When it comes to safe seats in political campaigns, Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry can’t get much safer …for the Ontario Conservatives, who have had it locked up for years.
Nolan Quinn crushed the opposition in his political debut in 2022, grabbing 55.5% of the vote, crossing the finish line with a 14,310-vote lead.
It’s called a landslide.
The Liberals and New Democratic Party duked it out for second place with the Grits managing 6,456 votes, a few hundred more than Team Orange. The Greenies were far back in the pack.
So, what’s changed? Nothing. At least not something that would have thousand of voters jump overboard on the Quinn ship.
The day after Dougie Dollar fired the starter’s pistol, the other parties were scrambling to find somebody to challenge Quinn who wasn’t hanging around the starting line waiting for somebody to show up.
The campaign got off to a bad start for the Liberals. Their ‘parachute’ candidate, Ryan St. Jean, an Ottawa resident, described as a “great candidate”, quit the day after the provincial campaign started.
Bonne chance to the brave souls – all parties – who take up the challenge to knock off Quinn.
We recommend dial-a-prayer or lighting a candle, or two.
BACK IN FEBRUARY 1965: Mayor Elzear Emard and his no nonsense welfare administrator Francis Flanigan in February 1965 scolded the United Counties for turning the city into a welfare “dumping ground.” “They (Counties) are dumping their welfare recipients in the city,” said Flanigan, who noted that Cornwall taxpayers were subsidizing the counties. Emard said the counties should spend some money and hire a welfare administrator. … Fire destroyed a three-storey tenement on Baldwin Avenue and left 10 adults and 17 children homeless. The building had six units. Twenty-five fire fighters battled the blaze. … An appeal for clothing and furniture was launched to help a teen couple who found themselves with three bundles of joy born on New Year’s Day. The 18-year-old father worked at Courtaulds. The family lived in a two-bedroom upstairs apartment. … Statistics supplied by the federal government showed that the average weekly pay cheque for the city’s 4,480 industrial workers was $88.72 for a 42-hour week. Windsor and Sarnia had the highest paid – $118 a week. … The federal Liberal government announced that old age pension eligibility would be lowered to 65 from 70 over a five-year period. The maximum old age monthly cheque was $75. … Oshawa Generals defenceman Bobby Orr matched his OHL junior scoring record of 31 goals.
PART TWO: Charles Adams was named acting city engineer, replacing his father R. C. Adams who retired from the position but stayed on as a consulting engineer. … Cornwall Collegiate student Martha Quail was crowned Queen of the Campus Winter Carnival. … The city’s first curb-side mail box opened for business at Second and Sydney streets, next to the post office. A second mail box was expected to be set up on Second Street east of Augustus Street. … The Mark Fours, a city band, won the Beauharnois jamboree. Members were Percy Smith Jr., Ronald Lamarche, Richard Lamarche and Ray Rivette. … He shoots, he scores and scores and scores. So it was with Cornwall Collegiate junior basketball sniper Kevin Parkinson who set an EOSSA junior record with a 50-pointperformance in a 69-10 rout of South Grenville. … Classical College turned back CCVS 4-2 to win the Campus Winter Carnival hockey challenge in front of 2,000 fans. Richard Lortie, Paul Prevost, John Sauve and Guy St. Jean scored. Ray Barnes had both Collegiate goals. College goalie Pierre Guindon and CCVS goaltender Harold Murphy were outstanding. … The Royals defeated Brockville Braves 6-2 to take a 2-1 lead in the Central Junior Hockey League quarter-final. George Desjardins, two, Larry Gabri, Ron Ward, Jean Payette and Moe Proulx scored for the Royals.
TWISTS AND TURNS: Headline of the week found on the front page of the saucy tabloid, New York Post. Under a picture of a raspy Robert Kennedy Jr. testifying at the Senate confirmation hearing a headline screamed – “Hoarse Manure”.
TRUMP TAKES: Pete Hegseth said that if he received the nod to become secretary of defence, he would give up booze. Yes, and his boss said the war in Ukraine would end on Day 1 of his swearing in. … Vice-President J. D. Vance, father of three, wants a big spike in the U.S. birthrate. Hum, okay. Turn out the lights and get to work. …. Vance served with the Marine Corps and spent a few months in Iraq as a combat correspondent and photographer. A USA Today fact check showed while he served in a combat zone, the only shooting he did was with a camera.
THIS AND THAT: The National Football League has come a long way on the diversity trail when it comes to the quarterback position. In the Feb. 9 Super Bowl, the Eagles and Chiefs, for a second time, will be led by two of the best Black QBs in the biz. In the Final Four, three of the four starting QBs were Black. As a Washington Post columnistnoted, “In today’s NFL, a quarterback’s skin colour isn’t a big deal. Teams just want to win.” In 1962, the Washington Redskins became the last NFL team to have a Black player in its lineup.
TRIVIA: In 1958 this former United States President was guest at a civic reception at the Cornwallis Hotel. He spent part of the day touring the power project. He once said, “The buck stops here (Oval Office).”
TRIVIA ANSWER: Dick Butkus, Hall of Fame NFL linebacker (Chicago Bears), played the lead role in Blazing Saddles. In a 1970 cover story, Sports Illustrated labelled Butkus “The Most Feared Man in the Game”. He died in October 2023. He was 80. Along with acting, he did a stint as a television football commentator.
QUOTED: “If you’re going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet.” Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones
