The Globe and Mail just broke the story on what will likely be the defining component of Kathleen Wynne’s legacy: The Ontario Liberals are introducing a big cap and trade plan. Details are sparse as yet, but it looks like they will be joining the Quebec/California regime. This is huge news,
Continue readingTag: ontario election 2011
Progressive Proselytizing: Ontario’s brave new cap and trade program
The Globe and Mail just broke the story on what will likely be the defining component of Kathleen Wynne’s legacy: The Ontario Liberals are introducing a big cap and trade plan. Details are sparse as yet, but it looks like they will be joining the …
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Ontario’s brave new cap and trade program
The Globe and Mail just broke the story on what will likely be the defining component of Kathleen Wynne’s legacy: The Ontario Liberals are introducing a big cap and trade plan. Details are sparse as yet, but it looks like they will be joining the Quebec/California regime. This is huge news,
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Paul Donofrio: NDP Candidate. Rob Ford Supporter. Social Media Cautionary Tale.
Yesterday, I wrote about how the PC candidate in Kitchener-Waterloo, Tracey Weiler, has been running away from the PC leader Tim Hudak. In the riding of Vaughan, the ONDP and their leader Andrea Horwath, the opposite has been the case. Paul Donofrio, the ONDP candidate, has been completely ignored by
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Canadian Politics Word(s) of the Year: 2011
Today is the final day for writing/releasing end-of-the-year posts. 2011 featured a federal election and provincial/territorial elections in Manitoba, Ontario, PEI, Newfoundland, Saskatchewan, Yukon and the NWT. At the end of 2011, Canada now has 4 female premiers (up from 2 at the beginning of the year), the BQ have
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Why I voted as I did in the Ontario Election
While I wrote quite a few blog posts on the 2011 Ontario Election, both generally and specifically with regards to my riding of Parkdale-Highpark, I never actually indicated precisely who I was voting for. I thus explain my reasoning here, belatedly, p…
Continue readingImpolitical: Green energy costs in the news again
I don’t have much time at the moment to pursue the study referenced here re Ontario’s electricity costs as related to the province’s green energy emphasis: “Cost of green energy 40 per cent higher than government estimates: study.” However, one of the …
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The sensitivity of the Ontario election results to the Green Party vote
One of the interesting results of the Ontario general election was the collapse of the Green Party from its 2007 peak of 8% down to just over 3% in 2011. In this post I run the math on various counterfactual scenarios to see what would have happe…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Charisma Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be
Dalton McGuinty won a third mandate yesterday. Six months ago he was a dead man walking. He will need support from the NDP to keep him upright. But the truth is that the uncharismatic McGuinty will join Oliver Mowat in the history books as only t…
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Ontario election aftermath & is it time for mandatory voting?
It was a fascinating result last night in Ontario (I say that as someone interested in political science, not as a Liberal partisan). It’s not often in a First-Past-The-Post electoral system that you see a party fall exactly 1 seat short of a majority, but that’s what happened in the case of Dalton McGuinty and The Ontario Liberal Party. Late polls indicating a majority never materialized, or the PC party again had more dedicated partisans coming out to vote. That said, the Liberals were way behind in polls 2-3 months ago, so a win, even if it fell short of a majority, has to be a satisfying outcome for […]
Continue readingImpolitical: Post election Parkdale-High Park notes
This is a risky blog post since it’s coming late at night and my faculties, post-campaign party, are just not quite at 100%. There are a few things percolating on my brain, however, so here goes…First off, congrats to our principal opponent Cheri DiN…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Ontario Election 2011 – Tight Races, Bedtime for Me
As I head to bed at 11 PM, the Liberals are one seat shy of a majority government in Ontario, with a handful of seats still teetering in the balance. I’m extremely pleased that the Conservatives failed to capture the government. As I see it, one way …
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario’s Stimulating Election Platforms
A common refrain among political pundits has been that all of Ontario’s election platforms are unrealistic given a deteriorating economic outlook. Rather than bemoaning this alleged lack of realism, we should evaluate how each party’s platform would fare in a downturn. The NDP platform is built on the fiscal framework set out in the 2011 […]
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Polls aplenty in Ontario
To recap in the last day, Ekos, Nanos and Ipsos all indicate the Liberals are close to or will get a majority (Ipsos even went so far as to say in an interview that it’s over – the Liberals will win), while Abacus is showing a tighter Liberal lead that could go either way, and now Angus Reid has released a poll this AM saying they have a slight PC lead.
I’m not sure if that’s it for polls – Harris Decima is the only major pollster I haven’t seen release anything of late – but it appears it will again come down to who can get their […]
Continue readingImpolitical: The secret anti-green energy online campaign of the Power Workers’ Union
What the Power Workers’ Union has been up to during the Ontario election campaign to undermine the Liberal government’s green energy policies: “Ontario marketing campaign seeded Internet with ‘conversations’ promoting coal, nuclear.” A bold labour unio…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Ontario Election 2011: Why the left should hope for a Liberal Minority with NDP support
I suspect that many people, perhaps most, have a favorite party that they would prefer to win a majority. Somewhat incorrectly, I think, it has become the conventional wisdom that we should always hope to have a majority government. I have even heard i…
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: The closing days of the Ontario campaign
Only a few days left until Ontario voters get out to vote for their next provincial government, and the polls that came out on the weekend still had a neck and neck race. Ekos released a new poll this AM which seemed to indicate the Liberals were pulling away just a tad, but it still is close.
It will be interesting from my standpoint to see a) which polls were closest (online, IVR or traditional phone) and also the similarities/differences to the Ontario vote from the federal election in May, and what can be learned from that.
Also, with regards to a rumour of Harper coming to Toronto to […]
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Christine Elliott Plays the Name Game
Some numbers from here in Whitby-Oshawa: 0 – The number of time Christine Elliott mentioned Tim Hudak’s name during the last 4 debates. 3 – The number of times Christine Elliott has run for office. 1 – The number of … Continue reading →
Impolitical: Fun with Jim Flaherty’s debt lessons
Mucho chutzpah from Jim Flaherty today: …Flaherty told the Tory blue lunch crowd that Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty’s government has doubled the debt.Before the Liberal government came to power, the surplus was $117 million, said Flaherty, who is …
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Andrea Horwath has a Complaint about the Health Care System.
For my American friends and readers, we’re having a provincial election here in Ontario. Since health care is deemed a provincial responsibility (though funded extensively by the federal government), it’s naturally a hot topic of discussion. At the televised leader’s debate a couple of days ago, New Democrat leader Andrea Horwath managed to step in […]