Mark Sutcliffe, quote unquote:

“Hudak also called the program an “affirmative action program for foreign workers” and said the Liberals were telling unemployed Ontarians the government was paying companies to hire “anybody but you,” which is a bit of a stretch considering there are already programs in place that take taxpayers’ money and put it toward training all kinds of different workers, including immigrants and non-immigrants and Hudak himself introduced a bill a year ago that would have paid companies for providing language training for recent immigrants.”

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High profile Ontario Conservative Randy Hillier has built his political career as an outsider fighting against big government, but that may extend beyond policy.

CTV has obtained public documents showing that Hillier and his wife are in a long-running dispute with Canada Revenue Agency over unpaid taxes. The government has placed two liens on his home.

Hillier, who is seeking re-election in Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington, is a politician who is never boring and always blunt.

He staged a two-day sit-in at the provincial legislature in December 2009 over the lack of public hearings on the HST.

Documents from the provincial land registry, which are available to the public, show the government placed two liens on property owned by Hillier and his wife more than a year ago.

One of the liens is $9,017. The other is $5,863.

More here.

 

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It may look friendly. It wasn’t.

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Tune in!

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…and that’s just some of the nice things I say.  Check it out.

I pull out the Tim Hudak flip-flops. This marks the only occasion when Brian smiles at me.

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OTTAWA — A local Conservative is endorsing the Liberal candidate for the provincial election in Carleton-Mississippi Mills, calling the “narrow-minded” politics of Progressive Conservative candidate Jack MacLaren “the wrong choice for the riding.”

Matt Muirhead ran for city council in 2006 and again in 2010. He is a former executive director of the riding’s provincial Progressive Conservative association and the past president of the riding’s federal Conservative association.

Muirhead said Wednesday that MacLaren’s recent “unnecessary ousting” of 33-year veteran and nine-time cabinet minister Norm Sterling showed “a total lack of class and respect.”

The nomination upset highlighted tensions inside the conservative Caucus. Sterling called fellow MPP Randy Hillier and MacLaren “political opportunists” who “want to use the good name of the Progressive Conservative party to push their very narrow and right-wing agenda into the provincial arena.”

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Custom footwear I developed for my Sun News appearances today. And watch out – I’m even co-hosting a show tomorrow morning!

It got very heated on Lilley’s show – I think I may have called Hudak a “goddamned hypocrite” about this.

Check it out if you dare!

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New immigrants to Ontario must wonder how they suddenly went from being valued Canadians, whose skills our economy needs, to being publicly derided as “foreigners.” On day one of a provincial election campaign, no less…

Hoping for political gain, Hudak is happily stirring up tensions by claiming that unemployed Ontarians will be left behind. His party even rushed out a new campaign ad saying that “Ontarians need not apply” under the Liberal plan…

But the controversy that Hudak is stirring up is not about the substance of particular policies. It’s about wedge politics. On Tuesday he claimed that the tax breaks offered by the Liberals would help companies hire “anybody but you.”

That kind of language divides Ontarians into an “us” and a “them.” Creating divisions between struggling, unemployed workers and newer immigrants is dangerous to our long-term social cohesion. In Toronto, half of us were born outside Canada. There is no us versus them. Theyare us. And the faster we get newcomers into good jobs in the workforce and paying higher taxes the better for us all.

There’s a lot on the line during an election and parties often go a bit overboard to score points on their opponents. Hudak’s rhetoric and the PC party’s “Ontarians need not apply” ad go too far. It amounts to a thinly veiled attack on immigrants.

There may be political advantage to be had in this approach; we’ll find out on Oct. 6. But regardless of the outcome, this is the politics of division. It is angry. It is ugly. And it’s not what Ontarians are about.

 

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Holy Stock Day!  Check this out.

“Hudak won’t say whether he’d crack down on doctors charging illegal user fees

TORONTO (CP) – Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak says he’s committed to a publicly funded and universal health care system, but refused to say today whether he’d crack down on illegal user fees if elected premier.

A doctor in Whitby, Ont., is facing a disciplinary hearing for charging patients a $1,000 annual fee to receive care.

Asked repeatedly whether he would go after doctors who charge user fees, Hudak rattled off a list of platform pledges on health care, such as bringing in more doctors to underserviced areas…

He says he also doesn’t want to see “obstacles” in the way to stop patients from receiving treatment.”

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