— Feature, Musings —06.04.2018 07:57 AM
Kathleen Wynne doesn’t think she should have resigned
On Saturday, five days before Election Day, the Ontario Liberal leader conceded the election. Usually, politicians wait until, you know, the actual vote has taken place. But Kathleen Wynne insisted she was doing so because she wanted to help her party’s candidates. “I would never want to do anything that would undermine any of my candidates, any of those races. I have thought long and hard about this, believe me,” she said.
Her view: I’m helping out my caucus and candidates by throwing in the towel. The view of many Ontario Liberals: bullshit.
One lifelong Grit, Jim Curran, wrote this on Facebook. He has given me approval to quote it:
I am voting Liberal anyway. What Kathleen did to her candidates yesterday was pretty much the shittiest thing I’ve ever seen a leader do to her own, hardworking, selfless, dedicated candidates who have put their lives and families on hold for the party they believe in. It was absolutely selfish and totally disgusting IMHO. I will continue to support my local Liberal candidate as the alternative is not acceptable to me. I’m for a party dedicated to a living wage for its citizens, free pharma for the young, dedication to making sure our kids get to go to college and dedication to building and expanding hospitals for our growing and aging population. In [my riding] I will be voting for [his candidate], LIBERAL.
I feel the same way. I am disgusted by what Wynne and her $70,000-a-month “strategist” Wizard did. But I am going to enthusiastically vote for my friend Arthur Potts, the Ontario Liberal candidate in our riding, because he richly deserves re-election.
This morning, Kathleen Wynne was yet again on CBC Toronto’s Metro Morning, because she likes preaching to the choir. Matt Galloway, who is a tough interviewer, demanded to know why Wynne didn’t quit the leadership a year ago. Lots of us have been wondering that, although I was pretty much the only one saying so publicly.
Wynne dodged and weaved, but then she finally said she had consulted her “advisors and colleagues,” a year ago, but concluded that she “really believed” she could get re-elected.
Let’s examine that, shall we?
Exactly one year ago, here’s what the Angus Reid Group were saying about Wynne’s ability to get re-elected.
Not too good, eh? Least-popular Premier in Canada.
But maybe she meant to say the year before that – in 2016. So, here she is in May of that year.
A bit better, but not by much. So, what gives? Kathleen Wynne has been very unpopular for a very long time. What persuaded her to “really believe” she could win over the past couple years?
There are two possibilities, here. One, she is delusional, and totally removed from political reality. Having known her for a long time, however, I can tell you this is impossible. She is very, very smart.
The other possibility is one I have been hearing whispers about: Kathleen Wynne was being presented with numbers that were completely and totally wrong. Those bogus numbers persuaded her – and, beyond her, her cabinet and caucus, who never once rose up in revolt – that victory was attainable.
I think you all know where I am going with this.
Kathleen Wynne would have resigned a year ago if she had been presented with reliable, verifiable data. She would have have quit if she knew the truth. But someone didn’t give her the truth.
I wonder who that person is?
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I saw (and heard) lots of PC and NDP ads over the weekend, but relatively few Liberal ones. Back in 2014, I remember the Liberals (and Working Families) flooding the airwaves on the last weekend of the campaign.
Did I just miss them, or has there been an effort to curtail Liberal ad spending to avoid a massive debt after the election? Who would give that order, and when?
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They have run out of money.
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Given the NDP are always in third place in yearly fundraising, I would have thought they’d run out of money before the Liberals.
Or are the NDP running their campaign like they would run the province – borrow, borrow, borrow, spend, spend, spend, deficit and debt be damned.
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Or maybe there running it like the PC platform. Spend spend spend. Do we have any money coming in?
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Decent chance that during the campaign, the NDP will have outraised the Liberals.
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RE: “They have run out of money.”
You mean they’ve run out of their money. Liberals never run out of somebody else’s money.
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Any $ spent now by the Ontario Liberals and their supporting cast of groups buying prime time advertising space in order to get another chance at the trough is just throwing good money after bad – and they know it.
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Even if they don’t win many seats, the more total votes they get the more money they get from the provance under the formula.
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Unless Ford gets a majority and passes legislation to kill the taxpayer funded per vote subsidy Wynne recently brought in.
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Which he will do.
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I’ve noticed mostly Liberal ads on Twitter repeating the surrender. They probably know I live in a downtown Toronto riding where the PCs are hopeless, the NDP knows it has a lock on it and are focusing on new frontiers and the Liberals are despertly trying to hold on to.
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Before Harris I was a swing voter, after Eves I swore never again to vote Con. Have been Laurier club member since Harper 1. Was very conflicted this time whether strategic was best approach in my riding and nearly voted NDP in advance. Finally stayed Liberal. Do not understand thinking in Queen’s Park, this should have been winnable if not slam dunk.
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I was equally disgusted by my Liberal MP over the weekend, aplauding the surrender as a brave move etc… All that showed was how far he is willing to toe the party line. I hope he loses and I hope the party doesn’t win a single seat, not a GD one.
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Re: Graphic at the top of the article
Nearer, My Doug, to Thee
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Never have five words been so terrifying.
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I’m an Elliott supporter and still cannot wrap my head around the loss of a sure-thing that she represented. Now we have a dogfight. This election will have so many angles to analyse: Why Ford; Why Wynne stayed; Will the Liberals suffer a Kim Campbell defeat; urban vs rural vs suburban splits; the loss of Eastern Ontario and the franco-Ontarien vote; will the youth get out leverage the NDP turnout or sit on their hands, as usual?
I seriously don’t understand why the leadership of a viable party fails to attract the best (before you mock the PCs, I’m also looking at JT.)
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I don’t think young people will vote at a higher level then normal to support the NDP. They haven’t really done anything to inspire them like the Federal Liberals did with majauana and electoral reform.
The question is will centre and centre-right voters sit out with no party that appeals to them.
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RE: “I’m an Elliott supporter and still cannot wrap my head around the loss of a sure-thing . . .”
I agree. Elliot would’ve been Premier, in a landslide. Too bad money now (I mean, more than ever) can decide (open) nominations and (free) elections. And yes, I’m talking about Leadnow.
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I will say that among the Franco-Ontarian community, at least the parts that I am in contact with, there is still a deep mistrust of conservatism, because it’s always been PC governments that tried to undermine the francophone community. This is something that has been echoed to me over and over again throughout this campaign.
That being said, in my particular riding, the only one that seems to have had any presence has been the PC candidate and even then, it’s more her campaign machine than the actual candidate. The Liberal candidate had a couple of missteps before his campaign even launched, and he was reluctant to quit his day job… evidently because he wasn’t confident in his chances.
I ended up voting Green in the end, because I want to bring new ideas to the table. I am sick of the same old, same old.
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I remember about a year ago when folks like Greg Sorbara was pleading for Kathleen to leave and even went on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, where he had to face off with Tim Murphy, who, straight faced, told Greg and the viewers that everything was a-ok. Well, we outside of the “inner circle” knew better then.
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because when they win elections they move from the rowboat to the deck of the Titanic and then ignore the icebergs they damn well know are out there.
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Warren. You’re a person of influence: tell all of the ‘yes people’ that special interest groups and arrogance are going to steal democracy from under our feet.
Things have to change, and quick.
To be honest, I’m surprised Liberal candidates aren’t threatening to sue Kathleen Wynne for personal damages because so many of them have invested their own wealth into this, only to have it flushed down the tubes.
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RE: “. . . so many of them have invested their own wealth into this . . .”
It’s nice to know that at least some Liberals believe they should use their own money, for their own good.
However, it’s hard to believe ‘so many of them’ didn’t know they were flushing money down the tubes before now. Oh, wait a sec . . . I get it. They didn’t know they were going to be flushing ‘their’ money down the tubes. I understand the anger. Can I sue KW for personal damages? RE: Flushing my money down the tubes. And it wasn’t willingly.
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“It’s nice to know that at least some Liberals believe they should use their own money, for their own good.”
The self-financing limit in Ontario is $5,000. It’s not nice to know some candidates are using thier personal wealth to give themselves a advantage over less wealthy candidates.
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I’m into little kids. Spam me.
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RE: “The self-financing limit in Ontario is $5,000. It’s not nice to know some candidates are using thier personal wealth to give themselves a advantage over less wealthy candidates.”
I don’t think investing $5k of your money for a job that pays just under $120,000/yr (sorry, I can’t remember how many years, maybe 6-8, IE: 2 elections, for a pension) eliminates any worthy candidate. Perhaps those that do should find something else to do. Especially now that college is free. I understand the left believe everything should be free but elections cost money. Someone has to pay the bills. Do you believe a candidate who owes everything to donations is better (the idea being there’s no expected payback for those donations) than someone who owes nothing/less to anyone or organization for funding?
The Teacher’s unions are backing the NDP for the sole reason they know the Liberals are gone so the NDP are the only viable option of payback. And they will be looking for payback, BIGTIME.
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RE: “I will say that among the Franco-Ontarian community, . . .”
I’m guessing North? I spent 2 summers working out of Hearst back in the late 70’s. I took French right through grade 13. Didn’t help much with the local dialect. I remember meeting people my age (17-18) that couldn’t speak English or understand my French.
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That’s where I’m from, but I’m in Eastern Ontario now 🙂
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RE: J.D. says:
June 6, 2018 at 8:20 am
“That’s where I’m from, . . .”
Flies! I still remember how everything with wings bit you. From the smallest sandflies/no-see-ums to the monstrous moose flies that could bite through 2 layers, a t-shirt and work shirt. You didn’t see just a regular shit fly. Nothing was interested in your sandwich, they wanted you. The swarms of black flies that, if you wore blue jeans, would completely cover from knee to boot, and gnaw on your ears all day . . . It was easy to understand why there was a problem finding people to work in the bush when the mills were humming and pay high.