Conservative Joe Preston Does Not Stand up for Southwestern Ontario

This Elgin-Middlesex-London MP, supports Reform Party ideology over issues like abortion and same-sex marriage and voted against Bill C-517, that would have made it easier for student loans to be included in the bankruptcy act.

Preston was also complicit in nepotism when he hired JoAnna Komarnicki, daughter of Saskatchewan Conservative Ed Komarnicki, and refused to respond to a request for comment over the issue.

1. Harper overlooked Southwestern Ontario when he chose his cabinet

Does Stephen Harper have something against Southwestern Ontario? When it comes to cabinet making, it certainly seems so. Chip Martin Harper announced his new 38-member cabinet this week, one of the largest in recent history, eclipsed only by the 40-plus member cabinets of another Conservative, Brian Mulroney.

But the farmlands, towns and cities of Southwestern Ontario that produced a bumper crop of Conservative MPs for him in the Oct. 14, failed to be rewarded with a single seat at his cabinet table.

Preston, the loyal trooper and member of the Harper team, also lauded the appointment of Tony Clement as minister of industry with whom he said he looks forward to discussing the closing of the Sterling Truck plant in St.Thomas. Clement was health minister in the last government and represents Parry Sound-Muskoka, that hotbed of industry -- not.

2. Leaded gas in race cars OK until 2010: Ottawa

OTTAWA -- The Harper government has ignored warnings from Health Canada
and extended a regulatory exemption that will allow race cars and other competition vehicles to use leaded gasoline for two more years. Cabinet renewed the exemption after lobbying from at least one association that organizes racing circuits in Canada and the United States.

It also added a year to the exemption the Environment Department originally proposed last December. Under the change, approved by cabinet late last month, drag and stock-car racers will have until Jan. 1, 2010, to halt the use of leaded fuel, which has been banned for use by all other passenger vehicles in Canada since 1990.

Conservative MP Joe Preston confirmed he lobbied Environment Minister John Baird on behalf of drag racing and stock-car racing enthusiasts in his Elgin-Middlesex-London riding in southwestern Ontario. He said he was also aware of the dangers of exposure to lead ....

3. Joe Preston, chairing closed-door update on divestiture talks, dials down federal funding hopes Cleanup cash in budget unlikely, MP hints

Joe Preston is downplaying expectations Tuesday's federal budget will include major public works money to clean up Port Stanley Harbour.

Stay Tuned:
PORT STANLEY: A report is expected next spring

Harbour focus of study