Candidates Debate Airport Plans

or those that still live in the Pickering area, you may want to consider the following newspaper article before Election Day !




Thomas no-show for fifth time

Candidates debate airport plans
Jan. 18, 2006. 01:00 AM
KEVIN MCGRAN
STAFF REPORTER

While candidates bashed plans for an airport in Pickering, Conservative candidate Rondo Thomas was again a no-show, missing his fifth all-candidates meeting yesterday in the riding of Ajax-Pickering.

Thomas's handlers said he had a previous engagement that could not be broken. The evangelical Christian minister missed two debates last week due to a funeral and refused to speak to a reporter outside his house.

Thomas has not made any public comments since his rival, Liberal incumbent Mark Holland, posted a video on his website that shows Thomas ranting against homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

The no-show didn't sit well with some of the 100 or so who braved freezing rain to take in the debate at the Claremont Community Centre on Old Brock Rd. north of Pickering.

"I've been to four all-candidates meetings and I haven't been able to ask him a question yet," said Mary Delaney, a resident of Brougham and member of Land Over Landings, a grass-roots group opposed to the airport.

"And I don't want to ask him about the airport, I want to ask him about that video.

"The airport issue takes a back seat to human rights issues as far as I'm concerned."

Rene Soetens, a former Conservative MP who lost the party's nomination to Thomas, said the candidate had nothing to hide.

"It's only the Toronto Star who won't respect his privacy when two very close friends pass away," said Soetens.

Meeting organizer Stephen Frederick of Voters Organized to Cancel the Airports Lands had heard a different version from what Thomas's handlers had told the Star around 2:30 p.m.

Frederick said the Thomas camp told him about 4:30 p.m. the candidate would come, but then later started worrying about the weather.

At the debate, Holland pointed out that he had convinced his party to slow down the pace of development at the airport and worked to get a peer review of the airport business plans.

Also debating were NDP candidate Kevin Modeste, the Green party's Russell Korus and Christian Heritage candidate Kevin Norng.