Okay, this is totally weird
Lying liars
What we heard during the election was true. They lied. It’s a fact.
The questions that remain, then, are these: does this kind of deceit matter anymore? Shouldn’t it? Are the Conservatives right, when they sneer that you and your neighbours don’t care?
The house is rockin’ with domestic problems
It’s an old Cheap Trick tune, but I’m reminded of it when I read stories like the one below. Seems like quite a few ambitious Conservatives don’t expect Stephen Harper to finish his term, no?
The National Post (of all people) on Timid Hudak
“Tim Hudak says he’ll end the agony, but can’t be believed. Sorry Tim, but it’s true. If the campaign platform recently released by the Tories was handed in as a project in a first-year finance class, it would be returned with suggestions that the author find another line of interest. Like line dancing; something that doesn’t involve numbers, or adding and subtracting. Mr. Hudak says he’ll raise spending on all the important programs, but make up for it by finding “waste”. We all know that isn’t going to happen. Politicians never find waste. What they find is that if they keep spending money, their chances of re-election improve. The federal Tories have been promising to find waste for five years now, and have jacked up spending every year.
In addition to more spending, Mr. Hudak says he’ll cut taxes, remove the GST from power bills and stop charging consumers an extra fee to help pay off the mammoth debt still owing for past hydro expenses. He says the charge isn’t needed, because the debt has been paid off, even though it hasn’t. As the Star’s Martin Cohn points out, it’s still almost $15 billion; the only way you can argue it’s been paid is if you pretend governments don’t have to pay interest on their borrowing. But they do.
All this will be covered by uncovering “waste.” Sure, okay, if you say so.”
Cancer Bats! Sabotage!
Drug prices and health costs – the Ontario Liberal approach, the Ontario PC record
Us:
Auditors will be sent into Ontario pharmacies and generic drug manufacturers to make sure they’re complying with regulations banning so-called professional allowances, Health Minister Deb Matthews announced Tuesday.
Them:
FACT: Tim Hudak served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health under the Harris government – and worked to close 28 hospitals, get rid of 7,110 beds, and fire 6,200 nurses.
FACT: Mark Spiro, Tim Hudak’s campaign manager was paid by the big chain drug stores to organize a campaign against the Ontario government because of our plan to lower prescription drug costs for Ontario families and seniors. Not surprisingly, Tim Hudak and the Conservative Caucus opposed lower drug prices.
FACT: Tim Hudak and the Conservatives have promised to cut nearly $3-billion annually out of frontline health care in Ontario, if they form government. That would be about $12-billion slashed after a single 4 year term.
Elizabeth May responds to my column
…in the Tweet below, which I dutifully pass along in the interest of fairness, etc. etc. (And I didn’t “know” she felt she had to make such a choice.)
The question that she’s inviting, I think, is: why didn’t you send staff into the lockup? After all, your Member’s Office Budget (MOB) provides you with about $300K a year to hire staff, among other things. Don’t you have any staff who could’ve gone into the lockup for you? Why not, if not?
Timid Hudak: clear questions, not-so-clear answers
This guy will say anything. He flips and he flops, and he’s counting on you not noticing.
Against HST, now he’s for it. Against full-day kindergarten, now he claims he’s for it. Against anti-discimination laws, now he insists he’s for them. Says he’s against “health taxes,” now he’s A-OK with ’em. The list goes on.
Hudak and Guy Giorno were at the Albany Club this morning. They were chortling about how Hudak will win: “the Liberals haven’t defined him,” said Guy.
Really? That so? Does anyone think a picture emerges, perchance, from this “end-of-session” glimpse at a media avail Hudak just had, in public, on the Queen’s Park lawn?
I think it says quite a bit about him, personally.
**
Reporter: The government also announced today that they’re going to send auditors in to the generic drug companies and to the pharmacies to make sure they’re complying with these new rules, do you think that’s an appropriate action?
Hudak: You know…we’ll see.
Reporter: The Liberals did quite a lot for Toronto, in a sense. They gave the City of Toronto more powers; they have a regional transit authority in Metrolinx. Would you build upon what they’ve done, or would you dismantle what they have done? What would you do differently as Premier for the GTA? You’ve got a lot of GTA candidates.
Hudak: Well, I’ll be—and I’m, and I’m very proud of the quality of individuals that have come forward to be part of our PC team in Toronto.
Reporter: But isn’t that just the same as what the – so basically you’re saying you would be status quo, because [your] infrastructure plan is the same as the Liberals. So you wouldn’t really change much. It would be the same old, same old. It’s not Changebook, it’s Samebook, isn’t it?
Hudak: We haven’t seen their plan.
Reporter: The Liberals have been pretty clear…their infrastructure plan, they’re going to keep the HST the way it is, they’re going to keep to their deficit reduction schedule, they’re going to keep the health premium, they’re going to keep the drug reforms. All those things you’re going to do to. Are you in danger of becoming Timid (sic) Hudak?
Hudak: You know, our plan is very clear…
Reporter: [Your plan is full of] minor tweaks. Why is there nothing that would pass as revolutionary in your platform? There really isn’t that much.
Hudak: I disagree with you.
Reporter: Tim, how can you say your energy policies are really affordable when you’re adopting the Liberals’ nuclear program and there’s so much uncertainty around that – which is only going to drive the costs of nuclear reactors higher?
Hudak: You know, I have a very different point of view.
Reporter: I am a little confused. I just want to ask you about it. You said when it comes to energy policy, you want to give local regions more autonomy, more say. Yet when it comes to health, you are going to get rid of LHINs which are the local, regional health authorities. You are going to scrap them. So it is ok for the Premier Office to run healthcare, but not energy? I am a bit confused. Aren’t you contradicting yourself?
Hudak: I don’t buy the Liberal spin for a minute.
Press secretary: Thank you.
[Hudak walks away while reporter wants to ask a question.]
Hate crimes up in Canada
Attacks on Jews and Arabs (and West Asians) are up substantially, according to this depressing report.
Why? Well, I’ve written a couple books on this subject, and – generally – whenever the economy is down, these acts of hate become more frequent. That is the biggest factor, far above government policy or international crises.
As a society, we clearly need to condemn hate crime, and work together to end it. Dismissing hate as “hurt feelings,” or trotting out specious arguments about free speech, only serve to make a bad situation worse, in my opinion.
We have work to do. Time to do it.