Delegate selection. How will they choose?
I didn’t see this until a reporter drew this to my attention. It will affect the way some choose.
Ontario Liberals can’t afford @StevenDelDuca.
RT and add your name if you agree we must do better: https://t.co/7SrGyaSVVZ pic.twitter.com/X3GY7uQmMl
— Anybody But Del Duca (@StopDelDuca) February 5, 2020
Finally.
After seizing Gerald Butts’ government-issue laptop and cell phone – after all of the senior PMO staff lawyered up – one would’ve thought the criminal probe was already underway.
At least they have now confirmed that it is.
How helpful is it that your party and your leader are the target of a major criminal investigation during an election? Not very.
Could they lose the election because of this? They could.
Do they deserve to lose because of LavScam?
Oh yes. Yes, yes, yes.
Here’s the official statement from the Mounties:
I just did a Sun hit on this very issue. I’ll post it as soon as it is available.
On the one hand, I like its founder and the people who work there. My firm has used them in the past.
When the Lavscam scandal broke, however, Mainstreet’s boss took it upon himself to – for lack of a better word – troll each and every opinion I offered on the scandal. In particular, he repeatedly asserted that Lavscam would have little to no effect on Liberal fortunes.
By now, of course, we all know that that is simply not true. Lavscam precipitated a dramatic decline in Liberal support, and the Trudeau Grits have not really recovered.
On the other hand, however, I think we need to take Mainstreet’s latest poll somewhat seriously. It is consistent with a commissioned poll done by Environics, and an earlier poll done by Don Guy’s Pollara, and one that speculated about the effect of a John Tory-led Ontario Liberal party.
But most of all, it reflects what my gut has been telling me for some time – that the Ford folks need to get back the narrative that got them elected nearly a year ago.
It’s a debate that I had with Jerry Agar on Newstalk 1010 early Wednesday morning. There’s no doubt, I said, that Kathleen Wynne’s regime spent recklessly in the final half of its mandate. Equally, there is no doubt that Ford was elected with a clear mandate to cut back on same.
The problem, I told Jerry, is that the cuts lack a coherent underlying story. I reminded him that my boss Jean Chretien oversaw the largest program of government restraint in Canadian history, way back in 1994 and 1995. Chretien pulled that off, and then some. And he was subsequently reelected with a majority.
Ontarians understand that there is a need for cuts. What they clearly don’t understand is why the Ford government is doing them. People are prepared to accept lots of belt-tightening – but you need to be able to tell them why, in 30 words or less.
It’s not too late for the Ford folks to find that short, sharp narrative.
But they need to do so soon, or they may end up being exiled on Mainstreet.
Story by QP Briefing, which has been repeatedly breaking stories lately, here:
When PC Leader Doug Ford was the only party leader who declined to participate in a Toronto debate organized by Black community organizers, the Liberals criticized him as being out-of-touch.
In social media copy that was also shared by some Liberal riding accounts, the party stated: “Doug Ford says he ‘loves the blacks’ but wasn’t at the Town Hall tonight… Did Doug Ford deliberately choose to ignore the black community leaders debate? #ONBlackVote #WhereIsDoug #onpoli”
There is one problem with this statement: QP Briefing cannot find any record of Doug claiming that he “loves the Blacks,” a phrasing that would be considered offensive.
We asked the Liberal Party to provide a reference to where we could find this quotation, and they conceded it was an error.
“It appears the tweet accidentally referred to Doug when it should have said Trump,” David Clarke, executive director of the Ontario Liberal Party, said in an e-mail on Monday night. “We’ve corrected the error and are working to ensure accuracy to re-issue it.”
Best part of the story? They then went on to issue a new tweet, which contained a new error.
None of this would be happening if Warren Kinsella was still alive.
This is how they think they’ll win? With puerile tweets like this?
Here’s a fact, Wizard War Room: Kathleen Wynne, who is a smart person who you continually embarrass with crap like this, is – post-legalization – going to become the biggest seller of cannabis in North America.
But, by all means, keep aiming for third place. The PCs and the NDP are cheering you on, every step of the way.
“The PCs have a significant lead over both the OLP and the ONDP. This is because the policy issues that matter the most to the electorate also happen to be the policy planks that Doug Ford is seen to be performing much better on. If Doug Ford and the PCs remain focused on these policy planks, the PCs could hold onto their lead…Kathleen Wynne and the OLP are outperforming in a significant way on some of the policy planks, but at this point those policy planks are not seen as being as important.” – said Eli Yufest, CEO of Campaign Research Inc.
So, ipso facto, the current situation: Doug Ford is way ahead of Kathleen Wynne because he’s talking about the issues people care about. Wynne, not so much.
That’s also reflected in the latest Angus Reid, seen here.
Which brings to mind an anecdote from a few months back, when various Ontario Liberal folks were getting plenty nervous. A couple meetings were convened, at which the Ontario Liberal leader and her “chief strategist” described how they would win.
Basically, they told the assembled Nervous Nellies that, if they talked a lot about the sex-ed curriculum and stuff like that, they’d do smashingly. But no one, I’m told, asked this question: “But what if the campaign is about affordability and our perceived indifference to regular folks who don’t drive Volvos and listen to CBC and live in the Annex?”
Of such things are victories made. The other guy’s.
When you talk about stuff people don’t care about it…well, you know what happens then.
As predicted: his strategy is to destroy his former political home.
He’s doing that.
This turns the PC Party of Ontario into a running joke. Their leadership race becomes a farce.
All that can save them now is another young woman coming forward to tell her story.
Will she?
UPDATE:
