Re: Why Joanne Chianello has the casino all wrong | Unpublished
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James OGrady's picture
Ottawa, Ontario
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I am the founder of Unpublished Media Inc., a company I started in 2012. I am also a communications professional and community activist, living in Nepean, Ontario. And, I am a hockey goaltender, political hack and most importantly, an advocate for grassroots, participatory democracy at all levels of government.

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Re: Why Joanne Chianello has the casino all wrong

October 9, 2012

In an earlier post on the casino issue on The Bulldog blog which no longer appears to be accessible, I outline why online gambling is the 'elephant in the room'. I believe the Province is making a mistake in building new casinos across the province, not only because its immoral for a government to promoting vices that harm families and communities, but also because it could easily make up the difference by taxing online gambling instead... Avoiding the huge capital investment required, community disputes and voter anger while also discouraging gambling at the same time. Casinos are passe. Its time for Canadian governments to get in step with their citizens.

Ken, the real driving force in gambling these days is online gambling as I wrote on your blog last week.

The economic benefits will be the same at Rideau-Carleton because they will have to expand their facilities ( ie. new construction) while maintaining the horse racing industry instead of killing it. Tourists already go to RCR. As OLG stated last Tuesday, RCR is one of their strongest partners right now. Why ruin a good thing?

Few residents want a downtown casino. If you want proof then let’s find out for real by conducting a public opinion survey so we have the facts before Council makes a decision. Rushing to make decisions, as the Mayor likes to do, is just a way of strong arming residents and Councillors into supporting his position before they have all the facts in front of them.

From my perspective, Wednesday’s vote will be a clear indication to Ottawa residents as to which City Councillors vote according to what they believe residents want as opposed to those who just follow the Mayor’s direction.

We don’t need Yes-men on Council, we need people who will make decisions that benefit the greatest number of people at all times.

Casinos are passé. The public instinctively knows this. Why not politicians?