McGuinty and Israel

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who spoke last week at the Wolfond Centre for Jewish Life as part of a political speaker series aimed at young Jewish professionals, said that part of his plan to build a stronger Ontario is to work with Israel.

McGuinty presented his plan for jobs and growth, health care, education, electricity and tax reform to about 100 people at the event organized by UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

No doubt catering to his mostly Jewish audience, McGuinty  began by acknowledging Ontario’s Jewish population of more than 200,000 as a community that is committed to “shared success.”

 


Email of the year

Just received, from a well-known Lib who shall remain nameless:

“Anyone notice that al-Qaeda named an interim leader faster than us?”


Alf Apps: for the love of God, go

A Facebook thing has started up, urging the Liberal Party “president” to do what Michael Ignatieff did, and accept responsibility for the party’s massive loss.

And, from this morning, Mark Dunn – a Sun colleague and, like me, a one-time Grit staffer – writes a top-notch piece on why Apps’ presidency is an unmitigated train wreck, and needs to be brought to an end.

Bottom line: RESIGN, ALF APPS.  WE CAN’T REBUILD UNTIL YOU’RE GONE.

And if he won’t resign, fire him.


Great news!

Judicial recount confirms Liberal win in Winnipeg North: Elections Canada (Recount-Winnipeg)
Source: The Canadian Press
May 17, 2011 11:12


OTTAWA – Elections Canada says a judicial recount has confirmed the election victory of Liberal Kevin Lamoureux in Winnipeg North.

In the election night count, Lamoureux finished with a 45-vote lead over New Democrat Rebecca Blaikie.

The judicial recount reduced Lamoureux’s margin to 44 votes, giving him 9,097 to Blaikie’s 9,053.

Lamoureux first won the riding in a byelection last November.

The recount leaves the Liberals with 34 seats, the NDP with 103 and the Tories 166, along with four Bloc MPs and Elizabeth May of the Greens.

Two more recounts are pending in southern Ontario.

INDEX: NATIONAL POLITICS

 


Randy Denley in his own words: stuff on which we agree

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“Why did I let Spiro talk me into making this loose cannon a candidate?”
  • “People will rightly look to PC Leader Tim Hudak for guidance, since his party is leading in the polls. So far, there isn’t much to see. Hudak’s comment that he is consulting “moms and dads and small-business owners” is just inane.” December 10, 2010
  • “Some have idly suggested Watson wanted out of Queen’s Park for fear the Liberal reign there was coming to an end, though that’s unlikely given the invisible far-right performance of Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak.” July 28, 2010
  • “PC leader Tim Hudak has helped McGuinty by presenting himself as a cartoon character.” May 6, 2010
  • …Tim Hudak’s tactics in opposing the [HST] plan have been juvenile and ineffective. Hudak plays politics like the Ottawa Senators’ Chris Neil plays hockey. There’s lots of banging and crashing, but not much to show on the scoreboard.” December 7, 2009
  • “New Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak managed to grab some media attention in his first couple of days on the job, which is pretty important considering that most people have probably never heard of him. Too bad what he had to say was the predictable, kneejerk stuff one has come to expect from opposition leaders…The role of official pest has to be balanced by something of substance, and Hudak has a lot of work to do there.” June 30, 2009

In today’s Sun: dispatches from the Liberal front

When you consider the distant, third-place finish by the Liberal Party of Canada, it’s frankly amazing people are still writing about them.

Like, um, I am about to.

In my defence, I plead a legitimate excuse: I’m a Liberal.

For other members of the punditocracy, however — and particularly since the party’s devastating finish in the 2011 federal general election — my suspicion is they continue to write about the Liberal Party purely out of habit. They, too, remember the years when the Grits were the “Natural Governing Party,” and they can’t quite come to grips with what took place on the evening of May 2, 2011.

That, or — as the cliche goes — “if it bleeds, it leads.” The Liberal Party continues to bleed profusely, and reporters have settled in to chronicle the carnage.

Here, then, are some dispatches from the blood-stained Liberal front, and the names of the wounded and the fallen. Strap on your helmets, folks:

 


Randy Denley

He was a good City Editor.

As a PC candidate, he’s about to be less-than-good. I know him.

Oh, and everything he ever wrote about politics?

Well, now we know why he wrote what he did. It was all BS.


Timmy Hudak, in his own words

[From a scrum he did at the Ontario legislature earlier today.]

Reporter: You’ve got some cracks showing in, I guess, your solidarity.  You have one of your members [Frank Klees] who is trying to make money off this deal.  You have have a former candidate, Mark Mullins from the Dundas area, saying you’re irresponsible for dumping all over this green energy plan. We have [MPP] Toby Barrett telling people you better get in there now and take advantage of these contracts before [Hudak] ends them. I mean, there’s a mixed message there – you’ve got your own members, former members, saying that it is a good deal and you shouldn’t be trying to destroy it.

Tim Hudak: I just disagree with the premise of the question.