– Re-elected Premier Kathleen Wynne will be swearing in her new provincial Cabinet today. One of the chief shuffles I’m pleased to see is Dr. Eric Hoskins moving into the Health Ministry portfolio. I’ve been a long time supporter of his from his running as a federal LPC candidate in
Continue readingTag: Kathleen Wynne
OPSEU Diablogue: The politics of “ableism” and hard-working babies
If there was a party game that could be applied to the recent provincial election, it would have involved some kind of participant action every time a politician uttered the words “hard-working families.” It’s an odd phrase – does that … Continue reading →
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The only hope for Alberta’s Tories now may be a call to Ghostbusters, or an exorcist!
The Ric McIver campaign balloon makes its way through downtown Calgary. Who ya gonna call? Kathleen Wynne? Some of the cast of the Gong Show, Alberta Edition, below: Former infrastructure minister McIver, Infrastructure Minister Wayne Drysdale, and actual acting infrastructure minister Dave Hancock. Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party is looking for
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Ontario To Canada: You Owe Us, You Ungrateful Pricks
Ontario has subsidized the rest of this frozen craphole of a nation since before the latest generation of carpers and whiners huddled under skins sucking their mama’s tit in a Yert outside of Mushaboo. If Ontario hadn’t financed Abasand Oils, Great Canadian, and on and on, Albertans would still be struggling to
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Wynne Wins
We know Kathleen Wynne likes to run, but this spring she was running against 10 years of baggage, a widespread time for a change sentiment, and more scandals than the opposition could fit in a 30-second TV spot. Luckily, she was also running against Tim Hudak. Given these challenges, the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Red in Central Canada, blue in Ottawa an immutable rule that favours Harper’s Tories? Don’t bet on it!
Is Justin Trudeau finished because Kathleen Wynne just won in Ontario, like the mainstream media’s pundits are telling you? Don’t be too sure! (Say, as one Twitter commenter asked, who is that old man with Mr. Trudeau?) Below: The same guy with NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. Weird! Below them: Lawrence
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Better Angels of Our Nature
Like many who follow politics closely, I consider myself to be deeply cynical. Probably the best window into the human soul, politics is the arena where often the worst aspects of our natures prevail; greed, selfishness, abuse of power all have ample opportunity to find expression in this venue. Yet
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Wynne’s Win, and the Agony of Right-Wing Pundits
Three election opportunities lost, Nova Scotia, BC and now the Ontario results flatten the calculating NDP strategists decision to force an election and shift to the so called middle. Here is Murray Dobbin’s assessment as carried in the Tyee Bad voters! You failed to opt for communal suicide. By Murray
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: There Is Much At Stake
Kathleen Wynne’s victory, Murray Dobbins writes, offers hope — not just to Ontario, but to the rest of Canada: While the right’s hardliners may be lighting their hair on fire, citizens on the other hand may actually get to see what governments used to be like. There is, of course,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Waitin’ for the end of the world … Hear, O Ontario! Mr. Manning will be with you momentarily
Preston Manning readies himself before the mirror of his Seventh Floor office at the Prophetic Market Institute in Calgary, the Calgary skyline in the background obscured by a June rainstorm, one of those June rainstorms, as he ponders the frightening meaning of last Thursday’s Ontario election. Actual Alberta market fundamentalists
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Was Tim Hudak Ontario’s version of Michael Ignatieff circa 2011?
I was thinking about that comparison as I digest a surprising Liberal majority in Ontario this AM (but the folks at Forum and Ekos with their last polls called it – so kudos to them. I think Nanos also had 1 poll out that pretty well mirrored the results). Thinking
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Amazingly Awesome Destruction of the Con Loser Tim Hudak
Well at the end of this long day, I guess it's safe to say that the people of Ontario weren't too impressed with Tim Hudak's vision of the future.They didn't like his Made in America plan to create jobs by killing them. Or the fact he couldn't count.And they did send him
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Ontario election: OK, that didn’t really work … can we get back to being New Democrats now?
Ontario’s victorious Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne last summer. Below: Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak. Well! That didn’t work out quite as well as we’d hoped, did it? Can we get back to being New Democrats now? I speak, of course, of the results of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links – #VoteOn Edition
This and that for your Thursday (and Ontario election day) reading… – Joseph Heath makes the case against Tim Hudak’s PCs in particular, and the shift from public to private goods in general: (I)t’s fairly clear what the PCs are planning. They are proposing a general shift in Ontario away
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Why I Might Vote for the Liberals in the Ontario Election.
With just two days before the Ontario election, and still not having decided whether to vote for the NDP or the Liberals, I decided to check out the lawn signs on the island, which is part of Trinity-Spadina riding.And the results were no surprise. The island is still mostly orange, with
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The effect on strategic voting of Wynne ruling out a coalition
Unfortunately, for those of us who think that some form of Liberal-NDP election deal or coalition would be vastly superior to the PCs forming a government with the largest minority, Kathleen Wynne has said that she won’t form a coalition with the NDP. Unsurprisingly, as this move changes the possible
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Ontario Election and the Never-ending Con Nightmare
It was dull grey rainy Sunday on the waterfront where I live, but at least it gave me a chance to collect my thoughts, wonder what is happening to this country I sometimes no longer recognize.And of course try to figure out who the hell I'm going to vote for
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Ontario Debate Aftermath #voteon
My initial (biased) impressions of the debate are: – As someone who is supporting the OLP, I’d have much preferred if Wynne had started stronger, but the first two topics were always going to be the tough ones, and I’m not sure whether I’d have done much better. I did
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: And They Wonder Why More Women Don’t Get Into Politics
In an interview in 2012, Hilary Clinton was asked “Which designers do you prefer?” Her response was brilliant: “Would you ever ask a man that question?” Says journalist Mary Elizabeth Williams: That terse exchange over her wardrobe … exemplifies everything that endears Clinton to her supporters – and everything that
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Ghastly Ontario Debate and the Fatal Weakness of Progressives
It only took about fifteen minutes of watching the Ontario leader's debate before I started to wish that I was watching something else. Anything else.Or just lounging around with my friends on a lovely warm evening, like I suspect most people in the province were doing.Because it was bad eh?It
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