Dee Dee Daigle nominates me at the convention in June
Sebastien Bezeau seconds the nomination
My acceptance speech
Speaking at the Moncton and District Labour Council Picnic on Labour Day.
First on the Ballot!
Left: I share a smile with returning officer Ghislaine Ringuette Crawford (In the back: Al Daly, Leo Cassista and Ian Thorn)
Right: Cecile Cassista (Campaign Manager) signs on as a witness.
(Seems I've hit my pic limit for the day. I'll post the rest tomorrow)
January is going to be very intense and in order to capitalise on our December momentum we’re going to need everyone rested and ready. If you haven’t done so, please contact Cecile, Ian or myself about any volunteer work you can perform for the rest of the campaign. We’re putting the schedule together over the break and want to make sure we’re using all of our resources to the best of our ability.
Also, please remember that contributions made before December 31st go towards this year’s taxes and those made afterwards go towards your 2006 filings. The other parties will be blitzing us hard and we still need your financial help to keep the pressure on with advertising, flyers and more campaign materials. If you are able to contribute sooner than later it will help us make important decisions that much earlier.
And remember money donated to the riding, stays in the riding. Please contact the office (or myself) about any contributions.
Have a great Holiday Break and we’ll see you all in the New Year!
« Faites connaissance avec votre candidat »
Dimanche 18 décembre - de 14 h à 16 h 30
au quartier général - 1201, ch. Mountain
Activité parrainée par l'Association néodémocrate de la circonscription de
Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe
Renseignements : 861-1180
Rafraîchissements
www.npd.ca
-----------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------
David Hackett Campaign Team
INVITES YOU
"Get to Know Your Candidate "
Sunday afternoon December 18th - 2:00 to 4:30 PM
Campaign Head Quarters - 1201 Mountain Road
Sponsored by the Moncton, Riverview, Dieppe NDP Riding Association
For information call the Campaign Office at 861 1180
Refreshment will be served
www.ndp.ca
Here' s a copy of the Press Release that went out today regarding the Campaign.....
LOCAL NDP CANDIDATE COMES OUT OF THE GATES STRONG
December 6th 2005 - Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe NDP Candidate David Hackett was first out of the gates last week in the race to determine who will represent the riding in the next Parliament of Canada. In addition to having his signs in place around the riding well ahead of his opponents, he was also the first NDP candidate to be confirmed by Elections Canada in the entire country and the first candidate from any party to be confirmed anywhere in Atlantic Canada.
“We wanted to come out strong and show the people of
Hackett has begun to canvass the riding and expects to be out on the doorsteps until the week before Christmas, when his team will break for the holidays and prepare for the big January push.
“It’s important to get visible early. Both of my opponents will be funneling a lot of money into this riding, so we have to counter that with good old-fashioned hard work. We have to be out talking to people and on the phones getting our message out.”
Hackett likes his chances in the contest, and is determined to keep the momentum going until E-Day.
“People are tired of broken promises from the Liberals and wrong ideas from the Conservatives. The NDP is about getting results and once voters are turned on to that, I believe you’ll see a big surge of support in the riding.”
One of the most important ideas put forth during the session was that in order to have a “safe and successful” implementation, there will need to be a lot of work done before the gates can be opened. This would include refurbishing the dyke and aboiteaux system upstream, securing the landfill site against a catastrophic event, and reinforcing the riverbank and causeway structure. It’s important to note that many of these steps will be necessary even if the project doesn’t go through. This process, already factored into project costs, would take at least a year to complete.
I feel this timeframe provides a great opportunity to address the issue of water quality coming from the sewage treatment plant. One of the concerns raised at the meeting was the flow of effluent upstream during high tide. The study claims that the increased water volume and flow of the river would mitigate this problem, but not everyone in attendance was in total agreement with this.
Given the time it will take for “Stage One” to complete, why not also look at upgrading the plant to have secondary treatment capability during this period? Regardless of which option is selected, or even if the status quo is maintained (though that course is certainly not recommended), the public good (and health) can only be served by an upgrade of the treatment facility. That, combined with a project option like 4B, would provide for a truly revitalized river system this community so deeply deserves"
The First Day was broken up into three policy discussion breakouts, each with three forums to choose from. The first Breakout was under the theme of "Strengthening Canada". For my forum I chose to attend "Protecting and Enhancing Canadian Culture". The panel covered a very broad range of topics relating to the Arts and artists' role in this country.
Some topics discussed:
As you can imagine, each of these topics took on a much larger life of their own as the panel progressed (and even afterwards: I sought out Dorothy Henault later in the day to talk further about making regionalism work in terms of both the CBC and the television and film industry in general).
The next session was on "Building the 21st Century Economy" and was kicked off by Paul Summervile (candidate for St. Paul's ON). Paul is an economist and former analyst for RBC Dominion. He gave a fascinating speech (read it here) on the marriage of Prosperity and Social Justice, outlining how the NDP's policies will lead to a better economy and more just society (and how the two goals are not mutually exclusive, but in fact linked). Paul is one of several economists (such as Fundy Royal candidate Rob Moir) who have joined our party, recognising that our fiscal policy is not only sound, but superior to the other parties. It's fair to say the public perception has never favoured us in terms of our economic ability, often portraying us as fiscally irresponsible or even more dangerous. That's a myth that we intend to dispel in the public arena, with people like Paul leading the way.
Another picture of Paul
Building the 21st Century Economy: Post-Secondary Education and Training
My chosen panel for the second forum was "Post-Secondary Education and Training" (Not surprisingly, the most popular choice) . The panel was quite lively and a lot of it focused on workshopping ideas for improving access to education and articulating what our clear "30 second" message should be when discussing eductaion.
Pat Martin also gave a facinating talk on Trades Training and the vital role it plays in our society. He stressed how Canada has fallen behind the rest of the world in regards to the number of Apprenticeship programs it offers and he also talked about the social stigma that we have to work hard to reverse when dealing with skilled trades people (he told a humorous story about how when he was a Journeyman carpenter and rode the bus to work he's get sneered at by some kid in a business suit. PAt was clearing 45K in his trade while the kid was a junior clerk, barely making 20).
Moving Canada Forward
Ed Broadbent
The final seesion of the day was entitled "Moving Canda Forward" and was kicked-off with probably the most anticipated event of the day, a speech from Ed Broadbent. Ed, as usual, didn't dissapoint. He laid out his seven point paln to bring ethics back into Canadian politics. It was a firey speech, bursting with brilliant ideas for reform that is so desperately needed. You can read the text of it in the link below:
Ed's Speech
Cities and Communities
[left to right: Nette Wiebe (Candidate Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar), David Christopherson (MP Hamilton Centre) and Denis Bevington (Candidate Western Arctic)]
Teh final panel I attended for the day was "Cities and Communities", where perspectives were given from three different Canadian "Communites", starting with Nette Wiebe who discussed rural challenges for the party, followed by David Christopherson who discussed how party policy affected municipalities and finally Denis Bevington filled us all in on the problems facing Northern communities.
As a side note, I seemed to bump into Denis everywhere I went all weekend. He's a really great guy who works so hard for his riding and has such a huge geographical area to conquer that it's truly staggering. He missed being elected by fewer than 200 votes last time. This time he's sure to go over the top and become our first Northern MP. Go Denis!
