A longtime fixture on the local boxing scene, autobody shop owner John Vernaus decided to get into the race to succeed former Manitoba Speaker of the Legislature George Hickes as MLA for the inner-city riding of Point Douglas.
Vernaus has been running some very strong radio ads about the numerous murders and rampant crime in the riding (just yesterday a knifefight between rival gangbangers broke out on the street across from his campaign office) and his own accomplishments in the community. He took about 20 minutes to talk with us last week and our discussion - about why he is running, what he is hearing at the door, and what he thinks about whether Greg Selinger really didn't recognize his name - is the centrepiece of today's podcast.
Among the other issues touched on are the CBC exclusive alleging flood mis-management by the NDP at the Hoop and Holler cut; recapping the FASD coverage of yesterday; Gordon Sinclair gets beat up by his own readers for utter irrelevancy; was there a political bias behind Daren Jorgenson being hauled into court the Freep missed?; and the cushy "homeless" sleepover PR stunt tonight at 201 Portage that will feature U of M doctor-school boss Brain Postl, Free Press publisher Box Cox, and other local CEO types previously victimized by typos. (Well, at least those two were). Free Press online comments were not so accepting of the stunt; meanwhile Graham Hnatiuk, who sat in on the podcast yesterday, blogged some very good observations here about the Downtown Biz event. And at the end of the show, I reminisce about the old days at the soon-to-be-demolished Junkyard, replete with Chuck Green imitation.
Here is the link to today's episode:
http://tgctspod.podbean.com/2011/09/29/thurs-sept-29th-run-john-run-interview-with-pc-point-douglas-candidate-john-vernaus/
PS- I didn't mention it on the podcast, but for those interested, my opinion piece about the risk of electing Greg Selinger as Premier (in this week's Jewish Post) is found at this link:
