Oshawa VOTES political party has declared its intention to run a slate of candidates to contest the next municipal election. We have declared "WE PROMISE" as our campaign theme. Our website will be www.WePromise.ca
While the party will have a wide-ranging platform, it's first order of business will be in returning ward voting to Oshawa.
Another major goal will be in defeating Mayor Gray and Councillors Pidwerbecki, Parkes, Marimpietri, Henry, Kolodzie, and Sholdra all of whom voted to rob you of your local ward representatives by replacing ward voting with the less accountable and less democratic "General Vote". They wanted a "self-serving" electoral system that served them rather than the people of Oshawa.
In addition to a platform of "positives" our team will develop, we will be reminding the public of the growing collection of "negatives" identified below under the item--Oshawa City Council "Hall of Shame". The Oshawa public, however, is invited to contact us to suggest additional isses you think we should consider.
Fortunately the general vote will make the task easier for the VOTES party as our team will be able to concentrate on one city-wide campaign rather than on seven ward campaigns.
2. "I've never heard of a government informing people about a plebiscite question."--Councillor Joe Kolodzie (City Council Mtg., April 10, 2007)
3. "Our half million dollar loss at the GM Center actually puts us $700,000 above the $1.2 million loss at the Civic."--Mayor John Gray's "spin" on first year taxpayer losses of new GM Place (December 07 interview with CHEX TV's Dan Carter's "First Take LIVE) overlooking borrowing costs for GM Center which didn't exist for the Civic.
4. FULL LIST UNDER CONSTRUCTION
OSHAWA CITY COUNCIL "HALL OF SHAME"--UNDER CONSTRUCTION
BILL LONGWORTH was founder and chair of Ward System Now, the activist organization that brought the ward system to Oshawa.
He personally presented the winning case to the Ontario Municipal Board in 1985 in a 21 day hearing, the longest of it's type in Ontario History.
Because Oshawa City Council has again voted to implement the General Vote, he is once again called to arms to preserve democratic ward voting for Oshawa.