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stouffinlle suntribune thursday dec 1 2005 3 staff photosjoerd witteveen oak ridges markham conservative candidate bob callow gets ready to hit the campaign trail as volunteers break out election signs like many candidates in the upcoming cam paign mr callow ran in the last federal election the slate in oak ridgemarkham is iden tical to 17 months ago taking guesswork out of election call by joan ransberry staff writer forget aboutthis federal election theres nothing you can do about it now but the next time you go to the polls there may be no guessing involved it could be as simple as cir cling a date on your calendar that has already been set in stone auroranewmarket mp belinda stronach minister responsible for democratic renewal hopes to go to canadians in a series of public con sultations to see if they prefer set election dates that is if her liberal party wins this election we will hear about a range of issues ms stronach said we want to see what the people think its not to be made up of socalled experts last year an environics research group reported 81 per cent of cana dians preferred elections be held at specific and fixed times instead of whenever the party in power wants to call it however theres some question whether a set election date would work in a minority government situ ation especially with a nonconfi dence vote so canadians could still be heading into this winter election even if a set date had been in place in fact ontarios set date legisla tion which will see voters head to the polls oct 4 2007 does not pre vent elections from being called in a minority situation still there appears to be support for fixed election dates even among ms stronachs political opponents fixed election dates limit a gov ernments ability to tailor the politi- staff photosteve somerville markhams heather gaitan is familiar with fixed election dates from her time living in massachusetts and says they cause campaigns to drag on cal calendar to its partisan interests some suggest having a fixed election date takes all the uncertainty out of the issue oakridgesmarkham conservative candidate bob callow said it shouldnt always be at the whim of the party in power your political stripe shouldnt matter we do it at the municipal level it also allows people to set their schedules its not the first time fixed election dates have been discussed york uni versity political science professor robert drummond stressed this is a question that comes up from time to time mr drummond said it removes from government the flexibility to determine what they have in relationship to when to call the election it is a fairer system however an american living in markham doesnt recommend canada follow the united states in establishing fix election dates its better to stick with the devil you know heather gaitan formerly of massachusetts said the way elections are held in canada has its advantages mrs gaitan said campaigns are shorter in canada us presidential election campaigns go on and on they can last up to a year youre not going to get a better election by having a fixed data the federal government would be following other jurisdictions if it adopted set election dates including ontario and british columbia which had its first election under the new rules last may candidates strappingon snowshoes by joan ransberry staff writer promising to be long cold and nasty the snowshoe election campaign is in full swing in york region when the government fell monday night and an election was called tuesday six of york regions seven ridings were held by liberals peter van loan from york simcoe is the only mp holding a conserva tive seat in the region in the past election the liberals carved out decisive victories of between 10000 and 20000 votes in the five york region ridings they cap tured eyes across canada are expected to be on newmar ketaurora where belinda stronach crossed the floor from the conservative party of canada to the liberals a few parties have yet to nominate candidates in local ridings heres how the races are shaping up oak ridgesmarkham incumbent lui temelkovski liberal conservative bob callow ndp pamela ccurtot green bernadette manning wwwsmileclinicca 6212 main st east of the train station dr sheldon lazier dr waseema ali dr dina ghobrial ed edwards denturist