has done its work to suppress dissent and even mention of the massacre, Google has participated in that, and I regret that as much as I like google, as we all do. I could not stomach Jean Chretien's great friendship with China, his willingness to ignore their human rights disaster for the love of money. Today, the Dalai Lama is still in exile having had his country occupied, monastaries destroyed, people persecuted and forced into labour, cultural genocide and the land he hoped for as an environmental and peace zone ravaged. Recent reports confirmed the Falun Gong's years of outcry over live human organ transplant from political prisoners who are then left to die. This goes on.

I myself forgot June 4th, meagre as the coverage is even here. And now we have the Olympics in China. China has been one of the greatest nations on earth, a great people. Some of the greatest were killed by its worst that day, martyred if you will, in the hopes for democracy.

Today George Bush parades around his false vision of the same, but while saying 'democracy' at every speech, fails to mention Tian'anmen, even on June 4th. But his version of democracy is built on violence and aggression, kind of like the New England licence plate, 'live free or die.'

I'm getting off topic, but one more thing. The Great Wal-Mart of China, and Giant Tiger, the Great China Store are rolling in cheap imports from China driven by Chinese sweatshop labour (I remember the reports of workers dying of overwork). We're asked to buy Canadian, but Canadian is disappearing fast. And when we talk against free trade, sometimes we're called Communists by the far right. The Communist government of China is exploiting free trade like no other.

It's time for a trade policy with China that insists they raise labour standards with fairness to workers and those of whom they trade with, insists they address human rights, insists they Free Tibet.

End of rant.

Arif Jinha - LFLA candidate for the NDP

Canadian Left to Languish in U.S. Jail

2007-05-19T00:57:00.000-07:00

After announcing the appointment of Senator Kirby as Commissioner of a Canadian Mental Health Strategy, the government is turning its back a Canadian who with a mental illness who is serving a 20-yr sentence in a Florida jail, with no access to treatment, in maximum security. CTV ran the story recently.

The commission itself would report on the problem of people rotting in prisons, who due to illness had no capacity of judgment for crimes they committed, and who ought to be treated. Instead, Stockwell Day has refused prisoner transfer on the grounds of national security since the crime involved a firearm, though there were no casualties. By confusing the issue of dangerous offenders and mental illness-related offences, we take a step backward in our understanding of both crime and mental illness. We need an explanation from the Honourable Minister for the basis of this decision, inconsistent as it is with the aims of the Commission and having zero balance of public safety and the need to protect individual Canadian citizens.

Please give your support to the petition and Ms. Diane Levesque, the young man's mother fighting for her son.

Thank you for your good work,

Arif Jinha
Candidate
NDP - Lanark Frontenac Lanark and Addington
donna.arif@rogers.com
613-257-1740

Harper Government Ignores AIDS 2006

2006-07-21T18:41:00.000-07:00

HIV/AIDS has been said to be the worst medical disaster faced by humanity ever. In the face of plague itself ravaging the world, millions of people are working their hearts to breaking, their bodies to exhaustion and their jobs to the point of burnout to cope with the burden and fight the disease. Canadians like Stephen Lewis and Dr. Mark Wainberg were a powerful presence and represented Canada well at the AIDS 2006 Conference in Toronto.

Government policy on HIV/AIDS has implications that affect whether people live or die, and the tragedy is that decisions are all too often made for political rather than humanitarian and health and life-preserving reasons. 30,000 people, from scientists, activists, policy-makers, health professionals, lawyers, community workers, faith groups came to our beautiful country because they have decided that fighting history's worst pandemic was a worthwhile thing to do. No other conference could draw such a diverse international crowd. And where was our Prime Minister in Canada's greatest moment in history as host? Where was he to greet the world's premiere scientists, the world's workers on the ground working against sexual violence against women, for access to life-saving treatment, those working with the 12.3 million children orphaned by AIDS in Africa?

He was in the Arctic Circle. Announcements by our Health Minister were cancelled twice. We all sat ashamed as Africans, Western and Eastern Europeans, South Americans, Americans and Central Americans, South, East and Central Asians, Australians, Australasians, South Pacific Islanders, Middle Easterners etc. came to Toronto to present their work and discuss how to save lives and ensure human rights. There was no welcome for this historic event in Toronto from our Prime Minister. Arctic sovereignty is important, but Stephen Harper claims the trip was planned long in advance as if the issues of the Arctic are so time-sensitive that he had to be there exactly the week of Aug. 13th. The conference was also planned long in advance, why the conflict?

While the South African government's painfully misguided approach regarding treatment in the country most heavily affected by the disease was denounced by every scientist, policymaker and by Stephen Lewis, Tony Clement condemned the condemnation. Let us ask Tony Clement how long he thinks he would last in government if he promoted the use of lemon and garlic to treat cancer.

Harper and Clement have described the conference as politicized. Rather than deal with reality as it is, rather than tackle the issues fo human rights, fairness, discrimination and poverty, we have a leader who is not up to it. We thought politicians were hired by the people to deal with tough politicial issues. Harper's shown to be a real disappointment.

From attending the AIDS 2006, it's clear to me that the NDP is the only party that really gets it. This is serious work, the silent tsunami every month. Canada ought to step up, to fight for life, not deny death. Canada's foreign policy statement is named 'A Role of Pride and Influence in the World'. By ignoring the conference our government has shown ingnorance, not leadership.

Arif Jinha

New Democratic Party of Canada

2006-06-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

NDP LFLA

2006-06-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome,

This site will be the home for Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington's Federal NDP Riding Association.

NDP LFLA.