Sept 17, 2008
Simcoe Reformer
Local MP Diane Finley took Haldimand Mayor Marie Trainer to task last week for comments the mayor shared about the candidacy of
Trainer encountered Finley Friday at the 11th annual Great Tricycle Race at Haldimand Motors in Cayuga.
Trainer asked Finley if she was making progress securing federal cash for the county's recovery program related to native land claims.
By way of reply, Finley chastised Trainer for suggesting in the Sept. 4 Reformer that McHale's candidacy was positive. In the article, Trainer said McHale would ensure that Haldimand's issues remain on the front burner in the upcoming federal election campaign.
"She was upset," Trainer said. "She asked why it looked like I was supporting him. But I wasn't. I didn't think there was anything wrong with that. But she was not pleased."
In the Reformer article, Trainer said McHale's candidacy guarantees that the rest of the field would have to talk about Haldimand's ongoing problems related to native land claims. Trainer specifically referred to the Ontario Provincial Police's and the courts' hands-off approach to native lawlessness.
"I definitely think he'll get some votes," Trainer said in the Sept. 4 article. "No doubt in my mind. We'll have to wait and see what happens on election night. People will change their minds right up to when they step in the polling booth. He will keep the land claims issue in the forefront."
Finley has shared her opinion of McHale before. Last week -- prior to the Great Tricycle Race -- Finley said his candidacy is not helpful.
"My concern with Gary McHale is that the peace in
Yesterday, Finley said she and Trainer have a productive relationship despite the occasional difference of opinion. More than two years after the native standoff at the Douglas Creek Estates subdivision in Caledonia began, the priority for Finley today "is to preserve the fragile peace" in that community.
"We continue to work together," Finley said yesterday. "We're not going to always agree on everything. But we are going to continue to keep these things that are important in the forefront."
For her part, Trainer described her encounter with Finley as "upsetting."
McHale was a resident of
McHale runs a website that goes by the name Caledonia Wake Up Call. It chronicles the day-to-day tribulations of a community he says is subject to "two-tiered justice."
McHale filed his nomination papers Thursday. Yesterday, he expressed satisfaction that Finley, the minister of citizenship and immigration in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is taking his candidacy seriously.
"Here we have another example of an MP who thinks she can control free speech," said McHale, who recently moved to Binbrook. "Mayor Trainer can say anything she wants. I'm actually flattered that Diane Finley is so concerned by my campaign that she thinks it threatens her re-election.
"I really think this says something about her (Finley's) character. This didn't even involve a negative comment about her; it was a positive comment about someone else."
Yesterday, local Liberal candidate Eric Hoskins said he is more interested in discussing his program to settle native land issues than Gary McHale's candidacy.
"His entry is more a reflection that the current government isn't investing the time and effort required to get this issue resolved," Hoskins said. "My concern is not with Gary McHale. It's with what we can do to solve