Wayne Marston

Friday October 31, 2014

Friday October 31, 2014Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 31, 2014

Bratina touted as a ‘game changer’ for federal Liberals

The Liberals believe outgoing Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina is the man who will finally wrestle Hamilton East-Stoney Creek away from the New Democrats.

“We’ve got a game changer here,” Tyler Banham, president of the Ontario Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) said Wednesday night at Bratina’s nomination meeting.

“Bob Bratina has never lost an election and I like to say (Liberal Leader) Justin Trudeau has never lost an election.”

About 70 people attended Bratina’s meeting at the Renaissance Centre on Barton Street East, including Hamilton’s provincial cabinet minister Ted McMeekin, Hamilton Centre Liberal candidate Anne Tennier, former mayor Larry Di Ianni and former Hamilton alderman Mary Kiss.

Bratina was acclaimed to the post two days after the municipal election saw Fred Eisenberger elected as his successor. The one-term mayor opted not to run again to become a Liberal candidate. He was Ward 2 councillor from 2004 to 2010.

New Democrat MP Wayne Marston has held the riding since 2006 when he defeated Liberal cabinet minister Tony Valeri. He defeated Di Ianni in 2008. In 2011, he received 45.2 per cent of the vote. The Liberal candidate garnered 13.2 per cent.

Bratina told reporters after his acceptance speech — in which he said his life had “a sense of destiny” — that Marston was a “fine person,” but said Hamilton has lost from not having a government MP and that the government after the election will be lead by Trudeau.

“It’s really not a matter of personalities,” he said. “It’s about getting back into power of Canada, which is the federal government. We have had a great tradition in this area of Liberals being in power and influencing the government.”

He said that hasn’t happened under Marston, Hamilton Centre NDP MP Dave Christopherson and Hamilton Mountain NDP MP Chris Charlton “and it’s time for a change.”

He said he was so impressed by Trudeau he decided not to run for mayor again and seize the opportunity to run for the Liberals.

“I’m the ideal candidate for this riding at this time,” Bratina said.

Marston welcomed Bratina into the race, explaining “I don’t go to war with people.” He added he was not worried about Bratina. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Friday, February 1, 2013

Friday, February 1, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, February 1, 2013

NDP bid to repeal Clarity Act is a bad move for Canada

The NDP opposition has been taking a hit in the polls lately, dropping below 30 per cent support on a regular basis. As well, the party was strangely silent during Theresa Spence’s hunger strike, leaving an opening seized by Liberal Party leader Bob Rae. Now, suddenly, comes party leader Thomas Mulcair with a plan to repeal the Clarity Act as a way to shore up sagging support in Quebec, the province that is key to the party’s electoral success. It is a risky move for the NDP, and a bad one for Canada.

The NDP surged into Opposition in 2011, carried there by unprecedented support in Quebec, where the party won 59 out of 75 seats. But Mr. Mulcair knows that, politically speaking, Quebec giveth and Quebec taketh away. The NDP’s success there in 2011 was a combination of many factors. The question for the NDP has always been, now that we have it, how do we keep it?

Repealing the Clarity Act, as Mr. Mulcair is now making a bid to do, is not the answer. The act, passed in 2000 by Jean Chretien’s Liberal government, states Ottawa will only negotiate sovereignty in the wake of a clear majority for the yes side in a referendum (without stating what the threshold for a clear majority actually is), that the question posed must be simple and direct, and that an amendment to the Constitution is required before Quebec can secede. The bill has never been popular in Quebec, for obvious reasons.

Mr. Mulcair’s proposed bill would also require a precisely worded question, but it would allow Quebec to secede with a simple referendum majority of 50 per cent plus one. It is in, in short, a step backward that will reopen old wounds and divisions for no reason other than to protect the NDP’s gains in Quebec. Worse still, it is by no means guaranteed to work, given the fickle nature of Quebec voters.

Mr. Mulcair leads a federalist party that represents all of Canada and should act accordingly. His proposed bill does not meet that standard. His naked gambit was best exposed for what it is when he defended his support of a simple majority by saying, “The side that wins wins.” If he truly believed that, the previous two referenda would have settled the issue for him. (Source: Globe & Mail)

February 1, 2007

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HAMILTON EAST
Everytime I draw a cartoon I like to think of it as becoming part of a chronology of particular stories. On my website you’ll find related cartoons beneath each daily illustration of certain current events. Today’s cartoon is the first in over a year that I’ve drawn on the intriguing political situation in Hamilton East, the federal riding of John Munro, Sheila Copps, and Toni Valeri. Here you’ll find links to cartoons on the Hamilton East political story.
In 2002 things could not have better for Liberals in the riding of Hamilton East. The federal and provincial Parliamentarians were firmly in place and a new influencial councillor was on the rise.

Then Jean Chretien announced he was stepping down. The Liberal Party foundation in Hamilton East would begin to crumble. Indeed, throughout the city, fortunes for Liberals would completely change over the next 4 years.
Sheila Copps wanted to become Liberal leader of Canada.

After going down to defeat by Paul Martin at the 2003 Liberal leadership convention, Sheila Copps turned down the offer of a patronage appointment from Martin and announced that she intended to remain in the House of Commons. Many suspect that Martin wanted to appoint Copps as Canada’s ambassador to France or UNESCO. Tony Valeri and Stan Keyes, both Hamilton area MP’s were elevated to cabinet, while Copps was demoted to the backbenches.

Riding redistribution placed Hamilton East MP Copps in a serious nomination battle with another Liberal MP, Tony Valeri from Stoney Creek Glanbrook.

In a December interview Copps complained that Prime Minister Paul Martin was trying to drive her, other women and other Martin opponents out of the Liberal caucus. On January 14, 2004, she suggested that she could campaign for the New Democratic Party in the upcoming election if Valeri won the Liberal nomination. Copps later retracted this threat.

The once rock solid Liberal foundation in the Hamilton area ridings was showing great wear and tear by this point. John Bryden, the MP from the western part of the city had crossed the floor to join the Conservative Party. Beth Phinney, from Hamilton Mountain, was offering her seat to Sheila Copps. Dominic Agostino, the popular Liberal MPP from Hamilton East would throw his support to Valeri. Area city councillors, such as Sam Merulla, would not know who to support.

March 6, 2004 was the date of the Hamilton East–Stoney Creek Liberal party nomination meeting, and Valeri defeated Copps by 2,802 votes to 2,491. Copps alleged improprieties in the nomination process and the conduct of the vote, and called on various authorities to investigate. No evidence was found to substantiate Copps’ allegations.

On the Provincial scene in Hamilton East the popular Liberal MPP, Dominic Agostino suddenly died on March 24, 2004, of liver cancer, to the surprise of many. Some city councillors tried seize upon the opportunity to consider a successor. But in a by-election to fill his legislative seat held on May 13, 2004, Dominic’s brother Ralph Agostino, a Catholic separate school board trustee, failed to retain the Hamilton East seat for the Liberal Party, falling far behind city councillor and NDP candidate Andrea Horwath. During the campaign, Councillor Sam Merulla, was showing signs of abandoning the Liberals for the NDP.

Following a near loss in the June 2004 federal election Valeri was appointed to the sensitive position of Government House Leader in Paul Martin’s minority government. He changed his hair style during this time.

Meanwhile, Stan Keyes who ran as Liberal candidate for the redistributed riding of Hamilton Centre, was defeated by the NDP candidate David Christopherson, a former provincial cabinet minister. The former amateur sports minister would have to watch the summer Athen’s Olympics from his livingroom. (Keyes was later given a patronage appointment by Martin as consul general to Boston. Then, after being demoted by Stephen Harper, went on to become President of The Canadian Payday Loan Association.)

Not much would happen in Hamilton Liberal party politics during the minority government of Paul Martin. Sheila Copps would release her second autobiography, Worth Fighting For, in October 2004, baselessly alleging that Martin had put a pledge in his 1995 budget to rescind the “outdated” Canada Health Act. Beth Phinney would resign her seat.

In the Christmas election of 2006, the Hamilton Spectator reported that Toni Valeri had purchased a property for $225,000 only to later sell it to a Liberal supporter for $500,000 a few months later. While Valeri insisted that the Ethics Commissioner had cleared the transaction, lingering doubts about the sale remained. Valeri was narrowly defeated by a margin of less than 500 votes by the New Democratic Party candidate Wayne Marston. Beth Phinney’s old seat would go to the NDP’s Chris Charlton, Dundas-Ancaster-Etc would become Tory under David Sweet, and Stan Keyes old riding would continue to be represented by David Christopherson of the NDP. No Liberals would be left standing in Hamilton after the 2006 federal election.
By February 2007, with another federal election set to be announced at anytime, Liberals in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek remain in disarray.