Ontario Provincial Politics

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by Avro Arrow, Mar 7, 2018.

  1. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That's kind of hilarious given that there are more pressing transit issues elsewhere in the province. Which means that some areas of Ontario, on top of paying for the GO Train upgrades that some of us will never use, if Doug gets his wish, we'll also end up paying for this. :( Yeah, brilliant plan, Dougie.
     
  2. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    There's a poll about (cbc I think) that people are rating dougy very low on keeping promises but something tells me that he won't put more fucking subways holes for toronto at a cost to the rest of the province in that category.
     
  3. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well, still too early to judge campaign promises just yet. I'd give him 3 months and seeing how well he does first before looking back on them. How are they getting their data anyway when he's just been sworn in?
     
  4. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    I think it's more a case of what people actually think of/feel about ford.

    Some are pretty much no brainers (keeping the nuclear plant open until 2024 which was on the cards anyway but he'll claim credit), others will be easy (scrapping the gas tax) others will be impossible (stopping gas companies hiking prices before a long weekend).

    Then there are the ones that will have consequences. the public sector hiring freeze he's implemented have put the kibosh on hiring of work place safety inspectors and that's the sort of things that can be major impacts.

    https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...plan-to-strengthen-workplace-inspections.html
    (and torstar are in the process of bring backing their fucking paywall).
     
  5. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Hmm, I see. Still, saying something and doing something is quite different, so we'll just have to see what kind of Premier he makes and how much action he takes.

    Shame about the Star. I can understand wanting to make money via paywall, but then I thought they'd realized it was a bad idea and backtracked on it several years ago.
     
  6. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Now will ford's swearing in set the tone for his government.

    Goes on about havinng his swearing in in out pubilc as first (it wasn't) with the public being invited guests - everyone else was well back behind barriers, doesn't take questions from reporters, violates protocol (you don't get political when the Lt-Gov is there to swear you in).

    https://www.thestar.com/opinion/sta...ford-fell-in-love-with-his-own-honeymoon.html

    For all her faults wynne would go into the lions den and take teh questions, face hostile audiences. I think ford is going to take the harper path and duck the hard questions and unfriendly audiences were ever possible.
     
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  7. Avro Arrow

    Avro Arrow Vice Admiral Moderator

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    I saw that. How disappointing. :(

    As far as the cabinet goes, there are 21 cabinet members (including Ford), down from 28 under Wynne. One third are women (7 / 21), which unfortunately isn't parity, but it does pretty much reflect the make-up of their caucus as a whole. And to borrow a line from the Star Editorial Board: "It could hardly be a whiter shade of pale."

    One bit of good news, Christine Elliott is deputy premier, although we probably all could have guessed that would happen.

    So, here we go. Four years of smooth sailing, or stormy seas? I have my guess, but I suppose we will see.
     
  8. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    A relative who's involved in muncipal politics has butted heads with the new transport minister before over highway that was downloaded to small municipality in the harris years so it's gonna be interesting there.

    It's in a tory riding but whether they get any money for a highway that carries a decent amount of traffic (include a big chunk of heavy vehicle movement) and hasn't had a major rebuild in 4 decades.
     
  9. Uncle_Lou

    Uncle_Lou Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    I'm wishing for the best, Canada. I love you, and we need you. Now more than ever.
     
  10. Avro Arrow

    Avro Arrow Vice Admiral Moderator

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    The PCs have already announced changes to OHIP+. It sounds like they are only going to provide full coverage for those who aren't already covered by private plans. For those who *are* covered by private plans, they will still pay the difference between what the patient pays, and what the private plan covers.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/pcs-announce-changes-to-ohip-1.4729873

    ETA:
    That's very kind, thank you.
     
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  11. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    given the reputation of insurance coverage I have no doubt they would love to have people pay the same premiums but provide less coverage with the tax payer on the hook for the health insurers are support to cover.

    Or put another way, people pay for drug coverage with their health insurance so that's where the money should be coming from for prescription meds so I'm fine with the changes and OHIP making up any difference though the government will need to keep an eye on the insurers (and drug companies to make sure there are no shenanigans.)
     
  12. Kelthaz

    Kelthaz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That is a smart change. My only concern is that insurance companies may drop coverage for those 4,000 drugs because the government will foot the bill, but even if that happens we've lost nothing. I'd be curious to see some numbers on how much money this is expected to save the government.
     
  13. Avro Arrow

    Avro Arrow Vice Admiral Moderator

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    As far as I am aware, my insurance plan already *did* drop coverage for those under 25 for the drugs covered by OHIP+. Now I have no idea if they're obligated to reinstate it, or whether the affected people are included in the "not covered" group.

    I also tend to think this would increase the level of bureaucracy required to administer the program.
     
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  14. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Would I be right that there was no corresponding drop in your premiums?
     
  15. Avro Arrow

    Avro Arrow Vice Admiral Moderator

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    Well, yes, you're right, but I believe they provided compensation by increasing maximum reimbursement limits in some other area I've never used.
     
  16. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    think we really are hopping on to the highway to hell with ford as premier as he pretty much will be running everything out of his office with the cabinet ministers having to take the chiefs of staff and senior advisors that he chooses.

    https://www.thestar.com/opinion/sta...ls-a-page-from-stephen-harper-on-control.html

    And while seem to think that the making the heath insurers provide the coverage instead of the leave the tax payers to cover their arses it seems the devil is in the details. Families will be out of pocket until the they get reimbursed by the province with an unknown time-frame.

    https://www.thestar.com/opinion/sta...sualty-of-doug-fords-hasty-hidden-agenda.html

    And ford's into the jobs for the boys already.

    https://www.thestar.com/news/queens...ronage-job-to-curb-hospital-overcrowding.html
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2018
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  17. Kelthaz

    Kelthaz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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  18. Shaka Zulu

    Shaka Zulu Commodore Commodore

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    Okay, this is a little late, but this opinion piece get it right, IMHO:[SIZE=4] Kathleen Wynne was the premier we didn't deserve[/SIZE]

    I wonder if we can get term limits for voters, as one person told me a while back? That, or 16-year-olds voting.
     
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  19. Avro Arrow

    Avro Arrow Vice Admiral Moderator

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    Ontario has never invoked section 33 before ever... and now we're going to use it for this?? Could Ford be any more vindictive and petty?

    Oh, and he threatens to use it again in the future? Joy. :rolleyes: Perhaps when he inevitably loses the legal challenges on the sex-ed rollback?

    Your link isn't working for me (it takes me to url.com), but I'm guessing this is the one you were intending?

    https://www.thestar.com/opinion/con...n-wynne-was-the-premier-we-didnt-deserve.html
     
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  20. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Probably. Don't forget that apart from cutting the size of TCC, bill 5 also cancelled the region chair elections as patrick brown was running in Peel (instead ford will appoint the regional chairs).

    Speaking of brown, could get interesting with his lawsuit against CTV proceeds. Given what came out aftwards does make me wonder if some-one inside the tories was involved with the leak/story to get rid of him.

    Back to ford, comments yesterday were straight out of the conservative playbook with his rant about "activist judges" and carping on about being elected while the judge was appointed.

    I think we'll see more of these rants as the govt loses more law suits. They lost on Tesla, they lost on the Toronto City Council (but hey when your own words reveal the actions to be pretty much payback it's going to be hard to win).

    There's still the sex-ed and basic income program cases to come and I'm sure despite what ford claims, a fuckton of lawsuits over the cancelling of cap and trade (ford claims the government indemnified it's self with the repeal act but I'm not sure that will hold up - you can't take billions of dollars and not give anything in return).

    cbc article on whether the lawsuits will hurt or hinder ford. the conservative responses are typical and boil down to evil liberals trying to stop a conservative agenda but when the government is being vindictive and petty, breaking promises that have serious financial repercussions for people and pissing on basic rights then there is no other option.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-legal-battles-1.4818184

    time will tell but I won't be surprised if people wind up missing wynne after for years of ford.

    Be interesting to see where ford stands in the next round of opinion polls. his propaganda channel has been pumping out the good news but they don't seem to have achieve much.. Sex-ed is a quagmire, buck-a-beer was a case of flat suds, unemployment rose in August (with the response from ford co to blame the previous govt).

    been funny with my father-in-law. After years of whinging about the liberals and using words to about wynne that'd get me a warning, no-one is is allowed to say anything at all bad about "Mr Ford".

    Oh and here's another motivation for ford's cuts to the council numbers. wipes out a good chunk of the left/liberal councils and would help ensure conservative domination.

    https://www.thestar.com/news/city_h...sive-downtown-incumbents-out-of-election.html
     
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2018