Ontario Provincial Politics

[Owain Taggart]

Liberals have been winning hand over fist in by-elections, etc. since Trudeau was elected in 2015 but perhaps it's all coming to an end.

Longer than that, even at the provincial level. The Liberals have had a hold on the province for quite a long time. Perhaps for more than 15 years. The province has had a love-hate relationship with the party. While there's always lots of complaining about wanting change, we somehow elect them again, and again because they're somehow always the province's best chance. It's exasperating at times. It's almost as if we want to be bruised and unable to learn how to change.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Pot holes are largely a municipal matter since the province dumped downloaded a lot of the provincial highways onto local govt in the harris era so that's probably one thing we can't really blame wynne for.

Yeah, I know. It's more of an allegory for going off the rails so to speak, since Ontario is full of really terrible potholes

 

[Marc]

For example: Nova Scotia's provincial election in May 2017 was a tremendous upset - the polls showed the PCs were going to topple the (much maligned) Liberal minority and they ended up electing a Liberal majority. The voices of the anti-Liberal crowd before the vote was deafening. I still can't explain or even understand what happened... but there always appears to be a disconnect between polls and what people actually do when they are in the voting booth.

Can't remember what the exact polls were prior to the last provincial election beyond a liberal majority wasn't on the cards. Think the prediction was a minority government that would be either red or blue.

Longer than that, even at the provincial level. The Liberals have had a hold on the province for quite a long time. Perhaps for more than 15 years. The province has had a love-hate relationship with the party. While there's always lots of complaining about wanting change, we somehow elect them again, and again because they're somehow always the province's best chance. It's exasperating at times. It's almost as if we want to be bruised and unable to learn how to change.

think the tories are on occasion their own worst enemy. Hudak wanted to privatise hydro and then flapped his yap about firing 100,000 public servants and polices that tory candidates were unable to explain to voters.

Locally the tory candidate was very quick to attend electoral events with the business community but was a no-show for any events where candidates were asked about social issues. Not a good move in a riding were we've got on of the highest rates of seniors per capita in the country, large percent of people on OW and ODSP, very high rents to name a few.

Then they repleace hudak with brown who becomes the invisible man an empty suit. Low media profile, not much in the way of policy and gets his job with the help of the social conservatives and the tories start spinning their wheels.

then he comes out with an electoral platform that actually has wide appeal though further pisses off the social conservatives (again) but then he's dumped/resigns and the candidates then dump his policies and doug the thug becomes opposition leader.

 

[UncleRogi]

Are any of you Maple Folk gonna run for Parliament?

Cuz all of you should!

Gives me hope in this Dark World...

 

[Owain Taggart]

Oh yeah, Hudak. The less said about him, the better. Kind of self-destructed. And as far as local tory candidates go, non of them are appealing. Heard about the no-show, and it's happened here too with tory candidates. Like they're too confident or something.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Oh yeah, Hudak. The less said about him, the better. Kind of self-destructed.

As did Tory before him, with the faith-based schooling issue. The PCs have been their own worst enemy for the last few elections now.

(Plus of course there was the memory of all the suffering during the Harris years, but that's long enough ago now that people may be starting to forget.)

All the talk in the media last month was about how the PCs shot themselves in the foot *again* by choosing Ford as leader. But I guess we'll see how that one ultimately pans out in June.

 

[Kelthaz]

Oh, if anyone can shoot themselves in the foot it's Doug Ford. I have faith in the man. Speaking of which...

Doug Ford declines to participate in Black Community Provincial Leaders Debate

Kathleen Wynne, Andrea Horwath, and even Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner will be participating in the debate while Ford will be conveniently too busy touring the North.

 

[Owain Taggart]

He probably should have rescheduled his northern tour. It does sound like really bad timing on his part.

 

[Timewalker]

Are any of you Maple Folk gonna run for Parliament?

Cuz all of you should!

I do my politicking on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's website, in the articles where they've opened the comment section. In election years I try to educate people as to how the polling process really works, since there's an appalling amount of misinformation out there. I used to work for Elections Canada, so I have no patience with people who spread misinformation in a deliberate attempt to scare voters off.

As did Tory before him, with the faith-based schooling issue. The PCs have been their own worst enemy for the last few elections now.

What issue was that?

There's a push starting in Alberta to end public funding for faith-based schools. There's an appalling amount of duplication going on here with the public system and the Catholic system. There are a lot of resources they could share, but the Catholic school boards (and a lot of the parents) seem to think that public school students aren't taught any morals and so sharing is out of the question.

 

[Kelthaz]

He probably should have rescheduled his northern tour. It does sound like really bad timing on his part.

He was invited to the debate on March 11th, a day after he won the the leadership race. There's no way that he had a trip to Northern Ontario planned that far in advance. This isn't a timing issue; he's running to the furthest reaches of the province to hide from black people.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Either way, it still sounds like terrible timing on his part. If he planned it that way, that's even worse, and he'll have to account for it. If he's doing that now, imagine if he's in power. He'll be able to put forward any excuses, and doing so definitely isn't doing him any favors. People are seeing right through it. Btw, we don't want him up north either, so I'm not sure what he's smoking. Ah, who am I kidding. He'll likely not survive out in the brutal cold. And he certainly has no Ontario Northland to take him places.

There's a push starting in Alberta to end public funding for faith-based schools. There's an appalling amount of duplication going on here with the public system and the Catholic system. There are a lot of resources they could share, but the Catholic school boards (and a lot of the parents) seem to think that public school students aren't taught any morals and so sharing is out of the question.

I heard about that on the radio, and I believe there also was a discussion about the possibility of it happening in Ontario. I know I've seen articles considering it.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Hey, look... Judith Timson is asking the same question!

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is crushingly unpopular -- but why?

What issue was that?

He wanted to extend public funding to religious schools other than just Catholic.

I was able to find an article on The Star from back at the time... featuring a quote from Liberal Education Minister Kathleen Wynne!

Tory would expand religious school funding

People are seeing right through it.

But... are they? Most sources are talking like he's already been acclaimed. (And for those who count themselves part of "Ford Nation" :shudder:, he can probably do no wrong no matter what he does....)

 

[Kelthaz]

CBC's Éric Grenier has a poll tracker for Ontario up.

CBC Ontario Poll Tracker

Seat projections as of April 6th:

PC: 60 - 84
NDP: 15 - 33
LIB: 2 - 42

Yeah, that's not a typo. I didn't forget to put a 1 before that 2. It's unlikely, but the Liberals could fail to qualify for official party status (8 seats minimum).

 

[Owain Taggart]

But... are they? Most sources are talking like he's already been acclaimed. (And for those who count themselves part of "Ford Nation" :shudder:, he can probably do no wrong no matter what he does....)

Well, maybe they are, but a lot can still change between now and the actual election.

Yeah, that's not a typo. I didn't forget to put a 1 before that 2. It's unlikely, but the Liberals could fail to qualify for official party status (8 seats minimum).

Heh, that'd be quite a fall for the Libs! At least it's good to see that people want change. Myself, I'll be rooting for the NDP. Even if the PC end up winning a majority, the NDP would default to the official opposition and hopefully contrast what Ford's doing.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Another interesting column from Jaime Watt:

In Ontario, get ready for a grudge match

I thought his take on precarious vs. left behind is an interesting one.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Sometimes I get the feeling Wynne just likes to argue and be contrarian. She could argue with her own echo for hours and not end up agreeing on anything.

 

[Marc]

Yeah, that's not a typo. I didn't forget to put a 1 before that 2. It's unlikely, but the Liberals could fail to qualify for official party status (8 seats minimum).

Shades of the federal Tories are lying Brian left them in them in a very bad place in the 1980s.

He wanted to extend public funding to religious schools other than just Catholic.

I don't know if it's moved on can't recall if just applied to Ontario, but there was a legal case started that the separate catholic school system was violation of The Charter.

People are also starting to really get pissed off at the Liberals spend but when are they going to wake up the problems that tory cuts to the big of twon keep bringing?

The Star had a report a few months back that the 20 or so years ago the tax split between the business sector and joe public was 50/50. It's now at 40/60 with joe doing most of the work.

Yes spending is a concern but when the tories chop billions of the budget to help the business ector that's whinging about tax rates (yet seldom paying anywhere near the actual rate) that's just as bad if not worse because we seldom if ever see the benefits from the cuts (little to no job creation, money is only spend on infrastructure were absolutely necessary and the workforce dumped when they get a better tax offer elsewhere).

 

[Marc]

$deity help us.

Seems that ford hopped into bed with the social conservatives lead by gracic-allen to get him over the line. At the moment he's running in the opposite direction as she shoots her "mouth" on twitter but it's not outside the realm of possibility that she could wind up in a ford cabinet as a reward for the support she brought.

https://www.thestar.com/news/queens...granic-allen-over-tweets-on-muslims-gays.html

Further to that ford isn't taking any action for the bigotted and homophobic comments made by granic-allen.

https://www.thestar.com/news/queens...-allen-from-mississauga-nomination-fight.html

though this shouldn't be a surprise. After all despite his claims of zero tolerance it took 3 days before had a tory MPP who was sexting an intern dumped from the caucus and only after a) the idiot had announced he wasn't going to run again due to "health reasons" and b) reporters started asking hard questions (oh those reporters with their hard questions - doug the thug is already showing he can't handle the heat).

 

[Marc]

Well giving money to the damn teachers (who seem ready to strike at the drop of a hat) is not going to help wynne's standing to the rest of the community.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...pay-39-million-to-school-employee-groups.html

In this instance they'll argue it was because the provincial government was found to have breached charter rights during contract negotiations it's still another big chunk of change going to the teachers (so if ford wins office and decides to eviserate the teachers union I'll not shed any tears).

Then again if we get ford he's gonna give the tax cuts to business sector which is already paying some of the lowest taxes in the country (when they actually pay the set rate) so that could make the teacher payouts look cheap.

 

[Owain Taggart]

While Ford was in Northern Ontario, not once did he actually raise any of the issues we've had or even try to understand us in the north. Just very mum on anything, which makes him an empty platform in my book. He's very much clueless and didn't even make an effort. I don't think he'll be too popular here.