The Sandor Report

With the Ontario municipal elections behind us, I would now like to make a request to all of the Councillor Elects, Mayor Elects and citizens everywhere.  For the next four years, would it be too much to ask to keep party politics out of municipal affairs? To set the record straight, there are no parties in local government.  You did not vote for a Liberal councillor or a Conservative mayor.  Likewise, to all of you newly elected officials, you do not represent a provincial or federal party.  Nevertheless, over the last 10 months of campaigning, I have heard countless times refrains such as "I'm not voting for a filthy Conservative for Mayor" or "Those scheming Liberals have taken over City Hall".  What's worse, candidates not only propagated this misconception by declaring that they would be a Conservative or Liberal politician, but in fact told citizens to vote along provincial or federal party lines. For higher levels of government, it may be easy ...

In addition to the standard issues of international affairs, economic growth and social equality that most of us expect our government to constantly address, the federal government has spent the last few months placing focus on what on the surface appear to be minor domestic issues.   Among these proposals have been the ruling that a portrait of the Queen should hang in all Canadian embassies, flying the Canadian flag should be a constitutional right, memorials for the War of 1812 should receive funding and our army should be renamed “The Royal Canadian Armed Forces”.   Although there seems to be a general consensus on Parliament Hill that these measures are not out of line, many Canadians have expressed a belief that these changes hold little significance beyond strengthening the support of Conservative Party members.   I have no intention of arguing the point, however we must look beyond the veil of partisan politics in order to see that these measures have the pot...