The race is over in Peterborough Ontario for the 2008 Federal Election. www.electionprediction.org, which has a 92.3% accuracy at predicting election outcomes has updated Peterborough as a Riding that will remain Conservative. The outcome is really not surprising though. The Liberal candidate Betsy McGregor is openly critical of the economic future of Peterborough i.e. the Railway. In other words, the Liberals committed political “hara-kiri” in Peterborough.

On the Riding level, Betsy McGregor just isn’t very well known. Kudos that she started her campaigning early but compared to Dean del Mastro that never ceases to be discussed in the Peterborough Examiner, usually in a negative way (because the vocal readership is left-wing) has made sure that that from 2006 – 2008, Dean Del Mastro has always been in the spotlight. They can be described in the words of Karl Marx as “useful idiots”.

However, Dean del Mastro is tried and tested. He works and everyone knows he works hard. He has produced a lot of results for Peterborough. Dean del Mastro has championed his community and fought for the future of Peterborough. From 1) resumption of railway to 2) Little Lake Plan to 3) Expansion of the Peterborough Airport. Dean has also worked in the 1) Standing Committee on Scrutiny of regulations 2) Standing Committee on National Defence 3) Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development 4) Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. He championed the Federal Accountability Act. The list goes on and on. Dean del Mastro is Ministerial material, that’s a fair and accurate description of his talents and abilities.

From the Peterborough Examiner’s letter to the editor section on September 20, 2008, the Liberals in Peterborough are in the middle of an infighting. 2006 Liberal Candidate Diane Lloyd wrote below: http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1209720

The renegade Liberals in Peterborough are endorsing Dean del Mastro. Why shouldn’t they? Dean del Mastro is about to restore Peterborough to its former glory with the railway. The Counties are already locked in the Conservative sphere. It’s understandable, the Greenshift would have hurt them the most. They rely heavily on vehicles to transport their products, traverse their property and power other sorts of machinery. The Greenshift is insensitive to 1) the needs of rural Canada 2) Canadians at large due to the heavy burden the Greenshift would impose on Canada’s economy that is too interconnected to the currently fragile American economy.

Contrary to Liberal rhetoric, it is not revenue neutral: 1) Not everyone gets their tax credit because the plan does not have a universal rebate scope. 2) A tax is a tax, so what if you don’t tax the petrol? If you tax the ”fossil fuel” (original form), the (final refined product) petrol’s price will increase……does the word “s-c-a-m” come to mind? And why is the document mindlessly littered with anti-Stephen Harper rhetoric? If they edit the document, they might just find that they save a page or 2 when they print it out. If they print 100 copies that will be 200 pages of trees. If they print 1000 copies that will be 2000 pages saved. Editing the Greenshift to remove the ultra-partisan anti-Harper rhetoric will be more effective at creating a “Greenshift”.

Peterborough maintains its reputation as a bell-weather riding.