Ontario Newswatch
They’ve got a new editor, and new look and new approach. Check it out.
Oh, for the love of DePape
She’s a kid, for Pete’s sakes. A kid.
I led a student protest on Parliament Hill, many years ago – against a Liberal government, no less – and I probably said some things that were over-the-top, too (actually, now that I think of it, I haven’t really stopped in the intervening years).
For all these columnist guys who have been bashing/tut-tutting Brigette DePape for the past few days, I ask you: if the rest of us were permitted to poke through your high school-university yearbooks, poetry and poli sci essays, what gems would we unearth?
Exactly.
The morning Hudak round-up: stellar, as always
Didn’t see some of these over the weekend. Here they are, as a public service:
- Christina Blizzard, Sun Media: “The important point for PC Leader Tim Hudak to remember is he won’t become premier because it’s his turn. Voters have a refreshing habit of cutting to the chase and rejecting anyone who appears complacent…If we’ve learned anything from the recent federal election and last fall’s municipal elections it is this: Don’t take the electorate for granted. Do not think for one minute that all you have to do is drop a platform and cruise to a coronation…Hudak said in his platform he’d keep all-day kindergarten. McGuinty came out swinging, suggesting the Tories will renege. It’s all a question of heart, McGuinty told reporters Wednesday. He has heart. The Tories don’t.”
- Martin Regg Cohn, Star: “Here’s a hot issue that Tim Hudak thinks will bring down the Ontario government: Higher hydro bills. And here’s the Tory leader’s bizarre pitch to bring those bills down: Stop collecting for our hydro debt, by brazenly declaring it paid in full — even though it’s still there. Ignoring our debts is a strange notion coming from Ontario’s once-proud Progressive Conservatives. But Hudak has calculated that by profiting from voter frustration, and banking on voter folly, he can cash in on voting day, Oct. 6. His plan is a scam — a classic tale of buying votes with taxpayers’ money. And a parable of how elections are won in an era of short attention spans. A warning to readers: The PCs are counting on you tuning out the details.”
- Angelo Persichilli, Toronto Star: “In Ontario, provincial Conservatives were in favour of the HST until the day that the McGuinty Liberals adopted it…Hudak is no Mike Harris. You could disagree with Harris, but he had a vision, he had the Common Sense Revolution. The Hudak Conservatives have nothing revolutionary — their Changebook sounds more like another tablet competing with the BlackBerry Playbook and the iPad 2. Another similarity between the Ontario Conservatives and the federal Liberals is the issue of party unity. Even if the wound is not as open and deep as the one still affecting the federal Liberals, Ontario Conservatives are still discreetly dealing with the way former leader John Tory was treated by his party. How much this lingering resentment will impact the October vote is hard to say, but it cannot be ignored.”
- Ken Gray, Ottawa Citizen: “Former U.S. President George W. Bush had a disconcerting view about debt. Don’t pay it. Let the next guy cover it. And with Tory Leader Tim Hudak’s Changebook platform, Ontarians could get a taste of that U.S. fiscal and economic solution….Hudak’s election platform is the kind of document that made Greece the model of fiscal prudence it is today.”
- Phil McNichol, Owen Sound Sun Times: “Tim Hudak is starting to use the same populist, tough-on- crime tactics that seem, sadly, to have worked for the Harper campaign. It has nothing to do with espousing an intelligent response to crime and the “correction” of people convicted of crimes. Rather, it’s all about the cynical view that a lot of voters are stupid, that they will have a thoughtless, knee-jerk reaction to dubious policies that exploit their fears, suspicions and prejudices.”
In today’s Sun: Benedict Baldy goes international
If we’d been in government, Rocco’s penchant for disclosing secrets to a foreign power might have landed him in court. When you are a government employee, there’s a name for that kind of duplicity. It’s called “treason.” But because we weren’t the government, Rocco’s secret briefings with the Americans can only be legally categorized as “dishonest” and “sleazy.”
Persichilli on Hudak
…in which the Toronto Star columnist absolutey destroys the PC frat boy:
The thrust of the federal Liberal campaign against the federal Conservatives was about making accusations of contempt of Parliament and corruption, tarnishing Harper’s image, and attacking his government’s economic performance, competence and the huge deficit.
The provincial Conservatives are using the same approach against the provincial Liberals — accusing them of economic mismanagement and of incompetence and launching personal attacks against McGuinty.
Another characteristic of the federal Liberal campaign was trying to push hot buttons that divided Canadians, such as abortion. Hudak is doing the same. Last week the Toronto Sun wrote that Hudak decided not to get involved in education issues because “there is little to be gained by messing around with something that is not a hot-button issue.”
Sucky sucky socialist babies
Can you be thin-skinned and have a chip on your shoulder at the same time?
It’s funny. I was talking to a certain, er, very successful Liberal politician yesterday and we touched on this very subject. “They’re a bunch of babies,” said he. “They’ve never been able to take a punch without crying about it.”
Well, get ready, Dippers. You’re in the big leagues, now. Comes with the territory. At least the Reformatories can take a punch.
Thus, check this out in the LFP: I mean, I was just having fun!
Wait’ll this sucky sucky socialist baby sees me when I’m actually mad:
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Hudak’s Faithbook
Spotted by the always-vigilant Paul. You need to read all of this. And, yes, we noticed. Hudak has not explicitly renounced the funding of private religious schools, even though Ontarians have. I rather suspect this is going to come again today, because more and more people are noticing, too. Over to Paul:
Civility in the House
To wit:
Personally, I like a bit of conflict in my House of Commons-watching. I like some creative tension. I like passion. Why does everyone always seem to think “decorum” will be better?
What thinkest thou, O readers? Is “decorum” achieveable? Do we want it?