I was wanting to start a new post here since the previous one is becoming a bit long with all the comments. When I tried to think of a new topic, the usual shenanigans of the Ontario and Federal Liberals came to mind.
But this morning I read this article via Twitter from the Prince George Citizen which suggests a mood of discontent may be percolating up from the Canadian public right across the country. – Right, left united on Trudeau by Nathan Giede:
We are on the verge of what might well be a Conservative renaissance in this country. In B.C., a shaky lefty coalition is teetering on the edge as the extremists pull the strings; in Alberta, a party of supposedly the same name is all but sure to lose to a revitalized Tory party run by the most effective politician in Canada; and in Ontario, the “activist centre” Wynne Liberals could very well lose to Canada’s own angry man with bad hair by default, no matter how hard they try.
Progressives should be worried, because for all their disbelief in trickle-down economics, they definitely subscribe to trickle-down resentment. Thatcher, Reagan, Bush Jr., Harper, Trump – all these names have been used by liberals and the far left to denigrate the character of lone candidates on the right at every level of government. But with their own hands on the wheel of federal power as well as major provinces, it is now they who look inept and totally out of touch.
So I offer this as a jumping-off point for more discussion about our current political situation in Canada. Personally I’m hoping the pendulum will swing back from extreme left to the responsible centre.
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And on a related note, Lindsay Shepherd articulates her thoughts on the divisiveness of the left, and how their intolerance is pushing her towards the right:
Blue Like You2 
The other question is, even if we do win, What will Ford, Scheer, etc do with it?
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Hopefully work towards a balanced budget?
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What is a balanced budget? When asked in question period when budget would be balanced Finance Minister could not answer.
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Well this Liberal government never actually answers questions in QP so I’m not surprised. 😉
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Thanks to the financial mess the Wynne government has left Ontario, no premier, no matter who it is will be able to balance the budget. I seem to recall Doug Ford’s interview with Andrew Lawton a few weeks or so ago and he didn’t make that promise right out of the gate. I believe he said that it’s highly unlikely that given the Liberal mess, he’d work towards a balanced budget but knows that it might not be possible give how bad things have been left.
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I suspect the deficit will be larger than what Wynne is saying so the earliest I can see a balanced budget is 2020, but at least the PCs will move in that direction rather than make excuses for not doing it. The biggest thing that could prevent a balanced budget before 2022 is another recession. Actually recessions are when you are supposed to run deficits while during good times you run surpluses to save for bad times so I point out to those saying the deficit is no big deal; that may be true now, but if interest rates go up or we go into recession it will become unmanageable. And both are very likely to happen in the next four years thus why the budget is irresponsible. In fact we are due for a recession so there is pretty much zero chance of making 2022 without one. The question is will it be a mild one like around 2001 or a more severe one like the early 80s and early 90s one. If the former it shouldn’t make balancing the budget too difficult as both Ontario under the Harris PCs and federally under the Chretien Liberals were able to do so. But if like the latter ones it might be tough, but at least with the PCs we can avoid reaching a crisis level which we risk under the Liberals.
Actually if the Liberals wanted all these new programs and spending, I would have more respect for them if they just raised taxes. Yes I am like most conservatives against tax hikes, but at least doing so is being honest with the public in that there is no free lunch. You want more programs, then be prepared to pay more taxes. And for those suggesting we can just tax the rich and big corporations more, if seen the numbers and the amount of revenue you will raise for either won’t even come close. Only 9% of the budget is from corporate tax revenue while 23% is from income tax revenue and specifically 5-6% of taxes from the rich while the new programs the Liberals are introducing is greater than the entire tax revenue from the top 1%. Never mind if you raise either to uncompetitive levels, you will see them flee the province meaning less revenue. Nordic Countries are able to afford the programs Wynne is proposing by having very high sales taxes. Their VATs are 25% so that is how they can do it. So if a party ran on raising the HST to 25%, at least they would be honest with voters, off course they would lose thus why no party will do this. Otherwise the choice boils down to more programs but with higher taxes or lower taxes with fewer programs. I off course prefer the latter as I think most conservatives do.
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I hope they do whatever they can to get rid of Ontario’s green energy plan, the carbon tax. That alone will spark economic growth and help with the budgets. I think I heard we were in a negative growth situation at the start of the year?
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Actually Ontario has a cap and trade which is different than a carbon tax but worse due to large bureaucracy. Carbon tax is the other option as feds have said Ontario must have one of the two or the feds will impose one. Green energy has been a disaster, but it will depend on how many contracts have escape clauses and what the penalties are for exercising those. More likely once the contracts end, they just won’t be renewed although I’ve heard many last 20 years so probably a few terms before they can be terminated. I think lower taxes and less regulation would spark growth, but unfortunately at the moment at least many wrongly believe growth only benefits the rich not everyone and so they want a big government to re-distribute it. That is the wrong way to go, but it seems quite popular at the moment unfortunately.
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Yes, I believe the cap and trade deal is with California and Quebec, so Ontario ends up shipping boatloads of cash to them. At least a moratorium on any new renewable developments and notify anyone with an existing agreement that it won’t be extended. Anything is better than the leaked memo calling for 100% renewables, no new construction with natural gas heat, all electric cars. etc.
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I am all for clean energy, but think nuclear and hydroelectricity, not wind and solar is the way to go. I am fine with wind and solar power companies existing but only if they can sell at or below the market cost not above. Ontario already gets 52% of its power from nuclear and while Greens hate nuclear, it is the most realistic form of power that emits zero greenhouse gases and meets consumer demand. Also we live right next door to Quebec and Manitoba who both produce a surplus of hydroelectricity, so why not buy some of their surplus. Quebec has some of the lowest electricity rates in the country so I think buying some of their surplus would help reduce rates.
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One can hope so and polls do look somewhat promising but still far from certain. Ontario will be the first test and Alberta next year looks reasonably good. Federally we are at least competitive and if the momentum can continue a Tory win which looked impossible 6 months ago is at least plausible. Another one people are forgetting is Quebec as the Liberals there are centre-right unlike federally or in Ontario (Quebec has a balanced budget and now a better credit rating than Ontario) while the CAQ is leading in the polls so it seems Quebec long seen as the bastion of left wing politics may no longer be. Mind you as I’ve stated elsewhere Europe is probably more conservative than Canada today (wasn’t in the past) and Quebec much like Europe has a lot more experience with left wing politics thus realizes its dangers. As for BC, unfortunately I think an election today would yield another NDP government, but they’ve only been in power for 8 months so give it time as most governments at this point usually tend to be fairly popular, its usually in the second year when things start to get tougher so I would be more worried if the NDP is still ahead in a year’s time, not right now. The government won’t fall until next year at the earliest and will probably last until 2021.
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I’ll be happy it Scheer, and Ford here in Ontario be true to the Conservative brand. Trying to compete with Liberals by being slightly Liberal can’t work, we’ve seen too much of that, it hasn’t been working too well.
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I think it depends on how one defines conservative. If one means as right wing as the GOP or Reform Party in the 90s, then no, but the Liberals both federally and provincially have moved so far left even just being where the Chretien/Martin Liberals are would be a massive improvement. That being said I think we can be modestly conservative and still win, just not too far to the right. Social conservatism won’t fly but unlike the Liberals we at least respect their right to freely express their views, not try to shut them up. On nativism like Trump, that won’t work either as in the US, the GOP has 55% of the white vote locked up and only needs to get 60% to win whereas in Ontario the PCs don’t have a lock on old stock Canadians so both federal Tories and PCs must be competitive amongst new Canadians to win nationally and provincially. Fiscal conservatism can sell if done in moderation. Tax cuts are popular and balanced budgets still sell. Spending cuts though are a tough one so probably just freezing spending and cutting waste is the best way to balance the budget. I don’t think someone like Mike Harris could win in today’s environment.
At the federal level, certainly someone as conservative as Brian Mulroney could win a majority. I think one as conservative as Stephen Harper could win a minority for sure and perhaps a majority; it’s a bit too early to say if Harper lost due to fatigue or was it the centre moved too much to the left thus he was too right wing for the median voter. I do however think someone on the spectrum where Harper was still might be able to win but the path to 170 is quite narrow so they would pretty much have to win every winneable riding. The one wild card is Quebec as until recently people voted along separatist vs. federalist and so right vs. left was not applicable there unlike other provinces. If the CAQ wins this fall and is successful perhaps maybe there is a path for Conservatives through Quebec that we weren’t aware of. I think Atlantic Canada its either return to the Red Tory tradition to be competitive there or only win a handful of seats (I don’t think we will get shut out in 2019, but doubt we will beat the Liberals either in that region). British Columbia is quite green so probably the party will need a stronger environmental platform to win there but still doable.
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Harper is not in Federal politics. So he will not be winning
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I meant in terms of spot on the political spectrum. Certainly the country has swung leftward in the last few years but whether that is a blip or a long term trend, too early to say. Millennials are a more powerful block and more left wing than other generations, but generally people tend to get more conservative as they age so that was more what I was referring to in regards to positioning. I think after this year’s provincial elections and certainly next year we will have a better idea of what does and doesn’t work and where the public sits.
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“I’m hoping the pendulum will swing back from extreme left to the responsible centre”
unfortunately Wynne & Trudeau have dragged the left so far left that the responsible center is now portrayed as the extreme right and I think that was/is the real progressive not-so hidden agenda all along; The sad part is that we’ve been pulled so far down the climate hysteria, 24/7 identity politics, “free” stuff progressive world that even if Ford stems the tide for a term or two, the liberals will just go right back to the exact same spend like maniacs policies when they get back in.
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Yes well this always seems to be the pattern: Liberals wreck the economy, Conservatives fix it back up.. Rinse wash repeat.
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BTW I am trying to get things set up so that your comments and Cara’s don’t keep getting held up in the moderation filter. Having a bit of trouble with this though. Hope I can eventually get it figured out.
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test
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Well that experiment didn’t work. Your comment still got stuck. Well thanks for trying Cara. Back to the drawing board.
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It’s true, Wynne and Trudeau have moved it a lot further left. There is a lot of talk how the Conservatives are not your parents one and they have moved well to the right and its true conservatives both federally and provincially are more conservative than they were 30 years ago. But what is ignored is the Liberals are not your parent’s one either. Both federally and in Ontario, they have moved into traditional NDP territory. Back in the 90s, Liberals believed in balanced budgets, believed in competitive taxes, prudent spending, and generally tried to find a balance between labour and business not too heavily favouring one over the other whereas now they clearly favour labour. Also for most of the party’s history they were a big tent one and tolerated those with more conservative viewpoints, not try to push them out like they are now.
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The self proclaimed minister in charge of the weather, who in reality is minister of the environment, Is playing word games to confuse, but will someone please ask her what the difference is between carbon pricing and carbon tax and inform her she isn’t fooling anyone?
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McKenna is simply the worst Minister in Trudeau’s cabinet, and that’s saying a lot because there really are some stinkers; her condescending scolding of anyone who dares question her and her “don’t call me Climate Barbie” diatribe is pathetic; but the worst part is that she clearly has no clue what she’s talking about, she can’t give numbers, estimates or articulate any kind of a plan or timetable and fakes her way through interviews with the same old “we have to do our part”, “we are taxing pollution” garbage; even if I were one of the unquestioning global warming groupies I wouldn’t have any confidence in her
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Trudeau has a lot of weak cabinet ministers. That tends to be a common trend when a party jumps from third to first as you have to appoint a lot of rookie MPs as cabinet ministers whereas when it goes from opposition to government like Harper did in 2006 and Chretien in 1993 you at least have a strong shadow cabinet to pick from. Also the gender parity idea was a bad one since while gender parity is great in theory, ultimately you want the best cabinet ministers. Off course Trudeau has some weak male ones too, i.e. Morneau. At least if the Tories win in 2019, they will be able to largely pick from their shadow cabinet and maybe throw in a few new ones for regional representation (we will need someone from Atlantic Canada, but hopefully some of the defeated MPs offer up again so we can choose one of them as well as probably more urban ones too, particularly in the GTA).
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Anyways what do people here think about encouraging strategic voting in Ottawa Centre next election. The Tories have no chance at winning there (we can gain seats in the Ottawa area like Nepean, Kanata-Carleton, Glengarry-Prescott-Russell and maybe if things go well Ottawa West-Nepean and Orleans) but the NDP could so is this a seat where Tories should vote NDP to help get rid of Catherine McKenna.
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Personally I wouldn’t hesitate to vote strategically in the next election especially if I lived in Ottawa Centre.
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Remember how NDP ended after the any body but Harper.
They lost many seats. I do not recommend.
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Not nationally, but lets remember in the vast majority of ridings the anti-Liberal vote is Conservative not NDP. I would only recommend going NDP in a handful of ridings which the Conservatives haven’t got a shot at (Ottawa Centre fits this) and the Liberal member is a really obnoxious one that needs to be defeated (Catherine McKenna fits this bill). My riding is Vancouver Centre and it’s a safe Liberal riding so as much as I want to get rid of Hedy Fry, she will be MP until she retires (which considering her age might be next election). Otherwise this is more about getting rid of Catherine McKenna. Most cabinet ministers vulnerable to defeat face a threat from the Tories, not NDP (I.e. Karina Gould, Jane Phippott, and Maryam Monsef).
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Joanne – I think that the pendulum will indeed swing back toward conservatism even from the left, which is starting already IMO. Compounding things in Ontario is a Liberal government at both the provincial and federal levels.
Do you know what really worries me? Municipalities are learning from the worst examples at the provincial and federal levels. Spending like crazy with no plans on how to pay for things.
Another interesting thing is that Ontario is heading into municipal elections this year. Wynne has allowed municipalities to move to phone/Internet voting – if they wish. I have to wonder what kind of a mess THAT will create, and if it will benefit any one candidate in particular? Here’s a really interesting take on that issue. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-ontario-online-voting-1.4598787
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It will eventually. Whether it happens in the next 2 years or further down the road is the big question. Right now, parties on the right are tied or ahead in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec (note the current Liberals unlike Ontario and federally are actually fiscally conservative there, but CAQ who is on the right is nonetheless leading in the polls), and federally so odds are at least one of them will win, probably more, but perhaps not all of them. I think in order of likeliness, Alberta is first as even though things may tighten up, NDP will need to win over a fair number who normally vote conservative to have a chance and I don’t see that happening. Next is Ontario as few want Wynne re-elected and NDP is sort of invisible, nonetheless Ford is not very popular so I do believe had we chosen Elliott a PC win would be more assured than with Ford, but at least Ford for all his flaws is nowhere nearly as unpopular as Wynne. Wynne’s net approval rating is -40 while Ford is -10. Quebec is more of a wild card but at least whatever happens this October will mean a fiscally conservative government. Federally is probably the one we will have the toughest go at, but at least unlike 6 months ago a Tory win now seems plausible whereas until recently the general consensus was 2023 not 2019 was the earliest the Tories could win so a lot depends if Trudeau keeps on digging in, in the areas that are hurting him or if he changes things.
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I find this really interesting. In response to a post by Miles I suggested that this might happen that, in fact Ford will do media and debates in particular differently. This may work for him.
http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/ford-scrapping-media-bus-for-campaign-suggests-tories-want-him-out-of-the-hot-seat-experts?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#link_time=1522928767
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I think the thing about Ford is he is so unconventional a candidate which has its plus and minuses. Minuses in that he does rub a lot of people the wrong way and certainly many dislike him. At the same time because he is so unconventional, Liberals and NDP are stumped at where to hit him. David Herle and Scott Reid (both hardcore Liberals) on a podcast admitted he is one of the toughest to attack as he is so different than the conventional candidates so what might normally work with a PC candidate won’t necessarily with him. I’ve heard from an article Ibbitson wrote that insiders expect Ford will have a tougher time picking up affluent ridings like Oakville, Don Valley West, and Mississauga-Lakeshore than a conventional PC one would, but he could open doors for them in many blue collar ridings like Hamilton, Windsor, or Northern Ontario which would have been off limits to a conventional PC candidate.
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I think that the affluent 905 areas of the GTA are very much in play for Ford. He’s a threat everywhere. His unconventional ways, or that of any other politician can turn back a wave of change. THAT more than anything else is the momentum of this campaign. Given the positioning of Granic-Allen and Elliott in 905 ridings and it gets better for Ford.
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Looking at the mayoral election I think it will cut both ways. He can make inroads in the more ethnically diverse ones and thus places like Vaughan Woodbridge and Markham-Thornhill might be more winneable, but as someone who is around a lot of affluent people, their tends to be a strong dislike for those seen as populists. If you look at the mayoral election, Ford did well in North Etobicoke and Scarborough, both areas PCs generally don’t do too well in, but struggled in Etobicoke-Lakeshore and North York areas near the Yonge subway which Harper won in 2011. Mind you John Tory isn’t as disliked as Wynne so its possible they might still vote for him. I think at this point its tough to say how things are. There is a strong desire for change, but I’ve found Ontario voters quite skittish about actually switching when they come to the ballot box. We will have to see what happens but Ford does have a strong base that is very motivated. But there are also lots who hate him with a passion, mind you the latter group perhaps wasn’t going to vote PC anyways, but I think they will be more motivated to vote strategically.
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/liberals-announce-not-running-ontario-election-tracy-maccharles-michael-chan-1.4606003
Some more good news in Ontario with Liberal incumbents not running
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In reference to the previous post and Catherine McKenna’s constant reminder that the economy and climate work hand in glove or some such thing, it just hit me I’ve heard that somewhere before. It comes straight from the UN’s Agenda 2030: “Tackling climate change and fostering sustainable development are two mutually reinforcing sides of the same coin; sustainable development cannot be achieved without climate action. Conversely, many of the SDGs are addressing the core drivers of climate change.” https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/ It would appear that much of what the Trudeau government is attempting to bring to Canada is prompted by by what the UN is promoting for all nations. At one time McKenna “worked internationally as a legal adviser for the UN in East Timor and on trade issues in Indonesia.” Lucky us, eh?
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Here is the latest from the climate alarmists. They seem to feel it’s acceptable for poor countries to starve to death so we can fight climate change and obesity in rich countries. They are admitting this is the end game of a carbon tax – make food expensive.
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/04/06/y2kyoto-the-expendables/#comments
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But…but… they’ve told us starving people to death is all a conspiracy theory of the ‘right’. That surely can’t be the plan, can it? You bet your sweet bippy it can (look that one up from the Rowan and Martin era). Population control done incrementally through taxation.
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Justin should have put himself in the foreign affairs portfolio, apparently he’s off to Paris, London and Peru. No mention of his wardrobe, yet. Any ideas? Napoleon?
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Trudeau is becoming more beatable by the day. I say Keep it Up Justin!
You might enjoy this latest from Gerry Nicholls. https://www.thepostmillennial.com/hey-canadians-stop-disappointing-trudeau/
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That was a great column by Nicholls! I love his sense of humour.
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I agree he is, but after seeing the Green/NDP coalition in BC, I feel a Tory majority will be necessary to unseat him; a minority (which is where we are now won’t be enough). That being said it can be done. Tories are strong in the Prairies and need to hold their gains in Ontario while from there Scheer needs to focus on the other areas. We may not beat the Liberals in Quebec and Atlantic Canada, but we need to cut the lead down a bit there which we are doing but still have more work to do. British Columbia is a wildcard as vote splits will be key there as it is both the NDP and Green’s strongest province, but also Liberals strong in Lower Mainland so we need to do a bit better while hope for strong splits there. Also perhaps the NDP/Green government which is still in its honeymoon phase right now won’t be as popular come 2019.
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Those cheap Ontario PC’s, not providing a media bus to follow their leader as he campaigns across the province…tsk. tsk!
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Analysis from Global about the real facts behind employment numbers. https://globalnews.ca/news/4127603/march-2018-jobs-report-canada/
We added jobs last month, but only because we added so many government jobs it made up for a net loss of 7000 real jobs. You might be a liberal if you think this is sustainable.
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Be aware, be very aware: “All told, Google collected 5.5 GB of information on Curran, or roughly 3 million Word documents. By comparison, Facebook collected 600 MB of data about Curran, or roughly 400,000 Word documents. Accordingly, Google collected 7.5 times more data on Curran than Facebook.” http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/381979-facebooks-appearance-before-congress-is-great-but-wheres
What are these uncontrolled internet entities doing with all of this information? And why is Justin Trudeau cozying up to Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg? Remember how Trudeau managed to offend the participants when he skipped the planned meeting of Trans-Pacific Partnership countries to meet with Sandberg in November? He also had a meeting with Sandberg In Davos in January. As for Trudeau’s close association with Google, after retiring as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Google, Inc., Patrick Pichette became a director of the Trudeau Foundation where he chairs the Finance and Investment Committee. Pichette continues to serve as an advisor to Google, Inc. until 1919. Coincidentally, he also serves on the board of directors of Bombardier. They are all a little too close for comfort as far as I’m concerned. I watched a very informative video recently that raised alarms over what is happening with censorship and information control by these particular entities. I’ll try to find it and post the link if anyone’s interested.
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Developing – “The Canadian company at the heart of the international scandal over the unauthorized use of Facebook information received $100,000 in federal funding last year to develop data-driven tools for political campaigns, The Canadian Press has learned.
AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd. received the one-time contribution from the National Research Council for a nine-month project aimed at developing digital tools to predict who would turn out to vote and the likelihood of supporting a specific candidate, and to predict the outcome of a campaign’s communications strategy.” Notice that this was a “one-time contribution”.
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Very interesting indeed, Anne.
Yes it all seems a bit too cozy for sure!
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Here’s a really refreshing look at Doug Ford’s decision to NOT coddle the media with a campaign bus. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-why-doug-fords-controversial-campaign-bus-decision-does-everyone-a/?cmpid=rss
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Wonder if Trudeau will be making a big scene on his latest trip abroad….the media will be interested in his socks at least. Hopefully he stays away from the tickle trunk.
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Wynne has no where to go on the promise the moon front, she’s already overdrawn. The problem she has created is not going to be easy to deal with. Ford has to toss in a bit of reality, tell the voters Liberals do not keep promises. They are good at putting out all the goodies they promised last time and more but it’s quite another story when they grab power.
We can call them fake promises, impossible to keep when the debt is soaring by the day. It’s a strategy that has run out, people are poor paying taxes, starting to realize why taxes on everything we need to survive are so high. There are no free lunches and a trip to the grocery store will tell that story.
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No kidding! Prices are up everywhere! But groceries are the worst. And forget about going out for dinner.
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Grocery prices are so high even the cashiers are light on the plastic bag count…they feel guilty charging for them so they don’t knowing we are paying enough for the groceries. I do have the reusable ones but they get too heavy if you are shopping for the week. Plus, I think it’s another money grab, a farce.
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It’s to the point where a birthday dinner may be pizza or burger takeout and if you want to spring for some wine…not sure what wine would go with such delicacies, I’d say anything goes, hopefully something a step up from plonk. May as well laugh as cry.
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Anything goes except more of the Liberal kool-aid much of the country has been guzzling by the bucketful for the last couple of years.
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Here’s a good column by John Ibbitson in today’s Globe. Looks like Trudeau stepped squarely into this one……again. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-trans-mountain-dispute-wraps-meech-lake-oka-and-flq-into-one-complex/
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Justin Trudeau has been able to skate over his responsibilities as Prime Minister of Canada for the better part of the past two and a half years with the help of many in the fawning media. He stated after the Aga Khan fiasco that he saw his role as ‘ceremonial’. Well, that can no longer be the case. The fate of the Trans-Mountain pipeline is his and his alone to shoulder. There is no one to blame for what happens next but him. His good looks and quirky socks aren’t going to cut it any longer.
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He stated after the Aga Khan fiasco that he saw his role as ‘ceremonial’.
Exactly what I was thinking. “Hard things are hard”, as his Environment Minister would say. *Sigh*
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There’s plenty of evidence Trudeau is treating his role as prime minister as ceremonial with selfies, socks, grabbing attention any way he can.
He’s performing very much like a celebrity, his trip to India accomplished nothing beyond making himself, and us, the laughing stock of the world. Not much can top that fiasco.
The pipeline is a lifeline, it needs to get done, no more games, no more excuses, especially from the likes of Trudeau and McKenna, two of the least capable people we’ve had in government.
We are not in good hands. In fact we don’t really know who is running the affairs of state with so much inexperience in the Trudeau government. Then there’s Ralphie Goodale who has been reduced to blubbering and head bobbing, he can’t handle the mess either but he’s willing to go along, taking orders from the same incompetent sources all for the Liberal cause at the expense of even common sense.
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My fear is that Butts is running the whole operation.
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Agreed to. Also wonder if he is putting political calculations first. The Liberals only hold four seats in Alberta (all which they narrowly won BTW), while 18 in BC. Yes BC’s population is split down the middle, but also amongst Liberal voters there is a divide too. Most Green and NDP voters in BC are against the pipeline while most Conservatives are for it, but Liberals are split with the progressive wing (where Trudeau comes from) being against and more business wing (or what is left of it) for it. In addition support is strongest in the interior where Liberals didn’t do too well, while more opposition in the Lower Mainland where most of their seats are. That being said I think both the Transmountain Pipeline as well as Energy East too should have gone through.
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Are their Conservatives in B C?
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Just kidding we have excellent conservatives in Ottawa from B C
No Provincial Conservatives elected.
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Florence Engelbrecht – There are BC Conservatives provincially but very weak and disorganized. Most conservatives support the BC Liberals who despite their name are more conservative than liberal. As a BC Liberal member myself, I would say around 2/3 are federal Tories and only a 1/3 are federal Liberals and the federal Liberals are more your John Manley type Blue Liberals, not your left leaning ones like Trudeau or Wynne. Essentially the Liberals across Canada are mixed bag. Centre-right in BC and Quebec provincially, centrist in Yukon, Prairies, Atlantic Canada minus New Brunswick while left wing in Ontario, federally, and New Brunswick.
Federally there are Conservatives in BC, although the last election was a very bad one and in fact their worst showing since 1968. I think they do have potential to rebound here although in the polls we are seeing less of it in BC than elsewhere. I suspect once Horgan’s honeymoon ends (Usually most premiers are quite popular in their first year, it is the second year when numbers often start to fall) the federal Tories will start to rebound.
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News alert. Trudeau is taking another personal day. Will that make any difference in the grand mess of things? Why do we even need to know this little bit of information?
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If Justin waits until 2019 Canadians will give him all of he personal days he wants 🙂
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Oh, wait, Trudeau is leaving the country, going to Peru and some other destinations….he needs the day off to pack the tickle trunk.
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David Livingston gets four months in jail, wonder if they will take him from the courtroom to the slammer in leg irons and handcuffs like the did Conservative Dean DelMastro for breaking the rules using his own money?
Livingston is a great fan of McGuinty, he actually said he loved the man. Wonder if he thinks it’s been worth it? Was he acting on his own idea or on orders? Did he think Liberals were above being investigated? Going to jail is not a good thing to have on your record, will he appeal and squeal? So many questions.
Livingston’s background isn’t that of a stupid person, so what is the explanation?
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“Was he acting on his own idea or on orders?”
I suspect the latter. However even if he was acting on his own initiative, the captain of the ship is responsible for the actions of the crew and “Captain” McWyneety has accepted zero responsibility for her crew. I also find it is almost impossible that, in an authoritarian party like the in name only liberals, that anyone would act without orders from above. Regardless of that Wynne is still responsible for promulgating, accepting and indeed encouraging a culture of lies, deception, buck passing, blame gaming, non-accountability and reckless misuse of public dollars
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Apparently Livingston’s lawyer has applied for an appeal, that was predictable with the sentencing including jail time. It will be interesting, will likely be granted in this case.
McGuinty apparently called him “the fixer”, that shouldn’t mean he can “fix” anything without the knowledge of the top dog, that would be irresponsible on both sides.
Who would want a pilot or captain of a ship handing over the controls without consultation and detailed orders?
The McGuinty/Wynne era will go down with a terrible record and reputation, there’s been a bit of everything most people in real life could never do or support. Only badly informed or what’s-in-it-for-me voters could elect such people repeatedly, thankfully, mercifully and hopefully it has come to it’s end.
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“Doug Ford on Twitter
“I accept Kathleen Wynne’s challenge to three televised debates. Let’s do the first one outside the jail where the senior Liberal operative will be spending 4-months.”
twitter.com”
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Doug Ford is promising to fire the CEO of Hydro One, salary above $6 million is a good idea to start the clean-up on such obscene salaries while the people are paying the highest rates for power in North America. We the working poor can barely afford groceries have to ask who in blazes decided that was a fair wage.
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The only question is can Ford do this. My understanding is the province only owns 47% of the shares so theoretically the other 53% of shareholders could out vote them, but there may be different classes of shares with different weights as weights are based on ownership not necessarily voting rights. Still any promise would be good to check to make sure it is plausible. My worry with Ford is he speaks before thinking and with the PCs in the lead, they need to play it safe not throw away another winneable election.
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From Ontario Hansard – 15 – September 2015 (via @JohnToryWatch)
Hon Kathleen O. Wynne:
We made it very clear that it was extremely important for the government and the people of Ontario to retain 40% ownership, making sure we retained control of the board in terms of being able to remove the board, being able to remove the CEO and making sure that no entity could own more than 10%.
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That could definitely be used against Wynne, but still unless the government shares have greater voting rights, are preferred shares, or they own golden shares, it is possible for the other shareholders to outvote them. Maybe not likely as it is unlikely the other shareholders will vote as a block. I would have to check the corporate structure on this as I don’t trust Wynne one bit to tell the truth.
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I’m also trying to process why McGuinty was the first up to praise David Livingston’s character after he was found guilty? Will McGuinty be concerned about what might come out in the appeal process?
What reason would Livingston have for doing what he did on his own? If anything McGuinty should shut up, he was captain of the ship. How could he not be aware of what was going on is a big question.
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Check out WK’s defence of ‘the fixer’. Liberals have a completely different read of Livingston’s actions based on the fact that the emails/documents were saved by some civil servants. So no harm, no foul? Is that the way it’s supposed to work for Liberals?
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Appears they think they can do such things and stay under the radar. They must really think everyone is stupid or they are above laws of any sort or will never be caught out.
I refuse to believe Livingston didn’t know what he was doing….. I can’t figure out how he kept it from his boss.
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Our illustrious PM supposedly instructed the hotshots at Facebook to act on censoring ‘fake news’ as his own government agencies were doling out “$576,623 in seventeen separate contracts to News Canada Inc., a Toronto-based broker that distributes “ready-to-use, timely lifestyle content that is free of charge and copyright”, according to a management statement. Unsigned stories were identified only as “News Canada” content. Blacklock’s found weeklies from Alberta to Québec that republished items without any advisory they were written by communications staff with government departments and agencies.” How about that for hypocrisy? For once the story is not behind a paywall. Enjoy! https://www.blacklocks.ca/feds-fake-news-cost-577k/
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It does seem like smart politics for Ford to say he’s going to do some firing at the top of Hydro One but we can be certain the desperate Wynne Liberals will run with that right off the rails. We will be hearing a lot about people losing jobs and cutting jobs.
We have to count on people being smart enough to link those obscene salaries up against their high hydro bills. No CEO is worth over six million per year.
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I’d be happy to pay him even more if he were able to find a way to negate all the contracts with the solar and wind power scammers.
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Liberals now have a 1 million ad buy solely attacking Doug Ford (www.realdougford.ca) so shows they are pretty desperate. The Tories should take out an ad buy both to introduce Ford, but also attack the other ones as the PCs are flush with money so need to define themselves before their opponent can. I don’t think this will save the Liberals as Wynne is so unpopular, but if Ford’s numbers fall enough could create an opening for the NDP which the PCs need to avoid.
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Well if that’s what the Liberals are down to, they’re pretty desperate. They have nothing else to offer or promise so they can act like cornered punks and toss rocks.
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It’s a really bad ad. It will not hurt Ford in the least.
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Forgot this. http://torontosun.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-more-fake-news-from-ontario-liberals
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Tough to say. It certainly won’t hurt him with his base, but the question is how do swing voters respond or does the left coalesce behind one party. I think the Liberals are so hated that this will not help them so if the PCs are hurt by this, it will be the NDP not the Liberals who will benefit. If you look at second choices and vote ceilings, the Liberals have the lowest vote ceiling, PCs highest, NDP in between while for second choices NDP highest, while PCs and Liberals lowest (PCs have a lot higher first choices so don’t need as many second choices). Still David Herle who likely put this together tried this in 2004 federally and it worked then while in 2006 Harper won, but in Ontario the Liberals still won more seats 54 to 40 and Harper won by a 50 seat margin in Western Canada, while only 14 seat deficit in Ontario, 3 seat deficit in Quebec, and 11 seat deficit in Atlantic Canada so I wouldn’t totally dismiss these. I think the smart thing for Ford to do would be to roll out their attack ads on the Liberals and NDP as well as also some ads introducing Ford to the people to inoculate themselves.
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Warren Kinsella doesn’t think it will help either. Also one of his comments said people should watch it muted as most people change the channel when ads come in so the majority who will see this will be at bars and with the amount of noise they will just see the image not hear the words unless there is close captioning.
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Anyone else in the Ontario freezing rain warning area? Things could get interesting. If we lose power I won’t be able to moderate comments so my apologies in advance.
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It appears the Wynne ad attack people are gifted with clairvoyance . They have a “soldiers in the streets” type ad out telling us all the things Ford will be cutting, including jobs of course and he hasn’t yet put out his platform.
Not a good sign for the Liberals, they really are bankrupt in every sense of the word.
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Morally bankrupt for sure. They are very skilled at wasting our money. 😉
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They lay claim to this information as “the real Doug Ford”.
I say sorry, I know all I want to know about Wynne and the mess she has created the province, we have proof of that, she made the ads for us, truth, not speculation.
Corruption in politics should never be rewarded.
I wonder if they hired the annoying Liberal operative Susan Smith who did the “guns in the streets” ads? It is a female voice on the one I heard.
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NDP just released their platform. Much like the Liberals very big on spending and involves a deficit of $3.3 billion so slightly smaller than the Liberals but not balanced either. It does call for higher taxes on the rich and big corporations. In the case of the rich Ontario already has the second highest rate in North America behind Nova Scotia and ranks in the top 10 if not top 5 in the OECD so raising them higher will just cause a brain drain. For corporate taxes, Ontario is 0.4% below Quebec, and 0.5% below all four Western provinces so fairly competitive now and with the US its a mixed bag after the Trump tax cuts, but any hike of size would also make Ontario uncompetitive. On minimum wage it will be right away to $15/hour so putting more businesses in strain. For childcare only free for those under 40K which is a bit more reasonable. Either way seems to be big on spending like the Liberals. Interestingly enough most of the polls I’ve seen suggest the public is not in the mood for big spending items so whether this will work or not remains to be seen but more likely it seems to a be a fight over whom should be the next opposition leader as opposed to premier.
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Love this….Doug Ford says he will stop telling the truth about Kathleen Wynne when she stops telling lies about him!
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Haha! That’s awesome.
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I think that the left have really underestimated Doug Ford. He is intelligent and he can think on his feet quite well.
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Ford has first majority policy out today. It is a tax credit to exempt those making less than 30K from paying taxes. This will only cost $500 million so not a big cost and also shows the party cares about those struggling while at the same time not burdening taxpayers with more taxes, deficits, or putting businesses under with higher minimum wages. Will be interested to see the remaining policies. I do think Ford should have a detailed costed platform, but with the focus on five policies much like Harper did in 2006
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Ford says a Tory government would order an outside audit of government books.
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Retweeted Melissa Lantsman (@MelissaLantsman):
On day one: Doug Ford will call in an outside audit of Kathleen Wynne’s reckless spending. You don’t have the whole truth about Ontario’s finances – we’ll make sure you do
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Ontario Proud is now running TV ads against the Liberals so no longer just your union backed Working Families coalition running ads. My only hope is the PCs keep an eye on the NDP so if any surge starts it gets nipped in the bud right away, we don’t need an upset like they had in Alberta 3 years ago.
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I think this is a reasonable assessment of how it’s all shaping up in Ontario.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-fear-and-loathing-in-ontario/
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Ford can also make more of the deleted emails escapade, someone went to jail. Deleted emails spells cover-up, something damaging to hide otherwise why would it be done?
If Wynne wants dirt we do not need to get personal, go for the truth of the whole 15 years of Liberal rule. It started with McGuinty’s repeated lies to get elected and on to what should be considered corruption by anyone’s political standards in a democracy.
I also have some news for Wynne, the environment is not the most important concern among the people of Ontario. She can shut it on that one, it’s costing us well beyond our ability to pay hydro and eat. Her bogus hydro relief scheme isn’t working.
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The above comment is for the new thread,,,having a doze this morning!
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