If you have not caught up with the Liberal Express yet this summer, you may want to check here for an event listing.

Our friends in Trinity-Spadina have extended an invitation to catch up with the tour:

The Liberal Express is stopping in Trinity-Spadina

Christine Innes, Liberal Candidate for Trinity-Spadina, and the Chinese community are hosting a dinner featuring Michael Ignatieff.  Come learn about the Liberal Party’s vision for a better Canada built on Learning, Care and Global Leadership.

Enjoy a Chinese dinner, meet your fellow Liberals and help spread the word that the Liberal Party is working hard to win back Trinity-Spadina and provide improved leadership for all Canadians.

Location: Sky Dragon Chinese Restaurant,
280 Spadina Avenue, Toronto
(South West Corner of Spadina and Dundas)
Date:        Thursday July 29th
Time:       6:00pm
Price:       $30.00 / Ticket (as this is not a fundraiser - no tax receipt will be issued)

To purchase tickets and reserve your seat, please contact Trinity.Spadina@gmail.com or leave a message at 416-591-8669.

Let’s make this a fantastic event and a fun evening. I look forward to seeing you there.

Julia Metus

President

Trinity-Spadina Federal Liberal Association

This Sunday July 4th, the Toronto Danforth Federal Liberal Association is joining other Liberal ridings to participate in the annual PRIDE parade. Come join the “Lang Gang” and march in this year’s parade! Details are as follows:

Date: July 4, 2010
Meeting Time: 12:30 pm (parade starts at 2:00pm)
Meeting Location: Harold Town Park (on Church, north of Bloor)

*There is no float, so we will be walking.

Wow.

What an amazing response!  It is usually pretty quiet here on the TDFLA blog, so we have been astonished to receive over 7400 responses to our little straw poll about hand guns.  We appreciate each and every one of them.  We also thank the well over 100 people who have taken the time to email us and the 198 who have left comments on the original poll post. Here are the latest results:

Just a little disclaimer on the comments.  We are still in the process of reading them in detail.  Most of them seem to be submitted in a reasonable form and from the heart (or hip! pardon the pun).  They reflect the positions a highly mobilized, activist segment of the population.  There is nothing wrong with that.

We wanted to get the comments published to keep the conversation open but there were a few that we needed to delete.  Please keep in mind our general rules of the road on this blog and if anyone catches anything on there that we should consider deleting, please bring it to our attention.

Andrew stands behind his view on hand guns but he is open to developing a position that is soundly aligned with the voters of Toronto-Danforth.  We can’t help but think about this poster that was created by the Young Liberals of Canada.

There is no problem with highly mobilized activists being engaged, but our worry is that the net effect of Jack Layton politics combined with that highly activist minority are keeping Mr. Harper in power while the majority of Canadians remain unengaged.  This is not the tide of Canada at its best, it is an undertow.

That is why it is important for us to field the national issues in Toronto-Danforth.  This is the only place where there will be a real referendum on Jack Layton politics.

So here it is again. A poll to flush out opinions and get people engaged. But this time, we would like to hear specifically from voters in Toronto-Danforth.

As many of you know, there has been an ongoing controversy around the disclosure of MP expenses that would allow Auditor-General Sheila Fraser to look at the books of members of Parliament and senators. Following a parliamentary board’s recent decision to reject Fraser’s request to conduct a performance audit of $533 million in annual spending, public backlash has caused the three federalist parties to reevaluate their positions. Should Parliament make expenses public? Yes…and not just to Sheila Fraser, but to all Canadians.

“There should be no secrets in government. We shouldn’t say anything or do anything behind closed doors that we wouldn’t do in public,” says Andrew Lang, Toronto-Danforth Liberal Candidate. “My position on opening MP’s expenses is that I am all for it. I am dismayed by Jack Layton’s opposition to it. He has opposed it with out really saying why. Only due to pushing from his caucus member Pat Martin and public support for it has Jack moved closer to agreeing to it.”

SAVE THE DATE

The Toronto Microfinance Committee

invites you to the

2010 Microfinance Conference and Gala

moving out of poverty  … the micro way

GALA – October 1 ^NEW!

CONFERENCE – October 2

Allstream Centre, Exhibition Place

Stay tuned for exciting details

Look forward to seeing you there!

Feel free to add your comments to Andrew’s insights about Liberal Party results in recent polls either over on the original post on The Mark or below.

If you have not had a chance to really come to terms with the magnitude of the BP oil spill disaster of the coast off the southern United States then we recommend that you take five minutes and watch this video:

In late April, Liberal Arctic Issues & Northern Development Critic Larry Bagnell wrote Conservative Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon to express urgent concern that drilling will proceed this summer in Greenland waters adjacent to Canadian waters, in a region under constant threat of ice floes, by a company with no history of drilling in the Arctic. On Wednesday, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said that at a meeting of Arctic countries next month, he will demand the highest environmental standards be followed as Greenland explores offshore oil drilling just outside of Canada’s territorial waters.

“Here is my problem with Jack Layton’s approach to issues with real consequences like this,” says Andrew Lang, Toronto-Danforth Liberal Candidate. “He will say anything to jump on a news headline, like he has with his call for a committee to talk about this issue, but he is never accountable. We choose a path that leads to real change.”

UPDATE, June 4, 2010:  Follow up post including a big thank you to all of the respondents and results now posted here.

Original Post:

The Liberal Party of Canada has reaffirmed its support for the national firearms registry by launching new internet, radio and print ads that you can check out here.

In addition, the Canadian Association of Police Boards, Canadian Police Association and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has launched a website today to dispel myths about that Canadian Firearms Program.  You can check that out at www.truthsandmyths.ca.

Since the creation of the gun registry more than 90% of Canadian gun owners have registered their firearms.  In 2009, the gun registry was consulted by police 11,000 times per day.

Toronto-Danforth Liberal Candidate Andrew Lang:  “The Conservative Party is asking Canadians to ignore police associations when they speak of the undeniable effectiveness of the gun registry.

In Toronto-Danforth we believe the next logical step is the outright ban of handguns in Canada. A hand gun has but one use – to shoot another human being. No rational person should support their continued existence in this country.”

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Neighbourhood Concepts is pleased to invite you to the official launch celebration of The East Yorker Condominium as follows:

Date: Wednesday May 26, 2010
Time: 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Place: The Royal Canadian Legion Hall – Todmorden Branch 10
1083 Pape Avenue (Just south of Pape & O’Connor)

Please RSVP info@neighbourhoodconcepts.ca by May 20th.

Neighbourhood Concepts Non-Profit Corporation is a Toronto based resource group that brings together experienced consultants and project managers with a background in development and communications to support the creation of affordable housing and provide general assistance to non-profit organizations.

TDFLA Annual General Meeting (AGM)
and Rally

June 14, 2010

Featured Speaker:

Alfred Apps
President of the Liberal Party of Canada

Please join us for the Toronto-Danforth Federal Liberal Association’s Annual General Meeting and Rally – featuring Alfred Apps, President of the Liberal Party of Canada.

When: Monday June 14, 2010, 6:00pm

Where: Whistler’s Grille – Ground Floor
995 Broadview Ave. (north of Danforth)

Agenda:

6:00pm: Meet and Greet: Food and Cash Bar
7:00pm: Annual General Meeting (AGM)
7:30pm: Alfred Apps, President of the Liberal Party of Canada
8:00pm: Andrew Lang, Toronto-Danforth Federal Liberal Candidate
8:30pm: Rally and Party

All are welcome!

Join us and meet Liberal party president Alfred Apps, and Andrew Lang, our candidate for Parliament.

RSVP:

Martin Heppner, TDFLA President: mheppner at gmail dot com
Julie Dabrusin, TDFLA General Secretary: jdabrusin at gmail dot com

Please click on this link to read the formal TDFLA AGM notice for related membership and voting details.