The Council of Canadians Peterborough-Kawarthas chapter was at the Justin Trudeau town hall meeting this morning.
Chapter activist Roy Brady tells us, “Our large proportional representation banner was held outside for about 20 minutes, but couldn’t be brought inside the town hall. Then at a most timely moment, chants for proportional representation broke out from six chapter members. Earlier a shout for proportional representation came when Trudeau referred to electoral reform. And while banners were not allowed inside, we held up our Council of Canadians banner when Trudeau looked our way during the question period.”
Global News reports, “The prime minister was in Peterborough as part of his campaign-style road trip to connect with Canadians amid controversies over so-called cash-for-access political fundraising and questions about vacation at a private island in the Bahamas belonging to the Aga Khan, the well-known billionaire, spiritual leader and philanthropist.”
MyKawartha.com adds, “Soaring hydro rates in Ontario, the impact of carbon taxes. pipeline projects and the imminent presidency of Donald Trump were among the most popular lines of questioning.”
The Canadian Press notes, “Today’s leg of the tour will end in London, Ont.” The Council of Canadians London chapter will be at this evening’s town hall, where thousands are expected to attend. On that front, the London Free Press reports, “Originally scheduled to hold a town hall meeting at the Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre Friday evening, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now hosting the event at Western University’s Alumni Hall, Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos said.”
Beyond the questions being posed to the prime minister, another controversy has arisen. CTV reports, “Canadians who want to attend events on Trudeau’s so-called ‘church basements’ tour this week are being asked to submit their names, phone numbers and email addresses through Liberal MPs’ pages on the party website. [But] the Prime Minister’s Office denies the party is harvesting this potentially valuable voter-contact data from the event registrations, saying the information is submitted through webpages controlled by the individual MPs, not the party.”
The tour is expected to go next to Quebec, British Columbia, the Prairies, then the Atlantic provinces and the North.
Council of Canadians supporters are encouraged to ask questions about free trade deals, tar sands pipelines and climate change, health care funding, water protection, and electoral reform as well as to put forward the positive vision outlined in Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow’s vision for 2017.
