[Above, from left: Candidates Henry Bosch (NDP), Jim Bradley (Liberal), moderator Tim Denis, Bruce Timms (Progressive Conservative) and Sam Hammond (communist) during the CAW-hall all-candidates debate held Oct.3, 2007. Photo by R. Bobak]
During the recent 2007 Ontario provincial election campaign, here’s what I heard MPP Jim Bradley (then Liberal Tourism Minister) say at the St. Catharines CAW-hall all-candidate’s debate, held on Oct.3, 2007:
“I have spoken to the Minister of Transportation and have been assured that one of the next steps for GO transit is in fact coming to the Niagara Peninsula. The reason I think it’s positive is this is one case where you’ll see as many people almost coming to the Niagara peninsula using that train as there would be going to Toronto as commuters. Because we really want to connect people from the greater Toronto area to St. Catharines and to Niagara Falls. So you’re going to see that happen.”
A GO "train", eh, Jim?! Sure… and we're "going to see that happen" when??!
Whether in government or in opposition, MPP Jim Bradley has teased St. Catharines for years with such coy, vague, ineffectual promises about his supposed-intentions of bringing GO train service to Niagara. (Note: Bradley specifically said "train" --- not bus).
Once again (as the St. Catharines Standard reported Oct.31, 2007 - barely a month after his election) all that Bradley (now himself becoming Transport Minister) can offer is maybe the eventual possibility of a bus?!
Unbelievable!
(...and the Liberal-friendly Standard loyally let Bradley get away with his GO "train" lie!!
All of Niagara's press were there at the all-candidates' debate, and then a month later, they were all aware of Bradley's back-pedalling to a GO bus position. In just a month, Bradley's GO train lie was buried and forgotten by Niagara's Liberal friendly press!)
Liberal MPP Jim Bradley had clearly outright misrepresented his GO train position.
In any other line of work, this kind of sleight-of-hand, bait-and-switch routine would be called fraud.
*
“I have spoken to the Minister of Transportation and have been assured that one of the next steps for GO transit is in fact coming to the Niagara Peninsula. The reason I think it’s positive is this is one case where you’ll see as many people almost coming to the Niagara peninsula using that train as there would be going to Toronto as commuters. Because we really want to connect people from the greater Toronto area to St. Catharines and to Niagara Falls. So you’re going to see that happen.”
A GO "train", eh, Jim?! Sure… and we're "going to see that happen" when??!
Whether in government or in opposition, MPP Jim Bradley has teased St. Catharines for years with such coy, vague, ineffectual promises about his supposed-intentions of bringing GO train service to Niagara. (Note: Bradley specifically said "train" --- not bus).
Once again (as the St. Catharines Standard reported Oct.31, 2007 - barely a month after his election) all that Bradley (now himself becoming Transport Minister) can offer is maybe the eventual possibility of a bus?!
Unbelievable!
(...and the Liberal-friendly Standard loyally let Bradley get away with his GO "train" lie!!
All of Niagara's press were there at the all-candidates' debate, and then a month later, they were all aware of Bradley's back-pedalling to a GO bus position. In just a month, Bradley's GO train lie was buried and forgotten by Niagara's Liberal friendly press!)
Liberal MPP Jim Bradley had clearly outright misrepresented his GO train position.
In any other line of work, this kind of sleight-of-hand, bait-and-switch routine would be called fraud.
*
1 comment:
An edited version of this letter appeared in the St. Catharines Standard, Nov.20, 2007.
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