My Mom and youngest son and me are up at the lake. It’s rainy, so I read Ms. Hebert.

I don’t understand her column, basically. Rob Ford won, for example, because John Tory didn’t run. That’s it. If John had won, what would be left of her theory?

Sometimes it’s that simple: it’s personality-driven. It isn’t about big themes and stuff.

Dalton McGuinty is going to win – I’m quietly confident about that, too. He’s a regular family guy; his main opponent is a smirking, fibbing frat boy.  If you got stuck in the snow one morning, you can picture McGuinty coming over with a shovel to help out.  The other guy? He’s the guy the neighbours don’t like. He’d drive by in his Hummer, listening to Nickelback.

People mainly vote for the person who they think most understands their lives.  That’s it.

Back to clean-up.  Have a good one.

Comments (44)

“A veteran MPP in his caucus stands to cash in on a green energy plan that his boss, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, wants to scrap or pare back.

In the latest pre-election volley, the Liberal government issued a press release Friday stating that MPP Frank Klees sits on the board of directors of an energy company that has filed an application for a FIT (feed in tariff) contract with respect to the Mar Wind Project, a huge wind turbine project on the Bruce Peninsula.

Hudak announced earlier this week that he would scrap the controversial $7-billion Samsung wind and solar energy deal signed by the Liberals and would only honour those contracts already signed with smaller producers to supply green energy to the Ontario electricity grid.

Klees sits on the board of Tribute Resources and holds stock options in the company based on information supplied in the MPP’s 2010 public disclosure statements.”

Comments (25)

The Supremes made the right decision.  If they had gone the other way, it would have had some pretty serious cost and security consequences.

Parliament has created multiple safeguards to provide for reasonable access to the doings of government.  But access needs to be weighed against efficiency, too. As Justice LeBel wrote:

“I agree completely with my colleague that this interpretative approach must be reconciled with “the need for a private space to allow for the full and frank discussion of issues” (para. 41).  I also agree with her that in s. 21 of the Act, Parliament has recognized “the need for confidential advice to be sought by and provided to a Minister and [that], consequently, records in a government institution offering such advice are exempt from disclosure at the discretion of the head of the institution” (para. 41).

From a CBC story that skims over the decision:

“…At issue was whether documents physically housed within the Prime Miniser’s Office and the offices of ministers are accessible to the public under the legislation, and whether they are considered officers of the government institutions they head, or are separate.

The legal battle began in 1999 with a campaign to view former prime minister Jean Chrétien’s schedules, and those of the transport and defence ministers. A member of the Reform Party used the access to information law to try to get the records dating back to 1994.

During that time, Chrétien was leading a majority Liberal government and had to fend off a number of controversies. Requests for the records were made to the PMO, the Privy Council Office (the bureaucratic arm of the PMO) and the RCMP, which provides the prime minister’s security detail.”

 

Comments (4)

We went to see Face to Face at the Phoenix after last night’s SFH show – and, my God, it was incredible.  The place was packed (overpacked, in fact).  Must have been well over a thousand punks in a space that could barely accomodate that.  And they were just amazing – and the Toronto crowd was just crazy.  “You guys are animals,” said Trever Keith, as dozens of punks stage dived (and more).

It was one of the best shows we’ve seen in ages.  Looked a lot like this vid, but crazier.

Comments (2)

“[Tim] Hudak seems to be taking a leaf from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s playbook, by limiting questions from reporters.

That’s an interesting strategy. But it won’t work.

You can’t walk away from reporters in Opposition. And he’s going to have to come up with a more substantive platform than merely scrapping the controversial Samsung green energy deal.

Voters have learned through bitter experience with helicopters and the Pearson airport deal that when you break contracts for purely political reasons, you end up wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars.”

 

Comments (1)

TORONTO, May 13 /CNW/ – Senior PC MPP Frank Klees sits on the board of directors of an energy company that has filed an application for a FIT contract – a program that rookie leader Tim Hudak is so strongly opposed to that he says he will scrap it – for the Mar Wind Project; a huge 240 MW project on the Bruce Peninsula.

Klees sits on the board of Tribute Resources and holds stock options in the company (MPP Public Disclosure Statements, 2010. Click on public disclosures>2010).

Klees is thumbing his nose at his rookie leader in support of the McGuinty Liberal plan for Ontario to replace dirty coal with clean energy and make the province a world leader in clean energy jobs and innovation.

Hudak’s short-sighted policy has drawn severe criticism from across the province, including from another senior PC MPP,Ernie Hardeman, who has already distanced himself from Hudak’s plan (St. Thomas Times-Journal, March 11, 2011).

Klees and Hardeman join fellow PC caucus members who are critical of Hudak’s knifing of long-time caucus stalwart Norm Sterling to please radical right-winger Randy Hillier.

Other caucus members who have distanced themselves from Hudak’s leadership include:

• Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Elizabeth Witmer who has openly criticized Hudak’s pledge to scrap the McGuinty Liberal full-day kindergarten program;

• Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones, who earlier this year contradicted her leader’s pledge to scrap the Ontario Health Premium, which would take more than $12 billion out of health care over the next four years; and,

• Whitby-Oshawa MPP Christine Elliott, who is an outspoken critic of Hudak’s plan to gut human rights protection in Ontario.

Like many Ontarians, an increasing number of Hudak’s colleagues are realizing that Hudak is just not right for them.

 

Comments (7)

We raised dough for Brandon! Now we’re at Face to Face!

Comments (0)

Comments (0)

Here’s a Tweet from the CBC’s Julie VanDusen:

“Campaign life coalition says 65 tory mps are pro-life expect a private members bill in Fall to restrict abortion”

Last night, I was chatting with a pro-choice woman who likes some of the stuff Stephen Harper has done. She told me she felt Harper would never re-open the abortion debate.

I suggested this abortion PMB was coming in a Sun column a while ago, and was thereafter roundly mocked by my friends John Snobelen and Monte Solberg. They, too, said it would never happen.

Well, I guess it’s happening, isn’t it?

Oh, and any of you pro-choice women who voted Conservative? Spare the rest of us your expressions of regret, will you?

People get the government they deserve.

Comments (169)

“Hudak’s antiquated attitude toward energy doesn’t just stand to harm the environment. It will be a colossal blow to this region, which is in the midst of a diversification plan driven by the green energy sector.

Several companies have chosen to locate here thanks to government incentives, and with each new factory comes jobs -direct and indirect -and the opportunity to lead the way in cutting-edge research and development.

That would change in an instant if Hudak were able to fulfil his promise. “It would mean, basically, that we would close our factory and leave,” said Paco Caudet, general manager of Siliken Group, the Spanish manufacturer of solar panels (which, ironically, will host its grand opening Friday in the shadow of this sudden threat).“

More here and here and here and here.

Comments (19)