Ontario Provincial Politics

[Owain Taggart]

Ford wants to build subways from Toronto to Pickering and Markham. No one knows why or how he's going to pay for it

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.

 

[Marc]

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.

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.

 

[Owain Taggart]

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?

 

[Marc]

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?

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).

 

[Owain Taggart]

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.

 

[Marc]

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.

 

[Avro Arrow]

(and torstar are in the process of bring backing their fucking paywall).

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.

 

[Marc]

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

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.

 

[Uncle_Lou]

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

 

[Avro Arrow]

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:

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

That's very kind, thank you.

 

[Marc]

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

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.)

 

[Kelthaz]

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

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.

 

[Avro Arrow]

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.

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.

 

[Marc]

As far as I am aware, my insurance plan already *did* drop coverage for those under 25 for the drugs covered by OHIP+.

Would I be right that there was no corresponding drop in your premiums?

 

[Avro Arrow]

Would I be right that there was no corresponding drop in your premiums?

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

 

[Marc]

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

 

[Kelthaz]

This thread has been quiet for a while now, but I think Ford's recent craziness deserves a bump.

Premier Doug Ford to use notwithstanding clause to cut size of Toronto city council

 

[Shaka Zulu]

OK, I don't really know how well this thread is going to go over... I don't really know if there are a lot of people from Ontario who post here, and it probably won't be of very much interest to those outside Ontario. But I am genuinely curious, so I guess we'll see where it goes.

Confession time: I like Kathleen Wynne. A lot. However, she has an abysmally low approval rating: 20% is the last number I heard, which is the lowest among all the provincial premiers. However, there is also a lot of evidence out there that Ontarians like Wynne's policies, they just don't like Wynne herself. So much so that the Progressive Conservatives under Patrick Brown pretty much adopted Wynne's platform wholesale as their own... before Brown was forced to resign for sexual impropriety, and the PC leadership candidates all pretty much set aside the so-called People's Guarantee.

(We'll set aside for the moment the question as to why voters would vote against policies they like because they're implemented by someone they don't like. I would think that the actual legislation would have more affect on individuals' lives than the premier's personality or whatever, but anyway...)

So why is Wynne so unpopular? Sure, there are going to be PC supporters who dislike her because she's a Liberal. That's pretty much a given. And of course, there is a certain segment who will dislike her because she is a woman, or because she is our first openly LGBT premier; I'm sure we've all seen the misogynistic and homophobic comments online. But I'd like to think that's just a small but noisy group. So I'm wondering more about why centrist or left-leaning people, who might ordinarily vote Liberal, don't like her?

This columnist suggests the reason is her sale of Hydro One. I admit that I didn't agree with that decision either... but it's one thing out of many other good things. Could it really be this one issue? I wouldn't have thought one thing would be enough to cause this much damage. I was deeply disappointed in Trudeau's abandonment of electoral reform, but I'm not suddenly going to turn to Scheer because of it! (Although my understanding is there are still Westerners who detest Trudeau Sr. over the National Energy Program--and that was almost 40 years ago! So I guess it's possible...)

Just wondering if anyone else had any thoughts or insight about this?

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

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

 

[Avro Arrow]

This thread has been quiet for a while now, but I think Ford's recent craziness deserves a bump.

Premier Doug Ford to use notwithstanding clause to cut size of Toronto city council

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. Perhaps when he inevitably loses the legal challenges on the sex-ed rollback?

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

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

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

 

[Marc]

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?

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