REGIONAL CHAIR DEBATE LAST NIGHT

I attended the debate held last night at the K-W Record building in downtown Kitchener. It was a surprise on many fronts. Today's Record carrys the front page story " Trains endorsed at debate". In my humble opinion, Robert Milligan did a wonderful job and although Ken Seiling with more than a quarter century of political experience may have been slightly more polished, he lost ground on at least two occasions. Similarily in my opinion the K-W Record also lost ground on their lack of reporting these two incidents, which were clearly seen and heard by both the public present and the TV and radio in attendance. First off Robert Milligan in contrast to Seiling, clearly came out against Fluoridation, which was reported by the Record. However what they didn't report was Milligan's accurate comments that Fluoridation was being used as a cheap disposal method of toxic waste. The Record also didn't report Ken Seiling's overeaction and angry defence of the Medical Officer of Health. He referred to Milligan's comments as an attack on Dr. Liana Nolan. The second incident concerned yours truly and was not reported at all by the Record. My post yesterday, here in the Advocate, described a possible conflict of interest involving Ken Seiling. While last night I very carefully worded my question to Regional Chairman Seiling thusly: "Would you care to comment on the appearance of a potential conflict of interest involving a controversial housing development in Elmira referred to as Hawk Ridge Homes and yourself." Not only was my question and Mr Seiling's response ignored but also unreported was Ken Seiling's public threat of legal action if I repeated this question. This is negligent by the Record particularily as in his response Ken Seiling angrily confirmed the major facts of this situation, namely that yes the property in question had been owned by his mother(in law?) for a long period of time and that Regional staff had been involved in planning issues around this highly controversial and highly protested development. The appearance, at the least, is that our Regional Chair has a financial interest in the outcome of a proposed housing development that has been worked on and commented on by Regional Staff. Is there conflict of interest legislation relevant to this situation and was it followed to the letter?