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Patten dismisses government’s mental health promises

One of Ottawa Centre Liberal MPP Richard Patten’s favourite — but contentious — causes has become somewhat of an election issue.

For years, the Ottawa Centre Liberal MPP has been attempting to change the Ontario Mental Health Act to make it easier for police, doctors and others to force the mentally ill who are perceived to be a threat to themselves or others to get treatment. Three time, Patten has introduced a private member’s bill in the Ontario legislature — only to have it rejected by the Tory majority. read more

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Tory first timer is Harris poster boy

By Damali Nabagereka

Some voters in Ottawa Centre say they feel they’re having a hard time getting answers from some of the candidates at all-candidates forums in this election.

“I received no direct response,” said Tracey Lauriault, who attented a child-care forum at the Bronson Centre. Lauriault is a full-time student at Carleton University and a mother of two children aged 4, and 8. She asked for a commitment from the candidates to increase child-care spaces. read more

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Wizout Ze Edge

By Nicholas Greenfield

If provincial elections were like wine, then this is one vintage worth forgetting. No body. No flavour. No panache.

The Ottawa Centre campaign is just like that old TV commercial for Partagé wine — the one with the sultry French woman who takes her wine very seriously — it is dry, and ow you zey?, wizout ze edge. It’s dry all right. And there hasn’t been much of an edge either. Without question, the biggest issue in Ottawa Centre is school closures and cuts to health care and the domino effect it will have on the community’s social programs. Why then have constituents been leaving all-candidate’s meetings with only more questions? Where’s the edge? Where’s that pinch in the tastebuds that says, now that’s a bottle worth investing in? read more

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