Ottawa Sun
Published: Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Days of summer over

Welcome to September ... yes, already, my how time flies! The forthcoming Labour Day weekend marks the traditional end of summer with final back-to-school preparations and a return to full complements of staff in most of our workplaces.

At the risk of being nostalgic and by most accounts, summer 2010 was simply and utterly superb.

And if you’re like many folks, you may have tuned out of the daily political shenanigans while at the cottage or away so here is a quick recap of what happened over the past 60 days.

On a positive note, the weather — compared to the moisture-laden experiences of 2008 and 2009 — was dreamy. We received abundant sunshine, three heat waves (including this week) and still enough rain evenly spaced over eight-plus weeks to mark my third consecutive summer without watering the lawn ... not even once!

On the federal political scene, the Tories stepped into it proverbially on the long-form census while Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s cross-country bus tour broke down on Day 1.

Of course the economy — a strong issue for Conservatives — will return as a key focus this fall in “official” Ottawa, but Iggy will be equally bolstered by his successful summer tour. Nonetheless, their respective partisan foibles did keep us entertained since Canada Day.

Motoring down Hwy. 401, it wasn’t a great summer for Premier Dalton McGuinty and crew.

The HST — which is why everything costs more — came into effect on Canada Day along with a sneaky, punitive and expanded eco-fee regime.

Fortunately for Ontarians, the eco-fee was so badly implemented and confusing for retailers and consumers alike that the government put it into a political induced coma (read: suspended it) for 90 days.

In fact, it was so bad that consumer outrage led to a 400-person rally at McGuinty’s constituency office in Ottawa South and it cost the environment minister at the time his job with a demotion to the provincial revenue portfolio in a mid-August cabinet shuffle.

Meanwhile, the opposition Tories and NDP were a bit lethargic in capitalizing on this foul-up, but nonetheless benefited from the issue along with an underlying voter fatigue with the provincial Liberals given recent polls, which have the Tim Hudak PC Party of Ontario ahead or tied with the McGuinty Liberals.

And the Oct. 6, 2011 provincial election is now just over a year away.

On the local political scene, Jim Watson is still the perceived front runner in the mayor’s race, but Mayor Larry O’Brien is poised to relaunch his campaign next Tuesday with a combined rally and platform launch.

Bay Coun. Alex Cullen is out as the standard bearer of the left while Capital Coun. Clive Doucet is in for the left in the mayor’s race. And at the risk being sarcastic, it seems as though 7,000 other people are running for mayor.

But seriously, a record number of people are seeking to be elected mayor or councillor and it would be worth your time one weeknight or Saturday morning to surf by www.ottawa.ca, click on the Elections 2010 icon and learn more about them by clicking through to their respective websites.

Finally, the Ottawa Senators signed veteran Russian blue-liner — of recent Penguins and Capitals fame — Sergei Gonchar in the off-season.

There you go, summer 2010 in 550 words.