The NDP candidate will be Stephen Maynard, who ran federally for the NDP in the 2006 General Election. The website will be online soon.

The NDP candidate Stephen Maynard, is out door knocking and speaking to voters. Maynard is the only candidate who has declared his support for the electoral reform ballot question. Irene Mathyssen’s superb job and popularity as the MP in the riding, has shown not only can the NDP win in London, but NDP representatives aren’t all talk, they really do work for people.

The backbench Liberal incumbent is toast! Barely squeaking into office last time, Khalil Ramal has established himself as little more than a rubber stamp yes man for the McGuinty gov’t. Most notably Ramal failed to oppose his government on a dump expansion that will see London get Toronto’s trash.

Ramal’s election was highly dependant on the Arab/Muslim voting block last election. He cannot count on these votes this time. Maynard is well known in the Arab/Muslim community. A regular columnist in the Albilad newspaper and frequent guest at the Mosque, Maynard will recieve some support from the Muslim community.

Maynard has also established a profile in fighting for affordable housing at City Hall. At 24, Maynard is by far the youngest of the 3 candidates and this will be an advantage as Fanshawe College students will be in session during the election period.

The Conservatives do have a core vote in the riding, and soft Conservatives votes that Ramal was able to capture last time in the Harris/Eves backlash will shift back to Conservative candidate and local media personality Jim Chapman.

This riding will be a two way race, NDP and Conservative, with the Liberals in third by a significant margin.

Hello! I am running for member of provincial parliment under the Libertarian Banner in London Fanshawe. I would like to extend an open invitation to any of the candidates for extensive, public debate on all of the issues.

I’d see the dyanamics favour Stephen and the NDP here.

“I’d see the dyanamics favour Stephen and the NDP here.”

Only temporarily. Socialism just doesn’t work, and the Canadian people are too intelligent to fall for it.

Only the green party Candidate has expressed any interest in joining me in debate. This is not a surprise, but it is frustrating, to see the complete antipathy and disdain amongst our ruling elites for any sort of rational, open and public debate; they prefer to allow the media, advertising and contrived “public outcry” to shape the election, rather than the ideas and policies of those running for office.

NDP is dreaming. This riding has been Provincially Conservative for years. Steven Maynard will have Irenes support will have a challenge against Jim Chapman for the PC’s. He has been going to Mosque for 2 years for Friday Prayers although he professes to be Christian.

Khalil Ramal has been an absentee MPP just recently spending in the ridings with affordable housing and Citizenship and Immigration. His local immigrants have not received any benefits from him with lame policies for job creation and a mild attempt on foreign credentials. Khalil still does not know which way is up.

Jim is the strongest candidate with 25 years in media and known for being no nonsense. He has interviewed many political leaders over the years and has had success fighting for many needy Londoners. He will be a strong voice.

Jim Chapman was also too cowardly to accept my challenge to public debate.

As the Green Party Candidate I would like to point out that we support the electoral reform on the ballot.
While the people of Fanshawe can always elect a Liberal, Conservative or NDP MPP, it would make little difference overall. On the other hand if The voters take the time to vote in a member of the Green Party, it will assure that when this election is over we will not be going back to business as usual, that there will be a Member from Fanshawe who will make sure the issues that are so critical to the Voters will continue to be addressed, and that the enviromental issues are not just a hot topic to gain votes.
A Green Party MPP elected from Fanshawe will send a message to every corner of the province, that will be heard across Canada.
Thank you
Daniel O’Neail

Zachary Young - Libertarian Party
as well as all other candidates running -(I am finding contact info for most but Zachary)
Please forward your contact info to
louhollingsworth@yahoo.ca and we will include you in our Women Our Votes Count all candidates meetings.

Louise Hollingsworth

Thank you Louise, I have contacted you. On a more general topic, I oppose the electoral reform that will be present on this ballot. While the Libertarian Party of Canada is still currently holding a vigorous debate on the matter, I feel obliged to oppose it. Electoral reform is notoriously a method used by failing regimes to sustain their power and of course doubling the number of politicians is never a good idea. While it is true that this will benefit the Libertarian Party itself, it will hurt Ontario as a whole, and so I must oppose it. It will greatly increase the influence of the New Democratic Party, the most socialist of all the socialist parties of Ontario, which is a grave threat to the freedom and liberty of all individuals in Ontario. It also takes power away from the citizens and puts it in the hands of political parties. It works to silence independent voices and brings party hacks, who can not stand the scrutiny of voters into power. It’s a very bad idea and so, while it would probably allow the Libertarian Party of Ontario a few seats, the harm it would cause is far greater than the personal benefit my party will enjoy (like most everything the government does).

Zachary — I’d suggest you better inform yourself about the recommendations of the Citizens Assembly. Your comments demonstrate that you are not well-informed on this topic. If you want to hold public office, I think it is incumbent upon you to be informed when making your choices.

Failing regimes using MMP to hold onto power? Where? Prove it. In fact, MMP is quite the opposite — it gives parties exactly what the people think they deserve, no more, no less.

Doubling the number of politicians? Well, we’re adding 22 politicians on top of 107, about 20% more than at present (so you’ve overestimated your claim by a factor of 5!). Even still, the 129 MPPs is 1 less than we had up until 1999. Harris’s plan to reduce the number of MPPs did not result in cost savings - it merely meant adding more unaccountable administrative staff to cover the larger geographies. In effect, they simply moved funds from people that are held to account to unaccountable bureaucrats. Even the PCs recognize their mistake — Norm Sterling, who introduced the bill to reduce the legislature under Harris, now has a private members bill to reintroduce them. I prefer having accountable MPPs to unaccountable bureaucrats, don’t you?

MMP will help, not hurt Ontario. You don’t design a system to intentionally help or hurt one party or another. The electoral system simply translates votes into seats. If Ontarians support a left-wing party like the NDP, so be it. Likewise if they support a right-wing party like the Family Coalition Party, so be it.

MMP puts power back into the hands of the people, but making local MPPs more accountable. How accountable is a system where two-thirds of the seats are “safe seats”? Allowing people more choice to pick their preferred governing party *and* their preferred local representative separately means that independents finally have a chance of getting elected locally, and moreover, it means that candidates can’t count on being carried by their party — they will have to earn their local votes.

The fact is, we aren’t inventing something new here. MMP is used in Germany, Scotland, Wales, New Zealand, and a host of other nations. We don’t need to lie about what will or will not happen. We can look at those countries and see exactly how it works. And none of what you are talking about happens in those nations.

Get informed before you make a decision. That’s all I ask.

Frank De Jong
Leader of the Green Party of Ontario
is coming to London
September 7th.
Frank De Jong and Daniel O’Neail, the local Green Party Candidate will be touring the London-Fanshawe Riding with stops at the following locations:

White Oaks Mall at 3:30
Dearness home 4:00
Westminster Ponds 5:00
Argyle Mall 5:30
Fanshawe College 6:00

Please show your Support for the Green Party and meet Frank and Daniel by attending some of these events.
We will be releasing some of the Green Party platform at each of these events to provide Londoners with the opportunity to make an informed decision on Election Day. This is an opportunity for Londoners to “BE REAL” about the issues that affect them, and to add some Green to how Ontario is Governed.

democraticspace :

I won’t comment on the condescending tone in your post, or the fact that you misrepresented what I said at every opportunity. It is self evident that failing regimes have used electoral change to hold onto power at nearly every opportunity in the past. I am not claiming that the Liberals are using this to stay in power, merely pointing out historical precedent. Your diatribe not-withstanding this is an entirely true statement.

You present a false dichotomy, a choice between “unaccountable beaurocrats” and “accountable MPPS”. I’ve got a better idea, let’s fire all of the beaurocrats, most of the MPPs, get rid of the income tax, get rid of 20 out of the 27 Ministries, and let’s stop imagining that the government can plan our lives better than we can plan them ourselves. In our day and age, we cannot turn to government to solve our problems, because government is our number one problem.

Zachary — you did not provide any evidence to back up your claim that MMP has been used by regimes to hold onto power (it is not self-evident at all!). The drive for electoral reform and the indeed the recommendation of MMP comes from the people, not the circles of power. You have it entirely backwards.

“you did not provide any evidence to back up your claim that MMP has been used by regimes to hold onto power (it is not self-evident at all!). ”

That’s because I didn’t make that claim. You are again misrepresenting what I said. What I said (why do I have to repeat this? why don’t you read what I said, instead of intentionally misrepresenting what I said?) is that regimes have OFTEN in the past used ‘electoral reform’ as a way of holding on to power. Full stop.

One thing is for sure about this new system… it will be used to take away more of the little freedom I have left.

The first all candidates debate (actually an all candidates all ridings debate) kicked off two days ago. The egalitarianism of Canada was working in my interests, as all parties were afforded the same time, and as I was the only Libertarian present I got more time than any other individual candidate aside from the independent and exactly as much time as any other political party in it’s entirety! A far cry from what happens to candidates from the less popular political parties in other countries and I am happy about that I can assure you! There was a large crowd and a good number of parties represented (Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Green, Freedom, Libertarian and Independent). I was also happy to find out the most urgent issue on the constituents mind was taxes! It seems people are waking up to the fact that all this “free” stuff our government does really costs a lot of money, and it’s costing more every year.

Over all the debate stayed mostly postitive, although there were certainly a few “shots” back and forth. I had the pleasure of sitting beside Stephen Maynard and while we are ideological opposites we got along well. Politics is still mostly a civil process in this country and I am quite happy for that. I also got to meet Jim Chapman and Khalil Ramal and they were quite pleasent.

The topics discussed ranged from taxes (I’m against them and called for abolishing the income tax), funding of faith based schools (I’m for the concept, but adamantly opposed to the execution, I think the government exporting it’s curriculum to the faith based schools is the complete opposite of what we’re trying to acheive here, which is giving parents choice over their education), gun control (strongly oppose), health care (I favoured legalizing private health care, and cited the fact that the only two countries other than Canada who have banned private health care are North Korea and Cuba) and the new minimum wage increase (I opposed it, as I oppose any minimum wage because it actually causes unemployment in the people it claims to help. Minimum wages help no one but the unions, by reducing competition for their jobs from people who are not in unions).

I am seeking the contact information for Zachary Young. I am a politics teacher and am trying to educate my students on the electoral process, the candidates, the issues and the referendum. Zachary, please reach me at gillespierob@gmail.com so I may pass your information along to my students if they would like to ask you any further questions. We are also trying to organize a time for candidates to come in and speak to students who are eligible to vote. Thanks for your help. Rob Gillespie

Steve Maynard and the New Democrats are going to win this riding based upon solid work in the community and the fact that Steve is the only candidate dedicated to addressing the real problems:
poverty, the environmental crisis, and job, housing, and food security.

The other candidates are slinging mud at one another without providing any substance.

Voters have seen how truly ineffective and dishonest the Liberals are and they remember the damage done by Mike Harris and the Conservatives — which we are still paying for in the form of poverty, street crime, and drug abuse.

The people and local media have sensed that this riding is going NDP — and it seems that the other campaigns have too, with many of Steve’s signs having been destroyed less than 24 hours after the writ dropped.

That smells like desperation to me.

I do belive the ndp will be second as the liberal candidate won by default last time and has been labelled the invisilble man at queens park, we certainly don`t need to repeat that mistake again . The ndp 5 years in government back in the 90`s virtually bankrupt this province and its people , the residents of London fanshawe will not make a mistake like that again . So Mr. Jim Chapman continue working hard for the people as you have been doing for the past 15 years ,fighting for the little guy and London fanshawe will be the winner.

Looks like both the NDP and Conservative party workers are active on the site. Good to see we are all promoting our strengths.. or apparent ones. While Mr. Chapman seems to have support from the riding, signs can’t vote. As well, it appears that dirty tricks have already begun with a small-scale sign war occuring between Ramal and Chapman’s teams (putting each other’s signs in places to block out the others). Mr. Maynard has so far been taking the high road, however, one can only use Liberal outrage so much before the record become broken. All campaigns need to take a lesson and tell voters what they have done or will do, and how it will positively affect London-Fanshawe. There are so many here that need social assistance, deserve good strong schools, and a safe place to live. I hope to hear more of the positives in the future, and hope that outrage at one group or another fades away and the real issues come to the surface.

I sent you an e-mail Rob, thanks for going out of your way to find me.

Zachary Young, are you representing the Ontario Libertarian Party, or are you an independent? You aren’t listed on their website.

To follow up on my own comment, since Zachary hasn’t responded, he isn’t listed as a candidate on Elections Ontario’s site either, at least as of today.

Is his candidacy a hoax, or am I missing something?

the London Free Press and the Toronto Star both listed the oddity and apparently Zachary needs to register with his party before becoming its official candidate. The Libertarian Party rep said he would be happy to have him on board though.
Zachary, have you done so?

It is true, I do not have the money to be listed on the ballot. I would not call my campaign a hoax, though you are free to of course, more a protest. The campaign is more about spreading the ideas of limited government, liberty and economic freedom (the pre-requisite to political freedom, in my opinion).

I’m going to suggest that Zachary Young’s “campaign” is, as per his statement in comments above, not legitimate and his name should be removed from this site as a candidate until such time as he is properly registered.

I was a life long supporter of the Liberal Party of Canada. That was until Irene Mathyssen came along. Finally there is a Member of Parliament who is truly for the people and does not let her place in government go to her head and purport a holy than thou attitude; how many MPs do you know who will sit down and send out a handwritten personal response. Stephen Maynard has had a long time affiliation with the NDP. Stephen puts forth the same down to earth attitude as Irene. It will be a pleasure and reassurance in government to have our riding represented by two “real” people who are not into politics for personal gain.

First of all, official nominations closed today and Zachary Young is not, and will not, be a candidate on the ballot. Obviously it is time for his name to come down from this site.

Second, I very much agree with what Eugene said, Irene Mathyssen has been a breath of fresh air here…finally a politician who actually puts the people who really need help first. I have met Irene a couple times–she shops and eats in the same places the rest of us do, and like Eugene Dustin, I also got a hand written note back to the reply card I sent in from her newsletter. She is definately a politician for the people.

Stephen Maynard knocked on my door in August, and he seems like a genuine and intelligent person. I like that fact that he is 25, he doesn’t have all that baggage the other candidates have–and frankly I think it’s time we give younger leaders a shot.

From my positive experience with Irene, and a really good first impression from Stephen, I will be voting NDP this time.

Jim Chapman, frankly the guy is obnoxious, and he’s spouted some pretty offensive stuff. I’m not sure what Dan Thrasher (who I see from Jim’s website is a campaign volunteer)thinks being a loud mouth radio host has to do with “fighting for the little guy”.

The first time I ever heard of the Liberal MPP was in July when suddenly it seemed like I was getting a flyer from him every week (I get a newsletter from Irene every month, usually in a personally addressed envelope).

This week the Liberal knocked on my door. When I told him I was voting NDP, he told me that would split the vote and let the Conservatives win. How long has this guy been my MPP? and the best reason he can give me to vote for him is to stop someone else? pathetic and desperate.

Anyway, that’s my two cents worth. I hope people vote for who they really want–strategic voting is for cowards and people too lazy to take the time to investigate anything.

I agree with both Eugene and Wes. In the four years that Khalil Ramal has been our MPP, I have never heard anything from him…until now. Irene Mathyssen, on the other hand, is a very thoughtful and caring women who has hopefully changed the mind of everyone in this riding about the NDP.

Well the Tory plan worked.
“Ontario Vote Essentially Stagnant After First Week
Key Issues Driving Ontarians To Ballot Box: Education / Faith-Based School Funding (43%), Health Care (41%), Taxes (19%) And The Environment (18%)”

Now with 10 days to go the number 1 issue on the minds of the voters is an issue created by the politicians. The Faith based school issue was not even on the radar. but rather then addressing the needs of the voters they created a new issue to sieze the headlines. Healthcare and the environment have now taken a back seat to a platform promise that no one asked for in the first place.
It’s more important then ever to elect the Green Party to Parliment, if issues such as this take precident over the health and well being of our citizens and the vary air we breath. What will happen in Parliment if the Green Party has no representation? A few stop gap feel good messures will be inacted to give the appearance of working on the environment, and then the promises to deal with Coalfire plants, and Emisions will be shelved for later consideration.
As long as voter concern can be drawn away from the Environment the Government will not consider it important enough to address.
Voting for the Green Party is the only way that the voters can say to the Government that they want these issues addressed.

I wish people like Daniel would stop suggesting that the issue of faith-based funding is not important. To many people in this province, like myself, this is a very important issue.

Jim CHapman does have 25 years of media experience. He spent most of his media time expressing his opinion. What about your opinion or mine? Do we not want a listener to express our opinions?

After reading over the conversation, I predict an NDP win followed closely by the PC with the Liberals lagging behind. I also predict Zachary Young will become the next John Turmel if he doesn’t start looking over the facts (like the referendum for example)

Zach- Any reason you decided not to run, and/or weren’t able to find enough signatures for the nomination papers?

Zachary, its 200.00 to register, and you get the money back by getting more then 10.0% of the vote.

I personally miss Zachary. While I do not agree with his politics, I found him well spoken and fun. It’s a shame only people with $200.00 to spare are allowed to run for office in Ontario.

That’s too bad the 200 dollar fee it is not a deposit. When I ran for the Marijuana Party in the last federal election it was a 1000 dollar deposit which the party was able to pay because they knew they could get the money back after the campaign finace papers were okayed.

Seems the Federal system is a fairer way of doing things.

Daniel, I don’t think it’s a matter a faith based funding not being important. I view education, health care, environment as equally critical issues to focus on. What I object to is the collusion between the Liberal war room and the Toronto Star in making faith based funding the ballot issue. We should congratulate Urquhart and the Toronto Star editorial board for winning this election for the Liberals.

A recent poll from Environics showed that faith based funding was the decisive factor for only 3% of the voters. Why should this (a mere plank in the PC platform) suddenly become the ballot issue? Simple, it helped to sink the Tories while allowing this government to not be held accountable for 4 years of arrogant, incompetent governance.

Slushgate, LottoGate, the HydroOne fiasco, taking parents of autistic children to court, faux democratic renewal (without even mentioning broken promises) should have cost the provincial Liberals the same way that the sponsorship scandal cost the federal Liberals, except that Ontarians are a largely unmotivated, unengaged, and placated electorate. Too bad, but we get the governments we deserve.

Khalil Ramal is going to hold this riding. The Liberals have the momentum. Whoever defaced his signs clearly wasn’t thinking. That move generated lots of positive energy for the Liberal team.

I’d have to disagree with this prediction of NDP for this riding.. still much too close to call.. although I think Ramal will bring it home, albeit it will be the race to watch Wednesday night.

ouch, not even close. Although I don’t like the NDP they certainly deserved second place.