A NON-PROFIT COMMUNITY RESOURCE SINCE 1972 SERVING THE BEACH, UPPER BEACH, BEACH HILL, CRESCENT TOWN, EAST DANFORTH, GERRARD INDIA BAZAAR, BIRCH CLIFF, AND CLIFFSIDE
Volume 44 No. 12
September 8, 2015
PHOTO: ANDREW HUDSON
Heavenly music fills the air at Stephenson Park Harpist Sophie Rusnock plays the final night of Stephenson Park’s summer music series on Aug. 27. As well as treating local park-goers to classical and new music pieces this summer, Rusnock has performed with Canada’s National Youth Orchestra, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, and the New York-based new music group Ensemble Signal.
Federal candidates face off over issues By Andrew Hudson
IT COMES with one say in parliament and 107,000 people to speak for. Whoever is elected Member of Parliament for Beaches-East York on Oct. 19 has plenty of voters to convince. Beach Metro News spoke with four candidates to hear what they believe are key issues for the riding, and what makes them best choice for MP. In 2011, New Democrat Matthew Kellway won Beaches-East York with 42 per cent of the vote, unseating a six-term Liberal first elected in 1993. As he campaigns for a second term, Kellway says residents are talking most about childcare, the environment, or jobs. On that last issue, jobs, Kellway said that if re-elected, he will continue to push for a new hiring agency at Danforth and Victoria Park Avenues, near Crescent Town. “We can’t live in a community where we’ve got 45 per cent of kids living below the poverty line,” he said. “If governments aren’t going to put in place the kinds of programs that allow communities to pursue local economic development, then I as a member of parliament will try and organize the community so that we can help ourselves.” At 50, Kellway has lived half his life in the Upper Beach. Before his first run for MP, he had a 20-year career as a union rep, handling
grievances and doing policy research for energy-sector professionals. As MP, Kellway started as an NDP critic for military procurement, speaking early and often in the House about problems with the Harper government’s plans to buy F-35 fighter jets. “It was, frankly, a fairly easy file,” he said. “The costs for the F-35 were upwards of $40 billion, not the $15 billion the government said it was during the election campaign.” From military procurement, Kellway moved to urban affairs – a new NDP portfolio he helped create. A white paper he published last year laid the ground for much of what the NDP is now promising for cities if it forms government, including a dedicated public transit fund with national planning standards. Judging by riding history and the race for lawn signs, Liberal candidate Nathaniel Erskine-Smith may be Kellway’s lead challenger. Beach born and raised, the 31 year-old commercial litigator got an early start to his first run for public office –he started knocking on doors in December. Besides his work for a downtown law firm, Erskine-Smith has taken on pro bono cases for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. One of those cases made headlines last year, when he helped a Brantford father secure the right to exempt his son from religious events at a publicly funded Catholic high school.
“I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to help a couple of people in circumstances like that, where there isn’t a great deal of money at stake, but there are rights at stake,” said Erskine-Smith. “It’s public interest advocacy, and I see politics as the same thing.” At the door, Erskine-Smith said many residents share an “anybody but Harper” attitude, concerned by a perceived lack of evidence in the Harper government’s environmental and justice policies, and by a governing style Erskine-Smith called “autocratic.” “Bottom-up democracy and a focus on community advocacy is something that people are hungry for, I think,” he said. Erskine-Smith said local residents also want to see more federal investment for public infrastructure, including transit. “When traffic congestion costs us billons of dollars a year in the GTA economy, it’s the right thing to do from an investment perspective,” he said. Similarly, Erskine-Smith said, Liberal policies such as removing subsidies for the fossilfuel industry or targeting child tax benefits only to families that need them are not only fair, but fiscally prudent. Heading into his second federal campaign, Conservative candidate Bill Burrows said his interest in national politics started at the grass roots. A Beach resident for 16 years, the 47-year-
old tech sales consultant is a co-founder of the Kew Beach Neighbourhood Association, and has also served as a board member for Kew Beach Daycare and the Flemingdon Health Centre in North York. Federal election continues on Page 4
INSIDE East End art on display ...Read all about it on Pages 14-15
PLUS
Police Beat...........................................4 Entertainment Beat..............................9 Community Calendar...........................10 Beach Metro’s Neighbourhood.............11 Sports...............................................12 Garden Views......................................16 Deja Views..........................................17 Money, Life & Law...............................18 Write on Health..................................20 Beach Memories.................................21 Food and Drink...................................22