UA QI U1U mismanaging its funds ùnabkn (1rnpw A Metroland Community Newsj paper Vol. 142 No. 33 Tuesday, July 10, 2001 40 Pages council approves child care plan Protect Your Investment Amsten & Noble mu 9id ru "eetie Auto »S5 Main St. E. 878-7217 $1O T icU $ 1.00 (GST included) Alliance members support review of federal leadership By RICHARD VIVIAN The Champion Thoughts of a right-wing reunion have taken a back seat to federal leadership discussions for the Halton Canadian Alliance Riding Association. The association announced its support for an early leadership review of Stockwell Day following a special meeting recently. "It's no secret that generally in our rid- ing, and other ridings too, there are ques- tions about the national leadership," said Tim Dobson, who represented the party in the November election. Mr. Dobson said he didn't feel comfort- able discussing the reasoning for associa- tion members voting as they did. An early review received 90 per cent support. Before Mr. Day's leadership was called into question by I1 dissident Alliance MPs across Canada, local party supporters had been considering unification discussions with the Progressive Conservative party, Mr. Dobson said. "The leadership events of the past months have really taken a lot of the wind out of the sails of (unification) discussions on a national level, in my view. "From our side, there is definitely an interest. We have individuals working on our board who have long'-standing friend- ships with active participants in the Progressive Conservative party. It has been an objective of some of those individuals, and mine also, to try to extend the level of local discussion and negotiation." Calling for Mr. Day's resignation, sever- al MPs have been expelled from the Alliance caucus and stripped of critic duties. Mr. Day is scheduled to face a lead- ership review in April, but support contin- ues to grow for an earlier review. According to a recent Gallup poil, Alliance support has fallen to 6 per cent since the November election - at which time they recorded 25 per cent support. Halton PC and Alliance candidates fell to a landslide Liberal (Julian Reed) victory in November. Combined vote tallies would have put a unified right-wing party less than 500 votes bellow Liberal support. Area Alliance supporters haven't been polled on their opinion of a unification, but there's support for it, Mr. Dobson said. Halton PC candidate of record Tom Kilmer told The Champion he wouldn't consider unification at this point. "At this point, the message seems to be they are a splinter party and we'd just stay away. They've got enough problems - we don't need to get involved in those." Comment.........6 Business ............9 Classified .....22-24 Dateline ............25 • Lansing*•Future Shop* 01eed auas oly