York pundits comment on Ontario election

• Daniel Drache, political science professor with York’s Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, was quoted in the Globe & Mail Oct. 3 about whether premier-elect Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals will be able to make good on their promises. “The optimistic [scenario] would be that the crisis in health care will be addressed because the future prosperity of the province and the electoral fortunes of the Liberal Party will depend on repairing the damage of the [Mike] Harris-[Ernie] Eves years,” he said. Drache said a skeptical scenario would be that McGuinty may be long on rhetoric and short on capacity.
  
• Barbara Cameron, social science professor in York’s Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies, said in a Canadian Press story Oct. 2 that McGuinty’s metamorphosis in the past four years has been remarkable. “He now gives more of a sense that he’s been around, he knows what the issues are, he doesn’t look nervous. His whole body language is quite different. He just looked so inexperienced in 1999.”
  
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  Several York profs provided political commentary and coverage Oct. 2. Patrick Monahan, Osgoode Hall Law School dean, was interviewed by VR Land News. Robert MacDermid, political science professor, Faculty of Arts, was interviewed by Global television, and political scientist Robert Drummond, dean of the Faculty of Arts, was interviewed by Omni television.

The Globe & Mail Oct. 3 noted that the Economist Intelligence Unit rated York University’s Schulich School of Business as 22nd in the world and the top business school in Canada. Schulich ranked far ahead of Queen’s University, which was in 56th place, the University of British Columbia in 60th and the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in 64th.

Martin Shadwick, defence analyst with York’s Centre for International & Security Studies, was quoted in the Globe & Mail Oct. 3 on the explosion that killed two Canadian soldiers on Thursday. “It could be that someone who doesn’t want foreign troops there…decided to send a signal,” he said. But it’s unlikely Afghans had specific grievances about the Canadians’ conduct, Shadwick said. “We haven’t been there that long that we should have offended anybody.” Canadian Forces generally seek maximum contact with local communities during peace enforcement operations, said Shadwick.

Zbigniew Stachniak, York computer science professor, Faculty of Pure & Applied Science, was quoted in the San Jose Mercury News’ Silicon Valley Dispatches Column Oct. 3. Stachniak was mentioned in relation to his article on the Canadian-made MCM-70 computer – one of the first PCs and arguably the most advanced of its time – in the spring edition of the engineering journal IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. The MCM-70 was built for those who knew nothing about computers, and was ready to run out of the box. “The objective was to manufacture a computer for personal use,” said Stachniak.