The Progressive Economics Forum: CCPA Comparison of 3 Ontario Election Platforms

Hugh Mackenzie of the CCPA has prepared a comprehensive comparison of the election platforms of the three major parties in Ontario’s election. It reveals an enormous fiscal “hole” in the Conservative platform, that will inevitably result in dramatic reductions in public spending if that party wins the October 6 election. The report, released yesterday, added […]

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Scott's DiaTribes: Ontario debate – no knockout punches – McGuinty appears to have done well

So the Ontario debate has come and gone. There were no real “gotcha moments” last night, which is bad for the opposition parties, since you’d like to get some momentum for your side by laying a licking on the governing Premier. In fact, it appears the immediate public impression from 2 different sources was that Hudak finished last. Ipsos-Reid had Dalton Mcguinty narrowly winning last night, while a second poll from CP24 in Toronto did have NDP leader Andrea Horvath narrowly leading Mcguinty. In both cases, Hudak was last with 25%.

He had better hope that’s not a provincial wide trend. It can’t be too encouraging when the Toronto […]

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Scott's DiaTribes: Ontario leaders debate tonight is big

We enter the Ontario leaders debate tonight with a new poll from Ekos released today showing the Liberals with a 4 point lead over the PC’s and the NDP in the mid-20′s. According to threehundredeight.com, combined with the findings of another poll release last night by Abacus (with their new polling methodology), that would lead to a bare Liberal majority.

Therefore, I would submit the pressure is on the opposition parties’ leaders to perform well. Hudak needs to do so to salvage what has been a fairly miserable campaign for him (losing a massive lead in less then 3 months to now possibly losing the election outright). Horwath on […]

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Scott's DiaTribes: Big new Ontario poll – deadlocked.

Very interesting – the Forum Research president apparently paid for this poll out of his own pocket. It’s a massive sample that shows a deadlocked Ontario legislature if it holds to election day:

A Forum Research survey of 40,750 people — one of the largest polling samples in Canadian political history — has the two parties separated by only 107 respondents, each holding 35 per cent. (14,064 said they will vote Liberal, while 13,957 selected the Conservatives.) Meanwhile, the New Democrats were at 23 per cent and the Green Party at 5 per cent.

For those wondering, this was an IVR poll – an interactive voice response one, which […]

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Scott's DiaTribes: Ontario’s version of the US birthers – the ‘turbine truthers’

I’m of course talking about the anti-Wind turbines folks, better known as Wind Concerns Ontario. They’re in the background of the Ontario election – allying themselves with the Conservatives who they feel will nix the Wind turbines project if they’re elected. BigCityLib has a column on them this AM, noting their book’s connection to Energy Probe, the so-called environmental group.

I won’t take credit for the ‘turbine truthers’ label; that comes from Martin Regg Cohn in the Star yesterday:

Until we stop subsidizing the rest of the energy sector, and most of the corporate world, it makes no sense to selectively pull the rug out from under Ontario’s green […]

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Scott's DiaTribes: Politics, polls and personal stuff

Lots of stuff to talk about at the beginning of this week:

– The official Fall session for the federal Parliament begins today. The Conservatives and Harper will now begin the process of ending or killing everything they don’t like ideologically – which they now can do with their majority. Most governments try to create a legacy when they’re in government. Harper and his bunch will have a legacy that I predict will end up being remembered for trying to destroy everything that is Liberal or liberal oriented. It will be interesting though to see how effective the Official Opposition New Democrats (without Layton) and the Liberals (without a […]

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