What are area Liberal MPPs so afraid of? Must be something big given their silence on the issue of a downtown Ottawa casino, and more particularly, the interests of the Rideau Carleton Raceway. How else to explain their silence on this issue? While Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod is out on the hustings — serving as the savior of the raceway and the rurals who depend on it — there’s nothing from our local Liberals. With their silence, they’re giving MacLeod free reign to talk about her Conservative party and what it would do to save Rideau Carleton and all of those who make their living off of it, either directly or indirectly. It’s incredibly rare for Ottawa West-Nepean Liberal MPP Bob Chiarelli, also the energy minister, to miss an opportunity to put down most anything that comes out of MacLeod’s mouth. (And vice versa, in the interest of fairness.) The pair is both incredibly partisan, and often spar with each other in the legislature. But on the casino issue, MacLeod has been able to diss, doubt and drag Chiarelli and his party through the casino dirt. Of Chiarelli’s silence, MacLeod said on Tuesday: “He’s been unsurprisingly mute, guess he’s been busy with the power plants. He’s having a bad week.” Despite her needling of Chiarelli and the local Liberal gang, nothing. Read more..< /a>