Lazy Tony - Canada's Laziest MP

Catching up with Lazy Tony

OK, time to play catch-up with all sorts of news on the Terrible Tony front.

First I want to encourage any readers (ha! wishful thinking I'm sure) to attend the Waterfront debate this Sunday.

Federal election: Waterfront debate this Sunday
Date: This Sunday, January 8, 2006
Time: Noon to 2pm
Place: Harbourfront Community Centre — SE corner of Bathurst St. and Queen’s Quay W.

It has been 1,444 days since the Federal Transport Minister said the best plan for Toronto’s money losing island airport would be to close it down. How many more days before the Feds finally act? We’ll find out this Sunday at the Trinity-Spadina candidates’ debate. For more specifics on the event and questions that will be asked click here.

The focus of this debate will be the role and the future of the federal government’s waterfront airport on Toronto Island and the role and the future of the federal Port Authority, which runs the airport. This is your chance to hear from and question the four main candidates in the Trinity-Spadina race:

Conservative — Sam Goldstein, Green Party — Thom Chapman, Liberal — Tony Ianno (sitting MP), NDP — Olivia Chow

CommunityAIR and other waterfront community groups are sponsoring this debate.

As I said over at rabble.ca (which I just joined, at least partly in hopes of attracting more eyeballs to this site), I am hoping that Ianno gets reamed at this debate -- if he's brave enough to show up. Basically, due to his support of the Toronto Port Authority (see my previous posts!), he is personally responsible for much of what is wrong with Toronto's beleaguered waterfront. If only the Liberal condo-dwellers had done their research in the last election!

Tony Ianno's trust fund is also getting some attention. Blogger Inaki Mondragon seems to have been able to generate some traction on the issue of Ianno's $250,000 slush fund, which, due to loopholes in election finance laws, allows people to make large anonymous donations which Tony can use for just about anything he wants. Torontoist picked up the story on Wednesday, and apparently CBC radio had an item about it this morning. With luck Ianno will not be able to remain under the radar on this.

Torontoist also had a recent story about the 'Stop the Violence' vigil for Jane Creba, the girl who was shot while shopping at Yonge-Dundas square on Boxing Day. Apparently, Ianno stood next to the Torontoist reporter respectfully for most of the ceremony, but when rival Olivia Chow came forward with city councilor Pam McConnell to dedicate a candle, he wasted no time pushing his way to the front of the crowd. Wouldn't want to miss a photo op, now would we?

Going back even further, I must admit I was surprised to read that Ianno had spoken out against the racist blog comments by Liberal organizer Mike Klander. Surprised because first of all, we know that Ianno rarely speaks out on anything, even when he's being well-paid to do so as a Member of Parliament. Secondly, it seems entirely out of character for Ianno. If you'll recall, after Ianno won the last election, rather than graciously acknowledge his opponents, which is standard practise, he took the opportunity to insult Olivia Chow. I wouldn't be surprised if he had the insulting Olivia Chow graphic as his screensaver.

posted by Paul @ 7:54 AM