I guess the election is over for some!!!

The opinion is in - Northumberland News has made its picks! Proposing that the status quo be maintained in the strongest possible way what does that say for the News's progressivism? Endorsing all of the incumbents and then playing it safe by putting the strongest woman candidate on and saying that Stan Frost should be on because he only lost by a few votes last time does not do it for me.

I strongly disagree; that this slate is anything but a change, but then if you don't want change go for it.

The loneliness of the long distance candidate

Just came back from a visit downtown (Thursday 8pm) and noticed two candidates events - dropins. Gerry Drage had one person at his and Lloyd Williams had nobody in his surgery. Perhaps the election is over, we certainly don't see anything to the contrary.

Ten days to go!

Seen any candidates yet? Nothing doing in the local scene, but I'm hopeful something will emerge to make us all sit up (surely you jest - ed).

I had a conversation with a Port Hope candidate last night and this person raises the spectre of the feminazis from Ward 2 taking over the Town. Now I don't go that far but with the plethora of females supporting Linda Thompson I can see how such a theory could develop. Coupled with the allegation (from the candidate) that in matters of Planning and Finance the Ward 2 councillors get two votes to the Ward 1 councillors only getting one the idea of Ward 2 dictating to Ward 1 is a theoretical possibility.

Can This Machine Be Trusted? more about voting machines!

Now Time magazine has got into the debate TIME.com: Can This Machine Be Trusted? -- Nov. 6, 2006 -- Page 1

More for the conspiracy theorists

Read this about voting machines and just ponder whose paranoia is twitching?

U.S. Investigates Voting Machines’ Venezuela Ties - New York Times

14 days to go

In two weeks time we will be at the polls, unless of course you vote online. One question remains after looking at the process is - how do you have a recount?

But back to the excitement of the campaign (sarcasm of course - ed). Has anybody seen a candidate yet? I have had seen two. But there are 14 days left.

So what did you folks think of the ACM, the format and the candidates? Probably not much if you go by the number of people who left at the first opportunity. As I said earlier I saw a couple of duds and and a couple of standouts and the rest were - the rest. Was it only me or did anyone else feel that some of the incumbents really looked as though they didn't really want to be there. And how long can Lloyd Williams employ the bizarre campaign strategy of conceding the race every time he opens his mouth. He stated that he will spend $8,000 of his own money to be in the race - he should have bought lottery tickets and had some fun instead.

What a bunch!!

If that is the lineup in Hamilton Township God help us! Not an original idea in the place and all they want to do is to fight a non-existent war with Cobourg. This pathetic plethora of parish pumping politicians want to look good to the grey hairs of Hamilton Twp. BTW who lives in Hamilton Twp anymore - how about Cobourg North, that's where the tax base is. And the way to look good to the local chapter of the Lanark Landowners Association is to beat up on Cobourg all the time missing the point that cooperating with Cobourg on local issues would lower operating costs. Water for instance: HT has paid about 5 million dollars for a municipal system to cover Baltimore on a limited way - twice the cost it would have been to bury a water main to cover a much larger area. Don't talk to me about the policing costs versus coverage. When the Town covered the Twp they had a consistent coverage of all the department at all times. Now the OPP is in all they did was to transfer 12 more officers to the County. That's only 3 actual people on each shift - for the County. The election question for this bunch of dimwits should be "Where is the OPP?" not "Oh Cobourg is so bad to us!!"

An amusing question

A friend from Toronto noticed all the signs in Cobourg encouraging us to vote for WILLIAMS X. He wondered if Williams X was related Malcolm X ?

here's the lineup

Here's the lineup from last night's event. A couple of standouts a couple of duds and and the rest, well the rest.

We left after the first session, as did a lot of other people. I guess that most had only come to see their choices confirmed. Not much fire, the format precluded that, and not much new stuff either. We did learn that Mr McCaughey is very proud of the development at the harbour because he has created a "population" that can sustain the downtown. Others didn't think so. Nobody wanted to talk about payraises - cowards, and all wanted to talk about something that they have no control over - jobs! The only new idea came from Rob Harper, he wants the Town to create a special fund that would allow underprivileged kids to tap into to pay for recreational opportunities - well done. As for the school trustees: one grizzly veteran who knew the issues inside out, one woman who appears to be the perpetual PTA person and a slick neo-con who read every single answer from his crib sheets in response to planted questions. I never thought I say this but Gordon you looked good.

Another source code leak for Diebold

This is serious stuff. For those of us who have been dissenting about the use of electronic voting machines, those that cannot be recounted or verified are especially troubling to democracy watchers. Another source code leak for Diebold
If you were watching the conspiracy theories and tales from Ohio and Tennessee in the last Presidential elections, how can anyone have faith in these monsters?