— Musings —06.14.2012 05:41 PM
Ontario election?
Looks like all Summer vacations are about to be cancelled.
Ballot question: The Ontario NDP and PCs forced an election months after the last one. If you oppose that, vote for an Ontario Liberal majority!
I sort of understand the NDP position on privatization, leaving aside the fact they said they would support the budget. But what on earth are the Tories doing?!?
imo they’re taking a page from the Tea Party Republicans: oppose everything.
it’s a sign that the PC party of old is almost gone.
Hey, it’s not the Tories’ fault you guys couldn’t get along for two months with the NDP, and weren’t willing to meet us halfway on cuts.
Bring it on!
When you talk of halfway you mean all.
Halfway? Your leader rejected the budget before seeing it
I voted Liberal last provincial election. Gonna be hard pressed to do it again after Deb Matthews stabbed doctors in the back. I’ll either vote for someone else or stay home.
I will personally make them pay if my vacation is cancelled.
N.C. is lovely this time of year!
The Drummond report validated that the McGuinty government needs to go. Wish the Tories had a stronger leader than the current one. Harris would win it for the Tories if he was still around. The NDP will do well. No majority for the libs.
Mike Harris could not get elected dog catcher.
Mike Harris fired all the dog catchers.
Hahaha.!!!..
good one.
Except that Drummond wasn’t allowed to consider tax increases, or how to slash the deficit through economic growth.
Austerity is going to increase unemployment, which is going to reduce tax revenues AND increase those dependent on services. All the cuts in the world won’t change that.
The Liberals are losing their constituencies. Anyone who wants a balanced budget is voting Conservative. Anyone who wants to protect services is voting NDP. The only thing left for the Liberals to do is eek out a tactical victory by blaming the costly and annoying election on the opposition. Even with a tactical victory, the Liberal party is still losing its constituencies.
So is that be Grape or Orange Kool Aid You be drink’n there?
Statement of fact. What happened to the Federal Liberals can happen just as easily in Ontario.
So the cons are the party of cuts eh, I guess they should drop progressive.
Hudak is losing the balanced budget constituency. I have zero trust in the Ontario PCs capability to provide economic management. My confidence in McGuinty’s Liberals is paper-thin, but they have a credible plan….and the PCs are obstructing execution of something very similar to what they would have to do in the midst of the most troubling economic times in memory.
I think that’s a pretty educated position. I don’t believe the hard right actually wants to balance the budget. I believe they’ll cut services, but they’ll also cut taxes. Conservatives like deficits, because it means that when they eventually get kicked out of power, they can demand that Liberals or New Democrats do the dirty work of balancing the budget for them.
But it’s easy to promise the world everything when you’re in opposition. So I’m not sure McGuinty can maintain that paper-thin trust without really taking a side.
$15 Billion in five years? that seems like a reasonable amount of time to pay down the debt to $0 — all the while maintaining investments in education at all levels, LTC services, and social welfare programs? key issues in KW, as they are everywhere else.
A candidate could have many great summertime campaign bbqs.
Actually, I’d rather see him call an election than bow down to the demands of the economic illiterate NDP.
As a teacher living in a rural setting- staring down a proposed wind turbine project that would place a high-powered line 30′ from my house (with 3 small children living in it)-bring on an election!
So many competing and selfish interests on this. Bottom line is our political system is working the way it should.
I voted Liberal last time. But given the following:
1) Budget written to appease the bond markets and Don Drummond;
2) Ignoring the City of Toronto’s (and the City of Mississauga’s) request to be removed from the jurisdiction of the OMB; and
3) Not taking a stronger position through Metrolinx during the LRT vs. subway fiasco (which set back construction by a year or more).
It will be difficult (although not impossible) to vote Liberal again.
All good points. Unfortunately, what’s the alternative? (Leading question… I guess this and more will be revealed if the election is called)
So, you don’t want provincial interferrence in municipal planning but you do want the province to step in an interfer with municipal transportation.
Local control until I don’t like it!! Vote Hudak.
Fuck you. Same can be said about the province – provincial control until its not convenient. The province through Metrolinx claims it wants to be a player in transit, but when the chips are down…….oops! Where’d they go? Nowhere to be found. Metrolinx is spineless and therefore useless. The whole operation should be turned over to the municipalities WITH all the necessary funding mechanisms. Want me to go further sunshine? Fine. Toronto should be its own province with its own income and sales tax. How long would the rest of Ontario would last without Toronto? How long before the rest of the GTA jumped in?
Oh and BTW FUCK Hudak!
Thanks for your Christian response. Just pointing out your inconsistencies. No need to get mad at me. I’m not to blame that you are all over the map with your political views.
May I suggest a different ballot question?
What about this? “Do you feel better off after years of liberal rule? If not vote for the party that values your interests over the interests of Bay Street, vote New Democrat!”.
I was a long time liberal supporter. But the constant selling off of the province peice by peice at the expense of public services for my family have made me look elsewhere. I may only be one guy in your guys riding, but I know a lot of people and I am ready to mobilize this time.
So, lets go. Lets let the people decide.
I laughed so hard I almost puked listening to McGuinty bait the hook WK. I hope others got a good laugh too and went back to doing whatever they were doing on this beautiful Friday. No current Ontario party can afford an election right now, least of all the PCs.
Not going to happen. Also, I don’t trust any of the three parties with a majority under their current leaders. Something’s got to give in that department.
and then there’s this http://www.ctvlondon.ca/2012/06/mayors-sound-off/
Exciting! Need an election to tie me over until the US goes to the polls!
The NDP have positioned themselves poorly on this one. To their credit, they made a tough deal but now they won’t stick to it. The NDP will be labelled as promise breakers. If an election were called, I see the PCs staying about even but the NDP losing seats to the Liberals. Horwath needs to come to her senses. Her messaging here is all wrong.
” I had to call this summer election because Andrea Horwath and the NDP broke their promise. I made a deal. They broke it.” <– What the Premier should say on Monday.
Sorry Warren, but Team Dalton has lost some support in Ontario communities that are undergoing highly contrived and divisive school closures. His Minister of Education, Laurel Broten, has been singularly imperial in not addressing the concerns of families losing their local schools. People are pissed and unfortunately, McGuinty has not taken a stand. To be fair, he inherited a dysfunctional Education Act and a funding formula that needs revision. See http://savelocalschools.com/ for details. The affected communities include Cambridge, Cobourg, Hamilton, Kingston, Kanata, Sudbury, St. Catherines, Norwood, Welland, and Peterborough. Will this issue cost him seats if there is an election? Dunno. One issue doth not make the sky fall and the king lose his head. But the opposition parties have been paying attention. The Ontario Liberals don’t believe this issue is a big deal. We’ll see.
I am really shocked by the behaviour of the tories – voting for amendments that are contrary to their principles in a bill that they plan to vote against. I have never heard of a political party doing something so cynical. Maybe I am just being naive. Can anyone think of examples of this type of strategy?