I had actually started two previous drafts of my first post of 2018. The first had to do with Kathleen Wynne’s politically self-serving economic policies and the second was about the apparent Joshua Boyle-Justin Trudeau bromance.
But then I remembered a tweet that Rachel Curran had sent out:
https://twitter.com/reicurran/status/949699430386511872
And you know, no matter how bad things seem right now because our teams aren’t at the levers of power, it’s ok. We’re still here and we are in a great country. It’s our duty as Canadians to make sure this country stays on the right track but let’s not dwell excessively on the failures of our current governments.
Enjoy each day and grab that opportunity to engage with family and friends! Have faith. And listen to that inner voice nudging you to work towards the greater plan.
It will all work out as it should.
BTW check this out!
Blue Like You2 
Agreed and I try to be hopeful this is the year conservatism starts to make a comeback. We still live in a great country, but I do worry the efforts past generations put in to make us great may be thrown away by future generations so its important to stay vigilant. Certainly having travelled to 50 countries myself, many which have much lower standards of living than Canada and some which are dictatorships makes me quite appreciative.
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We can weather bad governments quite well in this country with our parliamentary democracy within a Constitutional Monarchy which never interferes but is still a stabilizing entity, a gate with no lock.
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Can we make that countdown clock move faster?
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Ha-ha! I wish, Greg.
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Nice, new Ethics Commissioner has cleared Morneau!
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That was Mary Dawson’s decision in her letter to Morneau dated Jan. 5. Her last day is today and the new EC starts tomorrow. I hope the FM appreciates her parting gift. Oh well, as the old songs say, “Two outta three ain’t bad” and there’s “One more for the road” still to be decided. Those old songs really date me but they were good ones and rather fitting.
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I just heard the news clip on radio as Morneau has been cleared by Ethics Commissioner, assumed it was the the new one. No matter, the rules are just too complicated for us ordinary folk to figure out!
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Seems like Wynne is doubling down on the minimum wage thing and going after businesses. I understand how people want to help the lowest paid workers and no doubt I think most of us would like it if they could get more. But if they lose their jobs, have their hours cutback, or prices rise by the same amount how are they better off? It seems a lot here on going on emotions rather than evidence. Yes I know some economists will say minimum wage hikes have never had negative consequences and can even be positive, but when has any jurisdiction anywhere hiked it by 32% in 18 months? Otherwise had Wynne say promised to raise it to $15/hour back in 2014 by raising it $1/hour each year or 75 cents a year that would give businesses more time to adjust and the negative problems would be less.
Also most economists say the optimal minimum wage is around 45% to 50% of whatever the average wage is so in Ontario that would be around $13/hour. Also perhaps regional wages would make more sense as even $15/hour is tough to live off in Toronto, but in a small town in Southwestern Ontario you can easily live on less than that. I think what Wynne is trying to do is two fold.
1. She wants to bring the millennials out in big numbers as that is her only hope left. She probably knows the boomers and seniors’ vote she is going to lose no matter what
2. She wants to hold the 416 as that is the Liberal’s core area of strength so if that starts to crumble everything falls apart so at least if they can hold that it gives them a good foundation to work from whereas without that foundation they are finished. Rural Ontario will probably be the most hard hit by the minimum wage hike, but the Liberals have few ridings there and will lose the few they have.
I just hope the public doesn’t reward them on their blatant political opportunism and I don’t think they will, but I always have a nagging fear they might. I won’t be fully satisfied until a PC Majority is projected on the networks on election night or if a minority then only when Wynne concedes defeat and agrees to hand over the reigns to Patrick Brown.
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Miles, I’m personally hoping that the NDP picks up some steam and goes after Wynne’s Toronto holdings. Anything to get rid of Liberals.
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I wouldn’t even venture a guess as to who will win the Ontario election. The people have proven over and over goodies work, they vote on the what’s in it for me principle and Wynne is sure tossing out the goodies into the right corners. There are more workers than employers, calling employers who complain about her minimum wage increase “bullies” is a winner for her.
Sad we’ve come to this, integrity, good management count for nothing. Scandals, and what many would consider corruption in the real world, are ignored at the ballot box.
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Did Andrew Scheer do the right thing booting out Senator Beyak? Will this be the start of another series of problems with the Senate? It appears she is not going away quietly.
People need to be allowed enough free speech to at least explain themselves, where they are coming from when they make statements.
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I wonder if there will be any calls for Jagmeet Singh to boot Charlie Angus from the NDP caucus over this tweet: “The Canadian people didn’t vote for Lynn Beyak. She has no mandate but uses the enormous resources of the senate to engage in race-baiting for her honky base. Will the Senate go along with this troll campaign or boot her from their old boys club?” Note the word “honky”. I took a screenshot for posterity. What’s sauce for the the goose…
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I think that Andrew Scheer did the right thing. Federal parties must be fair to all people living in Canada. We do not improve our media by being afraid to do the honest and correct thing.
MSM will always critize our Conservative Party. Not a word on PM Trudeau from the media.
We all remember the orange juice.
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See my reply to Liz J above. Let’s see how fair the NDP is in their treatment of Charlie Angus.
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Haven’t heard any calls to abolish the Senate since the defeat of PM Harper. No talk of Trudeau’s “independent” Senators.
As for the NDP, do they care a whit about the Senate?
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The NDP want it abolished. I think the thing that really killed the idea of abolishing it is Harper’s supreme court reference when the court ruled they need unanimous agreement by all provinces not just 7 out of 10 with more than 50% of the population.
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2018 and the one-sided media continues. But, hey, everyone can smoke pot. It’s all about control!! Problem continues: uninformed public. Years ago, they spoke about the dumbing down of the education system. If only, people would come to their senses!
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It’s all about control!! You nailed it Ed. And if you believe at all in the threat of globalism by elites like George Soros then you can see it’s all in the playbook.
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How far do we all have to go in fear of offending people or some group of people?
A Scottish pub/restaurant in Kingston Ontario called “Sir John’s Public House” will now be called “The Public House” The old building in which it is housed was once Sir John’s law office, 1849-1860.
The change was because a group of people protested outside the pub restaurant, including some Native organizations so they took old Sir John off their sign.
How long before our history is erased completely?
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It is disgusting. And scary. Down the memory hole as in Orwell’s 1984.
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Holding people who lived in the 1800’s to our standards of thinking today is beyond ridiculous.
Totally stupid move on the part of that Pub ownership to give in to threats. I’d have said if you don’t like the name, don’t bother to come in. We have to start somewhere….
If the Indians want to dwell on past history they can look inward and rehash the Indian wars where they brutally fought and wiped whole tribes of their own people.
I’ve never been more concerned, fed up or royally pi$$ed off than I am at this time.
We need to pay more attention to what is being “taught” in our schools regarding our history.
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As a private business they have the right to do what they wish, but if I were the owner I would not change it. I think one must take into consideration overall what someone did and so if it were Hitler pub or Robert E Lee pub that would be inappropriate and should change. But John A. Macdonald was the first prime-minister who founded one of the most successful countries on earth and so while I think what he did with the First Nations was wrong you have to put things in context. If someone today or even 50 years ago had the views he did that would be different, but if we use today’s views on political correctness that pretty much means every prime-minister prior to Lester Pearson cannot have anything named after them. Otherwise it’s not a black and white issue, there are clearly some cases where naming something after someone is inappropriate but others where it is not.
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It’s doubly confounding when Kingston was Sir John A’s home, it’s steeped in history. Are they going to expunge the place of everything to do with him?
We shall wait and see but I would not be surprised at anything in this country under the present governance and the social engineers hard at work in every corner.
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I noted your “Happy 2018” above, guess we can try, in our own little circles at least, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to do that and read or listen to the news.
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Well the committee is finished Liberals vote 6 to 3!
Mr Trudeau is to remain above the Canadian Law.
He does not have to answer either in Parliament or to Canadians
Are we ready Canada to ask Mr Trudeau to step aside?
I hope we can bring a strong contingent to do just this.
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Wynne has just what she wants going with her minimum wage legislation….lots of attention with people protesting at Tim Horton’s around the province.
She’s also got a plethora of ads in prime time TV informing people of all the great services her government is offering. This is going to work to get her re-elected, there’s really no way Brown can critique any of her freebies. Deficit? What deficit?
We are, well, to put it bluntly, screwed.
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There are spending limits and if the government is using taxpayer money for partisan advertising we should ask one of the ethics commissioners and nail them on that. Also there comes a point where people just get sick of a government and it doesn’t matter what they do. I feel like the Liberals have reached this point, but I guess we will find out on June 7th.
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If there are spending limits they must be very generous, either that or Wynne has found a loophole and says it’s just informing the people of services available.
Whatever, she is getting away with it and it might just work to keep her in power.
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I, for one, am confused by this revisionism of well-documented history in favour of oral history as practised today. We’re told that we are living on stolen land as settlers even today. Beliefs and policies have changed with the times as knowledge and understanding have developed. To claim that we should be ashamed of everything that got us to where we are is unreasonable and dangerous. Look at where collective guilt has gotten Germany. John A. Macdonald was a man of his times. None of us goes through life without making mistakes, except those who believe they do. But in the case of the Kingston pub it’s throwing the baby out with the bath water.
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Well said Anne.
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What is it Liberals and town hall meetings? Is this something they do when they they are sinking in the polls?
Will the reporting on Trudeau’s trek across the country doing the “halls” be well covered or will they be edited to make him look smart?
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Pundits seem to think it’s a smart move. Makes him look “accountable”. Personally it’s just more lipstick on a pig to me.
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“What is it Liberals and town hall meetings?”
It’s well orchestrated theatre. Even the so-called hard-ball angry questions are probably part of it, all designed to contrast with PM Harper’s tightly-controlled rallies. Reacting to “angry” questions about Omar Khadr or the Aga Khan vacation, Trudeau reminds the audience “See how we vet the questions?” In other words, supposedly NOT vetted, not planted, to show he exposes himself, vulnerable to criticism from average Canadians.
Let’s face it, he performs well in such venues. having learned his lines and throwing in the occasional “unscripted” remark. Because Canadians pride ourselves in being “nice”, most of us (except those of us in this forum & other conservative blogs) lap it up.
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I agree gabby the whole think is orchestrated
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It’s all a massive attempt at deflection so the media can tell us how approachable and accountable our man is “outside the Ottawa bubble”. He couldn’t possibly have knowingly done anything wrong. If he was guilty do you really think he’d want to be here? It’s just more ‘face time’. What crime? Aga who? Morneau who? Boyle who? And then in reference to the Khadr payoff he says “I want you to be angry. I’m angry.” As if!
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Anyone here thinking of going to one to ask Trudeau a hardball question? If he comes to Vancouver, I plan to attend and I will ask him a very difficult question, likely finance related (as he is probably the most economically illiterate PM we’ve had since his father). While this is show, I think it would be good to make things difficult for him and ask really tough questions so that is why I would encourage Conservatives to attend. A tough question and a weak answer by him would make him look bad. Try to hit him on finance related as he is poorly prepared there and I find unexpected questions which he hasn’t been able to practice for on script he tends to look bad. If you ask him a question he is expecting, he has probably perfected the lines, but ask him one he is not. If I ask him one I will be sure to throw out some stats or at least know them so when he gives wrong information I can counter it.
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Trudeau was really doing his acting job well…showing off his emoting skills. I call it something else, arrogance, Liberal arrogance, they do it best, Ontario’s Wynne is another example.
When he got off on his big scene answering the question about the Khadr payout, he said as a teacher he didn’t believe in rewarding bad behvaiour, assume he was referring to the questioner shouting and interrupting….some teacher.
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Sounds like an oblique reference to Khadr’s ‘bad behaviour’ to me. He has a unique way of minimizing serious matters.
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Could be, but I doubt he would be capable of making an oblique reference.
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I think his argument has essentially been he had no choice since they violated Khadr’s charter rights and you have to follow the charter no matter what. The Conservative position is the courts ordered Khadr returned and released, but never ordered a particular sum, otherwise on principle the government should have fought the idea of paying him a settlement in court (which they may have very well won) and only paid it out if they were forced to by the courts. Until the courts rule we don’t know which way whereas I think Trudeau was going on the assumption it was a fait accompli which it is not. True based on the history of the courts I suspect they probably would have ordered a generous payout but not fighting it showed he agrees with that. Also claiming he wants to save money is laughable considering how fiscally irresponsible the government is elsewhere.
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I give up trying to count the number of ads Wynne is putting out on prime time TV, the latest a silly one about our carbon footprint where the ads feature people with very tiny feet.
It’s an insult to the intelligence of some but I fear that’s not the majority given the way that party keeps getting elected with a majority.
Have to ask, where is Patrick Brown these days?
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Wynne’s timing on the minimum wage increase is perfect… for her. The full brunt of it will not be felt until well after the next election when people will realize they will be bearing the brunt of it by paying more for everything.
It will have deeper repercussions than anyone can imagine at this point. Some will lose business, some will shut down their businesses.
I note vegetable and fruit farmers who hire people seasonally are already concerned.
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Sorry your comment got stuck in the filter, Liz.
It’s up to businesses and any other adversely-affected people to make it known how bad Wynne’s policies are. Letters to the editor are helpful. Also letting local newscasts know, calling into talk shows, etc. It all helps.
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I can sometimes use some less than polite language so maybe it’s wise to filter!
There are a lot of business people lashing out, hope they keep it up.
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I have mixed feelings on this. While I fully agree with the business community, it seems Wynne wants a class war. After the whole occupy wall street, it seems the soak the rich mantra has really become popular here more so than other countries. Quite sad as yes we should help those who are less fortunate but you don’t help them by punishing the more successful. I also think a lot don’t realize who bad socialism is and why it never has and never will work. There used to be a time when socialism was a four letter word and calling a policy socialist was a way to easily defeat it, but those days are long gone. In fact amongst millennials, more prefer socialism to capitalism which makes me very worried about the future. I have enough money I can always move elsewhere if things get bad enough so I am not worried about myself, but I am worried about my country and others who will get stuck in it if this happens.
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Liz, that’s funny. If Wynne or Trudeau get re-elected I think I will have a filter-off party. In mourning. 😉
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Like a wake.
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How will the increase affect those people with several years of experience who may now be earning the same amount as someone with no experience? What does an employer do then? The repercussions could be massive.
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Exactly. This was a crass political pre-election ploy with little or no forethought involved.
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A bit off topic, but the UCP has come out with three draft policies that the NDP in Alberta is strongly going after them on. What are your thoughts. I will give my thoughts on each below.
1. Return to the 10% flat tax from the progressive tax rates ranging from 10-15%
2. Fund private schools at the same level as public schools
3. Allow more private health care
1. I am support the principle of a flat tax but with the huge deficit, tax cuts should only come once the budget is balanced. Likewise the 10% rate applies to everyone making under 125K so that means only the top 10% or less would get a tax cut. Alberta’s top marginal rate is the 2nd lowest in Canada only behind Saskatchewan although compared to the US only California is higher. I would instead just drop all rates once the budget is balanced with the top falling to 13% so once again the lowest in Canada and bottom falling to 8% so low and middle income Albertans also get a tax cut
2. Bad idea. Private schools actually should have public funding ended outright. You want to send your kid to private school, the state should not pay.
3. Support this, but probably best to give more details to avoid attacks of wanting American style health care. I like Brad Wall’s idea of for every paid MRI, one must be done for free. Extending this to other surgeries could help reduce wait times and would still be open to all.
Alberta is more conservative than Ontario so the UCP doesn’t have to be as cautious as Brown does, but if they are too conservative it could help the NDP get back in. Alberta is much less conservative than 20 years ago as you have a strong generational divide and also a growing urban/rural divide too.
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Not so sure where the political demography of Alberta is today. The Oil Sands has certainly had to have affected that demographic but to what extent is the question.
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I think most oil sand workers were conservative despite a lot being from the Maritimes. I think it is more in the two major cities where you’ve seen a shift. It’s a mix of migration from other provinces and also younger generations who don’t remember Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program. I would guess with the median age in Alberta being only 37 (It is the youngest of all provinces) and their population being a million more people than since the 90s, probably only a 1/3 of the electorate today were adults living in Alberta when the NEP was brought in thus the anger towards the Liberals is not as strong as it once was. Alberta still nonetheless is the most conservative province in Canada, but not as much as it was in the 90s or earlier. In the long-run my guess is you will get the urban/rural divide where Rural Alberta will remain strongly conservative, the suburban parts of Edmonton and Calgary will become bellwethers rather than conservative strongholds like they are federally, and the central parts of both cities more left wing swinging between the NDP and Liberals like is the case with other big cities. Otherwise the same type of divides you see in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and BC otherwise today.
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Sir John A MacDonald’s birthday was two days ago, January 11th. Did anyone hear any mention of it or are we now going to ignore the fact the man even existed?
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The post national state referred to by Trudeau in the New York Times is moving along at a rapid pace. Canadian heritage is being steamrolled as the country acquiesces to the tyranny of the minority. My tolerance has reached its limit as these idiotic leftists kowtow to the increasing demands of anyone or any group of SJW’s with an axe to grind. How do we stem the tide? There’s no one ready to take the helm.
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My apologies for the mixed metaphors.
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At some point we need the majority to rise up, stop cowering in fear of being labelled by the bully leftists. Waiting for a leader to stand up to them may be a long wait and too late in today’s environment, an environment we’ve allowed the left to create. It didn’t happen overnight, it’s been a creep.
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I think much of the success of the left has been they try to portray themselves as being for the little guy. Canada probably more so than any other country is one where we tend to like whomever is for the weakest members of society and the left has done a better job of portraying themselves as being for the little guy even if they are not. I would argue the main reason for Rob Ford’s success in the liberal bastion of Toronto was precisely because he came across as someone for the average person rather than elites. Harper was initially successful for this reason, but towards the end the left did a good job of portraying him as being in bed with big oil (He favoured the free market not oil sector), being for the rich (another lie), and being anti minority and anti-women (also another lie). Trudeau was able to sell himself as being for the middle class and otherwise unless you were a rich white male like myself, he was on your side. What conservatives need to do is debunk this in that they are for average Canadians and also try and emphasize you don’t bring one up by pulling someone else down. The left seems to be all about to help those below, you have to punish those above when instead we should develop policies beneficial to all in that a rising tide lifts everyone up and a sinking one brings everyone down.
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I also think we need to move beyond identifying people what group they belong to and instead just identify us all as Canadians. Trying to put people into different groups as the left does doesn’t really help bring about greater unity. Yes we should be aware of discrimination towards others, but in the long-run a colour and gender blind country is what we should strive for.
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Lorne Gunter has an excellent column in the Toronto Sun today giving examples of the cost in dollars and cents of the recent wage hike to the average small business employer. He also states that governments are actually in need of the extra money they’ll get in their provincial coffers as a result. They know they’d face a backlash by raising taxes for everyone so instead they force small business owners to do their dirty work for them. http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/gunter-after-all-this-government-meddling-its-surprising-canada-has-any-entrepreneurs-left
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Really it boils down to a lose lose situation for small businesses, we will see many just close their doors and we all lose. It’s already tough enough trying to survive with Walmart and other big box stores. This is going to change the face of many small towns as well, could be the last straw. It will not show it’s full damage until well after the June election.
I still think Wynne has some nerve calling anyone a bully.
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From the Toronto Police Service: “On Friday, January 12, 2018, the Toronto Police Service requested assistance identifying a man involved in an Assault with a Weapon investigation. After a detailed investigation, police have determined that the events described in the original news release did not happen. The investigation is concluded.” This whole thing stunk to high heaven from the beginning. An 11 year-old child didn’t come up with this story without the help of someone older. The question now is whether anyone will be charged. How many other hoaxes will be/have been perpetrated in the name of M103?
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WOW! This is not my Canada. This cannot be tolerated by Canadians. We must learn who the perpetrator was.
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There was also a brief mention of another alleged victim but that was given short shrift in the media. Whichever cowardly adult dreamed this up will be difficult to prove unless this young girl spills the beans which is unlikely because she would have to suffer the consequences at home. Whoever it was would have known the police would be unlikely to charge the child should the story be deemed false.
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That case should not be dismissed. It had fake written all over it and I do not believe the child dreamed it up…I hope I still have the right to believe that!
Cases like this call for children’s services to check out at the very least, it may be tough to prove but at least they, or others, would not try try something similar again.
Trudeau and Wynne made jackasses of themselves as well, must not have read the story, couldn’t wait for proof it happened.
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The child was used mercilessly by someone. We must insist that the person be caught and punished. How does Mr. Trudeau believe this scam is OK?
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The fakenews hijab story is disturbing on many levels. For one, why was the alleged victim’s name released in the first place? That almost never happens in assault cases with minors involved.
Secondly now the police just want to sweep this under the rug without any further information or investigation. But there need to be consequences. Was the child put up to this? Why were politicians so quick to condemn the alleged assault without even suggesting that people wait until all the facts come out?
At the very least there are many lessons to be learned here.
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This is troubling on so many levels it cannot be let go. Was this child being used by the parents? Where do we go with something like this when politicians jumped the gun and police are not laying any charges. It’s all wrong.
We have a Charter telling us we are all equal under the law…this tells us some are more equal than others. It’s a very serious matter.
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My real concern is when a hate crime actually happens people will dismiss it. This reminds me of the boy who cried wolf. Otherwise don’t claim something happened if it didn’t as the people you hurt the most are those who actually experience it yet people won’t believe it if one cries wolf too many times.
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Just saw on CTV (I think, it’s on the lunch room tv at work) that the minimum wage increase is going to cause daycare prices to go up. That might spark some negatives for Wynne. People may not care about paying an extra dime for their Timmies’s but most of the young people with young families already complain about the cost of daycare
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Even better, Brown promises to cover 75% of the costs so it will be interesting if Wynne follows, but Brown will get credit at least. It seems much of Wynne’s policies are aimed at millennials and getting them to turn out en masse and vote for her. Be it pharmacare for under 25, tuition fees refund, or minimum wage increases, all aimed at that group. Brown seems more aimed at seniors with dental care changes and families such as childcare funding as well as tax cuts and lower electricity costs. So probably both sides reading the polls and Wynne realizing it is only those under 35 who she can dupe. Hoping by going left she can win big amongst them like Sanders and Corbyn did (both failed to win their races overall, but did better than expected). Certainly the polls seem to suggests her strongest support is those under 35 who either don’t have children or their children are too young to attend daycare.
I also heard the PC’s have 200,000 members while Liberals are only around 20,000 so when it comes to ground organization the PCs have the superior one and that is key in close races as we will probably get lots of them and if you have a strong ground organization like Harper did in 2008 and 2011 you can flip those in your favour. Part of the reason Trudeau did as well as he did in 2015, is he caught up to the Tories in ground organization and his supporters were more motivated. I think with the minimum wage, this is a case of Wynne trying to trip Brown up as she was hoping he would rollback the increase thus allow her to portray him as against the poor, but Brown didn’t take the bait and instead will slow the increase over 4 years, but will not roll it back.
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This is Trudeau’s response to learning that this was a fake “hate crime”.
“We have seen an unfortunate pattern of increased hate crimes in past months directed towards religious minorities, particularity towards women. We need to take this issue extremely seriously as this pattern is a warning sign of increased intolerance. We are a country that defends freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and people’s rights to go to school without being fearful or harassed. This is fundamental to who we are.”
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. His agenda re: M-103 will proceed. Count on it.
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Tarek Fatah has an excellent commentary on the hijab and the hoax it inspired. http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/fatah-a-hijabi-hoax-that-fooled-canada It’s worth reading.
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Oh Trudeau has an agenda alright.
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Much of the blame for the rapid and intense dissemination of information about this alleged attack must fall at the feet of one Shari Schwartz-Maltz, TDSB manager for media relations and issues management. How and why did her office become involved? Did she contact the press and politicians? It was she who invited the young girl to appear on camera. What an irresponsible act by someone in her position. She needs to be fired immediately. However, there is fault to be shared by many more people, including Trudeau and several of his ministers as well as Premier Wynne and Mayor Tory, all of whom were quick to jump on the bandwagon to exploit this child and this incident to the fullest.
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I don’t pay too much attention to the polls this far out from an election, but some good news this week, Liberals 37%, Tories 33.8% and NDP 20% so Tories at highest seen so far and only 3.2% behind Liberals, narrowest gap for Nanos. More importantly this is a running four week average that includes the earlier polls where Liberals were 12 points ahead so maybe something is happening. In Ontario, the Tories have shot ahead 43% and Liberals at 39.5% so maybe a backlash to Wynne is spilling over? Certainly Trudeau (as much as I dislike him) is nowhere nearly as unpopular as Wynne so if the federal Tories are at 43% in Ontario, I imagine the PCs are doing at least as well if not better.
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Also Forum has this for provincial politics http://poll.forumresearch.com/data/3908bcab-08a5-4256-ada8-5a5b0a04533aTim%20Hortons.pdf so if you scroll down to the bottom of page 4 and you look at the raw numbers you can see the PCs are well ahead. They still have to weight them, but it seems the whole minimum wage hike is not providing the Liberals with the bounce they were hoping for. Hopefully people are seeing this is a desperate government that is throwing everything they can to try and get re-elected. I don’t for a second believe Wynne would have raised the minimum wage is much as she did if she didn’t face an election this year or was ahead in the polls. This was not about good policy, this was pure cynical politics.
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Does anyone actually believes this 11 year old girl decided to lie?
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I find this absolutely fascinating. Perhaps she accidentally ripped her hijab and felt she need to concoct a story and then all the adults ran with it? The real culprits here are the media, school board, parents and politicians who made such a big deal about it right from the start instead of taking a breath and letting the police do a thorough investigation first.
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Pretty complicated lie to cover?
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To be frank, I often have doubts about reports of “hate crimes” against minorities. I wonder if such reports are not politically motivated, intended to inflame reactions.
In this case, some people have suggested this scenario: the girl does not want to wear her hijab, wanting to fit in with her school mates. The most expedient way to shed her hijab without rebelling openly against her parents’ wishes was to concoct this story, thinking her parents would allow her to get rid of the hijab to prevent similar incidents.
Plausible … but who knows, really? Far too many people jumping to conclusions without the facts, Trudeau’s tweets both before and after the incident a prime example.
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Mr.Trudeaus response after finding out it was a lie is an insult to ALL CANADIANS!
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Over-the-top reactions from the media is one thing but when we have our Prime Minister and Premier of Ontario, busy as they are trolling for votes, coming out so quickly to condemn us as a country, basically that’s what it amounts to, Trudeau lectured us, saying basically that’s not what Canadians are about. Incidents like this are definitely not what this country is about and it needs to be made clear, letting it go will be to our detriment. We are looking like fools.
I have given up on the media, no surprises there. I also have never been so embarrassed for this country.
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If you go back and listen to the whole interview with this young girl you’ll notice a couple of changes in her speech patterns. Most responses appear to have been scripted and practised beforehand. But there’s one question that was unanticipated where she hesitates and uses the phrasing of a typical 11 year-old. Anyone who has dealt with children will recognize the change in phrasing. Justin Trudeau exhibits the same type of thing when he’s put on the spot with unanticipated questions.
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Do not know how old her brother is but looking at the news conference picture he sure seemed to be enjoying the attention . No fear there. Where was the father in all this?
This will no longer be talked about , the media messed up, the politicians messed up, jumped the gun , police say the case is closed so no charges will be laid. We may as well go off and whistle into the darkness.
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But the homeless man with known mental issues who wrote”No more Muslims” on a bench is not only charged but jailed. That’s Canadian justice in a nutshell. And then we have the PM who warns us that although this particular attack may not have happened we are a hateful bunch who have the propensity to commit actual “Islamophobia”.
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Exactly right, that is Canadian justice, some are more equal than others. Our PM has basically accused Canadians of being Islamophobic when he believed the story before any proof was presented and after it was revealed to be a big fat lie.
The whole episode from start to finish is beyond reason. Fair minded people, which I believe we are as Canadians, would feel better if this was dealt with properly with apologies all around starting with the child and her parents. If they do not believe an apology is necessary they are not my kind of Canadians. We have all been damned by a fake story and our PM jumped in as a bit player to scold/lecture.
Shame on the lot of them.
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It seems that Shari Schwartz-Maltz, the TDSB manager for media relations and issues management who allowed this young girl to appear before a bank of cameras is the holder of a BA in journalism. I could find nothing to indicate any specialized training in anything related to the field of education or dealing with young children. We Canadians have been set up by those seeking to sensationalize a perception of racism that does not exist except in a few nutjobs on the fringes of society. Does anyone else sense a pattern?
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Yes this is very disturbing calling Canadians bigots WOW not my Canada
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Sad when even our political leaders came out swinging on the made up hijab tale before the 4 w’s of journalism and police investigation were known, effectively insinuating Canadians are racist or Islamophobic. This was an exhibition of the most crass, tawdry politics. It’s gotten to the point I cannot stand to watch or listen to them, it’s hard to even care anymore.
Ezra has a petition going to have the matter dealt with further, good luck with that happening! There is a deafening silence, we have been had, made fools of. Case closed.
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Since when does a school board permit a journalist to makes decisions that involve underage vulnerable students in news conferences where their physical safety is potentially compromised? This is the height of irresponsibility of those at the top of the TDSB hierarchy which needs to be addressed. Was this the individual who initially contacted the press? Why isn’t anyone asking the school board this question? The uber progressive TDSB needs to be held to account for its role in this fiasco.
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Alex Pierson is heeding the call. Listen here: https://omny.fm/shows/on-point-with-alex-pierson/alex-pierson-hate-crime-hoax-capitalizes-on-the-in?utm_source=AM640&utm_medium=Facebook
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Thanks for the link Anne, Alex has it down perfectly, needs to be passed around.
I think we all need to be concerned for the children and even more careful about who we elect to school boards.
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The blame needs to start with the school principal who would have been the person who contacted the board in the first place and then Shari Schwartz-Maltz, who seems to have overstepped her job expertise. The bulk of the blame lies with the school board officials who hired this person. Why does a school board need a journalist to handle issues management of this kind? I would hope this would be brought up and thoroughly discussed at the very next board meeting. Why would any parent entrust their children to be protected by such people?
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I too thank you for that link. I used it in a tweet I just sent out … not that my tweeting is in any way effective.
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There’s another thing to consider when calling for repercussions for perpetrating the hoax, the lie and the doubt as to the source, the reason for it…the decisions made by school authorities across the board, the media and the politicians as well have done the damage.
The child and her brother, her mother have been photographed and named, laws have been broken in a feverish attempt to lay blame where it will attract the most attention. Both sides should have known better, I do not believe there was good will anywhere in this fiasco.
According to our leaders running off their mouths without proof, Canadians are the bad guys.
The parents need to deal with this, lessons need to be learned.
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And so it continues: “CBC News AlertsVerified account @CBCAlerts
Toronto police responding to report of hijab-related assault. Woman says man on bus pulled her hijab, then ran onto the subway.”
Doesn’t it ever occur to CBC to wait for the facts to come out?
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I would question why the Toronto police feel the need to report such a minor thing. Someone tugged on a piece of someone else clothing, so what?
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It’s considered by them as a hate crime perhaps and the hijab is a sacred symbol to those who wear it? That appears to be where we are at given what transpired over the fake scissor attack which traveled beyond our borders before it was investigated fully.
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Forum along with Campaign Research have polls out in Ontario on the minimum wage hike and the results show the idea is quite popular with over 60% support and only 1/3 oppose, but is not helping the Liberals one bit. Campaign research oversamples Toronto so I think the PCs have a bigger lead and Forum is probably closer to the truth. Using Forum numbers it would be 88 seats PC (so landslide), 24 seats NDP (So official opposition but only 3 more than they have now) and Liberals 11 seats (so third place and it would likely mean Wynne losing her own seat which is even more sweet if true). Below in brackets are change from December so you can see it seems people have just had enough of Wynne and she can throw whatever she wants, the public at least if the polls are right aren’t buying it.
Campaign Research
PC 35% (+1)
Lib 34% (-1)
NDP 23% (+1)
Forum
PC 43% (+3)
Lib 24% (-)
NDP 24% (-2)
Now these are just polls but I feel reasonably optimistic, but like anything won’t be celebrating until its over and the PCs win.
On the topic of the Hijab fake news story, it was a dumb move, but I generally don’t get too worked up about it. Things like minimum wage change have a lot more impact on our day to day lives than does someone pulling off a fake news on a hate crime.
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Just received an email at work (accounting). We have had a program for years that helps small business owners retire and either sell their business or leave it to the kids while minimizing the cost of doing so. The email is telling us that there is now an uptick in business owners wanting to pack it in here and relocate to the US because of recent tax changes here and in the US, in opposite directions obviously. We are developing a slightly modified version of the program specifically to deal with this. Despite liberal denials, it’s already happening.
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Wow. That’s scary, Greg.
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It appears it’s not only Canadian companies around the world are going “home” to the US.
It looks like perhaps Trump has done something right the left cannot critique with any credibility….they’re trumped.
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We don’t do the big companies that you hear about on the news, this is small companies where Trudeau / Morneau have simply made it not worth their while to put in the hours for little return. Wynne’s minimum wage also factors in.
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Right.
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If you take the combined corporate tax rates at both federal and provincial levels, Canada and the US are now about the same so I don’t think we will lose a lot, but certainly it will make it tougher for us to attract more as we lose our competitive disadvantage. What is more worrying is with the big spending, there is no fiscal room to cut taxes if we need to. As one of my earlier blogs talked about, while most developed countries are swinging rightward economically with lower taxes, smaller deficits, and smaller government, we seem to be not just at the federal level, but provincial too swinging leftward. It seems many have got caught up in the idea of a more egalitarian country or a fairer society forgetting everytime this has been tried it doesn’t help those at the bottom and just makes things worse off. A socialist utopia will never exists so its time to focus on what is realistic and drop this fantasy of trying to create one. Even the Nordic Countries which the left often points to as models are far less socialistic than they believe. Most of them have centre-right not centre-left governments now and for corporate taxes, all of them are lower than Canada. It’s true taxes for the middle and lower class are much higher there but for the rich they are only slightly higher and their strong welfare state is largely funded through a 25% VAT which would never sell politically in Canada. Taxing the rich and big corporations doesn’t work, France tried this under Francois Hollande and it failed miserably while UK did this from the 60s up until Thatcher and it failed miserably. So why would something that’s failed everywhere else suddenly work here. But as per my most recent blog post, I find many on the left use feelings instead of facts when deciding what and whom they support.
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‘If you take the combined corporate tax rates at both federal and provincial levels, Canada and the US are now about the same so I don’t think we will lose a lot’
Maybe, but we just spent 100’s of hours developing plans to mitigate the worst of Morneau’s new policies, and we are about to spend 100’s more to be ready to help those who have already indicated they want out. It’s not one thing, it’s having the highest electricity costs in North America, plus minimum wage (which drives up the wages of everyone not just those at minimum wage) plus tax policy. Each of these things has made owners reconsider what they are doing here, especially if their customer base is already in the US
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Agreed, especially in Ontario. BC still looks favourable but will probably change soon with the NDP government and Saskatchewan still favourable. Quebec while still not favourable for investment, the PLQ as well as the CAQ who are leading in the polls are moving in the right rather than wrong direction unlike Ontario.
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On the fake hijab kerfuffle, one last thought, I think we can see how important it is to have an agenda free media.
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More nonsense from the Toronto Star if you have the stomach to read this https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/01/18/misogyny-sexism-clearly-a-major-factor-in-wynnes-ultralow-ratings.html . Wynne is not unpopular because her gender, she is unpopular because of her policies as well as any government that has been in office as long as the Liberals generally faces low approval ratings. Her approval ratings are no lower than Greg Selinger had in Manitoba when defeated and likewise the Manitoba NDP had been in office for a very long time. As for female leaders it’s been mixed, but I think blaming gender is a bit silly.
Canada: Kim Campbell got crushed as the PCs were going to lose no matter what but with the Quebec portion going to the BQ and the Western portion going to the Reform Party that just made it worse.
BC: Rita Johnston lost in 1991 as the Social Credit were a discredited scandal plagued government. The reason she fell to third is after protests, the media consortium agreed to allow Gordon Wilson to enter the debates and he performed quite well as well as the Liberals were a safe place for dissatisfied Socreds to park their vote without going NDP
Christy Clark actually saved the BC Liberals from defeat in 2013 and in 2017 despite the party being in power for 16 years, she come within 150 votes of winning a majority so the fact she gave the party an extra four years lease on life and almost 8 years debunks his theory
Alberta: Alison Redford lost due to stupid decisions and she was well to the left of much of her caucus so when you have little caucus support it’s tougher to stay on.
Rachel Notley is doing poorly in the polls as Alberta is a centre-right not centre-left province. If she were premier of BC or Ontario I think she would unfortunately have a good shot at a second term.
Kathy Dunderdale lost ground as Danny Williams was super popular and it was pretty tough for any successor to live up to his reputation so would have happened no matter whom the leader was.
Now I don’t think Britain or Germany are any less sexist or misogynistic than Canada is yet they’ve both had two long serving female leaders (Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel). This is just a deflection in that Wynne has done a horrible job. And also both Bob Rae and McGuinty only had slightly better approval ratings when they left while Harris was much higher as he was only controversial amongst those on the left, he was still very popular amongst those on the right whereas the other three premiers are/were not liked by either side of the spectrum.
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Please go to Andrew Scheer ‘s Facebook page and like.
Also let your friends know this is important. Trudeau has over 5 million likes Scheer just over 1 million. Media are histerically happy over this.
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Also Trudeau is known well outside of Canada so probably a sizeable number of likes are from non-Canadians. In fact he is the first prime-minister in my life whom most outside our borders can actually name.
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Wynne is doing a town hall in Ottawa tonight. It will be interesting to hear about all the love she received.
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Hard to say, but I suspect those who oppose her will be much more motivated to show up than those who like her (which is under 20% if you believe the polls). Unlike Trudeau, she doesn’t have the sort of people who just naturally love her. That being said I suspect the Liberals simply due to history will still be competitive in Ottawa, but hopefully the PCs can make inroads in the suburbs. In addition to Carleton, Kanata-Carleton, and Nepean which they won last time around, I hope they can pick up Ottawa-West Nepean (Bob Chiarelli), Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, and Orleans. Cannot see them winning Ottawa South, Ottawa-Vanier, or Ottawa Centre as those are too left leaning although maybe Ottawa Centre will go NDP. I get the impression most Liberal voters are either habitual Liberal voters who just blindly vote for them or scared of the PCs (a lot of those who are scared of them are for totally false reasons, but it seems too many swallow the lies that the PCs are a hard right party when under Brown they are anything but).
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Looks like it didn’t go over too well https://m.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2018/01/18/wynne-gets-an-earful-in-ottawa-town-hall.html
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Verdict coming on the deleted emails, any bets it too will end with no charges?
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You were half right as Laura Miller was acquitted but the bigger fish of the two, David Livingston, who was McGuinty’s chief of staff was found guilty so bad news for the Liberals. Also with Laura Miller getting off that is good news out here in BC as she was Christy Clark’s chief campaign manager so if convicted that would help the NDP if we get thrown into an election anytime soon, which could happen as we have a minority government. Anyways the big fish of the two got convicted and this will probably be bad news for Wynne.
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Those who are being picketed, like Timmies and others, over price hikes should simply tell them to put the blame where it belongs, with the Wynne government and vote them out.
Those she shuffled will not get too settled in their new portfolios for the short time left and we will not be better served in the meantime. If she did it for attention she may not get the kind of attention she’s figuring on.
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David Livingston just found guilty in the gas plant trial, still waiting to hear on Laura Miller. If Wynne got any bounce from the minimum wage (polls suggest she didn’t), this will likely hurt her.
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Just saw this over at smalldeadanimals. The federal health minister has an official twitter account that requires 1-1/2 people to maintain. Operating since August of last year it has generated a total of 250 tweets, or approximately 1-1/2 tweets per day. I don’t need a calculator to figure out 1 tweet per day per person. So we are paying a full time government job salary for someone to create 140 characters per day, not words, characters. They also incurred over $5000 in overtime – must be after they raised the character limit to 280.
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So only Livingston was charged. It’s hard not to wonder why someone would do something like that to protect their leader. McGuinty is squeaky clean, knew nothing about it.
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It was done to protect everyone who knew anything about the subterfuge in the gas plant by those in power at the time, including Livingston himself. Patrick Brown has been handed a gift and he needs to explore the depths of the rot. Wynne should not be allowed to escape from her culpability in it.
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*gas plant machinations
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I’m being facetious when I say McGuinty knew nothing about it….Livingston didn’t cancel the gas plants. As for Wynne, she became leader because of it, McGuinty took flight.
The rot is there, it’s a matter of getting people to smarten up and not be bowled over with goodies offered up by Wynne for votes.
This is the worst Ontario government in my memory. We don’t like the word corruption but what else describes stuff like this?
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What protection do we have from a bad government with a majority? Worse, what do we do when we have one? IMO the Liberal cabal with Trudeau at the front given the serious global issues, I don’t feel at all secure.
He may be having his strings pulled but he has the power to go rogue as well.
Is he going rogue with the new summer jobs application which has a box to tick off ,an attestation, in order to get federal funding they must respect reproductive rights, access to abortion? This does not only affect religious groups, other charities as well. It’s tick off the box or no funding.
So much for our rights and freedoms Trudeau style.
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Next week Mainstreet Research will have a whole bunch of polls. Starting Monday, they will a national one, one for BC and Saskatchewan where you have three leadership races (one for both parties in Saskatchewan. Tuesday will be for provinces facing elections this year (Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick), while Wednesday for those facing them next year (Alberta, PEI, and Newfoundland & Labrador), while Thursday for those facing them further down the line and don’t have leadership races (Manitoba and Nova Scotia). I was told there are a few surprises, so hopefully pleasant ones, but we shall see.
On the abortion issue, I am all for cutting off funding to groups whose primary goal is to re-criminalize abortion, in fact I think all political advocacy groups regardless of their political stripe should get no government funding (this includes left wing advocacy, otherwise I would oppose summer job grants going to the CCPA or Council of Canadians and also others on the right like Fraser Institute, tax dollars should never subsidize political advocacy groups of any stripe). However asking every person participating in the summer job program to state they are pro-choice is going way too far. My understanding is a construction company that wants to employ some students for summer jobs, the owner has to state he/she is pro-choice even though where they stand on abortion is irrelevant. This is going way too far and is more or less trying to impose Liberal values. Even Warren Kinsella, one of my favourite Liberals to read said this was dumb and felt the government would probably lose this in a Charter challenge.
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Tomorrow is Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick. I believe it will show a 10 point lead for the PCs as the ending date is around the first week of January and Quito Maggi, the CEO already when interviewed by CP24 said the Liberals had recovered a bit but were still 10 points behind. Nationally the Liberals are unfortunately in front at 40.3%, but the Conservatives are at 34.5% which is actually not too bad considering how little our leader is known and a good base to work form. Our big problem is the NDP is at 13.3% so no splits on the left. So we need to find a way to get over 40% as opposed to rely on the NDP splits if we want to win. Otherwise the Red Tories who left us, we need to win back and the fact most polls show us around 30% in Atlantic Canada when we only got 19% last time is a good sign we are winning some back. We also need to win over the Blue Liberals. Trudeau has moved the party to the left giving the NDP little breathing room, but leaving the centre wide open for us to pick up.
In BC, the NDP is slightly in front much like Insights West, but they are still in the honeymoon phase and the BC Liberals don’t have a new leader so no surprise. Never mind the current interim leader Rich Coleman is not too well liked with the public and he is mentioned in the questions, so I suspect the numbers will improve once the new BC Liberal leader is chosen on February 3rd. Interestingly enough NDP has not gone up since last election while Greens have, but I noticed in Insights West where the BC Conservatives were included, Green support in Mainstreet was the same as Greens + BC Conservatives in Insights West so my thinking is around 25-30% dislike the two main parties and thus going for third parties but not necessarily a right vs. left thus there is potential for the BC Liberals to win some of that over with a new leader.
In Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Party has rebounded to a strong lead but with both parties choosing new leaders, that will be the real test. It seems the dip in Brad Wall’s approval earlier was more dissatisfaction with the recent budget, but now that he is leaving, people are looking not just at him in the past few months, but at his full ten years and are concluding he was a good premier. In fact having over 50% support after 10 years in power is very unusual so no question Brad Wall will go down as one of the best premiers the province has ever had.
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Looking at the national poll#’s here is where I think we are (note I take averages) and what I think we need to do. Since the election is still 17 months away things can and will change, so this is a snapshot of where we are and what I think we need to do in each region.
Atlantic Canada: Liberals still have a strong 15-20 point lead, but are polling about 10 points below what they got in October 2015 while we are now up to around 30% which is 10 points more than in October 2015. While numbers are not great, they are high enough we would probably win some seats and more importantly I like the overall direction. My advice for the party would be try to recruit strong candidates as well as think of a conservative platform on how to get Atlantic Canada growing again economically and also reduce the need for out migration. The Liberals have taken this region for granted so there is an opportunity. With a weak NDP, we need to find a way to get up to 35-40% which will be very difficult but not impossible. I would also suggest giving Lisa Raitt a large role here as she has roots in this region.
Quebec: This is probably the most depressing part in polls. Liberals way in front polling at over 40% while the Tories, NDP, and BQ in the mid teens fighting over who comes in second. This means Liberals would gain 20-25 seats thus they can still win even with big losses in the rest of Canada. I don’t think Trudeau is anymore popular in Quebec than elsewhere, rather lack of alternatives is why he is way ahead. BQ is a party that is seen as irrelevant, while the NDP’s surge in 2011 was a flash in the pan and more a vote for Jack Layton as opposed to the NDP. The Tories aren’t doing any worst than the past, but with the NDP and BQ no longer challenging the Liberals, we need to step up here to fill in the void. I suggest Gerard Detell be made the Quebec lieutenant and likewise I would focus on being the party that respects Quebec’s autonomy and provincial jurisdiction as we are generally a party that respects provincial jurisdiction while Liberals are one that tend to prefer a more centralized government so I think that is our best chance.
Ontario: Pretty much every poll shows the Liberals below the 45% they got in 2015 and most show us over 35% that we got and some even over 40% (during Harper’s era we rarely polled over 40% in Ontario so with multiple polls putting us over 40% that is good news) meaning Liberals are probably slightly ahead but they would lose seats and we would gain them. The main problem here is unlike during Harper’s time in office the NDP is quite weak so getting 40% no longer guarantees us a majority in Ontario, so we need to aim for 45%. To make matters worse the strong Liberal lead east of the Ottawa River means even if we won half the seats in Ontario, it probably wouldn’t be enough to form government. As such I would focus on the suburbs and smaller urban centres, in particular affordability, lowering taxes, while also investing in infrastructure to help make commutes easier (something the Liberals promised but have failed to deliver) as I think this could help us win back the suburbs in addition to our rural support.
Sask/Manitoba: The Tories are in front at around 45% but with the Tories tending to run up the margins in the rural areas we still even with these numbers might struggle in the urban areas. We need to win Regina, Saskatoon, and the south and west side of Winnipeg. I think what I mentioned for Ontario could help us.
Alberta: Big lead, but still slightly below the 60% we got in 2015 and Liberals holding onto their support in the low to mid 20s. So yes overall we would win big in Alberta, but Liberals would still be competitive in a few Calgary and Edmonton seats thus also finding ways to reasonate more with urban areas and younger voters could help.
British Columbia: Liberals still in front, Tories battling NDP for second, and Greens in fourth in the low teens. Unlike the East Coast, there has been no Tory rebound and we are only competitive in many ridings due to strong splits on the left unlike elsewhere. With the NDP/Greens being in power provincially and still in their honeymoon phase, I fear once those numbers fall it will be the Liberals not Tories who will benefit. We should win the Interior, lose Vancouver proper and Vancouver Island, so the Lower Mainland suburbs is where we need to do better. Asides from focusing on infrastructure, we should also be more supportive of action on climate change even if we oppose a carbon tax. BC is a very green province so being seen as anti environment will cost you there. Our biggest sector is tourism and people don’t come for history or culture, they come for the natural scenery.
So those are my thoughts. Also probably highlighting Scheer’s young family and the female candidates would help as it seems we are struggling amongst female voters which we need to do better amongst. We won’t win millennials, but we need to not lose them by a massive margin if we want to win. I will be interested in the next set of polls in Ontario, but so far I think Brown is making all the right moves. Unfortunately it seems far too many swallow the Liberal/union propaganda that Brown has a right wing hidden agenda, so we need to be more aggressive in countering those lies.
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Mainstreet now out with Ontario numbers and good news for us. PCs 43%, OLP 32%, NDP 18%. PCs have a 20+ point lead in Southwestern Ontario, South Central Ontario and Northern Ontario (this is surprising is this is normally NDP turf), while an 11 point lead in the 905 belt (where elections are won and lost), 8 point lead in Eastern Ontario, and is trailing by 4 points in the 416 (but still at 37% and lets remember in 2011 when Harper won big in Ontario it was 35% Liberal to 31% Conservative in 416 so cannot complain about that). Wynne leads by 7 points amongst millennials, but PCs over 45% amongst all age groups above 35. Just for reference the tipping point in the last British election was age 47 and that was still not enough for Labour so if the tipping point is in its early 30s, Wynne is toast provided these numbers are correct and stay this way. Yes some maybe upset with the Liberals at 32%, but I am happy if we are over 40% and it seems the Liberal gains are largely coming from the NDP which makes sense with Wynne’s leftward tack, but it looks like she is alienating some Blue Liberals.
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Campaign Research out with 42 Lib to 29 Conservative but considering they had Wynne tied with the PCs I am bit skeptical of them. Nanos which is the gold standard shows a slight Liberal rebound 37.9% (+0.9%), but the Tories are at 34.4% which is the highest Nanos has shown them since 2012 so hope this momentum continues.
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Thanks for hanging in here everyone! Been a busy last few weeks.
Going to try to get a new post up one of these days. Meanwhile I’m enjoying the commentary here!
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I may be a bit thick on political machinations but I do not think in a straight line. It’s difficult to understand how a man like Livingston, and with his credentials, would do what he did and his leader had no knowledge of and bore no responsibility in it. Livingston had to know it was wrong but was willing to risk his reputation for McGuinty. Livingston says he loved the man, would do anything for him….guess he proved that.
No matter how much fib-breeze they spray and spew it still smells like the old stuff.
Leaders who do not know what’s going on are unfit for Office. Cancelling those gas plants for votes is the biggest, most expensive scandal I can think of.
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Even the Toronto Star is saying the Liberals are going too far in their requirement for attestation on the abortion issue. I believe what originally brought this up is it turned out summer student job grants were going to an explicitly anti-abortion group whose primary mission was to promote re-criminalizing it. But rather than simply saying they would no longer fund any group whose primary purpose was political advocacy, which I think would be quite reasonable, they decided to ask every one getting the grant to state they are pro-choice even if the job they are creating has nothing whatsoever to do with abortion. I am 100% pro-choice and I don’t want one cent of my tax dollars going to anti-abortion groups, but I could care less what some employer personally thinks on abortion if it has no relevance to the job. Otherwise someone’s private opinion on that is irrelevant and they should change the rules. That being said I don’t support banning anti-abortion groups, I just think like any political advocacy they should not get any tax dollars and should raise their own funds. I would say the same for a left wing advocacy group or even a fiscally right wing (which I would support).
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I just checked out that editorial. When even the Star disagrees with Liberal policy Butts must realize that they need to change direction quickly!
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It might also be generational as it seems today more people go to echo chambers for their views so less tolerance to those with different viewpoints. I remember a decade ago when the Liberal position was on moral issues they would be free votes and the Young Liberals were livid about that. Otherwise historically it was seen as a healthy sign to have a diversity of viewpoints, but nowadays a lot of our education system as well as the SJWs have been pushing the idea there is a right and a wrong opinion and it is unacceptable if you fall on the wrong side. On some issues like say supporting slavery, supporting racism, supporting the holocaust agreed, but I generally think we should only make holding a certain opinion socially unacceptable in the most extreme cases, not in many areas. And those three are very extreme cases, not ordinary issues. Heck I even think if one wants to be a radical socialist who advocates nationalizing all industries, they have the right to hold such opinion as much as it is completely uninformed. You don’t get the society you want by silencing those with different views, rather you persuade them or at least persuade others on the fence they are wrong. Besides abortion is being used as a wedge issue anyways. It’s a way to distract from their other flaws and a tried and tested fearmongering tactic to get undecided voters to reluctantly back the Liberals by creating a fear the Tories will recriminalize abortion. Here is the reality: only 20% want it recriminalized so all parties know its political suicide so it won’t happen. 2. The Tories had a vote on it in the previous parliament and the caucus split 50/50 while for the other parties they all landed solidly on the pro-choice side, so unless the Tories win over 300 seats (no chance of that happening and note you need 170 to win a majority) it has zero chance of passing parliament. So lets move beyond the fearmongering. Legal abortion is here to stay and will stay even when the Conservatives return to government in some future election (hopefully next but could be further down the line), but that doesn’t mean the 20% who still want it recriminalized need to shut up. They still have the right to hold their opinions even if Trudeau dislikes them.
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Why is killing babies the new ok
We need to step back and realize what has been the new norm. Inconvenient pregnancy abortion is the ONLY answer. It is NOT.
We need these children to grow up and be the leaders of our Country.
We were able to deal with unwanted babies through adoption for many years.
Pregnancy does not stop women from working and is no longer regarded as poor judgement as often the pregnancy was desired. Pressure is exserted often by many well meaning people to seek an abortion. That does not mean that this is the best choice. Women need support when they are pregnant Often they chose pregnancy. Now they feel they must choose abortion. Common on Canadians we can do better supporting women.
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Well said, Fh.
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I am myself strongly pro-choice. But lets remember there is a difference between pro-choice and pro-abortion. Otherwise I realize abortion is an extremely sensitive and difficult topic and I certainly respect the right of people to be pro-life and they shouldn’t be insulted and shunned like Trudeau has. But at the same time I believe the decision to have an abortion is ultimately up to an individual not the state and so my support for legalized abortion is more the libertarian one of the state should stay out of it and let the individual decide. As for higher birth rate, we definitely could benefit from that, but I think making life more affordable rather than recriminalizing abortion is a better way to achieve this. High cost of living in our large cities is a big reason people are having fewer children. Most couples today cannot afford to have children until their mid 30s thus cutting down the number of years they can have multiple children whereas it used to be affordable by 25 to have children so I think that is the biggest barrier. In terms of adoption vs. abortion, again I think it is a personal choice. If we recriminalize abortion you will just go back to having back alley ones where many women died or you could have like you have in Ireland (where it is still illegal, but legal in most of Europe including the UK), they just travel abroad most likely the US to get one. While I feel fairly passionate about this, saying that if you are pro-life we will cut off funding is heavy handed. As long as a person’s pro-life or as a matter of fact even pro-choice or any political opinion aren’t involved in the job description it shouldn’t matter. In terms of party discipline, I believe the leader needs to be pro-choice on a political level but can be pro-life on a personal level.
What I mean here is one can morally oppose abortion but still favour it being legal. Being legal simply means not going to prison or being fined, it doesn’t mean one condones it. I don’t condone smoking, but that doesn’t mean I think it should be criminalized as in a free country I respect that people have the right to do things I personally disapprove of; otherwise I don’t support the nanny state mentality. As for party policy, I think a free vote is fine for the Tories as the party is pretty evenly split based on the last vote and with the Liberals, NDP, Greens, and BQ being pro-choice such a law has zero chance at ever passing anyways.
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The Liberal government insists on having a Canadian population of 100 million by 2100. They encourage both the acceptance of abortion on demand and the importation of migrants/immigrants to replace those aborted. What convoluted thinking. There’s a shortage of doctors and funding for those needing lifesaving medical interventions but plenty for unnecessary abortions. Women these days have many choices including the ability to choose whether to engage in sex, to insist upon condom use, the birth control pill and the morning after pill. Abortion that we as taxpayers fund should not need to be one of those choices. Such selfishness boggles the mind!
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I actually think ideally having 100 million people would be nice, but getting there could be tricky. Certainly if the 100 million was more evenly spaced out we could have it. After all if all of Canada had the population density of Ontario we would have 120 million people. Essentially the southern regions would have population densities in between that of Spain (Southern Quebec is already at that) and France (Southern Ontario is already at that) while the north would remain sparsely populated. If Southern Canada had the population density of Germany, we would have 200 million people while if of England or Netherlands we would have 400 million people and all those countries still have plenty of countryside and rural areas. The real problem is most of our growth is all in the largest cities which have little room for growth whereas in Europe I find their populations are more equally spread out. I’ve often favoured us tweaking our point system and adding bonus points like Australia does for those who choose to move to smaller regions. Places like Atlantic Canada which have large population out migrations cannot benefit from more whereas places like the GTA and Lower Mainland are already overpopulated and don’t have room to grow.
As for abortion, the impact on population is minimal, I think high cost of living and difficulty getting time off to raise a child are the main barriers. Otherwise things like Brown’s plan to refund 75% of childcare costs for middle income families is something I think could encourage higher birth rates. As for abortion funding; any province that cut it off would risk deductions due to Canada Health Act violations. More importantly it would be political suicide. Back in the 80s, Bill Vander Zalm tried this in BC and faced a massive backlash so since then no politician has gone there for that reason.
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Unless an abortion is a medical necessity to save the mother’s life the taxpayer should not be forced to pay for it. Should a woman simply want an abortion for any other reason then let her and her partner pay for it. Using abortion as a form of birth control is abhorrent.
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My reason for believing it should be funded is more economic as opposed to moral, whereas I am guessing your opposition is probably moral? Raising a child is very expensive, around $20,000 a year and also is a major time commitment so its not something for everyone and when you consider the number of abortions, relying on adoptions wouldn’t come close to covering it. As such those children grow up in broken homes and when grown up are more likely to be on social assistance or in prison thus from a purely fiscal side of things, it is actually cheaper to publicly fund abortion than not. That being said I feel like abortion is an issue that both sides are set in their ways and will never change. For those who are pro-choice they see it as a fundamental right of a woman to control her own body as opposed to the state thus why they feel so passionate, whereas the pro-life feel equally passionate as they believe it is killing a living being. Otherwise it seems the divide is do you consider a fetus a part of a woman’s body or an independent being and those in the former generally are pro-choice and the later are pro-life.
In terms of not funding abortion, the federal government has little say over it other than docking funds for those who don’t and note when Harper was PM, New Brunswick didn’t fund them and he never fined the province. It is up to the provinces to decide and in the case of Ontario, I think threatening to cut it off is just the type of an issue that might let Wynne comeback. PCs are more than 10 points ahead in the polls so best to run a frontrunner’s campaign and play it safe and avoid do anything that might spook people which I believe this would. In particular PCs have a massive lead amongst males, but it is much narrower amongst females so we need to find a way to do better not worse amongst females. Now I know not all women support abortion, but I’ve found those who are pro-choice feel very passionate about it and will refuse to vote for a candidate who is pro-life even if they agree on every other issue thus its not a hill worth dying on IMHO.
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My feelings about the situation align more with yours, Anne. But that is a battle I fear we have lost.
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Common should be come on
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New post up! 😉
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