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Ben Chin Pulls a Peter Kent
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.