Todd Smith opens Conservative campaign office in the County
Administrator | May 06, 2018 | Comments 53
Todd Smith opened his campaign office in Picton Saturday with supporters and onlookers, at 6 Talbot St., Picton. Also at the opening was local broadcaster Tim Durkin who was recently chosen to represent the party in Bay of Quinte at the federal level.
With the writ expected to be dropped Wednesday heralding the official start of the June 7 provincial election, Progressive Conservative supporters and interested others officially opened incumbent Todd Smith’s County campaign office Saturday, at 6 Talbot St., Picton.
A former Conservative MPP, and first mayor of an amalgamated Prince Edward County, James Taylor, and wife Mary, were the guests of honour at the ribbon cutting. Taylor served in Premier Bill Davis’ cabinet as Minister of Community and Social Services, and as Minister of Energy. Friends were congratulating him on celebrating his 90th birthday last fall.
People are fed up with politics,” said Taylor, chuckling as he called it “a plague on all their houses… People have to know what they’re doing, and be careful.”
With that, he and Mary were pleased to show their support for Todd Smith’s return to Queen’s Park for a third stretch.
“There are a lot of things that are really bothering people in Ontario,” said Smith. “Particularly in rural Ontario. They feel like they’ve been ignored,” he noted, reflecting on the many new doors he is knocking on in the new riding which emcompasses Quinte West, and part of Belleville.
The new Bay of Quinte riding, mirrors the parameters of the federal riding, and is part of revamped electoral districts this year reflecting growing population across the province. This year there are 124 districts, up from 107.
“The one thing I’m hearing over and over again is that rural Ontario has been ignored by (Premier) Kathleen Wynne and this Liberal government, and taken advantage of,” he told party faithful and onlookers.
He spoke of several issues concerning County residents over recent years – including the Ostrander Point decision allowing just nine of 29 industrial wind turbines originally proposed.
“We’re still plugging away on the wpd project and trying to keep Prince Edward County naturally green, and turbine free and we have made a promise to do that in our plan that’s going to be unveiled,” he said. “We’ve already released some of the Hydro plan and we are very serious about that, and there will be no turbines in Prince Edward County, when we get a PC government.”
He also reflected on school closures in rural Ontario, noting a massive problem across the province, not just in Prince Edward County.
“Over the past 15 years, Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals have closed 600 schools – most of them in rural Ontario and that’s by far the most of any government in the province’s history. When you rip a school out of a community, or remove a hospital from a community, it tears the heart out of that community.”
He noted commitment to keeping rural schools open and looks forward to continuing the process of getting the new hospital built in Picton.
“The bottom line is we just can’t trust her anymore,” he said of the Premier. “Leading into the last election she said she wasn’t going to sell Hydro One and the first thing she did was sell Hydro One. Just the other day we found out she was lying about the budget deficit… Two years ago, or even as recently as six months ago, she was promising balanced budgets and now suddenly we are in a $6.7 billion deficit if you believe her, and if you believe the independent auditor general of the province of Ontario, it’s more like $12 billion.
“They’re going to promise a lot of different things,” said Smith. “And we can’t believe them. We really do need change in Ontario,” encouraging party faithful to get involved with the campaign.
Smith was first elected in 2011, and re-elected in 2014 and is currently Energy Critic for the official opposition. Previously he served as Critic for Natural Resources and Forestry, Small Business and Red Tape and Citizenship and Immigration Critic.
Meanwhile, Liberal party candidate Robert Quaiff is expected to be opening his County campaign office in Picton this week.
Filed Under: Local News
From Patrick Brown to Doug Ford – the Conservative Party are still deep into corruption and picks leaders that can only be described as disappointing and unworthy of our votes. Doug has filled that role better than most. This latest event with his brother’s wife suing him for incompetence in running the family business and depriving her and her children of income and for taking the money from Rob’s insurance pay out – is going to drag through the courts for a long time. The people of Ontario deserve better than what Doug has to offer and do we really want to be watching the Ford Family Side Show again? On Thursday, we can decide not to watch it.
Has MPP Smith guaranteed a new Picton Hospital? No, he can’t because he doesn’t know how deep or where the PC cuts will hit.
Opportune time to bail on discussion with the latest news! Difficult to defend.
And on it goes! Dennis, one word stood out in your four paragraph slamming of Doug Ford and that was NEWS WORTHY!” Because a reporter trying to keep a job writes an article does not mean it’s the gospel truth. I encourage you not to believe everything you read.
Since it appears you are the only Dennis Fox that posts here I was attempting to draw your attention….guess it worked!
This is getting really boring so I’m dropping out of the conversation .ba bye.
More breaking news on Doug.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/06/04/rob-fords-widow-sues-doug-ford-alleging-he-has-deprived-them-of-millions.html
ADJ – I have not referred to you at any point during these discussions, so I am uncertain why you mention me in your responses.
The link below is the response from the Globe and Mail to the Press Council after the FORD brothers(Rob and Doug) complained about their article (the one I posted earlier below). Interestingly enough, the G&M reporting on the FORD family was supported by the Press Council. If the story was truly fabricated and false – why didn’t the Ford brothers sue the G&M?
Right now our question as citizens waiting to vote – Is Ford really the kind of person we want at Queen’s Park as our Premier? Unfortunately for Todd Smith, the way our system works is by voting for him, we are supporting Ford. That is something we all need to consider very carefully when voting this Thursday.
I think this article below, like the other, doesn’t require a police charge and conviction to make it news worthy and something worthwhile for us to know prior to voting.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/09/10/doug_ford_drug_story_statement_by_globe_and_mail_editor_john_stackhouse.html
Susan,, again unless you were there and you personally purchased drugs from him…how can you honestly make such a statement? Really means nothing without proper evidence. End of story.
Seems pretty certain that he peddled drugs. I just fail to understand how the electorate could put him in the Premiers chair.
Ya, ok Dennis..Believe everything you read lol I’m NOT defending or supporting the guy, just saying show us the police file on him,let the opposition drag the name through the mud to discredit him but is there actual evidence? If there was it would have been exposed by now. Little late in the game but I guess Ford haters are grabbing up anything they can to maybe change peoples minds. Hope that keeps you happy.Help me out with that Bible quote Dennis…”let he who has not sinned cast the first stone” Have I got that right?
Gary, I’m just quoting some numbers listed in various news articles, I could care less personally. There again one can’t believe everything one reads! I believe the Regent theatre turnout was quoted to be 150 approx. not 250 but it doesn’t matter it’s not going to change anything.
To those who want to find excuses for Doug Ford – maybe this will change your mind. There was a time when such a person wouldn’t have the chance to be elected to the Kennel Club – now some want him as our Premier – joke right?
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/globe-investigation-the-ford-familys-history-with-drug-dealing/article12153014/
ADJ, the turnout at all-candidates’ meetings in Wellington and Picton were both very good. Picton was about 250 at the Regent Theatre.
Still gossip until there’s a police report Gary. just sayin. Still innocent until proven guilty.
ADJ; just ask any of his classmates and read the news article that hasn’t been denied.
Something tells me Robert will have a pretty good day job when the election is over.
Really low number of people turning out for the debates locally ie Belleville, Quinte West, Picton….tells you something.
Not defending or supporting Doug but show us the proof of his past life “dealings”. Rumours? any charges laid? who knows for sure?
Liberals just took a hit with Kathleens announcement…why would she need to do that? Sort of hits the candidates hard both mentally and financially. Tough for the Party to reorganize this late in the game.Right out of McGuintys playbook.Happy that Robert kept his day job!
It is obvious that some have never worked on a campaign before. A candidate usually has a large TEAM of people (more than 4) to help knock on doors, hand deliver flyers, lick stamps, or man the phones, etc.. I don’t think anyone implied that they expected to see the individual candidate knock on every door in the riding and timing them. This is one of the reasons that political parties exists -they have their riding association to lean on for help. I can see where gathering a team and raising money for an independent candidate, or for a first timer could be a challenge – but there is no excuse particularly for the incumbent or for his major rivals not to make themselves more available and visible to the public. However, I do understand that the incumbent’s leader just announced a quasi platform, with no costing – perhaps the incumbent feels he has nothing to share with the public – but how about the others?
Over the last several days I have asked a good number of people if they have received anything in the mail, a phone call or a knock on the door from any campaign? NOPE!
Here in PEC, considering the number of important issues facing this community, I don’t believe enough attention, from the candidates, has been given to engaging the public to listen to their concerns. Like I said earlier – a couple of debates just doesn’t cut it. I don’t believe we should accept less at this point in a campaign by making excuses for candidates – how can we expect more from them later, if elected?
In the Bay of Quinte riding, there are about 125K residents, and about 50K households. Assuming 3 minutes to visit each household, a candidate working 10 hours a day, six days per week would need almost 10 months to cover the riding. Even with a team totalling four people, that’s 2.5 months. Not realistic.
Not a single candidate to my door in Picton. They assume a former drug dealer is safe in this riding as the leader!
Has anyone received any flyers in the mail or had anyone at their door. So far up here in Northport, no one would know that there is an election in a weeks time- not a campaign to be seen anywhere. So what’s the point of having a campaign office, if you are not going to campaign???
Speaks to the state of our political system as this has been known for years!
Liberal ads now focus on Pc’s Ford alleged drug dealing. It needs to be investigated as it seems to be public knowledge.
Without cuts which Ford denies the PC’s deficit would be 12 Billion! But how would we know at all how huge, as they refuse to deliver a costed platform. We are just to believe it will be really, really great. Sound like anyone South of the border?
Some food for thought an alternative to conventional partisanship which enforces/encourages adherence to a particular ideology or group interests.
” Libertarianism is, as the name implies, the belief in liberty. Libertarans strive for the best of all worlds – a free, peaceful, abundant world where each individual has the maximum opportunity to pursue his or her dreams and to realize his full potential.
The core idea is simply stated, but profound and far-reaching in its implications. Libertarians believe that each person owns his or her own life and property, and has the right to make his own choices as to how he lives his life and uses his property – as long as he simply respects the equal right of others to do the same.
Another way of saying this is that libertarians believe you should be free to do as you choose with your own life and property, as long as you don’t harm the person or property of others.
Libertarianism is thus the combination of liberty (the freedom to live your life in any peaceful way you choose), responsibility (the prohibition against the use of force against others, except in defense) and tolerance (honoring and respecting the peaceful choices of others).
Live and let live. The Golden Rule. The non-initiation of force.
Gary – you could very well be right about Ontario having a Premier Doug – but YUCK! The other scenario that the public might support is that of a minority government with the NDP and Liberals. But let’s hope that eastern Ontario has better sense than what you have mentioned.
That leaves one choice Dennis as the Liberals are dead. But with the mammoth eastern Ontario following for the Pc’s , Horvath is likely to come up a handful of seats short. Premier Doug!
Our best action is to collectively decide who to vote for – other than a PC. Nothing personal towards Smith, but a vote for him is a vote for Ford -which is totally out of the question.
With choices unacceptable to some there is an avenue for a protest vote. You show identification, receive your ballot and then return it stating “declined”. It is then recorded as such. Better than not voting.
How can a buffoon be still leading the polls based on “it will be great”? Is that all it takes now? Party full of rot 6 weeks ago and one that has no platform. Just trust me! Lol
Anybody else receive a robocall from Doug Ford? I received one on may 26th at 5:45pm inviting me to a rally in Peterborough..
I agree with you Gary – Ford explained nothing and also uses the same tactics and jargon as Trump – “trust me folks stuff and it will be great,yes it will be really great!” He comes across like a medicine man trying to sell snake oil to an ailing public.
The elephant in the room during the last leaders debate tonight was Doug Ford stating everything will be great, all without how and no costed platform!!
Was not impressed by our MPP Smith leaving the riding to Toronto today to dig up political dirt on the NDP. I didn’t think we would be involved in Doug Ford’s dirty work. Lost my vote on this unclassy move. NDP is now.
Mayor Quaiff should have run for the NDP, but there was no deal for an appointment with a non power.
There is an NDP wave primarily because Horvath is the most reasonable and trusted leader. That wasn’t difficult for her to achieve given the alternatives. Good on them and well time for them to demonstrate what they can do.
I listened to the Loren Brooker radio show on CJBQ yesterday with the candidates – Smith was not at all impressive. An elderly lady phoned in describing her husband’s condition after a farming accident and was asking what kind of help could they provide if elected? Smith totally swept her aside -claiming that he was getting the two minute signal from the station manger ( after all he was once on radio and recognized the signal, he said) – he didn’t respond to this lady and spent the next two minutes talking about himself. He came across horribly. No, Smith will not be getting my vote and I haven’t yet decided who will.
With the PC’s still finding rot within and the Liberals tired out and unpopular it looks like an NDP wave is happening and moving forward to a potential victory.
Smith backed the wrong horse for the second time! He may have burnt his chance for a ministers position or any real influence given his bitter attack on Ford. And if the PC,s win big, Doug will have a ton of folks to repay for their support. As disliked as the Liberals are presently, I find it hard to rationalize how the public seems to have totally forgotten that the Conservatives were a party in total chaos and dysfunctional a short few weeks ago.A party that could not govern itself is positioned to govern the province and without any real plan.
I think the editorial cartoon in this week’s Wellington Times is 100% accurate. If the PCs do get elected, Todd will have no influence on Ford or on government policy. It is time for a change here too.
During the PC leadership race Todd Smith stated; “Throughout the weekend we saw a desperate Doug Ford”. Then added ” with his erratic and out of control behavior, I worry that if Doug was to lead our party, he would lead us to certain defeat”.
Best case scenario: Horvath wins a minority, Liberals come second and Wynne takes her long overdue Pension, never to be seen or heard from again and Ford goes down in flames leading the neo cons who selected him leader into the distant 3rd place finish they deserve.
In 18 months the two major parties rebuild from the grass roots with new blood. yah. I know,I’m dreaming in techno-color.
The NDP couldn’t possibly be any worse than what we’ve had since ,oh Bill Davis in the ’80’s or even Bob Rae in the ’90’s (showing my age here),and it would only be for 18-24 months max.
A guy can dream a little can’t he?
It was reported the Actors were paid $75 and worked from 2pm until 8pm that’s not even minimum wage what a cheapskate…
Thanks hockeyman – there is hope for you and I after all!
Just to add to the Doug Ford story – on the TV news tonight,it was reported and confirmed that the PCs hired professional actors to attend the televised TV Debate last night to cheer and to get attention for “their” candidate. This was confirmed by Ford’s own campaign chair and other members of his executive team – and also by the acting agency who first blew the whistle – they were offended that a politician would undermine our democracy in such a fashion. Ford claimed no knowledge of this and promised to look into it – yeah right! This is reminiscent of what Mike Harris did when hiring actors from the USA, claiming to be concerned Ontarians, upset with the school system and finances, etc.. The PCs are just as phony now as they were then.
Don’t usually agree with Dennis but his last remark was right on
I agree, Wynne and the Liberals have lost a lot,if not all credibility. However, the voters need to think far more deeply than what is just simply left or right in this election. Does that even exist anymore in our system?
Seriously – did Doug Ford ever have any credibility? His only political experience was as a city councillor in T.O. – a role he failed miserably at. He has a track record of missing most meetings and not knowing the basic info needed to make decisions – because he never read his agenda!
A recent article in the New York Times describes Doug Ford as being a “Tin Pot Northern Trump!” The only reason Ford became the PC leader was due to the fact that the PC party would rather have a male (any male), than to have a qualified female (like Elliot) as their leader. And this is the kind of person Todd Smith now supports??!! Sorry, we can and must do better than this – even if it is a Liberal or NDPer – it is better than Ford.
Andrea Horwath and the NDP may become the choice for those who lean left, replacing Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals, who have lost any shred of credibility after 15 years of incompetent management.
So, it may be a fight between Doug Ford and the PC Party on the right, and Andrea Horwath and the NDP on the left.
I agree, I believe Howrath out performed the other two. However, I am disturbed by the lack of information coming out of Ford, He stayed on message – meaning he didn’t shot himself in the foot, but he sure didn’t couldn’t answer any question put to him. He ignored the questions and just kept talking about the debt or hydro. He has no idea of what he will do if he ever got elected – and haven’t we witnessed that taking place south of the border? Total chaos.
Horvath’s strong performance puts her in a position to peel off a lot of left wing Liberal votes. She has room to grow, Ford just needs to survive 2 more debates and Wynne is pretty much done, probably headed for 3rd party status.
Boy, Premier Wynne looked liked the walking dead in the debate tonight. 350 Billion debt that we all will have to repay is hard to defend. Horvath was encouraging and Ford stayed on message and made no mistakes. Game on!
Will the PC’s support a new hospital in Picton? Will they take back Cty Rd. 49 which used to be a provincial highway before the PC’s downloaded it onto the County?
Now that Todd knows who he is supporting – Ford and no longer Elliot, he might want to ask his leader Kunga-Doug about developing a real campaign platform that the public can read and hold them accountable to. It is no longer possible for Smith to only cast blame on what everyone else did – we need to know what he and his party stand for and what they will do to address the issues. Complaining just won’t cut it on voting day.