Great article here by Joe Warmington about the latest NDP candidate to be outed for a controversial past: Gurratan Singh, brother of Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
Apparently Gurratan wasn’t a big fan of police when he was younger, but Andrea Horwath has basically said oh well that was then and she is keeping him on.
The problem here is that this is just another sign of a very concerning trend in this NDP party where radical tendencies seem to be accepted. What would an Andrea Horwath cabinet look like? Voters deserve to know.
Blue Like You2 
The NDP has always been the home of some pretty fringe characters, after all if they were more mainstream they’d be liberal socialists instead of whacko socialists.
This also seems important from the Ipsos poll
‘A full 82 per cent of PC voters responding to the Ipsos poll said they were “completely certain” they’d turn up to vote, while among NDP voters it was 69 per cent and among Liberal supporters it was 65 per cent.’
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I think that is always a danger when a party surges from third to first, you get a lot of nutty candidates. Most of the nutty candidates are in ridings the NDP wasn’t expecting to win, however when you surge as much as they do you suddenly do start winning those. You would think after the 2011 surge in Quebec, in Alberta 2015, the NDP would learn these things happen so do a much better job of vetting candidates but I guess not. Now not all surges from third are problematic if the party is leading in the polls well before the campaign such as the Liberals federally so at least they attract stronger candidates. Likewise in Quebec, the third place CAQ might win this fall, but unlike the NDP they’ve been leading in the polls for the past year so many high quality candidates are coming forward to run.
Still quite worrisome and I suspect if heaven forbid the NDP wins, Horwath will have to keep them on a tight leash. All parties have some nutbars, but the NDP seems to have the most of them of all the parties.
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This also results from the lack of any media scrutiny of these fringe people until it looked like some might win. This is the opposite of the scrutiny of any conservative candidates whose non main stream views are used to taint the entire party regardless of the likelihood of winning as a candidate or party as a whole.
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Horwath’s not going to win Miles. It’s also quite rich that by contrast Doug Ford nixed his troublesome candidates when he caught some heat but Horwath will not do the same. A bit of a double standard there IMO.
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I am not so sure. Not saying she will win, but I’ve watched enough elections to know when a wave starts sometimes nothing stops it. Next few days will be telling. Alberta NDP had same problem but one needs to remember unfortunately far too many voters hold parties on the right to a different standard than those on the left. It is so frustrating but it seems people only vote rightward if perfect yet vote leftward with tonnes flaws.
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To be fair at this point as someone who is an investor and takes risk, I don’t think I would want to bet much money on any particular outcome at this point. I think the only safe bet is the Liberals will fall to third.
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I’ve watched enough election too Miles. I also know when a pollster is trying to slip on past voters, which is exactly what the MacLeans poll does. “Steve Gilchrist
8 hrs ·
I’ve been door-knocking for PC candidates across the province, (so I admit my bias, right up front!) and the latest Macleans-Pollara poll has really wound me up! Bad enough that it is a collossal fraud to suggest that anyone could magically select 878 voters who would accurately represent the voting intentions of 4.8 million Ontarians, but if you look at the fine print, the pollster admits that they altered the results to compensate for what THEY think are the different voting intentions of different age groups. What a monumental fraud (and, for what it’s worth, diametrically opposed to what I’m hearing at the doors in Pickering, Peterborough, Scarborough, Etobicoke, etc). It should be illegal to publish polls without showing the raw data – and where the polling was done – anything less is an insult to voters who are looking for honest information! 878 voters, IN ONE RIDING, would be bare minimum for a reasonable guesstimation. To suggest that 7 voters, from each riding (which have an average population of over 100,000!!), could produce an honest cross-section of voting intentions defies all credibility (no matter which Party is claimed to be leading!).”
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this is not surprising in the least, the NDP is an activist party so that’s what you get; not just the usual social justice/race/climate pimps but, as we have seen lately, the real radical fringe of what should be a fringe party
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Off topic but also kind of on topic. I’m sure most of you have heard talk lately about banning plastic straws because they are getting into the oceans. (Not sure how a straw gets from my place down the Grand River, through the Great Lakes and St Lawrence to the ocean, but I digress). Anyway, a liberal or NDP government would jump at the chance to virtue signal, and I think McKenna already has talked about it. Then there is data – http://notrickszone.com/2018/05/29/latest-euro-delusion-eu-wants-us-to-believe-it-can-rescue-oceans-by-removing-less-than-0-01-of-the-plastic/#comments
Turns out 90% of all plastic entering the ocean comes from just 10 rivers, 8 of which are in Asia, and 2 in Africa. So if all of North America eliminated all plastics, not just straws, we would eliminate something less than 5% of the issue. I honestly don’t care because I probably use about 2 straws per year but this environmental virtue signalling drives me nuts.
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Didn’t the UK which has a Conservative government want to do this? Certainly a dumb idea and not something I would support.
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I think you need quotes around ‘conservative’ when talking about them since Thatcher. Over there the ‘conservatives’ are as bad as labour with respect to environmental issues. The only difference is that labour is ideological, ‘conservatives’ are in it for the crony capitalism.
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If PC’s can’t vote for their party because they don’t like the leader who are they helping and in this case who are they hurting?
NDP is an irresponsible choice given the state this province is in.The Liberals are the architects of one of the biggest debts in our history.
So If it’s carbon taxes and and loopy environmental policies we want , take a look at and listen hard to the leaders of those parties and some of those running for them.
It’s long past time for Ontario to vote smart.
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Right Liz J. Also, Miles isn’t the only one that’s been around many campaigns. I know the tricks of pollsters and in fact the latest Macleans-Pollara poll has really wound me up! Bad enough that it is a collossal fraud to suggest that anyone could magically select 878 voters who would accurately represent the voting intentions of 4.8 million Ontarians, but if you look at the fine print, the pollster admits that they altered the results to compensate for what THEY think are the different voting intentions of different age groups. What a monumental fraud (and, for what it’s worth, diametrically opposed to what I’m hearing at the doors in Pickering, Peterborough, Scarborough, Etobicoke, etc). It should be illegal to publish polls without showing the raw data – and where the polling was done – anything less is an insult to voters who are looking for honest information! 878 voters, IN ONE RIDING, would be bare minimum for a reasonable guesstimation. To suggest that 7 voters, from each riding (which have an average population of over 100,000!!), could produce an honest cross-section of voting intentions defies all credibility (no matter which Party is claimed to be leading!). This doesn’t represent anything close to the truth of what Ontarians think. That Macleans-Pollara is is a giant push-poll for the NDP. Seeing it for exactly what it is. A misrepresentation of facts and figures to suit their “left” agenda.
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https://globalnews.ca/news/4237041/ontario-liberals-ignored-advice-could-save-billions-green-energy/
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I saw that, they were too kind to the liberals even given how scorching it was.
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Not to mention that the NDP went right along with it all.
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I think the problem is less with PCs as in the past four elections support has been in the 31-35% and they seem to be holding that just fine. I think its more are they able to pick up the additional 5-10% swing votes they need to win. Hopefully as people take a good look at the NDP they think twice. Angus-Reid has an interesting survey showing more prefer a PC government to NDP one but more prefer Andrea Horwath as premier to Doug Ford so its seems to be more personality than policy. That was why I always thought Doug Ford was a risky choice, but too late to change now, just got to hope for the best.
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I’ve decided that for my own mental health I’m going to try to find a silver lining in whatever happens June 7:
– If NDP wins I get “free” dental care (if they keep their promise).
– If Libs wins at least it wasn’t NDP socialists.
– If PCPO wins, yay!!!
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Mine are if either the Liberals or NDP win, it only improves the chances the Tories win federally in 2019 so that is the silver lining IMHO.
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I will add the one outcome which I don’t want to see as a BC resident, but would be fine as an Ontario resident is Ford lose the popular vote but win a majority. The reason for this is we have a referendum this fall in BC on switching from FTFP to PR and I am worried such result would just work in favour of the pro-PR side thus I would be happy with such result if I still lived in Ontario, but not so much in BC.
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In the effort to preserving your sanity Joanne, I admire your resolve.
Here are the latest poll tracker numbers. IMO the PC numbers are more efficient than are the NDPs at the moment but what’s important are the probabilities at play. https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/onvotes/poll-tracker/
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Yes thanks Cara. I agree with you about PC numbers being more efficient regarding seat counts. So that is definitely cause for hope. 🙂
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What also needs to be taken into consideration is which demographic is most likely to be glued to their phones and would be most likely to respond to telephone polls whether or not they knew who was calling. My guess is that it wouldn’t be conservative voters. Just my opinion.
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Good point Anne.
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New numbers up. Horwath can’t turn around without having questions asked of her about her “candidates”. Has she plateaued? The number appear to be leaning that way. https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/onvotes/poll-tracker/
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I have no idea what just happened Joanne. Got a blip on my end as I posted the last post.
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This filter is crazy. I have nothing in it. And yet your comments get held up. Insane.
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Other than that things to be running smoothly though. At least this platform is stable.
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Agreed there are signs the NDP has plateaued, but as I always say, when running a campaign, always regardless of what the polls say act like you are a few points behind. Complacency is always the biggest danger with any party so if campaigning continue to think you can win, but also don’t assume it is in the bag either. It is going to come down to whom can get their vote out best.
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I don’t see any party being complacent right now. Not even close. There’s way too much being spun by media and pollsters that’s not being challenged. To that end, and to those who criticize the PCs for not coming out with a fully costed platform, here’s a column that says it better than I can. Ford’s been saying this all along. The trouble is that the media haven’t been reporting it. The usual MSM suspects prefer their narrative.
http://torontosun.com/news/provincial/bonokoski-the-truth-about-ontario-elections-fully-costed-programs
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In exactly one year from now, Alberta goes to the polls. Hopefully the NDP is sent packing and I think they likely will. My only worry is complacency on the part of some UCP supporters, no matter how favourable things look, its always a bad idea to think you have the election in the bag until all the ballots are counted. Adrian Dix in 2013, Lyn McLeod in 1995, David Peterson in 1990, and almost Theresa May in 2017 (she did win, but not the landslide most expected) or even Hillary Clinton in 2016 are all examples of people who got complacent thinking they had it in the bag and losing. I also think the Ontario and Alberta elections will be good dress rehearsals for the federal one and what to do and what not to. Likewise Quebec this fall could be interesting and if the CAQ wins could be a sign of what types of conservative policies sell for conservatives there.
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So, there you/we have it, US slaps us with a tariff on steel and we have the worst bunch of dopes to deal with the situation we could possibly have. Would this have happened with Harper at the helm?
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Unfortunately considering Trump hit pretty much every ally, I think it would have. I agree Trudeau is not the best to deal with it, but the US is a large superpower and our ability to influence them will always be limited. Same goes with China. When you are a country as large and as powerful as either you can pretty much do whatever you want. If Canada were hit but other allies exempted I would be more inclined to believe this, but when they hit every single ally then I don’t.
That is partly why I strongly dislike Trump, I feel the GOP under him his moved away from its roots. Otherwise it is no longer the party of Ronald Reagan and the conservatism Reagan promoted is more in line with traditional conservatism. I as a Red Tory, maybe wasn’t quite as conservative as him, but respected him a lot more. I would probably be more like an Eisenhower or Ford GOP type which are largely non-existent, but didn’t mind Bush sr., and Reagan. Didn’t like Bush Jr., but would take him over Trump any day.
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I disagree Miles, at least to some extent. Recall that our side started with ridiculous non trade related demands from the start. Trudeau asked for weird gender and lgbtqxyx considerations to be included in any trade deal at the beginning. Maybe it made no difference, but more likely it was easier to not take us seriously.
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It’s probably true Harper would have done a better job, but I’ve found with the US, when they decide a trade war there is only so much you can do. Certainly the virtue signaling was unhelpful, but the fact they spared no one is why I am not sure.
That being said I think all parties should stand united on this and we should fight over other issues not this. Both James Moore and Jason Kenney who are definitely not supporters of Trudeau by any means tweeted their support in taking a united action. Otherwise I believe this is case where country comes first. We also should work with the EU, Japan, Mexico, and other allies negatively impacted by this. Likewise the one area Harper may have helped is a lot of Republicans in congress don’t approve this so stronger ties with people in congress might help as traditionally the Republicans have been a party of free trade not protectionism. Mind you Trump is no Ronald Reagan.
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I agree Greg. We have no clue just what was being done on our country’s behalf by our government. The opposition parties have been asking and asking in QP for updates and the specifics but all they got was saturated talking points from the last election.
What’s worse, Trudeau’s agenda for the G7 seems to be studded with the same soft stuff like gender equity, climate change, blah, blah, blah.
If it appears to Trump that he’s being ganged up on I bet he doesn’t show.
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When you have every major Canadian TV newscast and all our major newspapers doling out Trump slurs by the bucketful what can you expect? The CBC, this country’s state broadcaster, even has its supposed comedy show, “This Hour Has 22 Minutes”, devote endless skits and tweets to put down the man in the White House. Whether you like him or not is immaterial. A modicum of diplomacy is necessary in dealing with the leaders ofother countries, thus the reason we have diplomats. Sometimes you reap what you sow, especially from someone the previously named undiplomatic, mean-spirited entities have portrayed as erratic.
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Considering the source this is QUITE an amazing opinion piece by Don Martin.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/don-martin-blog/don-martin-trudeau-gambles-against-his-partisan-self-interest-1.3954223
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I think on the trade issue, this is where we should put country ahead of party. Jason Kenney, James Moore, and Brad Wall who are all staunch opponents of Trudeau and true conservatives have all said they stand with them in retaliation against Trump’s illegal and unnecessary tariffs. Even many Republicans have gone after Trump over this as the GOP up until recently used to be the party of free trade. Lets remember, free trade was brought about by two conservative leaders, Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan so free trade is very much a conservative idea and protectionism is something you would expect from leftist like Bernie Sanders or the NDP, not conservatives. Where we should go after Trudeau is his decision to purchase the pipeline. If he had simply declared it in the national interest and pushed it through, it would be done with 100% private money and not one cent of taxpayer’s dollars. Instead of billions of taxpayer’s dollars will go to fund this thanks to his and Horgan’s stupidity, so this is an issue not the trade war we need to hit Trudeau hard on.
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Yes I agree that Trudeau is more culpable on the pipeline file than the NAFTA one.
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Although, I am reading today that Trudeau leaked part of a supposedly confidential conversation between him and VP Pence about negotiations. This supposedly PO’d Trump enough to immediately announce the tariffs.
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Yes I heard something about that too Greg. Pence said later that what Trudeau said wasn’t true.
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Bottom line the smarts are not evident with whoever is the collective comprising the brains of the outfit we call the Trudeau Government. This will cost us big time. Wonder if they even know the meaning of diplomacy? Trump isn’t stupid,he will get what he wants, he will play to his power, and he may backtrack when he makes that clear. He knows it will not work long term.
Meanwhile back in Trudeau pipe dream land, we are now the proud,owners of shares in a pipeline.
What could possibly go wrong?
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I find it rather amusing that the Liberals are basically calling the Trump admin all kinds of names now. They must be so frustrated.
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The other thing I have to wonder, and the opposition parties touched on this a bit in QP and in scrums yesterday is what if the whole time during NAFTA negotiations Trudeau’s team has been over the top on the social issues like gender equity, climate change? That would certainly frustrate the other two parties at the table no?
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OMG Joanne – something’s worked in posting today!
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On the Ontario election front, does anyone have any facts relating to the PC’s attitude towards the Catholic school system, and the NDP’s attitude towards nuclear power, ie keep them or ditch them in both instances? Asking for friend(s). I haven’t been able to find any official policy on this stuff. Thanks.
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Too controversial on both counts IMO, none will even mention either. We all know what mentioning schools got John Tory!
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The only thing I’ve heard Dough say about the Catholic school system, cant’ recall where or when I heard his say it, was I think on TVO many months ago when the question of merging the Catholic and public systems question was put to him. His response was something to the effect that he would not consider a merger of systems but that he is open to exploring efficiencies and possible mergers in things like day-to-day operations like payrolls, purchasing. If I’m not mistaken I believe that that was one of the recommendations in the Drummond report that McGuinty had done as well.
On the NDP nuclear front, it seems to depend on the day with Horwath. In Pickering she said she would close it. In Huron-Bruce it’s the NDP ONLY that opposing Bruce Nuclear from storing waste underground.
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Canada elected a virtue-signalling man child who runs a self-important bunch of incompetents with plans to change the world in their pie-in-the-sky image. As Cara said, “What’s worse, Trudeau’s agenda for the G7 seems to be studded with the same soft stuff like gender equity, climate change, blah, blah, blah.” This is what you take to a trade meeting? How well did that work for them with the Trans-Pacific Partnership which became the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership? How can you expect to be taken seriously when an economic agenda is saddled with such nonsense? Trump pulled out of that one. What made this government think they could pull the same shenanigan again with NAFTA and not suffer the consequences? We were warned and granted a reprieve from the tariffs. Did Trudeau and his acolytes listen? It has become vicious and personal. Just read Scott Gilmore’s column in Macleans. This comes from the husband of Canada’s Environment Minister. How much closer to the government’s inner workings can you get? https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/trade-sanctions-against-america-wont-work-sanctioning-trump-himself-might/
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We were warned that negotiations were not going well: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/10/27/ex-pm-stephen-harper-pens-memo-slamming-trudeau-government-over-nafta-talks.html This reminder that we have been fed a lie comes from Dean Skoreyko @bcbluecon.
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Exactly Anne! To both your links. The writing was on this wall, and it’s not like we missed it, we ignored it in favour of the Trudeau government agenda. What’s becoming crystal clear is that Trudeau’s agenda isn’t that of the rest of our country.
I hope that Sheer and the CPC push back now on Engery East because the same deals that now apply to Kinder Morgan should get us another look at EE.
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Looks like if Forum, Ekos, and Mainstreet paywalled polls are to be believed the NDP maybe peaked a bit too early. Lets hope this is true and that whatever misgivings people have about Ford, and believe me I have a lot, people realize just how dangerous voting NDP is. Also Ford picked up another big endorsement, former Toronto and North York mayor Mel Lastman endorsed him.
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I believe that Wynne’s points today are stealing from the NDP, and it’s working better for the PCs. Those polls you mention, AND the usual MSM have been pulling Horwath along for the past three weeks.
If I’m paying attention to polls at I’m a fan of Abacus and my new fav. AI (which showed the NDP plateauing at the beginning of this week)
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