October 3, 2008
Last night during the all candidates meeting in Dunnville, Liberal candidate for Haldimand Norfolk Dr. Hoskins was given the unfortunate task of trying to follow an excellent and passionate closing speech by Gary McHale.
Perhaps he was rattled by the ovation that McHale had just received, perhaps he was missing Diane Finley who didn’t bother to show up, or perhaps he simply didn’t know how to handle a riding in which the Liberals are not dominant, but in any case he made a startling statement during his closing remarks.
“Listen, you know to be honest for a moment, Gary again I think he’s just you’ve provided these people with a very good argument of why they shouldn’t send you to Ottawa, (groaning from the audience) that that you uh have a very good understanding of a specific issue, and and um it’s a big riding, and politics is tough”
Does Dr. Hoskins suggestion that we should not send Gary to Ottawa because he’s needed here count as an official endorsement of his work in Haldimand County by the Liberals?
Would Dr. Hoskins be willing to share that view with Mitch Hoffman from the office of the Attorney General who has been riding the trumped up counselling mischief not committed charge against McHale as though it were murder?
Does his statement “to be honest for a moment” mean that it’s Liberal policy to be less than honest most of the time? Is this the official sign that the Liberal campaign has come to realize that McHale is a real threat?
Has anyone else noticed that Dr. Hoskins is completely out of touch with what’s happening in the riding of Haldimand Norfolk? I appreciate the humanitarian work the man has been doing around the world, but I think it’s left him completely unaware of what the issues facing those of us he hopes to represent are.
I’ve met Dr. Hoskins and I believe him to be a genuinely nice guy, but I just don’t feel that he’s someone who will be able to lower himself to the level of us average people, and I don’t honestly understand why he wants to try.
As a resident of this riding I’m happy to hear him acknowledge the incredible understanding that Gary McHale has of one of the core issues we’re facing, and I do hope he didn’t get his hand slapped too hard for it later as it’s about time we got some honesty out of a Liberal.
Jeff Parkinson
Gary meets Dr Hoskins at the Delhi debate
JeffParkinson.ca 
Thanks for the very astute observations, Jeff. I appreciate Dr. Eric’s endorsement of Gary’s contributions, and I agree he is too good for Ottawa – but they’ll just have to get used to him up there.
If you think Gary was good in Dunnville, you should have seen him tonight live at the Cable 14/Hamilton Spectator debate! Dr. Eric put on a good show in the beginning, but Gary nailed him on the Carbon Tax and especially, on Caledonia when he asked the doctor if there was race-based policing in Caledonia. Then he pulled out Toby Barrett’s historic Haldimand Proclamation for Peace, Order and Good Government and asked if Dr. Eric would endorse it. Dr. Eric, unfortunately, highlighted his complete naivety of the Caledonia situation by saying he hadn’t read it! I gave a copy to one of his aides afterwards, so perhaps he’ll have time to read one of the most important documents ever written by a Canadian politician in recent memory before he meets Gary on Monday night.
I came away from the debate realizing that Eric may be a very accomplished man and a very nice guy who deserves every award he’s ever been given but he doesn’t have the first clue about what has been going on in Caledonia or any grasp of the sheer depth of our experience, research and advocacy. He’s just been parachuted in for some high profile photo-ops and thinks he can just feed people a line about owning the Caledonia issue without paying any kind of price to gain the depth of knowledge and understanding that Gary and others have paid to get to this point.
One of the reporters told Merlyn that ‘Gary can really hold his own!’ and ‘Gary’s got people in town coming around to his side. Very nice to hear.
After we got home we started getting calls from excited Caledonians who wanted to pass on their congrats to Gary. One of those calls was from a resident who called us only today to demand ‘the biggest sign you’ve got.’ We put up 3 signs on the property before the debate. After the debate she called again to say the neighbours had taken their signs and put them on their own lawns, and could she please have some more!!!
Of course everyone knows by now that Lady Finley (as one Dunnvillian referred to her today) cancelled out of the debate at the last minute. Rumour is that she’s not going to appear at the Rotary Club debate in Simcoe or in Caledonia. We shall see. Who could have predicted that her campaign would self-destruct in such a spectacular fashion? Our contacts in the federal PC Party are shocked that she would skip the debates.
The McHale train is rolling, and I can tell you Gary didn’t get in this election to lose. He never gave up on fighting for Caledonia, and he won’t give up after Oct 14th – win or lose. Can any of the other candidates say the same?
Thanks for all your good work, Jeff.
Regards,
Mark Vandermaas
Gary McHale campaign
info@canace.ca
Editor, VoiceofCanada