MISSISSAUGA MUNICIPAL (UNOFFICIAL) CAMPAIGN updates

[The Mississauga Muse]

Re: Mississauga campaign news

Observer Walt wrote:

Taylor admittedly does make a good point or two, but be aware that as a former councillor,

"former councillor"? No. I didn't know that.

he may have an "axe to grind".

Oh my, gee, I certainly hope so!

BTW the last I heard, he was not living in Mississauga. I wonder if he's moved back?

I'll consider it a challenge to "check".

Have a great day, Observer Walt!


Signed,
The Mississauga Muse

 

[The Mississauga Muse]

Re: Mississauga campaign news

Observer Walt, you wrote:

BTW the last I heard, he was not living in Mississauga. I wonder if he's moved back?

Happened to be visiting Fort Flawedulent today and yep, there's a Larry Taylor in Mississauga. No mention of an axe though.

Related topic:

Just found out that Cable 10 Rogers has a Mississauga Election Site featuring talking-head brief candidate speeches at:

ROGERS CABLE 10 MISSISSAUGA ELECTION INFO

We were driving yesterday and I happened to spy this VOTE ad at a Mississauga bus stop. We skidded the car to a halt and snapped this pic.

I tell you though, not much of anything happening at this location near Eglinton and Mississauga Road.

Aside from that bus stop VOTE sign, there happened to be zero evidence anywhere around there that Mississauga was just three weeks away from actual voting!

Signed,
The (Perpetually Observant) Mississauga Muse

 

[spmarshall]

Re: Mississauga campaign news

ROTFLMAO!

Did Carolyn Parrish clone herself? That way she could run in every ward!

 

[adma]

Re: Mississauga campaign news

Larry Taylor is/was the closest thing to a NDP municipal stalwart Mississauga's had in recent times; maybe, back when he was on council in the 80s, a Howard Moscoe to Hazel's Mel Lastman, roughly speaking...

 

[Observer Walt]

Re: Mississauga campaign news

she could run in every ward

:eek
God help us, having her run in one ward is more than enough thank you. If we should be so unlucky as to actually have her elected, you can expect interesting times at City Hall to put it mildly as she manoeuvres herself into position to run for mayor.

adma: As a point of trivia, both Larry Taylor and Hazel McCallion have rooms named after them at the Mississauga Valley Community Centre. Taylor's room is larger, for some reason which I have never understood.

 

[The Mississauga Muse]

Re: Mississauga campaign news

adma wrote:

Larry Taylor is/was the closest thing to a NDP municipal stalwart Mississauga's had in recent times; maybe, back when he was on council in the 80s, a Howard Moscoe to Hazel's Mel Lastman, roughly speaking...

Observer Walt wrote:

adma: As a point of trivia, both Larry Taylor and Hazel McCallion have rooms named after them at the Mississauga Valley Community Centre.

It's really quite something to log onto Toronto Forum and find people who know Mississauga's political history well enough to serve up "trivia".

Having been a researcher-of-sorts in an entirely unrelated field, I truly appreciate "trivia" since it can potentially be a tiny but vital piece of a Big Picture Puzzle.

Taylor's room is larger, for some reason which I have never understood.

Mostly likely scenario? City workers made a boo boo.

But I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt. So let me check how they determined comparative room size...

Yep. The City-dudes measured wrong. Catastrophic equipment failure.

Signed,
The Mississauga Muse

 

[The Mississauga Muse]

Re: Mississauga campaign news

WWWWWWWWWWaaaake Up Mississauga!

In an election campaign, where issues-debate isn't, Mississauga voters are served up smear-and-scandal instead. (Hey. Whatever Works!)

I just read the news and it looks like a candidate in Ward 10 has really cranked up the rhetoric. Charged by police for threatening another candidate, Adnan Hashmi has fought back and then some!

He's not only denied everything, he's tossed out both the R-card and the G-card simultaneously! What a PLAY!

In today's Torstar:

Harried candidate at centre of storm
Says smeared by slurs, `dirty tricks'
Bitter rivals battle in Mississauga
Oct. 24, 2006. 01:00 AM
SAN GREWAL
STAFF REPORTER

[emphasis mine]

[snip]

At a news conference at his Ward 10 campaign office yesterday, Adnan Hashmi — who denies the allegations against him — claimed voters in predominantly Muslim neighbourhoods are being told in door-to-door visits not to vote for Hashmi because he's gay.

He also said his family has received death threats over the past three months, suggesting that rivals among the 23 candidates running for the new Ward 10 seat are trying to squeeze him out of the race.

"My opponents are threatened by my strong position in Ward 10," Hashmi said. "The list of dirty political tricks is endless."

When asked about the allegations, Ishrat Nasim, the rival candidate who told police Hashmi had posed as a police officer to try to gather proof that she's not eligible to run in Mississauga, said she never mentioned to voters that Hashmi "as an individual is gay."

[snip]

Hashmi took the news conference as an opportunity to accuse the media of racial profiling in reporting on the charges laid against him last week.

"I believe if I was a white candidate the media coverage would have been different," he told the Star later. "That's not only my opinion, but the opinion of people in my ward. Why was the story on the front page of the newspaper, with a large picture of me in the centre?" he asked, referring to last Wednesday's Toronto Star.

"It was because of my ethnicity. I was made to look as if I'm guilty before anything has even been proven," he said.

Anyway... Moving Forward.... Leading Today for Tomorrow....

The Mississauga list of candidates for the new Ward 10 include:

Alam, Shah Rukh

Briers, John

Ciufo, Tony (Rogers Cable 10 speech)

Dallas, Peter

Dookie, Jamie (Rogers Cable 10 speech) (I like this dude's speech)

D'Souza, Dale (Rogers Cable 10 speech)

Hashmi, Adnan (Rogers Cable 10 speech) (To Mr. Hashmi. Sorry there, guy, but in your speech you say, "I'm deeply passionate about my city and my country." Call me stunn'r'nTom's dog but, you leave me uncertain as to what country you're referring to.)

Hazineh, Elias&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp

Janiak, Jack

Javaid, Faisal

Lawrence, Craig

Llewellyn, Gwen (Rogers Cable 10 speech)

McFadden, Sue

Mendes, Patrick

Nasim, Ishrat

Pereira, Richard

Polis, Barbara (Rogers Cable 10 speech)

Prag, Euclid

Roti, Graziano

Sesek, Mike

Tahmourpour, Ali

Thorpe, Brodrick Eldon


Signed,
The (Grateful to live in Ward 11) Mississauga Muse

 

[spmarshall]

Re: Mississauga campaign news

If we should be so unlucky as to actually have her elected, you can expect interesting times at City Hall to put it mildly as she manoeuvres herself into position to run for mayor.

Not that I'm much of a Parrish fan, but at least it would bring some excitement and a taste of democracy to the ever-obedient council of Hazel's Pavlovian dogs, well, apart from the usual suspect citizens who are now muzzled at council meetings.

 

[Observer Walt]

Re: Mississauga campaign news

^ Just my own opinion, but I find her to be clownish. She would make news all right, but overall I would consider her an embarassment. There is at least one other candidate in Ward 6 who I think is more serious and well-qualified.

 

[The Mississauga Muse]

Re: Mississauga campaign news

spmarshall wrote:

apart from the usual suspect citizens who are now muzzled at council meetings.

It isn't just the usual suspect citizens, sp --every citizen is now muzzled.

Going from: anyone could show up and ask a question of their elected representatives during a council meeting to:

And our procedure by-law does indicate that if a person wishes to address Council then they are to make their request in writing six days prior to the Council meeting.

And then if a matter is not on the agenda, if Council wishes to deal with it then they can pass a motion to accept that deputation.

I mean I was proud that my government has such open public access to council. I heard we were the only one in the entire GTA who let citizens just drop by like that.

And it's not like there were a lot of citizens showing up to ask questions of council. I know --because to satisfy a curiosity, I went over old council minutes to see how many people asked questions during Public Question Period. Mostly, I got NIL.

Two "usual suspect citizens" were targeted, I'm convinced of it. Yet they gave the entire class a detention. Not that I really believe it matters though.

Take a Letter to the Editor in today's Mississauga News.

The Mississauga News
Oct 23, 2006

Not used to it

Re: Letters, "No parking," The News, July 28 edition.

In response to Marilyn Fraser's letter regarding no parking, I could not agree more with her letter. Port Credit lacks parking for visitors. We live in an older area of Mississauga with the majority being small bungalows. However, when these homes come up for sale, they're replaced by monster homes that tower above us. With these large homes comes an exceptional amount of cars and then parking spills to the street, but the city doesn't consider that. The neighbourhood went before the City council to express our objections on the developments in the area and were met with "get used to it."

Meadowvale, in its early development stage in the early 1970's, was advertised as the community with no high-rises. Look at it today. Our complaints fall on deaf ears. Money speaks, not the little people.

Patricia Fagan

Mississauga

Our complaints fall on deaf ears. Money speaks, not the little people.

Here's the thing sp. If little people mattered --if their voices really mattered, if people input were truly valued/wlecomed, Mississauga council meetings wouldn't be held at 9am on a Wednesday. They'd be scheduled in the evenings (7 to 9) like the City of Hamilton does.

And in a better world, healthy snacks and beverages would be sold in the council lobby to citizen-attendees at a tidy profit that would go to support my City's community programmes.

And in a perfect world? A mayor of Mississauga will one day restore Open Public Question Period.

Don't laugh. I believe that will happen one day. A mayor of Mississauga will one day restore Open Public Question Period.


Signed,
The (I BELIEVE) Mississauga Muse

 

[The Mississauga Muse]

Re: Mississauga campaign news "Mississauga councillor..

I'm posting an abbreviated version of:

Mississauga councillor broke rules
Oct. 25, 2006. 06:19 AM
MIKE FUNSTON AND JESSICA LEEDER
STAFF REPORTERS

Councillor Eve Adams violated the city's conflict-of-interest policy by ordering two employees to work on her re-election campaign, an internal investigation at Mississauga City Hall has concluded.

Adams, who is running in Ward 5, also put up election signs before the date allowed under city bylaws and on properties without getting the permission of homeowners, according to Mayor Hazel McCallion.

Adams has denied the allegations, saying she was not asked to take part in the investigation.

The denial drew the ire of McCallion, who yesterday released city manager Janice Baker's findings and memos from an employee alleging that Adams had ordered her to lie to her superiors to cover up what had happened.

"By denying it, (Adams is) calling the city manager a liar and her staff liars. It's really bad," McCallion said, citing "a file half-an-inch thick of emails from her, directing staff."

The rest of the article is at:

TORONTO STAR ARTICLE Mississauga councillor broke rules

Signed,
The (B'in there, done that) Mississauga Muse

 

[The Mississauga Muse]

Re: Hey, Mississauga --You ready for this one?

Well. At least this old man has Clayton Ruby on his side...

THE MISSISSAUGA NEWS
Ward 9 protest candidate faces criminal charges

John Stewart
Oct 24, 2006

Municipal politics is often denigrated by its detractors for being about nothing more than pot holes and parking.

For evidence that such apparently mundane subjects can unleash unusual passion, look no further than this year's Ward 9 City Council race.

Incumbent Councillor Pat Saito's remarks about pot holes, as reported in a 2003 story in The Mississauga News, prompted an angry constituent to write a poem that made fun of her suggestion. That resulted in charges of threatening and uttering death threats being laid against the man by Peel Regional Police in February.

Now the accused, 75-year-old Antonio Baptista, and his son, Joe, are both challenging Saito in the Nov. 13 election.

In an interview at the Brampton courthouse where his trial date was to be set, Baptista said he is running as a protest candidate to bring the public's attention to the charges he feels have been unfairly brought against him.

He explained that comments Saito made in the newspaper story that pot holes and parked cars can act as speed bumps because they slow down traffic incensed him to the point that he wrote a poem, entitled Parked Cars and Pot Holes in the City of Mississauga. In the poem, he referred to building a pot hole that would be large enough to hold the councillor's body.

Baptista said he posted about 10 copies of the poem in his neighbourhood. An off-duty police officer saw one of the postings and brought it to Saito's attention. Her office referred it to police and charges were subsequently laid.

Baptista, who has lived in Churchill Meadows since July 2001, was already upset with the councillor about a tax issue.

"I don't think I did anything wrong," said Baptista, who suffers from prostate cancer. "I wrote it (the poem) to make her feel guilty."

Saito, who has represented Ward 9 since 1991, said she had nothing to do with having charges laid, other than having referred the matter to police.

"I suggested they give him leniency," she said.

Over the years, she has often joked in public that pot holes slow down traffic.

"The whole thing is unfortunate," she told The News. "I didn't want to see him go to jail, but I wanted him made aware that what he was doing was wrong. When you are in politics, this is the kind of thing you open yourself up to."

Joe Baptista, who is his father's campaign manager, entered the race because the conditions of Antonio Baptista's bail prevent him from contacting City councillors directly or indirectly. Since his father could not attend any all-candidates' meeting, he would act as his father's spokesperson, Baptista said.

"It's a satirical poem, which is a form of artistic expression," the son commented.

In an attempt to promote his father's cause, Joe Baptista this week circulated the controversial poem to all the candidates in the municipal election and numerous public officials.

As a result, he has been warned by the Crown Attorney's office to stop, or he could also face charges. In a defiant e-mail in response, Baptista urged supporters to confirm they have received the poem because it, "will assist me to expose the moral bankruptcy that has become our political and justice system."

Antonio Baptista told The News he went to City Hall to register as a candidate, even though his bail conditions banned him from being within 500 metres of the building. His son, who did not know about his father's plan to register that day, said his father had forgotten about the condition until he showed him the bail documents. No charges have been laid.

Antonio Baptista is to appear in court again next April 16. He has retained high-profile lawyer Clayton Ruby to defend him.

Michael Johnson, Bill McBain and Fernando Rodrigues are also seeking the Ward 9 seat.

I tell you. I'd write them-all a poem right now if I could find just one word to rhyme with MISSISSAUGA!

Signed,
The (That's it. I've had it) Brampton Muse

 

[The Mississauga Muse]

Re: Hey, Mississauga --Quick! Someone drain the swamp!

This was BREAKING NEWS at the Mississauga News website just now.

THE MISSISSAUGA NEWS
Councillor's brother sends bogus e-mail

The Mississauga News
Oct 24, 2006

By TAHMINA REZA

Special

In an election laden with accusations and allegations of dirty tricks, the brother of Ward 7 City Councillor Nando Iannicca has been caught sending bogus e-mails to a rival candidate.

Sandro Iannicca, who said he is a member of his brother's re-election team, admits to posing as a female ratepayer and sending e-mails to upstart candidate Shane McNeil.

The e-mails were discovered to be fake, said McNeil, because Sandro Iannicca's name was listed as the sender of the correspondence.

Last night Sandro Iannicca said he used a pseudonym in his e-mails to McNeil because he thought the candidate would not engage him otherwise.

"I was concerned about things on his website," said Sandro Iannicca. "Honestly, I thought I could educate him a bit."

In the first e-mail he challenges McNeil on his residency: "Thanks for expressing an interest in running for Council. As you know it is hard to take a Council candidate seriously who does not actually live in the ward."

The e-mail is signed "Rita Forbes."

Even though he was aware the e-mail came from the incumbent's relative, McNeil said he responded by indicating he did live in the ward.

It wasn't until a second e-mail that McNeil confronted Sandro about his true identity.

In a final e-mail Sandro Iannicca came clean and admitted he is Nando's brother. He apologized, stating that he was acting as a concerned family member.

In an interview with The News, Nando Iannicca said he didn't know anything about his brother's e-mails until after the exchange with McNeil.

"After I had seen the e-mails I said, 'Sandro, don't waste time on this guy,'" said Nando Iannicca. "I think it's foolish (sending the e-mails). It was a dumb thing to do, without question."

Nando Iannicca said his brother is not an active member of his campaign team and is not in on decision making. He said Sandro is just delivering some of his campaign literature.

McNeil said he believed the initial e-mail was sent to intimidate him. "It was as if to say, 'If you don't live in the riding, then what are you doing running here?'" said McNeil. After receiving the second e-mail, McNeil said he thought they were just fearful of his campaign.

Sandro Iannicca said there was no intimidation intended, he just wanted McNeil to get his facts straight on some of the election issues.

I feel this man's pain. I don't like having to use pseudonyms in emails/boards etc either!

Signed,
The (Loretta J. Greenberg, Sir Arthur Waxx, Dark Prinz, Gloria Van Gloria, Hurricane McCallion, Abdul Mohammed Abdul, Lt. Gen. Lance von Schoppenhauer, Joe Smith and Candyfloss8) Mississauga Muse

 

[spmarshall]

Re: Hey, Mississauga --Quick! Someone drain the swamp!

LOL! Keep it coming!

You'd think there's some serious problems amongst many (if not all) on Mississauga clowncil.

BTW, where's FutureMayor?

 

[Observer Walt]

Re: Hey, Mississauga --Quick! Someone drain the swamp!

^ Future Mayor no doubt is busy campaigning. I'm sure we'll hear from him again.

All of this stuff makes Miss. look bad, although some of it probably takes place elsewhere as well. People get pretty worked up sometimes about elections, and good judgement goes out the window. It's one thing when a perhaps immature brother of a candidate sends an e-mail under a false name (just silly). It's another thing when an elected official uses City staffers and City resources on a campaign, which is just plain unethical and dishonest. I hope she's voted out! Three years ago she replaced a former councillor who had been convicted criminally. I have sympathy for the long-suffering people in Ward 5.