Bedouin Soundclash Rock The Venue This Friday, Sam Roberts Band Rock It November 11th

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[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]

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Video Of A Limo On Fire On 115 After A Wedding Yesterday

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Local musician James Higgins from the band Rue Guy says his sister and other members of a wedding party (see photo at left) were in a limo that caught on fire on the 115 near Peterborough after a wedding yesterday, but made it out safe and sound.

Here's dramatic video below that someone captured of the fire and the firefighters dousing the flames:

[YouTube via James Higgins]

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Here's Video Of Sloan Performing At The Venue Last Week

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[YouTube]

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Video: Customers Reacting To Closure Of Have You Seen...

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The Purple Onion Festival Celebrating Local Food & Culture Is Tomorrow

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Saturday in Millennium Park, the first annual Purple Onion Festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There will be food, musical entertainment, workshops and vendors from the local area, including Camp Kawartha, Our Space, Peterborough Gleaning Program, Peterborough Green-Up and more.

For a full schedule of events, click here.

[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]

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10th Annual Doors Open Peterborough Is This Weekend

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This weekend (September 24th and 25th), local venues will have their doors open especially for you to enjoy the 10th year of Doors Open Peterborough.

This year, they have chosen a theme of "Peterborough: The Participation City," which highlights our city's keen interest in sports by showcasing many of the venues where such activities take place.

Take a look at this year's featured sites and enjoy this unique opportunity to be able to go behind-the-scenes.

[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]

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"Friends For Life" Walk In Support Of Humane Society Is This Saturday

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The Peterborough Humane Society will be hosting the "Friends for Life" Walk for the Animals fundraiser at Beavermead Park this Saturday (September 24th). Registration begins at 9 a.m.

 

[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]

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There Are Many Dogs Salivating Over Prospect Of Off-Leash Park

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[chextvDOTcom]

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Okay Political Parties: Engage Me, Interest Me, Tell Me What You Got Baby!

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I am still trying to stay positive about the provincial election here. The Federal Tories’ new archaic, colossally expensive "tough on crime" legislation is scaring me. All the more need for a simpatico MPP, I guess.

Last week, I looked at the local candidates. Today’s challenge: find something interesting about each party’s platform. Here we go, in no particular order:

 

The Tories’ proposed tax reforms are interesting: Reduce income taxes by 5 percent on the first $75,000. Populist. Popular. (And one helluva loss in government revenue). And double the caregiver tax credit. Those are good ideas. Hard to swallow that they could do this and meet their commitment of a balanced budget by 2017-2018, but…

The Green Party advocates reducing commuting costs by “supporting transit and affordable commuter benefits including incentives for ride-sharing, more high-occupancy vehicle lanes, and tax credits for public transit users.” By virtue of the appalling waste of human time and energy—not to mention toxic pollution—that comes from single occupancy cars in gridlock day in and day out, this is interesting.

 

Now here’s a good one: As part of the NDP Platform, cap government CEO salaries for $80 million in savings. That’s interesting. I don't believe in some people earning ten or 20 times what others do. That’s wrong. Glad someone’s saying this, publicly.

 

By-and-large, the Liberal platform highlights the POSITIVE. While this is more a communications approach as a platform plank, you take what you can get.

• Best Schools in the English-speaking world (MCKINSEY & CO, 2010)

• From the longest surgical wait times in Canada to shortest (CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH INFORMATION, 2011)

• So far this year Ontario has created more full-time jobs than the rest of Canada combined (STATISTICS CANADA, 2011)

 

"A Socialist Party of Ontario government will work to start to end poverty by implementing a guaranteed annual income of no less than $18,849, with annual adjustments for inflation, for each individual adult plus a child allowance." What? No bureaucracy to police every dime? Might just pay for itself. This is interesting.

 

Along with other libertarian policies, the Freedom Party affirms freedom, justice, and peace during international political meetings. Making political hay out of the scary embarrassment of police behaviour during the G8/G20 summit (and elsewhere)—well, that’s interesting. We welcome newcomer Alex Long to the Peterborough Riding. 

 

 
PtboCanada Politics Columnist Miriam Lyall (aka Miriam Stucky) is a former Green Party Candidate. She is a step-mom extraordinaire and communications maven. Check it out: MiriamStucky.ca.

[Related: Here's A Primer On The Five Local Candidates Vying To Be Your MPP (With Pictures!)]

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Here Is A Look At Crime Stats This Year In The City Compared To This Time Last Year

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Sergeant DiClemente

We've been getting a lot of questions about whether crime is increasing significantly in Peterborough—break and enters and such. It seems it is, or optics are such that it is. So we asked Peterborough Police Sergeant Walter DiClemente about it, and here's some interesting stats he provided to us:

• Our second quarter crime stats show that our actual offences are down 8.1 % from the same time last year, and the clearance rate (that is, the percentage of the crimes that are solved) is up at 54.6% compared to 47.9% from the same time last year.
 
• Break and enters are down 26.5% and robberies are down 23.5% from the same time last year.

• We do have an increase in total weapon offences, up from 7 at the same time last year to 20, a 185.7% increase.
 
• Drug offences are up from 73 at the same time last year to 94, a 28.8% increase.

Some telling quotes from DiClemente on crime in the area:
-- "Recently we have been experiencing an increase in break and enters to compounds that store or use copper wire. This trend is not unique to this area, it is province wide."

-- "Since our college and university students have moved back to the area, we have had an increase in residential break and enters. Thieves are targeting laptop computers and electronic gaming units. This trend can be attributed to several students residing in the core area of the city and thieves taking advantage of unlocked and insecure doors and windows."
 
-- "The drug offensives are mainly officer initiated and can be attributed to the work conducted by our dedicated drug unit, who are targeting known drug dealers. We our also finding that these same drug dealers are arming themselves with weapons that are located during arrests."


[Related: Does Peterborough Need A Town Hall Meeting To Address Safety In The Community?]

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