Police Chief Frustrated with Courts

It has been called “catch and release” and that’s what it is.  Criminals are caught by the Police, then the courts release them to re-offend a short time later. Today, Police Chief VandeGraaf expressed his frustration with this in a Press Release.  He used a specific example of Cobourg resident Daniel Tyler Foden who was arrested for robbery, death threats and assault of a Police Officer.  He was then released with conditions but went straight out, ignored the conditions and offended again.  Chief VandeGraaf then personally authored a Press Release describing what happened (details below) then finished with the statement: “This is aggravating the level of frustration in our community with a system that does not meet our collective expectations.”  We… Read complete articlePolice Chief Frustrated with Courts

Liberals win minority – Local MP returned

The Liberals won the election with another minority.  Of course special ballots (almost a million votes – mail in or well in advance) won’t be counted until Tuesday so the results for some seats won’t be known for a while.  But, as predicted by polls, local Conservative incumbent MP Philip Lawrence did win – see the numbers below. Notable results are in the PPC and Green Party.  Maxime Bernier’s party (PPC) did better although he personally came nowhere close to winning his seat – it was won by a Conservative.  And the Green vote was down with their leader losing badly although they still won 2 seats (down 1). BQ (+2) and NDP (+1) did about the same as in… Read complete articleLiberals win minority – Local MP returned

All-Candidates Meeting

A group of local organizations concerned about sustainability have announced that they will be organizing an all-Candidates meeting.  Chambers of Commerce from Northumberland are organizing one but it’s just for members so it’s good that the sustainability group are organizing this event which is open to everyone.  It will be via Zoom but will allow Q and A.  All Candidates have confirmed.  The idea is to get the position of all candidates – and presumably their parties – on where they stand on “the climate crisis, sustainable communities, and the human right to a healthy environment”.  To participate, you must register via Event Brite although tickets are free.  When you register, you get an email with a link to the… Read complete articleAll-Candidates Meeting

Trudeau Campaigning in Cobourg

After reports that Trudeau would visit a Café in Cobourg this afternoon at 5:45 pm, it was finally announced that he would be at the Black Cat at 4 King West at 6:45 pm.  He finally arrived closer to 8:00 pm to be greeted by about 130 supporters and a dozen very noisy demonstrators.  The venue was the patio of the Black Cat and all spectators were asked to wear masks but the demonstrators did not.   A PA system was provided but a good part of the time, this did not help Justin get his message out.  It’s not apparent how being rude and shouting down a speech helps the cause of the anti-mask and anti-vax’ers.  But we do have… Read complete articleTrudeau Campaigning in Cobourg

Election Information for Cobourg

With an election now officially called for September 20, most news coverage will be focused on that event.  Cobourg is in the Northumberland Peterborough South Riding and is currently represented by MP Philip Lawrence who is a member of the Conservative Party.  He will be running for the Conservatives and other parties will be competing.  Already, the Liberal Party has nominated Alison Lester as their Candidate, the People’s Party has nominated Nathan Lang but the NDP and Green Party have not yet nominated candidates.  To keep everyone informed, Cobourg News Blog will be providing regular updates and there is also a factual non-partisan page – see links below.  Blog Posts will report on events such as new nominations and any… Read complete articleElection Information for Cobourg

Announcement re Federal MP candidate

In the middle of this Covid-19 crisis, there has been continual talk of the performance of Federal and Provincial politicians with particular speculation about the possibility of a Federal election because of the minority Government.  The current Federal MP for Northumberland Peterborough South (NPS) is Conservative Philip Lawrence and if a federal election were to be held, many have assumed that he would be running against the previous incumbent, Liberal Kim Rudd.  But today, Kim announced that because of health reasons, she would not be running again.  Given the possibility of an election at any time, that means the Liberal Party will need to find a candidate quickly.  Kim’s announcement today did not discuss who might run in her place… Read complete articleAnnouncement re Federal MP candidate

Affordable Housing gets Funding

For some time, the County has been planning an expansion of affordable housing at their Elgin Park development and on Thursday July 23, $5.7M funding for it was announced through the Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative (COCHI) – that’s a joint Federal/Provincial initiative.  The announcement was made by Steve Clark, (Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs & Housing) and Adam Vaughan (Federal MP & Parliamentary Secretary) – see photos below.  There are currently 18 units at the development in 9 duplexes and when complete there will be 40 units in 8 two storey buildings of 4 plexes and 6 plexes including a shared green space with a playground and recreational area.  The new money will fund 28 of the new units, all… Read complete articleAffordable Housing gets Funding

Local Riding has a new M.P.

Around 1:20 am on the day after election day, results indicated that Justin Trudeau would be leading a minority Government with 156 seats against the Conservatives with 122.  Since that was fewer Liberal seats than in the last parliament, it meant that some Liberal MPs lost their seats and our local Riding MP Kim Rudd was one of them.  She lost to Conservative Philip Lawrence.  The Liberals planned to celebrate a win at a hall in Port Hope but it didn’t happen – Kim didn’t show by 11:10 so I left to join the Conservatives who were having a party.  One of those celebrating was MPP David Piccini – see the photo.  The numbers Tuesday morning were as shown below. … Read complete articleLocal Riding has a new M.P.

Key Questions Raised at All-Candidates Meeting

About 70 people came to the all-candidates debate at the Cobourg Lions Community Centre last night.  Hosted by Retired Teachers Ontario, all five candidates responded to 16 questions as well as giving opening and closing statements.  Moderated by York Bell-Smith with time limits enforced, it was orderly and informative since the questions covered a good range of concerns.  If you haven’t already heard, the Candidates are: Liberal Kim Rudd – incumbent M.P.; Conservative  Philip Lawrence; Green Party Jeff Wheeldon; NDP Mallory MacDonald and People’s Party of Canada (PPC) Frank Vaughan.  See the links below for more on these candidates.  After the opening statements, each candidate was asked to respond to three questions posed by the Retired Teachers; these focused on… Read complete articleKey Questions Raised at All-Candidates Meeting

Justin Trudeau’s quick visit to Cobourg

With short notice to most of us, Justin Trudeau came to Cobourg today to help Kim Rudd with her campaign. This follows the visit by Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer about 3 weeks ago. There were two bus loads – one with media and the other with Justin and his staff. Somewhere in there were security people and of course two Cobourg police were standing by.  Justin stopped by the Buttermilk Café and spoke to a number of patrons – all seemed pleased to see him and many wanted photos. There were a lot more media people than for Scheer on his visit but maybe that’s because the writ has now dropped – see the photos.  After the Buttermilk, Justin walked down King Street to… Read complete articleJustin Trudeau’s quick visit to Cobourg