04.12.2012 09:24 AM

Picture worth a 1,000 words dept.: the Ontario NDP

This photo was taken just before Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath’s latest press conference, today.  Where she claimed she doesn’t want an election.

That’s her campaign van.  Anyone believe her claims that she doesn’t want an election?

I didn’t think so.

12 Comments

  1. tfalcone86 says:

    Every Dipper I’ve talked to wants an election. Let’s see how this one unfolds.

  2. Matt says:

    During most of my interactions with Dippers I am struck dumb by how they think that their poison pill ransom list of “improvements” is actually a compromise. They came in *last* in the election, but it doesn’t stop them from basically trying to implement their entire election platform in one budget bill.

  3. Tiger says:

    “We don’t want to fight but, by Jingo, if we do, we’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money too.”

  4. Nick H says:

    I guess you’ll have to connect the dots for us on this one because what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. She’s posturing in front of cameras to raise her profile as a leader and hoping to extract some concessions from the Liberals that will make the NDP look like a serious potential governing party. Since Hudak stupidly took himself out of the budget discussions she’s getting maximum media attention and she’s exploiting this to good effect. Polls reflect that her strategy is working.

    I’m not really sure where a van fits into this analysis though. I’d assume that using the same van as they had in the campaign is probably a way to save money rather than some kind of covert signal that the NDP want an election. Are you seriously saying the NDP should have double the number of vehicles just so they don’t accidentally make you think they want an election? You’re really using this van as evidence? Really?

    It makes no sense for the NDP to force an election. The dippers are in a great position right now to claim credit for government initiatives without taking responsibility for the cuts. An election would ruin that.

    Could it be, Mr. Kinsella, that you recognize all this and fear that its working? I read your blog (sorry, website) regularly and its pretty clear that YOU want an election, provided that it can be made to look as though the other parties triggered it.

  5. Justin says:

    Unless she’s very full of herself and drives around town blaring a siren speeding of to another event.

  6. Jeff says:

    What’s strange about that? I drive around in a van with a giant picture of my head on it every day.

  7. Glen says:

    I like Danielle Smith’s bus better.

  8. W.B. says:

    Power Play coast to coast last night; she thinks she’s Leader of the Opposition since nobody else is doing that job at the present time.

  9. Dan says:

    Trust me that rank-and-file New Democratic voters are really disappointed with McGuinty austerity budget. Horwath is being much more conciliatory than her supporters want her to be.

    That Horwath is proposing a tax increase on the rich — something that helps balance the budget, avoids some cuts, and is tremendously popular with the Canadian (let alone Ontario) public — should be seen as an olive branch between the NDP and the Liberals. Horwath is offering Dalton the chance to do something on taxes that many of the Liberal intelligentsia wish they could do, but are too worried about the Conservative hysteria about taxes to actually propose it. She’s not opposing all the wage freezes and benefit cuts. Jack Layton always believed in proposing things that the Liberals could actually support, and call a “win”.

    Horwatch herself *doesn’t* want an election (even if her supporters might feel otherwise). But I think all three parties are prepared for an election. And if McGuinty thinks he can get away with a conservative-lite budget (austerity for the poor, tax cuts for the rich), he’ll find that he loses ground to the real Conservatives (and real austerity), and their real opposition.

    That’s not a threat. It’s a prediction. Write it down, and put it in an envelope marked “June 2012”.

  10. star sailor says:

    Wow who saw this one coming. A pitty, maybe she wants to stay home a bake cookies. At least the ground is warmed up enouth for the election signs. A pitty there the orange signs will be a miss among the blue and red.

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