October 1, 2008 An Open Letter to the Residents of Thornhill.
I have been a Liberal ever since I arrived in Canada as a refugee from South Africa's dreaded apartheid regulations in 1962. I served the Liberal Party as a Director of Communications to a Liberal Leader of the Opposition and I¹ve known Peter Kent for decades. Today, I believe it is time for a change and I am urging fellow-Liberals in Thornhill to put their party affiliation aside and vote for Peter Kent on October 14.
I am doing this because I believe that Canada's Parliament and our Government desperately need Peter¹s creative insights and a powerful voice on national and international issues in this time of terrorist peril and the realignment of international loyalties. Canada and all other democracies are under seige; its defenders must not only have the will to fight back, to be armed with a precise knowledge of what the contest is about, and how it can be won.
If ever there was a candidate who deserved to be elected on merit, that person is Peter Kent. In his 40-year-career as a broadcast journalist, Peter, while working for the CBC, NBC and Global, gained profound knowledge of the politics of North America, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. He has met and come to know some of the most influential statesmen and opinion-makers in the world arena, and it is often in the inter-play between connected statesmen that real progress is achieved. He is thus uniquely equipped to help make Canada, a nation rich in human diversity and a bounty of natural resources, a considerably more significant participant in resolving the global issues of peace and security.
To be specific, unlike his Liberal opponent, the incumbent M.P., Susan Kadis, Peter Kent does not equivocate when it comes to supporting strong laws to deal with terrorism. I say this as a Liberal who was appalled when Ms. Kadis and other Liberals flip flopped in 2007 and refused to endorse a Government plan to make terrorism laws more effective even though it was a previous Liberal government that introduced these measures in the first place. I also share Peter's views that the State of Israel is a beacon of democracy in a sea of tyranny that needs Canada's outspoken support. Voting Liberal out of loyalty to Ms. Kadis is a logic that is stuck in the past. Doing so could result in an outcome where Thornhill, its residents and interests, will have no voice in Ottawa which is a scenario that is risky and clearly unacceptable.
In sum, if you vote for Peter Kent and send him to Ottawa, the people of this riding, indeed all Canadians, will have a new champion of justice -- justice at home and justice abroad, who will base his proposals for new solutions to old problems not on hearsay and anecdote but on real-life experience which was earned in the fields of combat in conflicts on three continents.
This is Peter¹s most important battle and I urge you leave the Liberals and support him with your vote.
Raymond Heard
rheard@rogers.com
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Please visit www.peterkent.ca for more information on Peter Kent who is running for the Conservative Party in the riding of Thornhill
