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 […]
Continue readingTag: ontario election 2011
Pample the Moose: Ontario Election: Guelph Update
I unfortunately missed the all-candidates debate on social policy last week in Guelph, as a nasty cold took hold of me. I had been looking forward to checking out the candidates in person. From what a good friend and colleague told me though, the NDP…
Continue readingImpolitical: Green energy and the last week of the campaign
As we get closer to the election, the uncertainty that is being caused by Tim Hudak’s opposition to both Ontario’s Green Energy Act and the Samsung deal that brings renewable energy investment to the province is getting some renewed attention. Nothing …
Continue readingScott'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 […]
Continue readingImpolitical: Cancelling contracts in the Ontario election
It’s a theme in this election. Seen most recently in the Liberal move to cancel the power plant in Mississauga. A few points on that here…First, it should be noted that this is not something that was cooked up 11 days before the election, as it was p…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Camera-test your ties – Ontario Leader’s Debate Edition
So, despite a deep-seated desire not to inflict pain on myself, I tuned in this evening to the Ontario election leader’s debate. To make this a productive hour and a half, I also set up the ironing board and a stack of 12 shirts. If you don’t feel li…
Continue readingScott'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 […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario’s Corporate Tax Debate
Today’s Ottawa Citizen (page A15) features the following op-ed on Ontario corporate taxes. I have added links to references. I recently discussed this issue on TV Ontario: Corporate Taxes are Low Enough By Erin Weir, Ottawa Citizen, September 27, 2011 Corporate taxes are a major dividing line in Ontario’s election campaign. Liberals and Conservatives would […]
Continue readingActs of Citizenship: A vote for the ONDP is a vote for “progressive” government, or McGuinty is not “progressive” (updated)
The Ontario Liberals are so desperate. They are running one of the most disingenuous smear filled campaigns I’ve ever seen from Liberals. First they’ve tried to dissuade progressive voters by suggesting that the ONDP and the PCPO are the same. Thus, don’t vote for the ONDP. I mean after all
Continue readingScott'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 […]
Continue readingImpolitical: About that poll
Big poll in the Star today. It polled a ton of respondents and has the Liberals and PCs at 35% apiece. NDP at 23%. Recent polls have been showing the race tightening so this seems to fit. Every election is unique and this one’s undercurrents are certai…
Continue readingImpolitical: The fight for Ontario in Parkdale-High Park
Parkdale-High Park Liberals have come out with a reality check this evening on some of the many claims made by sitting NDP MPP Cheri di Novo during the debates of the past week or so. I sat and watched two and lived the frustration that the piece refer…
Continue readingActs of Citizenship: Trying to understand outrage at ONDP’s 1% HST reduction in gasoline
This portion of the ONDP platform has probably received the most discussion, usually vacuous outrage, especially by self-styled environmentalists. So, I’ve been trying to figure out what is so egregious about the proposal to claw back 1% of HST from the oil companies who at last check were doing quite
Continue readingRedBedHead: Harper-nomics Is Recipe For Global Depression & Trade Wars
I feel like I’m repeating myself, having just written that the global crisis is not a crisis of debt but, rather, that the debt is a symptom of the long term decline in the rate of profit. Now, I read Stephen Harper and British Tory Prime Minister Davi…
Continue readingImpolitical: Jerky populism watch
From Horwath’s announcement yesterday, this claim on hospital CEO salaries: Horwath noted that by capping executive salaries at twice the salary of the Ontario Premier, about $80 million could be diverted to programs like these to help new mothers.As …
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Where is Christine Elliott?
(Whitby-Oshawa OLP Candidate Elizabeth Roy and ONDP Candidate Maret Sadem-Thompson. Not pictured: PCPO Candidate Christine Elliott.) Christine Elliott isn’t a big fan of showing up. She has been a vocal opponent of the HST (before her party switched positions on … Continue reading →
Continue readingImpolitical: A fair take on the green energy issue in the Ontario election
Hey! A reasonable newspaper column on green energy I can get behind! For the first time this campaign: ” Energy flashpoints and the politics of power.” The right wing insists we can’t afford to subsidize power in this province. Funny, but this countr…
Continue readingScott'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 […]
Continue readingRedBedHead: Toronto: Mayor Ford Retreat, Tory Vote Meltdown
Ah, I love the smell of self-inflicted Tory panic on a Monday morning. It seemed only a year ago that things were heading towards Tories at all levels of government. Harper was riding high – and would soon win a majority – Ford won a majority of vot…
Continue readingScott'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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