05.07.2014 06:57 AM

Highly-scientific graph on Ontario election issues

Sorry, Ontario campaigners: nobody pays attention until the debates. But God bless y’all, anyway.

23 Comments

  1. Matt says:

    I’d like to think a few more are paying attention, but after the first few days, I’m thinking all the leaders are happy not many are.

    They’ve all seemed unprepared for the campaign, especially Hudak with a couple rough appearances.

    • AnthonyJ says:

      Perhaps the opening strategy is to lay low in the bushes and wait for others to declare their positions making them open for attack. Anyway, the first 2 weeks are for wind-up tactics and the last 2 weeks for carpet bombing the opponents.

      Wynne and Horwath will engage in their usual cat fight while Hudak dogs it waiting for his chance to blow both of them out of the water. Even the media is curiously silent.

  2. Matt says:

    Has anyone heard if Hudak or Wynne accepted Horwath’s challange of having “at least” 5 debates?

    • Al in Cranbrook says:

      Why five debates??? What can possibly be settled with five that one or, God forbid, two can’t?

      It’s usually all one can manage just to sit through one of ’em…no fault necessarily to politicians, it’s almost always the formats that ruin it.

  3. Domenico says:

    The 1 % does seem a little high. It does fall within the margin of error doesn’t it? ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. TrueNorthist says:

    I find it baffling that all the players appear so completely unprepared for this election. Hudak I can understand — deer-in-the-headlights is his natural state — but Wynne and Horwath have no excuse. Especially Horwath. If the PCs ever hope to win they will need to get Hudak to do more than stand there with his arms out, looking like a cheerful squirrell. Horwath must find a message that is different in some way from the Liberals, which will be extremely difficult as they have already been driving Liberal fiscal policy for years now. My early prediction? Liberal minority, again.

  5. Coelocanth_Jones says:

    Not long after I started reading and commenting under my current pseudonym, Olivia Chow took the plunge and began her formal mayoral campaign. Another regular, can’t remember who, mused that rob ford would find some way to upstage her. Turns out his powers in that department are perfectly capable of jumping government levels

  6. Kathryn says:

    The challenge for the Liberals is to GOTV, which is becoming problematic because once Liberal corruption sinks into the electorates mind it will be downhill momentum for Wynne, and once you start to sink it’s near impossible to stop the drop.

    The other challenge is whether the NDP can avoid the Bob Rae stigma and win over the lefty liberal vote รก la Jack Layton. Gonna be interesting.

    • Matt says:

      It was interesting to hear Wynne, in her criticism of the NDP being bad for Ontario, bring up what happen in Ontario under Bob Rae’s NDP government, as Bob has been under the Liberal banner for several years now.

      And yeah I realize he is/was a Liberal at the federal level and there are differences between the provincial party and federal party, but it was still interesting to see her trash him.

    • Matt says:

      Forgot to add it will be interesting to see with Wynne taking the Liberals so far left, what the “blue” Liberals are going to do. Do they vote PC or do they sit out?

      Alsoif Horwath takes the party on a turn further left to compete with the Liberals, what do the more centrist NDP voters do.

      • Redgerrymander says:

        I’d be surprised if they didn’t. Liberals almost always campaign as if they were the NPD and then govern like good little pork-barrel Tories.

      • AnthonyJ says:

        I’m betting the Ontario “blue” Grits will vote PC to get rid of Wynne, Ontario’s first lesbian premier as she so proudly announced. Obviously, Horwath is attempting to sever the “red” Grits from the Liberal carcass for the same reason.

        Now that Justin has decreed, his Liberal party is now a Pro-Choice party and if potential candidates disagree they should exit his Liberal party. Wonder if Pro-Life Ontario Liberals will react to this heresy in the Ontario election. Are there any Pro-Life Ontario Liberals.. like Roman Catholics? Warren??

        • Matt says:

          On the Trudeau abortion announcement, he should have stopped talking after stating the Liberal party as a whole is pro choice. But, he didn’t stop. He basically AGAIN broke his promise to have open nominations by saying any candidate who is pro life will not be allowed to run for the Liberals. So much for doing politics differently.

          As for him campaigning with Wynne, what are his advisors thinking? Ipsos polling shows something like 70% of Ontarians want a change in government. That’s not good for Wynne. The fed Liberals should be keeping Trudeau away from her. Didn’t he campaign with a couple Liberal candidates in recent Ontario by-elections who went on to lose with the one in Niagra Falls only getting 19%.

        • Al in Cranbrook says:

          I read about J.T.s edict, and immediately recalled that there were something like 20 or so relatively staunch pro-life MPs in the last Liberal government.

          Which begs the question, are there any of them left? And if so, how’s that going to wash with them???

          I don’t think a political party does itself any favors when it lays down those kinds of stipulations that are a matter of conscience.

          • Matt says:

            I think it was more like a third.

            And IIRC, that included people like Chretien and Martin.

  7. Apostate says:

    Just a thought, but the pie chart made me muse…..no doubt Mr. Ford has a private room in some swanky rehab centre, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if he had to share a room with a gay immigrant male of colour?……

  8. e.a.f. says:

    its a blue moon! how cute.

    Apostate, loved the visual on your suggested room mate. its like a whole sit com. perhaps Warren would allow you to keep writing on that subject for the duration..

    scandals of a previous premier, real or not, don’t always wear too well on the new leader. Hudak can loose this election just as easily if the Liberals or NDP manage to connect the dots to Harper. In areas with high unemployment, things like the TFW program can have an impact on Hudak. of course if the debates are good and the NDP leader does a good job, well she could have the job. Complaining about Bob Rae, isn’t going to cut it, its been too long ago. The NDP leader can simply fire back he was good enough for the federal liberals and kept them going until they had a new leader, so what is Ms. Wynne’s real problem with him. She might want to go back to his time as premier, but it could be claimed he “saw’ the light and joined the liberals.

    At least the next 30 days or so will be entertaining. Look forward to more of your articles regarding the Ontario election/erection.

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