Ryan Gurcharn and Nokha Dakroub discuss the upcoming mayoral race in Mississauga. Bill McBain joins the show to share insights on the landscape, candidates and the issues. Among the many topics discussed were auto theft, affordability, housing and the role of municipal government in addressing them.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The views expressed in the following programare those of the participants and do not
necessarily reflect the views of SAGA ninesixty AM or its management from the treaty
and traditional territory of the Mississaugas ofthe Credit First Nation. You're listening to
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Beyond the Ballot with Ryan Gurcharn andNoka Duck Rube, and welcome to Beyond
the Ballot, the show that's goingto cover everything about this Mississauga Meryll election
right happening right here this year twentytwenty four, June tenth. We hit
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the ballots, isn't that right,Noka Duck Rube. That's right. We've
got an election coming up and it'sreally exciting. We're going to have a
new mayor. Can you believe thatthis doesn't happen very long? No?
No, not got Hazel and yougot Bonnie. And now the post Hazel
era is going to be very interestingfor this election. We never had an
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election without Hazel, so that's verytrue. You know, it's going to
be very interesting. Anybody could beanybody could win this. You could be
the next mayor. I could bethe next mayor. You we have to
run, yes, and how canwe run. What do we do?
So there's a couple of a fewthings you've got to do to register to
run. I think the deadline iswhen's the deadline, April twenty six at
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two pm. April twenty six attwo pm. So if you want to
run, you still got time tomake it happen. You have to be
a Canadian citizen. You have tobe eighteen years old. You have to
have a resident of Mississauga, orthe owner or tenant of property Mississauga,
or the spouse of an owner tenantof property in Mississauga. That's a pretty
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large, huge and not be prohibitedunder the Municipal Act or otherwise law not
to run. And you know whatwhen I ran full disclosure, I ran
for school trustee twice. You've ran, I don't know, a couple of
times. I think I've seen yoursign somewhere. School trustee, a couple
of times, a couple of councilonce. You're the big star there at
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appeal board. But they'd actually askedme if I was a Canadian citizen.
So there's that true. I've neveractually been. Actually, it's just true.
How do they do they even text? I think, well, no,
they do because of the voters list. Okay, they never put my
name up against them. It doesn'treally matter. I'm just saying. I'm
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just putting it out there. Ifyou're listening right now, Yeah, you
could you could run, you couldvote, You could run for mayor of
Mississauga. And what does that meanwhen you're mayor of Mississauga, Noka?
What does it mean? What doesthat look like? Means you you I've
never been the mayor, but itmeans that you get to lead the city
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and you know, you get tomeet, you get to vote on counseling,
you get to shape how Mississauga isgoing to unfold over the next few
years. We at least two years, because then you're back to the general
election. I'm very This is like, if you don't know and haven't heard
that there's an election, you're atthe right place because we're going to explain
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everything over the next few weeks upnow up until June tenth. We'll cover
election day live, so you hearresults right here. It's going to be
fantastic, Like you're going to getall the information you need. Like today's
show, for example, I'm soexcited to have a a friend, a
political commentator guy who's been in municipalpolitics here in Peel for a long,
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long long time. Bill McBain willbe here later on the show, and
he's going to break down for youknow, the political arena, some candidates,
some hot issues that we should belooking for, valley questions, all
of that stuff. As he rana bunch of campaigns you'd like yourself.
So it's great that I have youfolks here to really just break down what
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this election will look like. Yeah. Absolutely, And you know, for
voters, it's really important to notethat June tenth is election day, but
we've got advance polls on May twentyfour, May twenty fifth, June first,
and June second, So if youwant to vote early, you can,
And the information for the advanced pollsfor voting locations I think will be
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made available a bit later and justbefore we get Bill onto the show.
I think he should be coming onpretty soon. Yeah. Absolutely, and
we're very very excited to be doingthis. We're hoping that you find this
information helpful. We hope that wecan, you know, provide you with
all the information you need to makean informed decision when the time comes,
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for sure, And with that wewill take a quick break and when we
come back, the Magnificent Bill McBain, The Magnificent McBain is what we should
call him, and I'll check inwith you. Okay, this is her
first time, this is your firsttime hosting a show. So I'm really
glad that you're around for this.Thank you. I'm pretty I'm pretty excited
to be doing this. It ismy first time hosting a show. And
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we'll check and see how you do. All right, So with that,
let's take a quick break. We'llbe right here on u S Talk SAGA
nine sixty am, stream us liveat SAGA nine sixty am dot C.
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You're listening to Beyond the Ballot withRyan Gurcharn and Noka Duck Rube. And
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welcome back to Beyond Ballot. Likethe announcer said, I am Ryan Gercharn
and my co host hare is Nokaduckru Noka. How are you doing so
far? I'm good, I'm great, I'm really excited for show. Second
segment, here we go. Sowe're back from commercials and as promised,
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we have one of the biggest politicalcommentators in Mississauga or appeal for that that
for that matter that I could thinkof and so qualified to talk about this
Merrill election really setting the stage ofwhat's happening. And he is, well
you probably heard his name. Hewas a former municipal candidate, counselor and
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trustee. He's worked at Queen's Parkand he's worked federally too, and he's
currently a host hare right on ustokSaga ninety sixty AM on a show called
Urban Zoo Tuesday's ten am, threepm and eight pm. And he's also
a professor at Senega College. BillMcBain, Bill, thank you for joining
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us and honor and a pleasure,not as much as it's a pleasure for
you to be here, because youhave this wealth of information and you're just
dying to soak it up. Sowell, let's just dive right into it,
Bill, since we don't have thatmuch time to chat about it,
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just an entire show, let's talkabout the political landscape of right now.
We have Bonnie Crombie has left,we don't have a mayor anymore. There
is now an election, and afew counselors have signed up, a few
non counselors have signed up. Andwhat are your thoughts your initial thoughts right
now? What is the fuel startingto look like to you? Bill,
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Well, there's three current counselors,and I guess the fourth is Carolyn Parish,
who's Leftward five and to run formayor, so that's an open seat.
But she's been a councilor up untilvery recently, so you haven't experienced
lot in Stephen Dasco, Alvin,Ted Joe and Dipica de Merla, and
of course the aforementioned Carolyn Parrish.You've got another interesting field. Number of
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the candidates have run for mayor orfor counsel before. Peter Callen McCallan ran
for counsel UH recently in Ward nineand I think he finished fourth, And
of course he's mayor former Mayor mccallian'sson. But David Shaw's run for previously.
I think Siah Jeffrey was award tocandidate previously. My mom whom I
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missing, George Tavers has run previously, and I think I don't want to
miss him. Frank Fang has hasrun for council previously, so you've got
an interesting group of people who've beenin the field before. Some well,
look at running from mayor in abig city is an expensive proposition. And
the people who are going to becompetitive are the ones who can raise a
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fairy chunk of change, and inalmost all cases that's going to be incumbents
unless you come with money in yourpockets already. And I don't see that
in the crowd. I should say, I forgot to mention it. Jamie
DOOKI ran in Ward ten and apart of me Ward Yeah, Ward ten
in twenty ten, and I knewJamie there. He was a lovely guy.
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So you've got an interesting group offolks. I don't know Peter Tolius
or Natalie Zneu, but it takesa certain amount of courage to throw your
name in there. But quite frankly, you've probably got four people here who
are in the game at all,and that will be very dependent on the
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ability to raise money and to networkin a relatively short period of time.
Sorry to cut you off there,Bill, We've already seen that reflected in
some of the polling that's already beenout there. What do you think of
that, well, Carolyn Parish,I think in the Lays polls that eighteen
percent is it, and Dipicas isnumber two, and Alvin and Steven are
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coming up behind them. So,yeah, the polling is reflecting a name
recognition. You have a city withvery little media other than this radio station
and some independent online newspapers and whatever. The Missaga News is evolved to it's
online only now and so the abilityto broadcast who is involved in politics in
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the city is almost completely dependent onthe city's communications budget. So naturally these
four people are going to be wellknown. Now. Dippica has been an
MPP, Carolyn's been an MP,They're well known in many ways. But
these are the four who are obviouslygoing to draw the interest unless something amazing
happens and they come forward. Iknow that on on on April first,
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mister Crombie did an April Fool's jokethat he was going to jump into the
race. I fell for that becauseit's it's possible, and I want everybody
to remember that. Jack lateon beforehe ran for the leadership of the NDP,
there was an article in Now magazinetalking about wouldn't this guy be a
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great candidate for leader? And noone took it seriously, but it was
the first It was the first thingthat planted the seed, and so Brian,
who knows what Brian's thinking I'm hesays no, but it's possible,
and it's a long way to Junetenth. Well, he reminds me of
Peter Adams. So Ward five wherewe now Gius Carolyn has left over sign
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Er Sea, so we have anotherbi like in there. Eve Adams used
to be our counselor in Ward fivefrom Ward five, and she left and
ran federally for the Conservatives Harper Conservatives, and then she switched over to the
Trudeau's across the floor. But whenshe left, her husband ran Peter Adams,
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and he ran really just on hername. He kept her signs with
a big name Adams, and thentiny corner at the top he put tape
over Eve and wrote Peter. SoI have like, is that what we're
gonna see from Brian. It's it'san old trick. You know. Peter
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Best, who was the original drummerfor the Beatles, years later put out
a a an album that said inbig letters best of the Beatles and in
tiny letters Peter. So you knowit's uh, well, I mean that's
what that's completely what Peter Mcallian's runningon. It's certainly not political experience.
Their acumen and h and Brian wouldbring a bit more to the table in
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that field. But yeah, andyou know, there's been a lot of
other big names that were thrown around, and some people from the federal scene,
some people from the provincial scene,and we haven't seen any of that,
and none of them have even expressedany interest. What do you think
mayor is a pretty pretty good jobanybody on the job? Well, you
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know, Mississauga councilors are amongst thehighest paid in the country. Yeah,
there is that regional pay and CDpay. Not a lot of people know
that, and it slid a littlebit in recent years because they haven't had
major increases for some years now,but at one time they were not and
they were they were better paid thanthe cabinet ministers in many of our provinces
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and they they essentially we're up withmembers of parliament and and or better,
I mean parliamentary assistance. Uh.And so it's a good job, and
the mayor's job is a is awell paid job in the in the city
of Mississauga. Uh. But youknow, it's a very big city.
It's got a lot of challenges.I think one of the things that the
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city's really struggling with is defining itsits role visa vis the interference of the
provincial government, and as are alot of municipalities around land use and UH
and housing development and that sort ofthing. And it's it's it's going to
be a really tough job going intothe future. And that that to me,
that's amongst one of the big issuesthat looking forward that the city has
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to deal with, and and theability to pay for itself, which is
a problem for many cities. Yeah. Yeah, and certainly the we're going
to talk about issues in the nextsegment. But I know, Ryan,
but you know, certainly a lotof these issues are going to be very
challenging for whoever the new mayor isgoing to be. But you know,
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I had I had a expected somea few names to hop into the race,
but we haven't seen that. It'snot too late, it's not too
late. Well, when is theday, Algabra, Yeah, I think
it's the twenty sixth of April's thenomination or is it the twenty sixth?
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I think that that is the nominationdate if I remember correctly. Yeah,
there you go, federal provincial folks. You've got until the twenty six close
of nominations. Now the real beautyby the way of being a mayor of
a city like Mississauga, Unlike themayor of Toronto, which has, you
know, waves of newspaper, radio, and television media constantly circling around,
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you can live almost unseen as aas a mayor in the city because there
is no major news department looking overyour shoulder anymore. And that's actually a
huge problem for our democracy and it'sgoing to get and worse, and not
just in Misaga, but many partsof the country. How do we actually
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let people know what's going on atcity Hall other than through the householders you
get from actual politicians setting out theirown stuff. Where do we get analysis,
where do we get criticism? Soit's a great job from that point
of view, and it has beenfor a while. No checks and balances,
No checks and balances. Yeah,we're changing that bill, This show
is about to change. There yougo, there you go. But you're
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right. I think the level ofscrutiny that exists in Mississauga for our local
elected officials, our counselors, ourtrustees, even our mayor, is not
very high, and that is unfortunate. It's a terrible thing. For our
democracy. Yeah, agreed. Areyou expecting that this is probably going to
be the the the landscape, Yeah, I mean you'll get a few more
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people in. It's a long wayto go, people piling in on on
on mayor's races. To be eligibleto run for mayor, you either have
to be a resident of the cityor rent or own property in the city.
So it's a It could be avery large canvas. Being a big
city, lots of people have connectionsto here who don't necessarily live here.
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But I think for those who knowthe landscape at all and they're looking at
the counselors and Carolyn Parish and willbe pretty hesitant about jump in, except
for those who maybe have some otherambitions since excuse me, sorry, So
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someone may want to fill a futureseat and running from mayor and they get
some name recognition, name the paper, whatever that happens, or some other
desire to promote themselves or to promotean issue, which is not uncommon without
any real sense they're going to win, They're going to get out there and
put an issue on the map.I don't see a lot of that right
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now, but it's always of possibility. In April twenty six is still a
fair ways away. Yeah, tryingto just zero in on I guess the
two front runners if you want,I mean Carolyn Parrisha leading the pack and
we have Dipica. You mentioned thatshe was a former MPP. She was
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also a cabinet minister for I thinkit's long term care or something of that
nature. See how the couple ofportfolios. Okay, yeah, and uh
and Carolyn wasn't in cabinet to myrec record, no, but she did
make it famous for uh, youknow, doing what Carolyn wants. That's
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her brand. What he's stomping onyour a doll that looks like you yes,
or I haven't been kicked out ofcaucus or standing up saying hey Hazel
mccallian's uh, you know, weneed to look into this thing that she's
doing. You know, like shewasn't the only one a number of counselors,
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but she was definitely vocal about it. She was vocal. Yeah,
and that's her brand, you know. And Dipica, I feel like if
you're looking at the stuff she's puttingout on her social it's a very different
brand than what Carolyn has. I'mjust curious on both of you and Noka
and Bill, what are your takeson how the campaign shaping up so far?
Very early? Like you said,more people are going to come.
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But these two front runners, tellme what you think about their campaign as
it is so far. Well,do you want to go for at Noka?
No, you go ahead, Okay, thank you, Carolyn. Well,
the first piece of literature I havefrom anybody came from Carolyn, so
she and to mail a piece ofliterature through this big city is a fair,
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fair effort. By the way,the ceiling currently it will change as
the as the voters list is solidifiedis four hundred and twenty four dollars four
hundred and for apartment, four hundredand twenty four thousand, four hundred and
twenty two dollars, which is seventyfive hundred dollars plus eighty five cents per
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eligible eligible voters. So that willchange a little bit up or down.
That's still a lot of money,and it costs a lot to mail to
the entire city. I don't finda huge difference in most of the platforms
I've uh, you know, alot of them talked about housing and affordability,
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a little bit about their relationship tothe province, and and and and
about the number of them one whowant to cut taxes, which every election
in human history, you know,lots of candidates, So we're cutting taxes.
So that's hardly new and not necessarilyparticularly well thought out. But I
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just I just don't see a lotthat separates these people philosophically. I really
don't. I do agree with whatyou're there's a bit more action. There's
going to be an effort to tryand differentiate themselves. I would think somewhere
along the line. I mean,all four I don't know what Stephen Dasco's
politics are, but I know Alvinand Dipaica and Carolyn are all from the
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Liberal Party, and so you wouldthink that they they're in a similar philosophical
space, although there is you know, it's a big party and there's a
lot of variation there too. ButI think some of the issues are are
being talked about in a very generalway, and I think people are going
to have to get a lot morespecific. Transportations the other one people mentioned
a lot, They're gonna have toget a lot more specific and a lot
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more serious because the challenges that thecity faces are profound, It grew very
quickly. It's development has been apatchwork. And integrating modern transportation and how
and and affordable housing and while promotingbusiness is going to take significant planning.
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Bill, Bill, I'm just gonnakund in right here. No, no,
no, because I want to talkabout those things, but we'll come
back to I really want to focusjust before we go to break in a
bit on the campaigns, the actuallike the vibes you're getting. You notice
that Carolyn's the first out the doorwith the first literature. Have you actually
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seen anything from dippaka just online?Just online? Yeah, And I've noticed
that she's doing a lot of likepeople's stories, Like she's talking to a
lot of folks putting that on socialCarolyn's uh, definitely, she I see
some on her So she doesn't haveInstagram or Facebook ever, She's always had
just Twitter, and just recently forher campaign, she you know, created
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two new accounts. So she's like, oh, I guess it makes sense
to do this. I don't know. It's at the X. One more
thing before we move on to thenext segment. You know, the latest
pole is still shows that it mightbe a three way race with Alvin not
too far behind. Dip agreed,Yeah, so you know we've got to
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keep an eye on him. Also, not to say that we're not going
to keep an eye on mister Dasco. We will, But you know,
that was certainly an interesting poll tosee the three of them in the double
digits. Of course, Carolyn ishighest and Dipica is not far behind,
and Alvin's a little further behind,but he's he seems to be might be
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able to catch up. What doyou think, Bill, I think they're
all within easily within margin of errorthere. It is a tight race.
And I again, how it isso difficult to communicate en mass in the
city of Mississauga. How do youdo it effectively without raising vast sums of
money or creating a huge network.Who has the network to do that?
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I think that's a I think Carolyna huge advantage from that point of view,
just because she's been in the fieldfor so long. But I just
and that isn't a judgment on thequality of campaigns or the thought behind them.
That's just a hardcore, cold realityof a lot of people to talk
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to and not a lot of waysto talk to them unless you pay for
it, and that's maybe again anugly part of our democracy, but that's
where we are right now. That'sa great way to put it. Bill.
A lot of people have talked toand not a lot of ways to
talk to them. That's right.So I just wanted to say that I
think this is a great conversation.I want to keep it going, but
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we are going to take a quicklittle break and when we come back,
I want to dive in more intoplatforms policies. You said some issues that
Mississaga has and't. I think that'sreally important to unpack so to hear more
about what we need here in Mississauga. You probably know this already, but
stay tuned right here on News TALKSAGAnine sixty eight, No Radio, No
(25:11):
Problem. Stream is live on SAGOninety six am dot c A. You're
listening to Beyond the Ballot with Ryanger Charn and Noka Duck Rube and welcome
(25:37):
back to Beyond the Ballot. Noka, how are you doing so far?
I'm great. I'm going to dothese check ins every segment to lost you.
Yet we are here. If you'rejust joining us with Bill McBain political
strategists, and he is unpacking.In our first segment, we talked about,
you know, what the race lookslike so far, and we talked
(25:59):
about a bunch of counselors who arein there, four of them ranging with
different polls. But now let's talkabout some bill you were mentioning before the
break, some things that Mississiety saidtransportation and housing and I know affordabilities come
up tons of times. Let's startoff with a very general question and we'll
dive in a bit more specific,But what would you like to see from
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the candidates or what do we needto see from the candidates that will connect
with the voters on these things.I think voters are just upset and they
don't even know at who or whyright in a lot of ways, and
they have reason to be, Ithink, but I don't think. I
don't think any political party is thereason for that. I just think there's
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a general disenchantment. I also thinkthat, if you know, the right
wing has gone done its very bestto make sure people stay disenchanted and maybe
motivated to make an unfortunate change,and that shows up at every level of
politics at the moment. But thereare things that are really important to the
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future of the city. And oneof the downsides of elected politics is it
tends to have a very It doesn'tsee it a far horizon. It sees
the next election, which is actuallytwo years away after these people were elected,
and their termins in twenty six,Yeah, twenty twenty six. So
things like the ability for the cityto raise funds other than through the property
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tax or property tax reform. Soit's more just we talked. We've talked
about these things literally for decades andwithout major reform. The City of Toronto
is one of the few I thinkit's the only other only municipality. It's
governed by a different actor than allthe others, and it has the ability
to raise additional funds in some ways. But still for municipalities, the options
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are are there are very few.They're dependent on the province. Are current
provincial government has been willing to stepin and do its best to override planning
departments and municipal councils and local planningall over the place, and that is
highly problematic. They've had to stepback a couple of times, but they
just come back in a different froma different direction, and that sort of
(28:17):
thing, and that sort of interferencewith the nature of government and how that
impacts planning and the ability for peopleto plan affordable housing, to look at
different ways of dealing with real propertyand looking at creative ways and environmentally sustainable
ways and ways that are helpful toneighborhoods to develop those neighborhoods and commercial centers
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and housing is huge, and yetit's being disrupted all the time between different
levels of government, and I think, and particularly our relationship with the province
and the region and how we dealwith the expansion of municipal prime of urban
areas into uh into agricultural areas isa huge problem and there's a lot of
(29:03):
lessons to be learned elsewhere in theworld. Europe, for instance, has
dealt with this ages ago and havehave found a way to maintain their vital
natural and agricultural areas and improve theavailability of affordable housing. It's not big,
it's not huge, it's a lotsmaller in a lot of cases.
But it's functional and they have functionalneighborhoods where there where services where people can
(29:29):
walk to because they have their pharmacy, their their their greengrocer, their whatever.
And it's just a type of urbandevelopment that we do not have.
Yeah, Bill, just to piggybackon that, uh with the issue with
the with the provincial government, uh, you know, stepping in essentially and
(29:51):
telling telling municipalities what they can cann'tdo, what they have to what they
have to do for in terms ofzoning and planning. Don't you think that
was necessary? Because you know,we are we are experiencing a crisis when
it comes to housing. We areseeing you know, we just don't see
a lot of a lot of willI'm going to say at municipal councils uh
(30:18):
to really address that issue because youknow, they want to you know,
counselors want to make the residents happy, and the you know, the loudest,
loudest residents are usually people who don'twant development or don't want you know,
that extra and extra building in theirbackyard. So don't you think it
was don't you think it was necessaryto a certain extent? And I will
use the fourplex example as the bestexample of that, yes, which which
(30:42):
mister Ford was talking about again thisweek. Uh No, I don't uh
or let let me put it anotherway. Their intervention and their engagement could
have been done very differently But theproblem is is the philosophy that the provincial
government is bringing to the table isnot the one that meets those interests either.
(31:03):
It meets development interests of very large, development interests that are very rarely
and I can give you, I'mteen examples throughout Mississauga proposed developments that will
drastically change the nature of those neighborhoods. Do I think neighborhoods have to intensify?
I don't think we have any otherchoice going forward. Do I think
(31:26):
that housing we need to develop affordablehousing, Yes we do, But the
province is focused on building housing thatis out of range of any or middle
class or lower individual looking for housing. They're building upper middle class housing all
the time. And what we've gotis not just a housing crisis in the
(31:51):
terms of the variability of spots.We have a crisis of affordability. And
the province is forcing anything but thatranges that will will make things worse on
most municipalities, not better. Andthey're also not judging the impact, the
environmental impact and the ability for citiesto have a quality of life and preserve
(32:14):
the very vital agricultural land and urbanand partment in natural spaces, both within
the cities and in surrounding areas.Right, that's interesting. Thanks for that.
Bill. Let's talk a little bitabout, you know, the big
divorce that was supposed to happen,the separation from the region. Do you
think that's going to be an issueat all in this minister in this marrial
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race or do you think it's adone deal? Nobody there's a deal.
I agree, I think it's absolutelya done deal. It was. It
was a vanity project anyway, andit didn't make a lot of economic sense
because of the sort of the centralservices that are delivered by the region right
now, and to separate those wouldhave been expensive chaos. Uh you know,
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water, who are uh uh policinghealth, uh health, public health
services, all that, and we'rebetter served with a strong region dealing with
that now we're gonna have a lotof other problems going forward. Uh uh
you know with our relationship excuse meto Oakville, excuse me to the Golden
(33:19):
Horseshoe and to the City of Torontoand the rest of the g t A.
We need some leadership in that casefrom the province and and and as
it applies to metrolinks and transportation inparticular. We do need leadership there,
but we're gonna work. I don'tthink coming in and simply imposing things like
the province took a lot of actionsthat were not helpful at all around restricting
(33:44):
the powers, for instance, ofof conservation authorities UH, restricting, imposing
over riding municipal planning on through UHminister's UH zoning orders UH and and all
those sort of things that were completelydamaging and served another master other than the
(34:05):
public interest. And so I thinkPEEL was a symptom of all that.
I think Peel was a symptom ofthe relationship between the Fords and Hazel Mcallian
as well. And I think it'sgone and it was never in fact,
it was never a particularly good idea. Let's talk a little bit about crime.
We've had an increase of crime inthe city. It's been something on
(34:28):
everybody's mind. Everybody's worried about theircar right now, what do you think
needs to be done to or youknow, let me rephrase that, what
do you think a mayor can doin order to help address that? We
saw I saw a tweet by Dippicaputting out an idea that there would be
a ten thousand dollars reward for anybodywho I guess tells on someone who's a
(34:54):
car thief. What do you thinkthe mayor can actually do about that?
Not a lot and uh but it'sa huge problem and it will require significant
cooperation between the r C, mP, the opp and local policing.
And it may require a lot ofextra infrastructure around uh CCTV and things like
(35:19):
that in in in in various municipalities, which is common in places like Britain.
And but the the car theft thenumbers are crazy, I mean they're
crazy. Uh. You know,you take five hundred cars and lay them
out in a in a parking lotthat covers a lot of ground. And
I've had the bottom of one ofmy cars ripped out from from from the
(35:44):
engine always but to the back ofthe exhaust system stolen out of a sitting
in a in a go station inthe middle of uh uh and it got
pulled, you know, they justdrove up and ripped it off. And
apparently this is a common thing aswell, because they get lots of money
for converters. But this stuff isgoing on all over the place. But
this isn't easy. I mean wehave if you want to invest heavily in
(36:06):
more policing, I guess it's away, but I'm not sure you'll find
that that that will easily solve theproblem. Uh. Border border control,
uh uh uh international surveillance. That'swhy they are c P. And I
think this will be very important inthis and uh and deals with other countries
(36:27):
where these things end up. Uh. You know, if you want to
buy an interio car, you cango to where I don't know, uh
uh uh Ghana or someplace in Nigeriaand buy one. But uh, we
need we need better relationships with othercountries to control this because it's an international
problem and local policing alone will notbe able to do it. It is
a factor, and they can havean impact, but it's a it's a
(36:52):
it's a broadly complex reality. Andenforcement has to be when these things come
to court that it has to beprofound. The UH finds the jail time
has to be profound. But itis you know for a lot of people.
Uh. There you will have skilledsort of relatively poor people doing this
(37:15):
and then and it's like drugs,it goes up the chain. How do
you deal with those who are operatingthese very broad international car theft rings.
M hm. When you mentioned uhborder, so I immediately thought building a
wall from from US in Brampton.I don't know why my head went a
wall from Brampton. Yeah, justkeep Brampton. That's horrible. No,
(37:38):
So just we're done with separation.Yeah, we're totally done with separation.
Yeah. So just just to givea rundown sort of like where the candidates
are. Carolyn says that she wantedto, uh, this is specifically for
crime. The way she's addressing itis to create a sense of community.
So that's how everybody feels safe andit'll keep crime down. That how she
(38:00):
talks about it TYPICALY. I thinkNoka you mentioned a snitch line at ten
times. She doesn't call it that. Well, you call it, you
find something, you call up andsay, hey, you know as the
Karen hotline, and oh dear,I'm giving everything bed. Uh. Stephen
Dasco actually doesn't say what he's gonnado, but he did say what he
(38:21):
did, like neighborhood watch programs,business watch programs, community watch programs.
He helped get a police station builtin Lakeview. So he's hoping to use
his skills there and Alvin actually saidhe wants to create This is the only
one who actually says it, actually, Claire, I want to create a
municipal task force dedicated to fighting autothefts and work with other levels of government,
(38:45):
which I don't know how redundant thatmight be, because I like pel
Police is doing. There's like sometask force, there's a they're they're doing
this big thing with r c MPand I think border uh, Border Agency
and all those different levels of governmentand Mississauga would have a seat. They
(39:05):
do. I think they had athey had they had some conference about it,
I think yesterday or something. Isaw some tweets. I walked down
a street in during the last municipalelection. It wasn't I was running in
a different war. But I wasjust going down checking out some things I'd
heard about in the neighborhood. Andthere were this is relatively small street and
there were five cars had been stolenfrom it in the in the previous month.
(39:28):
Five uh, and I with acouple of good throws, I probably
could have, you know, donethe whole street. And it was that
small a space and yet they weremissing all the time. It's crazy.
I look at all. I thinkthey're sincere. I think the Amyer candidates
are quite sincere about these things.But are they nice? Do they help
a little bit? Yeah? Butwill they make a profound difference? No,
(39:52):
they won't. But there are thingsyou can do in concert with other
levels of government and other municipalities.But you know what interesting Bill, You
and I have knocked on doors,and so has Ryan. We've all we've
all been door knockers, lots andlots of doors. People are going to
want an answer to this because it'sa problem, right, It's a problem
(40:13):
they're experiencing. And if somebody showsup at their door, they they're not
going to take an answer to can'tI can't do anything about it? If
they do, they're not going tobe motivated to go to the polls.
And just before we were coming alittle close to the end here, I
just wanted to get your sense ofdo you think this will be a high
(40:34):
voter turnout? Do you think wesee a lot of folks here excited about
these questions. Do you think we'llsee solutions that will get people, you
know, say oh no, Igot to vote for this person because you
know, too many car thefts onmy street is that, like, what
are your thoughts on this bill.I don't think cars will be a motiv
motivating I mean, I think lotsof people feel strongly about it, and
they should. I don't think it'llbe a vote motivator in particular. And
(41:01):
and yes, Mink is absolutely correct. Politicians will have to answer people in
some way, and you know thoseI think they're again, I think they're
what they're saying, they're sincere about. Uh And And if you engage people
in any way, I guess yougive them a sense that they're they're doing
something. But the big problem is, no, I don't think it'll be
a high turnout, because again,you're in a general election. There's a
(41:25):
broad community and media sense at everylevel, national media, wherever, that
there's an election going on, andit drives people to the polls. I
think lots of people will be barelyaware there's an election until three days after
election day. Uh And And Iand I'm not happy about that. I
mean, I hope I'm wrong.I you know, people come up to
(41:47):
me later and say, ah,Bill, you're wrong. Great. I
think that would be fabulous. I'dlove a great turnout. But but but
that hasn't been the trend. Andand the other thing is I think people
need to somehow see themselves reflected inour politics and I and I don't think
they see that really quickly, Bellbefore we let you go, because we
(42:08):
are wrapping up soon. What doyou think? I know me too.
What do you think is going tobe the number one issue for this election?
I think affordability. And I'm notsure that these these candidates have a
lot of impact on that at all. Uh they have. There are issues
that are very important that they couldhave substantial impact on around urban planning,
(42:30):
uh and and and and housing anda number of them mentioned you know,
uh uh better ways to get aroundthe city other than my car in public
transportation. That's great, and theycan have a real impact that and I
think that's important, but I don'tthink that's top of mind for people.
And and I think when people arereally worried about an issue like this,
they don't care if it's provincial,federal, municipal that's coming to their door.
(42:52):
They want someone to answer it.And uh uh And I in fairness
to all these candidates, I don'tthink they're all going to talk about it.
But I don't think there's a lotthey can have in terms of immediate
impact. It's a societal wide change. We're going to have to really look
at how we deal with the natureof real property, the nature of the
(43:15):
housing market in general, and howwe use land and do urban planning and
what levels of government are ultimately responsiblefor that. And that's going to be
a big dance and debate for yearsto come. But it needs to happen,
and these mayors will have whoever theyare the mayor, will have an
important role to play in that.In the GTA and in Ontario. Absolutely,
(43:38):
But if you're looking to elect someonewho will wave their arms and make
life better easily, it's not goingto happen. And it's not because you
don't have some good candidates for mayor. Yeah, thanks so much. Well,
thank you so much, Bill forjoining us. It's been a pleasure
to have you on. You area wealth of knowledge, and yeah,
(44:00):
well you have a wealth of knowledgeand we really appreciate your thank you.
With that, we're going to haveto take a quick break and we'll come
back in a jiffy and we willtalk a bit more about here what to
expect in the election. Stay tuned. Right here stream us live at SAGA
nine sixty am dot c A.You're listening to Beyond the Ballot with Ryan
(44:28):
Gurcharn and Noka Duck Rube and welcomeback. This is it. This is
the end of this week's episode,but we will be here next week.
Saying bat time, saying bat channel. What is that great channel? And
(44:52):
it's a great time, So batchannel, bat Batman. Oh my god,
over your head. Okay, that'stotally fine. How is it?
This is your first show? Howdo you feel? I feel great.
I honestly I didn't lose you forthe next show yet. No. No,
(45:14):
I'm really excited we're doing this.You are an awesome co host,
and I'm really really excited that we'regoing to be able to get all this
information out there to our residence inMississauga who really need to go out and
vote. We heard from Bill thathe is expecting that the voter turnout will
not be very high. Wrong.We're going to prove them wrong. We
(45:37):
want to challenge you. We arechallenging you, Mississauga, Mississauga, come
out to vote. Please, that'sright. Do it for me, everybody,
do it for mine, Do itfor me. Do it for Noka,
but more importantly, do it foryourself. Yes, the next mayor
will be there's not just a placeholderfor the next election. They may run
(45:57):
again. They may you know whatI mean, They have the time and
place right now, twenty twenty four. But look what's happening right now.
There's a lot happening in the world. There's a lot happening locally. We
talked about Autocaft We're talking about thingsnot being affordable and housing and housing.
(46:17):
Like I think we were the onlycity recently in the you know that decreased
in the population because people just can'tafford to live here. And we need
to change course. Like Bill said, I think we need to really write
things and I think the next therehas the opportunity to do that. Somebody
would vision somebody who can actually movethings along in the right direction. You've
(46:43):
got But you know it's true,right we can't sit back and not participate,
and you know, and expect tobe happy about the decisions that are
being made, right they impact us. The price of an orange is a
political issue, so please come outand vote right June tenth. And it
sounds like it's far away, butthis is your opportunity to really hear what
(47:07):
the issues are here, where peoplestand on things, voice your own opinion,
participate democratically. Right, I'm onlygoing to keep reminding you, so
don't worry. Every every week,every week pray hair new stok Stock at
nine sixty am exclusively. Nowhere elsedoes this. Nowhere else. I'm not
even joking. This is Mississauga's thenew station and Mississauga coverage of who is
(47:31):
going to take us into the nexttwo years. And just before we go,
I just want to say that I'vealso heard and it's a little concerning.
We're not an election mode yet,like you haven't seen law signs,
but people are already saying they're tiredof politicians. They don't want to see
anymore, they don't want to vote, They just don't want They feel like
(47:51):
it's a thing that's just bothering themand thin from it. Right, I
get I've kind of seen that sound. I think the past few years have
been really, really tough, Likewe've had some really tough years. We
had COVID and now you know,we've got economic issues and the affordability crisis
and the housing crisis, and ontop of that there's a lot of international
(48:15):
events like the war and how that'simpacting people. So I find that with
most people I speak to, thereisn't that much patience for politicians right now,
but hopefully that will change and listeningto your show will change that.
So, like I said, thesame bat time, same bat channel right
(48:36):
here on new start scCO nine sixtyam next week catch us right here.
Until then, stay safe and getinvolved. No radio, no problem.
(48:58):
Stream is live on SUG nine sixtya M dot c a
The views expressed in the following programare those of the participants and do not
necessarily reflect the views of SAGA ninesixty AM or its management from the treaty
and traditional territory of the Mississaugas ofthe Credit First Nation. You're listening to
(00:25):
Beyond the Ballot with Ryan Gurcharn andNoka Duck Rube, and welcome to Beyond
the Ballot, the show that's goingto cover everything about this Mississauga Meryll election
right happening right here this year twentytwenty four, June tenth. We hit
(00:50):
the ballots, isn't that right,Noka Duck Rube. That's right. We've
got an election coming up and it'sreally exciting. We're going to have a
new mayor. Can you believe thatthis doesn't happen very long? No?
No, not got Hazel and yougot Bonnie. And now the post Hazel
era is going to be very interestingfor this election. We never had an
(01:11):
election without Hazel, so that's verytrue. You know, it's going to
be very interesting. Anybody could beanybody could win this. You could be
the next mayor. I could bethe next mayor. You we have to
run, yes, and how canwe run. What do we do?
So there's a couple of a fewthings you've got to do to register to
run. I think the deadline iswhen's the deadline, April twenty six at
(01:36):
two pm. April twenty six attwo pm. So if you want to
run, you still got time tomake it happen. You have to be
a Canadian citizen. You have tobe eighteen years old. You have to
have a resident of Mississauga, orthe owner or tenant of property Mississauga,
or the spouse of an owner tenantof property in Mississauga. That's a pretty
(02:00):
large, huge and not be prohibitedunder the Municipal Act or otherwise law not
to run. And you know whatwhen I ran full disclosure, I ran
for school trustee twice. You've ran, I don't know, a couple of
times. I think I've seen yoursign somewhere. School trustee, a couple
of times, a couple of councilonce. You're the big star there at
(02:22):
appeal board. But they'd actually askedme if I was a Canadian citizen.
So there's that true. I've neveractually been. Actually, it's just true.
How do they do they even text? I think, well, no,
they do because of the voters list. Okay, they never put my
name up against them. It doesn'treally matter. I'm just saying. I'm
(02:44):
just putting it out there. Ifyou're listening right now, Yeah, you
could you could run, you couldvote, You could run for mayor of
Mississauga. And what does that meanwhen you're mayor of Mississauga, Noka?
What does it mean? What doesthat look like? Means you you I've
never been the mayor, but itmeans that you get to lead the city
(03:04):
and you know, you get tomeet, you get to vote on counseling,
you get to shape how Mississauga isgoing to unfold over the next few
years. We at least two years, because then you're back to the general
election. I'm very This is like, if you don't know and haven't heard
that there's an election, you're atthe right place because we're going to explain
(03:27):
everything over the next few weeks upnow up until June tenth. We'll cover
election day live, so you hearresults right here. It's going to be
fantastic, Like you're going to getall the information you need. Like today's
show, for example, I'm soexcited to have a a friend, a
political commentator guy who's been in municipalpolitics here in Peel for a long,
(03:49):
long long time. Bill McBain willbe here later on the show, and
he's going to break down for youknow, the political arena, some candidates,
some hot issues that we should belooking for, valley questions, all
of that stuff. As he rana bunch of campaigns you'd like yourself.
So it's great that I have youfolks here to really just break down what
(04:10):
this election will look like. Yeah. Absolutely, And you know, for
voters, it's really important to notethat June tenth is election day, but
we've got advance polls on May twentyfour, May twenty fifth, June first,
and June second, So if youwant to vote early, you can,
And the information for the advanced pollsfor voting locations I think will be
(04:31):
made available a bit later and justbefore we get Bill onto the show.
I think he should be coming onpretty soon. Yeah. Absolutely, and
we're very very excited to be doingthis. We're hoping that you find this
information helpful. We hope that wecan, you know, provide you with
all the information you need to makean informed decision when the time comes,
(04:56):
for sure, And with that wewill take a quick break and when we
come back, the Magnificent Bill McBain, The Magnificent McBain is what we should
call him, and I'll check inwith you. Okay, this is her
first time, this is your firsttime hosting a show. So I'm really
glad that you're around for this.Thank you. I'm pretty I'm pretty excited
to be doing this. It ismy first time hosting a show. And
(05:19):
we'll check and see how you do. All right, So with that,
let's take a quick break. We'llbe right here on u S Talk SAGA
nine sixty am, stream us liveat SAGA nine sixty am dot C.
(05:40):
You're listening to Beyond the Ballot withRyan Gurcharn and Noka Duck Rube. And
(06:03):
welcome back to Beyond Ballot. Likethe announcer said, I am Ryan Gercharn
and my co host hare is Nokaduckru Noka. How are you doing so
far? I'm good, I'm great, I'm really excited for show. Second
segment, here we go. Sowe're back from commercials and as promised,
(06:24):
we have one of the biggest politicalcommentators in Mississauga or appeal for that that
for that matter that I could thinkof and so qualified to talk about this
Merrill election really setting the stage ofwhat's happening. And he is, well
you probably heard his name. Hewas a former municipal candidate, counselor and
(06:47):
trustee. He's worked at Queen's Parkand he's worked federally too, and he's
currently a host hare right on ustokSaga ninety sixty AM on a show called
Urban Zoo Tuesday's ten am, threepm and eight pm. And he's also
a professor at Senega College. BillMcBain, Bill, thank you for joining
(07:10):
us and honor and a pleasure,not as much as it's a pleasure for
you to be here, because youhave this wealth of information and you're just
dying to soak it up. Sowell, let's just dive right into it,
Bill, since we don't have thatmuch time to chat about it,
(07:30):
just an entire show, let's talkabout the political landscape of right now.
We have Bonnie Crombie has left,we don't have a mayor anymore. There
is now an election, and afew counselors have signed up, a few
non counselors have signed up. Andwhat are your thoughts your initial thoughts right
now? What is the fuel startingto look like to you? Bill,
(07:55):
Well, there's three current counselors,and I guess the fourth is Carolyn Parish,
who's Leftward five and to run formayor, so that's an open seat.
But she's been a councilor up untilvery recently, so you haven't experienced
lot in Stephen Dasco, Alvin,Ted Joe and Dipica de Merla, and
of course the aforementioned Carolyn Parrish.You've got another interesting field. Number of
(08:20):
the candidates have run for mayor orfor counsel before. Peter Callen McCallan ran
for counsel UH recently in Ward nineand I think he finished fourth, And
of course he's mayor former Mayor mccallian'sson. But David Shaw's run for previously.
I think Siah Jeffrey was award tocandidate previously. My mom whom I
(08:45):
missing, George Tavers has run previously, and I think I don't want to
miss him. Frank Fang has hasrun for council previously, so you've got
an interesting group of people who've beenin the field before. Some well,
look at running from mayor in abig city is an expensive proposition. And
the people who are going to becompetitive are the ones who can raise a
(09:07):
fairy chunk of change, and inalmost all cases that's going to be incumbents
unless you come with money in yourpockets already. And I don't see that
in the crowd. I should say, I forgot to mention it. Jamie
DOOKI ran in Ward ten and apart of me Ward Yeah, Ward ten
in twenty ten, and I knewJamie there. He was a lovely guy.
(09:33):
So you've got an interesting group offolks. I don't know Peter Tolius
or Natalie Zneu, but it takesa certain amount of courage to throw your
name in there. But quite frankly, you've probably got four people here who
are in the game at all,and that will be very dependent on the
(09:54):
ability to raise money and to networkin a relatively short period of time.
Sorry to cut you off there,Bill, We've already seen that reflected in
some of the polling that's already beenout there. What do you think of
that, well, Carolyn Parish,I think in the Lays polls that eighteen
percent is it, and Dipicas isnumber two, and Alvin and Steven are
(10:18):
coming up behind them. So,yeah, the polling is reflecting a name
recognition. You have a city withvery little media other than this radio station
and some independent online newspapers and whatever. The Missaga News is evolved to it's
online only now and so the abilityto broadcast who is involved in politics in
(10:46):
the city is almost completely dependent onthe city's communications budget. So naturally these
four people are going to be wellknown. Now. Dippica has been an
MPP, Carolyn's been an MP,They're well known in many ways. But
these are the four who are obviouslygoing to draw the interest unless something amazing
happens and they come forward. Iknow that on on on April first,
(11:11):
mister Crombie did an April Fool's jokethat he was going to jump into the
race. I fell for that becauseit's it's possible, and I want everybody
to remember that. Jack lateon beforehe ran for the leadership of the NDP,
there was an article in Now magazinetalking about wouldn't this guy be a
(11:33):
great candidate for leader? And noone took it seriously, but it was
the first It was the first thingthat planted the seed, and so Brian,
who knows what Brian's thinking I'm hesays no, but it's possible,
and it's a long way to Junetenth. Well, he reminds me of
Peter Adams. So Ward five wherewe now Gius Carolyn has left over sign
(11:58):
Er Sea, so we have anotherbi like in there. Eve Adams used
to be our counselor in Ward fivefrom Ward five, and she left and
ran federally for the Conservatives Harper Conservatives, and then she switched over to the
Trudeau's across the floor. But whenshe left, her husband ran Peter Adams,
(12:18):
and he ran really just on hername. He kept her signs with
a big name Adams, and thentiny corner at the top he put tape
over Eve and wrote Peter. SoI have like, is that what we're
gonna see from Brian. It's it'san old trick. You know. Peter
(12:41):
Best, who was the original drummerfor the Beatles, years later put out
a a an album that said inbig letters best of the Beatles and in
tiny letters Peter. So you knowit's uh, well, I mean that's
what that's completely what Peter Mcallian's runningon. It's certainly not political experience.
Their acumen and h and Brian wouldbring a bit more to the table in
(13:07):
that field. But yeah, andyou know, there's been a lot of
other big names that were thrown around, and some people from the federal scene,
some people from the provincial scene,and we haven't seen any of that,
and none of them have even expressedany interest. What do you think
mayor is a pretty pretty good jobanybody on the job? Well, you
(13:28):
know, Mississauga councilors are amongst thehighest paid in the country. Yeah,
there is that regional pay and CDpay. Not a lot of people know
that, and it slid a littlebit in recent years because they haven't had
major increases for some years now,but at one time they were not and
they were they were better paid thanthe cabinet ministers in many of our provinces
(13:52):
and they they essentially we're up withmembers of parliament and and or better,
I mean parliamentary assistance. Uh.And so it's a good job, and
the mayor's job is a is awell paid job in the in the city
of Mississauga. Uh. But youknow, it's a very big city.
It's got a lot of challenges.I think one of the things that the
(14:13):
city's really struggling with is defining itsits role visa vis the interference of the
provincial government, and as are alot of municipalities around land use and UH
and housing development and that sort ofthing. And it's it's it's going to
be a really tough job going intothe future. And that that to me,
that's amongst one of the big issuesthat looking forward that the city has
(14:35):
to deal with, and and theability to pay for itself, which is
a problem for many cities. Yeah. Yeah, and certainly the we're going
to talk about issues in the nextsegment. But I know, Ryan,
but you know, certainly a lotof these issues are going to be very
challenging for whoever the new mayor isgoing to be. But you know,
(14:58):
I had I had a expected somea few names to hop into the race,
but we haven't seen that. It'snot too late, it's not too
late. Well, when is theday, Algabra, Yeah, I think
it's the twenty sixth of April's thenomination or is it the twenty sixth?
(15:20):
I think that that is the nominationdate if I remember correctly. Yeah,
there you go, federal provincial folks. You've got until the twenty six close
of nominations. Now the real beautyby the way of being a mayor of
a city like Mississauga, Unlike themayor of Toronto, which has, you
know, waves of newspaper, radio, and television media constantly circling around,
(15:43):
you can live almost unseen as aas a mayor in the city because there
is no major news department looking overyour shoulder anymore. And that's actually a
huge problem for our democracy and it'sgoing to get and worse, and not
just in Misaga, but many partsof the country. How do we actually
(16:07):
let people know what's going on atcity Hall other than through the householders you
get from actual politicians setting out theirown stuff. Where do we get analysis,
where do we get criticism? Soit's a great job from that point
of view, and it has beenfor a while. No checks and balances,
No checks and balances. Yeah,we're changing that bill, This show
is about to change. There yougo, there you go. But you're
(16:30):
right. I think the level ofscrutiny that exists in Mississauga for our local
elected officials, our counselors, ourtrustees, even our mayor, is not
very high, and that is unfortunate. It's a terrible thing. For our
democracy. Yeah, agreed. Areyou expecting that this is probably going to
be the the the landscape, Yeah, I mean you'll get a few more
(16:52):
people in. It's a long wayto go, people piling in on on
on mayor's races. To be eligibleto run for mayor, you either have
to be a resident of the cityor rent or own property in the city.
So it's a It could be avery large canvas. Being a big
city, lots of people have connectionsto here who don't necessarily live here.
(17:15):
But I think for those who knowthe landscape at all and they're looking at
the counselors and Carolyn Parish and willbe pretty hesitant about jump in, except
for those who maybe have some otherambitions since excuse me, sorry, So
(17:36):
someone may want to fill a futureseat and running from mayor and they get
some name recognition, name the paper, whatever that happens, or some other
desire to promote themselves or to promotean issue, which is not uncommon without
any real sense they're going to win, They're going to get out there and
put an issue on the map.I don't see a lot of that right
(17:57):
now, but it's always of possibility. In April twenty six is still a
fair ways away. Yeah, tryingto just zero in on I guess the
two front runners if you want,I mean Carolyn Parrisha leading the pack and
we have Dipica. You mentioned thatshe was a former MPP. She was
(18:17):
also a cabinet minister for I thinkit's long term care or something of that
nature. See how the couple ofportfolios. Okay, yeah, and uh
and Carolyn wasn't in cabinet to myrec record, no, but she did
make it famous for uh, youknow, doing what Carolyn wants. That's
(18:40):
her brand. What he's stomping onyour a doll that looks like you yes,
or I haven't been kicked out ofcaucus or standing up saying hey Hazel
mccallian's uh, you know, weneed to look into this thing that she's
doing. You know, like shewasn't the only one a number of counselors,
(19:03):
but she was definitely vocal about it. She was vocal. Yeah,
and that's her brand, you know. And Dipica, I feel like if
you're looking at the stuff she's puttingout on her social it's a very different
brand than what Carolyn has. I'mjust curious on both of you and Noka
and Bill, what are your takeson how the campaign shaping up so far?
Very early? Like you said,more people are going to come.
(19:26):
But these two front runners, tellme what you think about their campaign as
it is so far. Well,do you want to go for at Noka?
No, you go ahead, Okay, thank you, Carolyn. Well,
the first piece of literature I havefrom anybody came from Carolyn, so
she and to mail a piece ofliterature through this big city is a fair,
(19:47):
fair effort. By the way,the ceiling currently it will change as
the as the voters list is solidifiedis four hundred and twenty four dollars four
hundred and for apartment, four hundredand twenty four thousand, four hundred and
twenty two dollars, which is seventyfive hundred dollars plus eighty five cents per
(20:08):
eligible eligible voters. So that willchange a little bit up or down.
That's still a lot of money,and it costs a lot to mail to
the entire city. I don't finda huge difference in most of the platforms
I've uh, you know, alot of them talked about housing and affordability,
(20:32):
a little bit about their relationship tothe province, and and and and
about the number of them one whowant to cut taxes, which every election
in human history, you know,lots of candidates, So we're cutting taxes.
So that's hardly new and not necessarilyparticularly well thought out. But I
(20:56):
just I just don't see a lotthat separates these people philosophically. I really
don't. I do agree with whatyou're there's a bit more action. There's
going to be an effort to tryand differentiate themselves. I would think somewhere
along the line. I mean,all four I don't know what Stephen Dasco's
politics are, but I know Alvinand Dipaica and Carolyn are all from the
(21:18):
Liberal Party, and so you wouldthink that they they're in a similar philosophical
space, although there is you know, it's a big party and there's a
lot of variation there too. ButI think some of the issues are are
being talked about in a very generalway, and I think people are going
to have to get a lot morespecific. Transportations the other one people mentioned
a lot, They're gonna have toget a lot more specific and a lot
(21:41):
more serious because the challenges that thecity faces are profound, It grew very
quickly. It's development has been apatchwork. And integrating modern transportation and how
and and affordable housing and while promotingbusiness is going to take significant planning.
(22:04):
Bill, Bill, I'm just gonnakund in right here. No, no,
no, because I want to talkabout those things, but we'll come
back to I really want to focusjust before we go to break in a
bit on the campaigns, the actuallike the vibes you're getting. You notice
that Carolyn's the first out the doorwith the first literature. Have you actually
(22:26):
seen anything from dippaka just online?Just online? Yeah, And I've noticed
that she's doing a lot of likepeople's stories, Like she's talking to a
lot of folks putting that on socialCarolyn's uh, definitely, she I see
some on her So she doesn't haveInstagram or Facebook ever, She's always had
just Twitter, and just recently forher campaign, she you know, created
(22:48):
two new accounts. So she's like, oh, I guess it makes sense
to do this. I don't know. It's at the X. One more
thing before we move on to thenext segment. You know, the latest
pole is still shows that it mightbe a three way race with Alvin not
too far behind. Dip agreed,Yeah, so you know we've got to
(23:12):
keep an eye on him. Also, not to say that we're not going
to keep an eye on mister Dasco. We will, But you know,
that was certainly an interesting poll tosee the three of them in the double
digits. Of course, Carolyn ishighest and Dipica is not far behind,
and Alvin's a little further behind,but he's he seems to be might be
(23:33):
able to catch up. What doyou think, Bill, I think they're
all within easily within margin of errorthere. It is a tight race.
And I again, how it isso difficult to communicate en mass in the
city of Mississauga. How do youdo it effectively without raising vast sums of
money or creating a huge network.Who has the network to do that?
(23:56):
I think that's a I think Carolyna huge advantage from that point of view,
just because she's been in the fieldfor so long. But I just
and that isn't a judgment on thequality of campaigns or the thought behind them.
That's just a hardcore, cold realityof a lot of people to talk
(24:18):
to and not a lot of waysto talk to them unless you pay for
it, and that's maybe again anugly part of our democracy, but that's
where we are right now. That'sa great way to put it. Bill.
A lot of people have talked toand not a lot of ways to
talk to them. That's right.So I just wanted to say that I
think this is a great conversation.I want to keep it going, but
(24:41):
we are going to take a quicklittle break and when we come back,
I want to dive in more intoplatforms policies. You said some issues that
Mississaga has and't. I think that'sreally important to unpack so to hear more
about what we need here in Mississauga. You probably know this already, but
stay tuned right here on News TALKSAGAnine sixty eight, No Radio, No
(25:11):
Problem. Stream is live on SAGOninety six am dot c A. You're
listening to Beyond the Ballot with Ryanger Charn and Noka Duck Rube and welcome
(25:37):
back to Beyond the Ballot. Noka, how are you doing so far?
I'm great. I'm going to dothese check ins every segment to lost you.
Yet we are here. If you'rejust joining us with Bill McBain political
strategists, and he is unpacking.In our first segment, we talked about,
you know, what the race lookslike so far, and we talked
(25:59):
about a bunch of counselors who arein there, four of them ranging with
different polls. But now let's talkabout some bill you were mentioning before the
break, some things that Mississiety saidtransportation and housing and I know affordabilities come
up tons of times. Let's startoff with a very general question and we'll
dive in a bit more specific,But what would you like to see from
(26:22):
the candidates or what do we needto see from the candidates that will connect
with the voters on these things.I think voters are just upset and they
don't even know at who or whyright in a lot of ways, and
they have reason to be, Ithink, but I don't think. I
don't think any political party is thereason for that. I just think there's
(26:45):
a general disenchantment. I also thinkthat, if you know, the right
wing has gone done its very bestto make sure people stay disenchanted and maybe
motivated to make an unfortunate change,and that shows up at every level of
politics at the moment. But thereare things that are really important to the
(27:07):
future of the city. And oneof the downsides of elected politics is it
tends to have a very It doesn'tsee it a far horizon. It sees
the next election, which is actuallytwo years away after these people were elected,
and their termins in twenty six,Yeah, twenty twenty six. So
things like the ability for the cityto raise funds other than through the property
(27:30):
tax or property tax reform. Soit's more just we talked. We've talked
about these things literally for decades andwithout major reform. The City of Toronto
is one of the few I thinkit's the only other only municipality. It's
governed by a different actor than allthe others, and it has the ability
to raise additional funds in some ways. But still for municipalities, the options
(27:55):
are are there are very few.They're dependent on the province. Are current
provincial government has been willing to stepin and do its best to override planning
departments and municipal councils and local planningall over the place, and that is
highly problematic. They've had to stepback a couple of times, but they
just come back in a different froma different direction, and that sort of
(28:17):
thing, and that sort of interferencewith the nature of government and how that
impacts planning and the ability for peopleto plan affordable housing, to look at
different ways of dealing with real propertyand looking at creative ways and environmentally sustainable
ways and ways that are helpful toneighborhoods to develop those neighborhoods and commercial centers
(28:38):
and housing is huge, and yetit's being disrupted all the time between different
levels of government, and I think, and particularly our relationship with the province
and the region and how we dealwith the expansion of municipal prime of urban
areas into uh into agricultural areas isa huge problem and there's a lot of
(29:03):
lessons to be learned elsewhere in theworld. Europe, for instance, has
dealt with this ages ago and havehave found a way to maintain their vital
natural and agricultural areas and improve theavailability of affordable housing. It's not big,
it's not huge, it's a lotsmaller in a lot of cases.
But it's functional and they have functionalneighborhoods where there where services where people can
(29:29):
walk to because they have their pharmacy, their their their greengrocer, their whatever.
And it's just a type of urbandevelopment that we do not have.
Yeah, Bill, just to piggybackon that, uh with the issue with
the with the provincial government, uh, you know, stepping in essentially and
(29:51):
telling telling municipalities what they can cann'tdo, what they have to what they
have to do for in terms ofzoning and planning. Don't you think that
was necessary? Because you know,we are we are experiencing a crisis when
it comes to housing. We areseeing you know, we just don't see
a lot of a lot of willI'm going to say at municipal councils uh
(30:18):
to really address that issue because youknow, they want to you know,
counselors want to make the residents happy, and the you know, the loudest,
loudest residents are usually people who don'twant development or don't want you know,
that extra and extra building in theirbackyard. So don't you think it
was don't you think it was necessaryto a certain extent? And I will
use the fourplex example as the bestexample of that, yes, which which
(30:42):
mister Ford was talking about again thisweek. Uh No, I don't uh
or let let me put it anotherway. Their intervention and their engagement could
have been done very differently But theproblem is is the philosophy that the provincial
government is bringing to the table isnot the one that meets those interests either.
(31:03):
It meets development interests of very large, development interests that are very rarely
and I can give you, I'mteen examples throughout Mississauga proposed developments that will
drastically change the nature of those neighborhoods. Do I think neighborhoods have to intensify?
I don't think we have any otherchoice going forward. Do I think
(31:26):
that housing we need to develop affordablehousing, Yes we do, But the
province is focused on building housing thatis out of range of any or middle
class or lower individual looking for housing. They're building upper middle class housing all
the time. And what we've gotis not just a housing crisis in the
(31:51):
terms of the variability of spots.We have a crisis of affordability. And
the province is forcing anything but thatranges that will will make things worse on
most municipalities, not better. Andthey're also not judging the impact, the
environmental impact and the ability for citiesto have a quality of life and preserve
(32:14):
the very vital agricultural land and urbanand partment in natural spaces, both within
the cities and in surrounding areas.Right, that's interesting. Thanks for that.
Bill. Let's talk a little bitabout, you know, the big
divorce that was supposed to happen,the separation from the region. Do you
think that's going to be an issueat all in this minister in this marrial
(32:34):
race or do you think it's adone deal? Nobody there's a deal.
I agree, I think it's absolutelya done deal. It was. It
was a vanity project anyway, andit didn't make a lot of economic sense
because of the sort of the centralservices that are delivered by the region right
now, and to separate those wouldhave been expensive chaos. Uh you know,
(32:59):
water, who are uh uh policinghealth, uh health, public health
services, all that, and we'rebetter served with a strong region dealing with
that now we're gonna have a lotof other problems going forward. Uh uh
you know with our relationship excuse meto Oakville, excuse me to the Golden
(33:19):
Horseshoe and to the City of Torontoand the rest of the g t A.
We need some leadership in that casefrom the province and and and as
it applies to metrolinks and transportation inparticular. We do need leadership there,
but we're gonna work. I don'tthink coming in and simply imposing things like
the province took a lot of actionsthat were not helpful at all around restricting
(33:44):
the powers, for instance, ofof conservation authorities UH, restricting, imposing
over riding municipal planning on through UHminister's UH zoning orders UH and and all
those sort of things that were completelydamaging and served another master other than the
(34:05):
public interest. And so I thinkPEEL was a symptom of all that.
I think Peel was a symptom ofthe relationship between the Fords and Hazel Mcallian
as well. And I think it'sgone and it was never in fact,
it was never a particularly good idea. Let's talk a little bit about crime.
We've had an increase of crime inthe city. It's been something on
(34:28):
everybody's mind. Everybody's worried about theircar right now, what do you think
needs to be done to or youknow, let me rephrase that, what
do you think a mayor can doin order to help address that? We
saw I saw a tweet by Dippicaputting out an idea that there would be
a ten thousand dollars reward for anybodywho I guess tells on someone who's a
(34:54):
car thief. What do you thinkthe mayor can actually do about that?
Not a lot and uh but it'sa huge problem and it will require significant
cooperation between the r C, mP, the opp and local policing.
And it may require a lot ofextra infrastructure around uh CCTV and things like
(35:19):
that in in in in various municipalities, which is common in places like Britain.
And but the the car theft thenumbers are crazy, I mean they're
crazy. Uh. You know,you take five hundred cars and lay them
out in a in a parking lotthat covers a lot of ground. And
I've had the bottom of one ofmy cars ripped out from from from the
(35:44):
engine always but to the back ofthe exhaust system stolen out of a sitting
in a in a go station inthe middle of uh uh and it got
pulled, you know, they justdrove up and ripped it off. And
apparently this is a common thing aswell, because they get lots of money
for converters. But this stuff isgoing on all over the place. But
this isn't easy. I mean wehave if you want to invest heavily in
(36:06):
more policing, I guess it's away, but I'm not sure you'll find
that that that will easily solve theproblem. Uh. Border border control,
uh uh uh international surveillance. That'swhy they are c P. And I
think this will be very important inthis and uh and deals with other countries
(36:27):
where these things end up. Uh. You know, if you want to
buy an interio car, you cango to where I don't know, uh
uh uh Ghana or someplace in Nigeriaand buy one. But uh, we
need we need better relationships with othercountries to control this because it's an international
problem and local policing alone will notbe able to do it. It is
a factor, and they can havean impact, but it's a it's a
(36:52):
it's a broadly complex reality. Andenforcement has to be when these things come
to court that it has to beprofound. The UH finds the jail time
has to be profound. But itis you know for a lot of people.
Uh. There you will have skilledsort of relatively poor people doing this
(37:15):
and then and it's like drugs,it goes up the chain. How do
you deal with those who are operatingthese very broad international car theft rings.
M hm. When you mentioned uhborder, so I immediately thought building a
wall from from US in Brampton.I don't know why my head went a
wall from Brampton. Yeah, justkeep Brampton. That's horrible. No,
(37:38):
So just we're done with separation.Yeah, we're totally done with separation.
Yeah. So just just to givea rundown sort of like where the candidates
are. Carolyn says that she wantedto, uh, this is specifically for
crime. The way she's addressing itis to create a sense of community.
So that's how everybody feels safe andit'll keep crime down. That how she
(38:00):
talks about it TYPICALY. I thinkNoka you mentioned a snitch line at ten
times. She doesn't call it that. Well, you call it, you
find something, you call up andsay, hey, you know as the
Karen hotline, and oh dear,I'm giving everything bed. Uh. Stephen
Dasco actually doesn't say what he's gonnado, but he did say what he
(38:21):
did, like neighborhood watch programs,business watch programs, community watch programs.
He helped get a police station builtin Lakeview. So he's hoping to use
his skills there and Alvin actually saidhe wants to create This is the only
one who actually says it, actually, Claire, I want to create a
municipal task force dedicated to fighting autothefts and work with other levels of government,
(38:45):
which I don't know how redundant thatmight be, because I like pel
Police is doing. There's like sometask force, there's a they're they're doing
this big thing with r c MPand I think border uh, Border Agency
and all those different levels of governmentand Mississauga would have a seat. They
(39:05):
do. I think they had athey had they had some conference about it,
I think yesterday or something. Isaw some tweets. I walked down
a street in during the last municipalelection. It wasn't I was running in
a different war. But I wasjust going down checking out some things I'd
heard about in the neighborhood. Andthere were this is relatively small street and
there were five cars had been stolenfrom it in the in the previous month.
(39:28):
Five uh, and I with acouple of good throws, I probably
could have, you know, donethe whole street. And it was that
small a space and yet they weremissing all the time. It's crazy.
I look at all. I thinkthey're sincere. I think the Amyer candidates
are quite sincere about these things.But are they nice? Do they help
a little bit? Yeah? Butwill they make a profound difference? No,
(39:52):
they won't. But there are thingsyou can do in concert with other
levels of government and other municipalities.But you know what interesting Bill, You
and I have knocked on doors,and so has Ryan. We've all we've
all been door knockers, lots andlots of doors. People are going to
want an answer to this because it'sa problem, right, It's a problem
(40:13):
they're experiencing. And if somebody showsup at their door, they they're not
going to take an answer to can'tI can't do anything about it? If
they do, they're not going tobe motivated to go to the polls.
And just before we were coming alittle close to the end here, I
just wanted to get your sense ofdo you think this will be a high
(40:34):
voter turnout? Do you think wesee a lot of folks here excited about
these questions. Do you think we'llsee solutions that will get people, you
know, say oh no, Igot to vote for this person because you
know, too many car thefts onmy street is that, like, what
are your thoughts on this bill.I don't think cars will be a motiv
motivating I mean, I think lotsof people feel strongly about it, and
they should. I don't think it'llbe a vote motivator in particular. And
(41:01):
and yes, Mink is absolutely correct. Politicians will have to answer people in
some way, and you know thoseI think they're again, I think they're
what they're saying, they're sincere about. Uh And And if you engage people
in any way, I guess yougive them a sense that they're they're doing
something. But the big problem is, no, I don't think it'll be
a high turnout, because again,you're in a general election. There's a
(41:25):
broad community and media sense at everylevel, national media, wherever, that
there's an election going on, andit drives people to the polls. I
think lots of people will be barelyaware there's an election until three days after
election day. Uh And And Iand I'm not happy about that. I
mean, I hope I'm wrong.I you know, people come up to
(41:47):
me later and say, ah,Bill, you're wrong. Great. I
think that would be fabulous. I'dlove a great turnout. But but but
that hasn't been the trend. Andand the other thing is I think people
need to somehow see themselves reflected inour politics and I and I don't think
they see that really quickly, Bellbefore we let you go, because we
(42:08):
are wrapping up soon. What doyou think? I know me too.
What do you think is going tobe the number one issue for this election?
I think affordability. And I'm notsure that these these candidates have a
lot of impact on that at all. Uh they have. There are issues
that are very important that they couldhave substantial impact on around urban planning,
(42:30):
uh and and and and housing anda number of them mentioned you know,
uh uh better ways to get aroundthe city other than my car in public
transportation. That's great, and theycan have a real impact that and I
think that's important, but I don'tthink that's top of mind for people.
And and I think when people arereally worried about an issue like this,
they don't care if it's provincial,federal, municipal that's coming to their door.
(42:52):
They want someone to answer it.And uh uh And I in fairness
to all these candidates, I don'tthink they're all going to talk about it.
But I don't think there's a lotthey can have in terms of immediate
impact. It's a societal wide change. We're going to have to really look
at how we deal with the natureof real property, the nature of the
(43:15):
housing market in general, and howwe use land and do urban planning and
what levels of government are ultimately responsiblefor that. And that's going to be
a big dance and debate for yearsto come. But it needs to happen,
and these mayors will have whoever theyare the mayor, will have an
important role to play in that.In the GTA and in Ontario. Absolutely,
(43:38):
But if you're looking to elect someonewho will wave their arms and make
life better easily, it's not goingto happen. And it's not because you
don't have some good candidates for mayor. Yeah, thanks so much. Well,
thank you so much, Bill forjoining us. It's been a pleasure
to have you on. You area wealth of knowledge, and yeah,
(44:00):
well you have a wealth of knowledgeand we really appreciate your thank you.
With that, we're going to haveto take a quick break and we'll come
back in a jiffy and we willtalk a bit more about here what to
expect in the election. Stay tuned. Right here stream us live at SAGA
nine sixty am dot c A.You're listening to Beyond the Ballot with Ryan
(44:28):
Gurcharn and Noka Duck Rube and welcomeback. This is it. This is
the end of this week's episode,but we will be here next week.
Saying bat time, saying bat channel. What is that great channel? And
(44:52):
it's a great time, So batchannel, bat Batman. Oh my god,
over your head. Okay, that'stotally fine. How is it?
This is your first show? Howdo you feel? I feel great.
I honestly I didn't lose you forthe next show yet. No. No,
(45:14):
I'm really excited we're doing this.You are an awesome co host,
and I'm really really excited that we'regoing to be able to get all this
information out there to our residence inMississauga who really need to go out and
vote. We heard from Bill thathe is expecting that the voter turnout will
not be very high. Wrong.We're going to prove them wrong. We
(45:37):
want to challenge you. We arechallenging you, Mississauga, Mississauga, come
out to vote. Please, that'sright. Do it for me, everybody,
do it for mine, Do itfor me. Do it for Noka,
but more importantly, do it foryourself. Yes, the next mayor
will be there's not just a placeholderfor the next election. They may run
(45:57):
again. They may you know whatI mean, They have the time and
place right now, twenty twenty four. But look what's happening right now.
There's a lot happening in the world. There's a lot happening locally. We
talked about Autocaft We're talking about thingsnot being affordable and housing and housing.
(46:17):
Like I think we were the onlycity recently in the you know that decreased
in the population because people just can'tafford to live here. And we need
to change course. Like Bill said, I think we need to really write
things and I think the next therehas the opportunity to do that. Somebody
would vision somebody who can actually movethings along in the right direction. You've
(46:43):
got But you know it's true,right we can't sit back and not participate,
and you know, and expect tobe happy about the decisions that are
being made, right they impact us. The price of an orange is a
political issue, so please come outand vote right June tenth. And it
sounds like it's far away, butthis is your opportunity to really hear what
(47:07):
the issues are here, where peoplestand on things, voice your own opinion,
participate democratically. Right, I'm onlygoing to keep reminding you, so
don't worry. Every every week,every week pray hair new stok Stock at
nine sixty am exclusively. Nowhere elsedoes this. Nowhere else. I'm not
even joking. This is Mississauga's thenew station and Mississauga coverage of who is
(47:31):
going to take us into the nexttwo years. And just before we go,
I just want to say that I'vealso heard and it's a little concerning.
We're not an election mode yet,like you haven't seen law signs,
but people are already saying they're tiredof politicians. They don't want to see
anymore, they don't want to vote, They just don't want They feel like
(47:51):
it's a thing that's just bothering themand thin from it. Right, I
get I've kind of seen that sound. I think the past few years have
been really, really tough, Likewe've had some really tough years. We
had COVID and now you know,we've got economic issues and the affordability crisis
and the housing crisis, and ontop of that there's a lot of international
(48:15):
events like the war and how that'simpacting people. So I find that with
most people I speak to, thereisn't that much patience for politicians right now,
but hopefully that will change and listeningto your show will change that.
So, like I said, thesame bat time, same bat channel right
(48:36):
here on new start scCO nine sixtyam next week catch us right here.
Until then, stay safe and getinvolved. No radio, no problem.
(48:58):
Stream is live on SUG nine sixtya M dot c a
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