Perhaps, I’m an anomaly. Perhaps I’m just too naive and insist on clinging to fundamental ideals of democracy (e.g. the electorate should be as well and truly informed in its political engagements, such as during elections). Perhaps it’s just unrealistic to expect to be able to vote for something, rather
Continue readingTag: Dalton McGuinty
Progressive Proselytizing: Ontario Election 2011: This is, and must be, a referendum on green energy
In all of North America, Ontario is unique in its approach and scale of tackling the dual problems of declining cheap fossil fuel availability and global warming. It has implemented North America’s highest rates for feed-in-tariffs, a program that pays…
Continue readingActs of Citizenship: Aggression during G20 perpetrated by police, but demonstrations criminalized by Harper & McGuinty, or “When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called “the People’s Stick.”- Mikhail Bakunin
In my previous post I wrote about one of the McGuinty government’s most egregious hours: McGuinty’s management of “security” at last year’s G20 Summit meetings in Toronto. In today’s Star, Justice Melvyn Green has vindicated the actions of demonstrators at Queen & Spadina on Saturday of the protests. In essence, Justice Green concludes that yes […]
Acts of Citizenship: “_Capitalism is the Crisis: Radical Politics in the Age of Austerity_”
One of the most despicable aspects of the McGuinty Liberal government, among many others, was its handling of security at the G20 Summit last summer in Toronto. Dalton McGuinty oversaw one of the greatest civil rights abuses in Canadian history. When you start to crack down on dissension you begin to destroy the very thing […]
Tories are in for a fight in Ontario. Latest Ipsos Reid poll shows 38% support for Hudak and 33% for McGuinty
There has been a general consensus among liberals, since the May 2 election debacle, that the party’s PR machine and recruiting mechanism need an extreme overhaul, a new vision and strategy through which the party can re-gain the attention of voter…
Continue readingthe reeves report: The Politics of Wind Power: Liberals look to ‘John Tory’ Tim Hudak
The Ontario Liberals sent a message to the future this week: it warned Conservative Premier Tim Hudak that if he wants to keep his absurd, long-standing promise to put a moratorium on all wind turbine farms in Ontario, that he would have to do it at the expense of taxpayer dollars and well-paying jobs in … Continue reading »
Scott's DiaTribes: We’ve seen this movie before..
A day or so ago, Harper came out at the Mayor of Toronto’s private picnic calling for a defeat of the Ontario Liberal government, which was published on Youtube. Some folks are a bit perturbed at Harper’s intervention into provincial politics, but it’s not like he hasn’t done it before. He issued the same call 4 years ago in a more public show of support for then PC leader John Tory, so his partisanship isn’t exactly (or shouldn’t be) surprising. I’d have been shocked if he hadn’t, quite frankly.
I’m more surprised the Youtube video was quickly taken down (still is down the last I had looked earlier this […]
Continue readingRedBedHead: Could Ontario NDP Pull A Layton?
This is interesting:
The Forum Research survey found Hudak’s Tories at 38 per cent — down from 41 per cent in June — to McGuinty’s Liberals at 28 per cent, up from 26 per cent. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath jumped to 24 per cent from 22 per cent an…
Politics and its Discontents: Revelations Of Further Charter Rights’ Violation At G20 Summit
In what has become almost a routine posting to my blog, the Toronto Star has revealed yet another violation of rights arising from last year’s federally and provincially supported G20 Summit. An article entitled Police wrong to question man with crossb…
Continue readingActs of Citizenship: McGuinty all rhetoric on abortion, or how does an avowed Roman Catholic maintain any credibility on feminist issues?
The recent turn by Ontario Liberals to dredge up the abortion issue is quite fascinating. Is it out of sheer desperation to change the channel? Is it a suicide pact? A vain attempt to hold on to “progressives” they’ve manage to fool in the past? Although McGuinty has done little of the talking, how could […]
Trashy's World: YES! Two smoking cessation aids now part of Ontario Drug Benefit Plan!!
This is great news! When I quit 7 years ago, I used Zyban, the patch, nico-gum… everything I could get my hands on! And they worked! Fortunately, the costs were covered under my drug plan… but most folks aren’t so lucky. Lower future health care costs will many times over pay for the costs of […]
Continue readingthe reeves report: Long-term thinking needed in the fight for Ontario’s Green Energy future
While in Vancouver last week as part of a First Ministers meeting, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty made a direct link between subsidies paid out to the oil and gas industry in Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan, and the need for greater subsidies from Ottawa for Ontario’s green energy sector. According to the Vancouver Sun, McGuinty claimed … Continue reading »
Accidental Deliberations: Same old story, slash-and-burn edition
So can Canadian progressives agree that eliminating environmental regulators is generally a short-sighted move which prioritizes a foolish focus on slashing government gratuitously over a society’s long-term well-being?Of course, I ask for no particula…
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: This Week in Ontario – And They’re Off!
Political excitement at the federal level may have evaporated faster than water in downtown Toronto, but the provincial scene is still very much alive this summer across Ontario.Among this week’s highlights:1. The Liberals scored a big endorsement from…
Continue reading350 or bust: Big Oil-Funded Meeting of Canadian Energy Ministers Ends: Did They Get What They Paid For?
From CBC.ca: Canada’s energy ministers ended two days of annual talks Tuesday in the Kananaskis resort in the Alberta Rockies announcing they have agreed to work together on opening up new markets to Canadian crude oil. They also agreed to work o…
Continue readingRedBedHead: Ontario Austerity, the Days of Action and How Unions Became So Pathetic
There was a time when unions in Canada fought for jobs, pensions and wages like they meant it. And it wasn’t so very long ago. Well, it was a while – back in the 1970s, to be exact. Back then Canada had the highest rate of unofficial strikes in the adv…
Continue readingImpolitical: Green energy and the Ontario election
John Podesta spoke in Toronto last night on what’s going to be one of the front and center issues in the Ontario election, green energy: Toronto, ON – This evening, at an event for Ontario opinion leaders, John Podesta, President and CEO of the Cente…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: G20 Summit Police Tactics Continue to Outrage Canadians
There is a series of letters in today’s Star that articulate the ongoing sentiments of ordinary Canadians a year after people had their Charter Rights ripped away by an out-of-control police force during the G20 Summit in Toronto. There is also one by…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: With Powers Beyond Those of Mortal Men (And Women)
Loathsome worm that I am, I have spent the past year regularly criticizing the police for their mass suspension of our Charter rights during last June’s G20 Summit in Toronto. I saw them as a force gone wild, intoxicated by their own power, emboldened…
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Weekend thoughts
The Liberal delegates have (unfortunately in my view) voted to extend the wait back to 2013 before choosing a new Liberal leader. I’ve already gone over my objection to that, but it seems from what I was hearing that the LPC brought out the party leaders heavy artillery and urged acceptance of their motion, rather then accept either the 6 month requirement or a middle of the road option as my friend Jeff was putting forward. The LPC brass got their way, it seems. I’d have thought since 2006 that some of our party would learn that the Party bosses and leaders don’t always know best. PERHAPS they will […]
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