As Homecoming weekend approaches, the Kingston police are making final arrangements to ensure a safe weekend.
Police Insp. Brian Cookman said the position of police officers around the Ghetto has been adjusted from last year due to unexpected partying on the Friday of Homecoming 2006. Cookman said public order units from Toronto and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are being brought in to police partygoers. Last year, Kingston police had one OPP public order unit and two Toronto police officers.
As with Homecoming 2006, surveillance cameras and additional lighting will be installed on Aberdeen Street.

Kingston police are investigating two incidents of sexual assault in the Queen’s community.
The victims of both incidents were female Queen’s students, said Sergeant Balwant Dhillon, head of the sexual assault unit. For privacy reasons, Dhillon said he couldn’t release the ages of the victims or the accused, but he said alcohol was a factor in all three assaults.
The police have suspects for one of the two cases still under investigation. In all the cases the attackers were male.

Last night New Democrat candidate Rick Downes joined his supporters at the Grizzly Grill shortly before 10 p.m., talking to them and shaking hands briefly before addressing the crowd to concede his defeat.
Downes received 20.6 per cent of the vote, with 10,126 votes as of 2 a.m. today.

Progressive Conservative candidate Dr. John Rapin, who was a distant second in last night’s election, would have won in Kingston and the Islands were it not for party leader John Tory’s sabotage on the campaign trail, said Gareth Neilson, Rapin’s campaign office manager.
“If John Tory wasn’t the leader of this party, we would have won this riding. As a matter of fact, if John Tory hadn’t opened his fucking mouth, we would have won this riding.”

The provincial Liberals won their second straight majority government, with incumbent John Gerretsen leading in Kingston and the Islands with 47.2 per cent.

After four years as Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty has the challenge of convincing Canadians that he has done well and can make Ontario better. His track record includes the hiring of 8,000 new nurses, and the 1.3 million-square-kilometre Toronto region greenbelt among others.

Growing up in a working-class family, NDP candidate Rick Downes said he became aware early on of the inadequacy of minimum wage in Ontario. “Last December, [Premier Dalton] McGuinty gave himself a $20,000 pay raise,” Downes said. “Then two months later, he raised the minimum wage. Do you know how much it was? It was just 25 cents.” At today’s minimum wage of $8, one can earn $16,000 in a year, which puts them $6,000 below the poverty line.

More than 20,000 residents in Kingston don’t have a family doctor. For Progressive Conservative candidate Dr. John Rapin, this news is motivation to run for a seat in provincial legislature, representing Kingston and the Islands.

Incumbent Liberal John Gerretsen is in politics because of life lessons learned from his parents. A lawyer by profession, Gerretsen said he has been involved in politics off and on for the last 35 years. A Kingston councillor in the 1970s, he served as mayor from 1980-88 and sat on the Queen’s board of trustees from 1982-91.

Freedom Party candidate Mark Fournier wasn’t originally going to run in Kingston and the Islands this provincial election.
Fournier received a call from Freedom Party leader Paul McKeever that convinced him to run.
The main issue he’s concerned with is abolishing the provincial income tax.

Family Coalition Party candidate Chris Beneteau said the three most important parts of his platform are life, freedom and family as the building blocks of society.
Beneteau said although Family Coalition is a small party, it’s close to reaching its goal of having a candidate in every riding.

To Bridget Doherty, Green Party candidate for Kingston and the Islands, being a member of the provincial parliament (MPP) would mean more than an office in Queen’s Park. Her first task, if elected, would be to develop a relationship with other organizations and institutions in Kingston. Strong working relationships are necessary for improving the quality of life in Kingston for adults, seniors and kids, she said.

A comprehensive breakdown of party platforms on education, health care, the economy and environment.

In recent years, the way people think about health care issues has shifted: There’s an increased emphasis on prevention, rather than solely finding a cure.
This shift, said Vice-Principal (Academic) Patrick Deane, aims to keep the general population as healthy as possible and minimize potential drains on the health-care system.

Last week’s candidate debate at Grant Hall saw Liberal incumbent John Gerretsen taken to task on his record as Kingston’s MPP.
In the 90-minute debate, four of the six candidates running for Kingston and the Islands—Conservative Dr. John Rapin, Liberal Gerretsen, NDP Downes, and Green Bridget Doherty—answered questions from a five-person panel and took questions from the audience.

Julian Herbert, Sci ’08, isn’t worried about landing a job come spring. The mining engineering student visited the Career Fair both Monday and Tuesday in Grant Hall to explore his options. He said there were lots of opportunities for engineers. Business Career Centre Director David Edwards said a student’s first job search can be daunting.