John Tory live interview

John Tory, the leader of the PC Party of Ontario will participate in a live video townhall right here on this blog at 4pm EST on Friday August 15th.

A few weeks ago, I held a similar townhall with Preston Manning. You can see the the product of that here.

Please login to this site at 4pm and I will pass on your great questions from the chat window provided. The floor is open, so ask Tory your questions on topics ranging from the McGuinty government to conservatism in Ontario to the next election.

UPDATE: We’re live!

UPDATE: I think that went well. We had to redial mid-chat but here are the results of this blog’s second townhall. Thanks to John Tory. The picture is a bit choppy for the first 8 minutes but after the break the video is of good quality.

Which NDP and Bloc candidate filings are under review by Elections Canada?

Today Marc Mayrand of Elections Canada hinted at the Ethics committee that filings from other parties were also under review by his organization that oversees elections. Currently, Elections Canada claims that the Conservative Party has run afoul of the Elections Act by the shifting of so-called expenses from the national campaign to the local campaigns. However, Elections Canada is only focusing their brutish efforts on the Conservative Party.

I decided to look into this and found that Elections Canada actually discloses via “creative” querying of their database which candidate filings are under review. If we access the contributions and expenses database on the Elections Canada website, we can compare submitted vs. reviewed filings from all candidates. There are discrepancies between both lists suggesting that Elections Canada is actively reviewing a number of filings from candidates of the 2006 General Election.

Data as submitted:

vs. data as reviewed:

Here is the NDP in BC:
Data as submitted:

Data as reviewed:

Nathan Cullen, Libby Davies, and Malcolm James are not on the “data as reviewed by Elections Canada” list while they are on the “data as submitted list”. These NDPers seem to have election filings that are under active review by Elections Canada.

NDP in New Brunswick:
Data as submitted:

Data as reviewed:

Alice Finnamore, Neil Gardner, and Yvon Godin seem to have filings that are under active review by Elections Canada.

NDP in Saskatchewan:
Data as submitted:

Data as reviewed:

Elgin Wayne Wyatt’s name is discrepant between filings submitted to and filings reviewed by Elections Canada suggesting this candidate’s filing is under active review by Elections Canada.

NDP in Ontario:
Data as submitted:


Data as reviewed:


Nirvan Balkissoon, Olivia Chow, Ed Chudak, and Sid Ryan have submitted their filings to Elections Canada but EC has not finished reviewing them meaning they have been flagged for some reason.

NDP in Quebec:
Data as submitted:

Data as reviewed:

Robert Donnelly, Anne Lesvesque, Isabelle Maguire, Ehsan Mohammadian, and Stephane Ricard have not had the reviews of their candidate filings completed by Elections Canada.

NDP in Alberta, Manitoba, Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, PEI, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador:
no discrepancy between lists

The Bloc Quebecois only has one candidate from the last election that appears to be under active review by Elections Canada. Diane Bourgeois, according to the EC website, has submitted her candidate filing, however, its review has not been completed.

BQ in Quebec:
Data as submitted:

Data as reviewed:

Oh Canada! :(

The 2008 Summer Olympics are underway in China and besides the news of Michael Phelps, that of Canada being shut out of the medal count is growing. Six days into the games, Canada has yet to mount the podium in Beijing and shares this distinction with countries such as Somalia, Panama, and Iceland while countries such as Uzbekistan, Armenia and Togo are besting us at the games. To put it in a way that’s becoming popular to say, even Phelps has more medals than Canada.

So, what’s the problem here? Charles Adler has rejected three theories: Canada is cold, the government doesn’t care and we’re modest.

One of Stephen Harper’s five priorities during the 2006 election was restoring Canada’s image on the world stage. (UPDATE: not a Harper 5, but still emphasized by the CPC campaign) The more cynical realists would argue that the Olympics is merely a two-week love-in once every two years and that the games barely qualify for what Harper was referencing. Yet Canadians are hurting as they watch the games and we feel that our athletes should be doing better at this international showcase of athletic talent. A check of the COC media guide reveals that $20,000 is awarded per medal (even bronze) to Canadian athletes via the Athlete Excellence Fund. This is the first Olympics where athletes have been given bonuses from the Canadian Olympic Committee for winning medals.

Perhaps a larger question here is whether or not it is the role of government to incent our athletes to perform. Does this professionalize amateur sport by diluting the spirit of competition with monetary incentive? In Canada, companies such as VISA and Rona have provided sponsorships and salary assistance to athletes. Both companies are official sponsors to the Olympic games. If the private sector can bare $8.7 million a year for Sydney Crosby’s salary, can it bare $8.7 million in aggregate for the entire Olympic team? For the 330-plus team in Beijing, this amounts to about $26,000 per athlete.

Does this therefore reflect our real and market-based attitudes towards the Olympics or does the funding equation need to be reconfigured? If Canadian athletes are underfunded and if we assume that this translates directly into their performance, would Canadians cheer and reward a company that offered $100,000 per gold or provided grants to Canadian athletes? The problem, however, could lie in the management of sponsorship rights to the games. If companies want to advertise for the games, should a larger proportion of their money go towards the athletes?

So where does the problem lie? Like all Canadians, I’d love to see Canada take home some more gold. Canadian athletes are representing us to the world and they deserve our support. How can we give it to them?