XPost: can.politics, tor.general, ont.politics   
   From: "@nyet.ca   
      
   By Christina Blizzard,QMI Agency - Saturday, June 28, 2014   
      
      
     Vote Joe Cressy in Trinity-Spadina byelection   
      
   Joe Cressy Federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair does some mainstreeting   
   with Trinity Spadina NDP byelection candidate Joe Cressy earlier this   
   month. (Michael Peake/Toronto Sun)   
      
      
      
   TORONTO - Voters in Trinity-Spadina have a clear choice when they go to   
   the polls in Monday’s byelection.   
      
   Over the years, I’ve run into the two main contenders from time to time.   
      
   You couldn’t find two more different candidates.   
      
   Let me tell you what I know about New Democrat Joe Cressy.   
      
   I first ran into him in 2006 when I was covering a visit by former   
   Lt.-Gov. James Bartleman to Keewaywin, a remote fly-in northern   
   aboriginal community.   
      
   Cressy was working with young native children through a Frontier College   
   program helping them learn to read.   
      
   There he was, not in the public eye, quietly working with some of the   
   most disadvantaged children in this province in a place the rest of this   
   country likes to ignore.   
      
   I was touched by the way he engaged with the kids. He was young man   
   doing vital work to change the world. Teaching first nations kids to   
   read and write is the best way to help them out of their endless cycle   
   of poverty.   
      
   Cressy saw a problem and did something, rather than just talking about   
   it — simply because it’s the right thing to do.   
      
   That program blossomed and grew to other communities in Ontario and Quebec.   
      
   He’s gone on to work as a senior advisor with the Stephen Lewis   
   foundation in South Africa and Ghana, working with people who have HIV   
   and AIDS. All this — and he’s just turning 30.   
      
   I’ve run into him occasionally since and he impresses me as a person who   
   has vision and courage, who’s prepared to get out and work not for   
   political gain, but to make a difference where it really matters.   
      
   His dad, Gordon Cressy, was one-time councillor in the ward in which the   
   Toronto Sun building is located.   
      
   Politically, the Sun and Cressy were polar opposites. All the same, he   
   was an effective and caring rep.   
      
   I remember one morning many years ago finding a visually impaired Sun   
   employee trying with great difficulty to cross King St., to get to work.   
     Our late Sun editor Peter Worthington immediately ripped off a letter   
   to Cressy asking for a crosswalk at Ontario St.   
      
   It arrived within days.   
      
   His son must have learned his hands-on activism early.   
      
   Cressy’s up against Liberal city councillor Adam Vaughan — one of the   
   most mean-spirited people I’ve had the misfortune to run into.   
   <<======   
      
   When Vaughan was a TV reporter covering Queen’s Park and the city, he   
   was often personally nasty.   
      
   There could not be a bigger difference between the two candidates.   
      
   Cressy is thoughtful, respectful, intelligent.   
      
   The message we heard from voters during the recent provincial election   
   was one of cynicism.   
      
   They’re fed-up — tired of the same-old, same-old from   
   say-one-thing-one-day politicians who let them down once they’re elected.   
      
   Premier Kathleen Wynne attended a rally for Vaughan this weekend.   
   Trinity-Spadina was one of the three downtown ridings the Liberals pryed   
   from the hands of the NDP in the June 12 election.   
      
   Long-time NDP incumbent Rosario Marchese was ousted by Liberal Han Dong.   
      
   While that doesn’t augur well for Cressy and the NDP, the dynamics in   
   the federal vote are different.   
      
   First, no one needs to vote strategically.   
      
   Vote for the person you think would make the best MP.   
      
   Heck, vote for the best leader if you want.  Thomas Mulcair may not be   
   the most dynamic guy around, but given the choice between him and   
   lightweight Justin Trudeau and his airhead statements and policies, I’d   
   pick Mulcair.   
      
   I’m not one given to recommending people vote NDP.   
      
   Sometimes, though, you have to vote for the best candidate.   
      
   Or perhaps just vote against the worst one.   
      
   Cressy’s put his money where his mouth is and worked in tough jobs in   
   some of the most difficult parts of the world.   
      
   Or voters can elect someone who’s all mouth — a lot of hot air and   
   blather. That’s Vaughan.   
      
   Too often voters complain politicians are all the same.   
      
   Not if you vote for someone who wants to make a difference.   
      
   Young people, especially, are turned off because they think their vote   
   doesn’t count. That politicians are all the same.   
      
   That’s why Cressy would be a good choice.   
      
   He’s a breath of fresh air — someone who’s shown he doesn’t just talk   
   about making a difference.   
      
   He goes out and does it.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)