New wheels for Dalton

He's been skewered in the Toronto Star for arriving at an Earth Day tree-planting event in a gas-guzzling SUV, but Premier Dalton McGuinty hopes to put that behind him.

When he was spotted recently outside Queen's Park waiting to get into a shiny black GMC Yukon, a passing Star reporter wondered why the premier was standing around and jokingly offered gas money.

McGuinty called him over to explain his snazzy ride runs on fuel that is up to 85 per cent clean-burning ethanol.

"It's brand new," enthused a smiling McGuinty, ever ready to banter with reporters. "I want that above the fold."

Above the fold, of course, is a newspaper term for running a story at the top of the page -- preferably the front page.

Sorry, premier. This is all the mileage we can wring out of this one.

The Right To Know

A Cambridge Progressive Conservative MPP wants the public to have access to Ontario’s Sex Offender Registry in order to protect children from sexual predators.

"Every resident of Ontario deserves to know if a sexual predator is living in their neighbourhood," Gerry Martiniuk said Wednesday after introducing a private member’s bill calling for the change to the five-year-old registry.

But Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter said if that kind of sensitive information was made available it could result in vigilantism and or drive offenders underground.

“If you open up to the public you are going to get a much lower compliance rate. People are going to say `why should I comply if I am going to be subjected to all sorts of harassment, to vigilantism, things of that kind,” Kwinter said.

Anyone convicted of a sex crime in Ontario is required within 15 days of being released to sign onto the registry and if police feel there is a great enough threat they do have the power to publicize a convicted sex offender’s name.

Martiniuk said just recently in his own community residents became aware of a registered sex offender “and nothing happened other than he was kept good watch on by the police and the public and now he is back in jail because he breached his parole provision by getting too close to children in school yards.”

The father of four noted that in other jurisdictions in the United States with sex offender registries members of the public can retrieve information on pedophiles and other sex criminals living near them.

“That way the parents can take care of their children and feel secure. Otherwise I think there is a problem,” Martiniuk said, noting that his private member’s bill is to be debated next month.

His private member’s bill would also require offenders convicted by courts outside of Ontario and Canada to register.

“Our children’s safety is first and foremost in this bill. No parent should be left wondering if their children are safe to play in their own neighbourhood,” Martiniuk said in a statement.

Ontario’s Ontario Sex Offender Registry was sparked by the brutal 1988 murder of 11-year-old Christopher Stephenson by a convicted pedophile on federal statutory release.

Don't let the door hit your butt on the way out

Premier Dalton McGuinty has given his tacit endorsement to Education Minister Gerard Kennedy’s fledgling campaign for the federal Liberal leadership.

“It doesn’t surprise me in the least that federal interests are courting Gerard Kennedy,” McGuinty said Wednesday after the Toronto Star disclosed Kennedy is poised to make the leap to national politics.

“He’s a very capable guy, highly regarded by myself and many others. I would argue that he is the strongest champion public schools have ever had in the province of Ontario.”

McGuinty said it is his “fervent hope that he will continue to assume his responsibilities here with our government.”

Still, McGuinty emphasized that he would not stand in the way of Kennedy, 45, who finished second to him in the 1996 provincial Liberal leadership race.

“All I’m going to say is I’ve made it clear to Gerard directly and I’m making it clear to Ontarians now that it’s certainly my hope that he will continue to assume his responsibilities as our fantastic minister of education,” he said.

McGuinty refused to say if he would force Kennedy to quit as an MPP if he entered the race.

“I’m not going to speculate about the outcome.”

When asked what Kennedy told him during a recent private chat about the federal contest, McGuinty quipped: “He just said, `You’re a great premier.’”

The education minister, who has been coy about his plans, sounded intrigued by the chance to lead the federal Liberals against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

“I haven’t ruled anything in or out in terms of that,” said Kennedy, who hails from Manitoba, lived in Alberta, speaks French and is married to an Acadian from Prince Edward Island.

“The fact is that people have talked to me about that,” the minister said, adding he is receiving the full-court press from supporters who “couch it in terms like the future of the country” is at stake.

“There is no campaign, there is no structure, there is nothing about going forward. There simply is me doing this job and I am certainly talking to the premier about anything else that comes up that could potentially get in the way of that,” he said.

“I’ve discouraged people in terms of doing anything that would interfere with this government or these responsibilities. I have had some private conversations, I’ve never said otherwise. People have approached me. I’ve been respectful. I’ve listened to those things.”

Other potential candidates include former NDP premier Bob Rae, MPs Carolyn Bennett, Scott Brison, Stéphane Dion, John Godfrey, Michael Ignatieff and Belinda Stronach.

Respected Newmarket lawyer Martha Hall Findlay has already declared her intention to run. It is expected a date for the contest will be announced later this month.

Doppelgangers

Former TV reporter turned Liberal spin-doctor Wilson Lee is getting a lot of pats on the back these days.

And it’s all because former TV reporter turned Liberal spin-doctor Ben Chin was recently acclaimed as the Liberal candidate in the soon-to-be-called Toronto-Danforth by-election.

“Do you know how many people have congratulated me on getting the nomination in Toronto-Danforth?” jokes Lee, who has long hair and wears glasses and doesn’t look much like Chin, who has shorter hair and is seldom seen in spectacles, although they are old pals, fellow Korean-Canadians, and Citytv alumni.

Still, he is not the only Liberal flack who gets mistaken for someone else. Greg Crone, another former reporter and a dead ringer for Toronto Mayor David Miller, is frequently taken for the chief magistrate.

At Queen’s Park on Tuesday, Lee grabbed Crone and said: “Look, it’s Ben Chin with the Mayor!”