Newsstand: November 23, 2009
The Making of a Medley
Transit City and Transit Cities
The Daily Photoist: November 23, 2009
Eye weekly ran a huge article on NDPer Peter Tabuns, who's running to fill Marilyn Churley's vacant Queen's Park seat in Toronto Danforth. So we thought we'd even up the score a little bit by mentioning the Liberal candidate, Ben Chin. After getting axed at Toronto1 the former CBCer became the PR guy for the premier, but Chin, a long-time prominent journalist, car lover and son of political refugees is arguably a star candidate.
But wait. Blogger Ryan Pollard noticed something fishy about Chin's immigrant success story. In a campaign ad he cites moving to Canada when he was 13 and his parents facing political persecution in Korea but in an interview he gave to the Toronto Sun's auto section he recalled that his parents were Korean diplomats in Europe who retired and moved to Canada when he was 16. One doesn't necessarily exclude the other but it is a touch fishy.
Chin is also going to have a tough time selling the province's plans for a power plant in that area considering that city councillor Paula Fletcher and, Torontoist would presume, a significant chunk of the residents of that area aren't too happy with a gas-powered plant being built right in their backyard and the province undermining the city's efforts to redevelop the portlands. Needless to say, Chin has a bit of a political battle on his hands.
A little piece of electoral advice for Ben, get some more info up on your campaign site. A photo of yourself, with no links, and no platform isn't just going to cut it.
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From the metatags of Ben's page:
"Welcome to the campaign site for Bas Balkissoon, Liberal candidate for Scarborough-Rouge"
At least we know he's committed to recycling.
Shiznit! I missed that when I was looking at the source code to see if there were any links on the site.
Great work Derek, fantastic find.
I'm a resident of the area and I welcome a new power plant.
The add actually says he moved to "East York" when 13, not "Canada". He no doubt wanted to emphasise that since that's where he's a Candidate. Lack fo space may have prevented a fuller description of all of his movements as a child of diplomatic parents.
Wikipedia has a few more details, but not enough detail to clear up this confusion. Sounds complicated though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Chin
Well the mystery and 'spin' continued unabated at Ben's nomination - annointment- hearing for the riding of Toronto-Danforth. He was introduced as a courageous for being a 13 year old boy that left the confines of his parents to make his way to Canada for a 'better life'. Unfortunatley no one at the nomination hearing indicated he came from privilged South Korean career diplomats after a globe trotting life to reside with a sister and brother put-up by the parents. Give the parents some credit!
The Federation of Metro Tenants has exposed Ben Chin for being a bad slum landlord.
That is enough reason for anybody not to vote for the guy!