09.17.2011 09:10 AM

Hebert on the alternation thing

Does it exist?  Beats me.  There are exceptions to every rule (cf. the Lopinski Theorem).  But one thing’s for sure: the “hat trick” call was dumb, dumb, dumb. It started Tea Party Tim on a slide from which he really hasn’t recovered.

Hebert:

In the past, the province’s voters have tended to use Queen’s Park as a counterweight to the federal government, tilting in different and sometimes opposite directions at the provincial and the national levels.

More so than in any of his previous campaigns, Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty needs that longstanding reflex to help trump a cyclical desire for change if he is to earn a third mandate on Oct. 6.

On that score, the advent of a Conservative majority government last May, Mr. Harper’s vocal wish for a Toronto-Queen’s Park-Ottawa right-wing triangle earlier this summer and the fact that Quebec dominates the official opposition in Parliament have all provided Mr. McGuinty with a stronger narrative.

 

4 Comments

  1. Pedro says:

    It is just too bad that Dalton, with the political capital he has, does not actually enter the essential debate between actual (not political bigC) conservatism, with its focus on tempered, go-slow, minimalist government intervention into daily lives and the progressive, big L, aggressive, interventionalist, “we know better than you” policies of the “Left”.
    His problem is that he appears to afraid.
    The public versus private funding of schooling is an example of Dalton’s lack of courage.
    Voters noted this but voted their interests.
    You disparage conservatives for their lack of conviction.
    Mr. McGuinty can show a better than 2 to 5 year vision.
    While green energy jobs are a noble cause, consider that Ontario has committed millions of dollars to support a marginal grape growing industry in Niagara. Windmills to to warm the micro-climate while we debate global warming?
    The paving of thousands of hectares of rich farmland on the Niagara floodplain to allow transport traffic between Detroit and Buffalo?
    I agree that Mr. Hudak’s campaign has struck the bus but Mr. McGuinty shows fewer cojones than the other leaders.
    With some of those he could vault the Libs to a massive majority.

  2. Cam Prymak says:

    The province needs a uniter, a leader and someone with a vision- that’s McGuinty. But know that the Tea Party doesn’t play by the Marquis of Queensbury rules. Their policies are intent on taking us backwards at any cost. We need McGuinty to put a choke hold on that vision in the upcoming debate.

  3. Dan F says:

    My theory is that it has less to do with the voters, and more to do with the campaign teams. After the Chretien years, the Liberal “A-Team” (including Warren) turned its attention to Queen’s Park (for various reasons), while many of our smarter organizers sat out the federal elections. On the flip side, the best Conservative war-room people have been focused on Ottawa, and never put their full weight behind the John Tory / Tim Hudak campaigns.

    After Dalton retires, if the big red machine turns its attention back to Ottawa, things could turn around there in a big way (while they fade on the provincial scene at the same time). Nothing to do with the mood of the voters. Everything to do with the skill of the war-room and the experience of the campaign teams.

    • Attack! says:

      Shhh! no fair exposing the Wizards behind the Oz!

      And you know what Jason and his Congonauts first said to The Tim Man’s plea for help, before they relented:

      “You DARE to come to me for a heart, do you? You clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caligenous junk!”

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