1. Here’s your what-kind-of-democracy-is-this-we’re-living-in item of the day: “Barring the media bad move by PC candidate.” The Tory candidate in Lambton-Kent Middlesex, Monte McNaughton, barred the media from a town hall meeting the other night. Wher…
Continue readingTag: ontario election 2011
Acts of Citizenship: When will Ontarians tire of cynical, sophomoric, and disingenuous politics?
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 readingProgressive 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 readingImpolitical: If it seems too good to be true, it usually is
Rob Ford is giving election promises a very bad name right about now: When he was running for mayor last year, Rob Ford made two explicit promises to the voters of Toronto. The first was that his plan to trim spending and “stop the gravy train” wou…
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 […]
Continue readingActs 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 […]
Continue readingActs of Citizenship: Say No to Negative Politics, Help Stop the Smears
It’s now a commonplace the incredible gains made by the NDP in the recent federal election had to do with its unrelentingly positive approach and unwillingness to engage in the kinds of negative attacks now entrenched in the Conservative and Liberal approach to political campaigning. I’m glad the ONDP has decided to follow suit, and […]
Continue readingActs of Citizenship: Progressive Women Across Ontario Seem to be Getting Ready to Back Andrea Horwath and the ONDP
A website has been created by progressive women dedicated to defeating Tim Hudak in the coming election.
Can an endorsement of the Andrea Horwath and ONDP be far behind?
Surely, they’re not backing the insidiously sexist Liberals with an avowed R…
Acts of Citizenship: Heather Mallick ignores Andrea Horwath as the only party leader who rightly champions women’s rights, or sorry sister it’s hard out here for a Liberal shill like me
According to Heather Mallick in Today’s The Star: But what he and Hudak and Harper should understand is that abortion is not a “chip” on a woman’s shoulder, it is her body and her life, her internal sanctity and her choice. I am warning those who want Canadian women to lose their right to abortion […]
Continue readingActs of Citizenship: According to latest poll, ONDP and Liberals in virtual tie and Andrea Horwath way ahead with highest approval rating as well as lowest disapproval rating
“[Andrea Horwath] is making a great impression on voters.” Horwath’s approval is up to 63 per cent from 59 per cent and her disapproval down to 37 per cent from 41 per cent. Dalton McGuinty, by far, remains the leader with a lowest approval rating (39%) and the highest disapproval rating (61%). Although to hear […]
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 […]
Continue readingActs of Citizenship: Ontario Liberals in Free Fall: Add Wild Hyperbole to their Campaign to Woo "Progressives"
As part of the Ontario Liberals’ suicide pact, I mean campaign to woo progressive voters we get this nasty example of hyperbole in the hopes of redirecting the coming election away from pocketbook issues towards “progressive” issues. Gritchik opens yesterday’s blog posting with this doozie. “Since Dammit Janet! helped vault Hudak’s position on abortion into […]
Continue readingImpolitical: More of that "real ‘gotcha’"
So you may have noticed that Fern Hill at Dammit Janet has been on a roll recently in terms of raising questions about Tim Hudak’s position on abortion and whether he just might defund access were he ever (heaven forbid) to become Premier of our fair p…
Continue readingActs of Citizenship: Ontario Liberals in Free Fall: Add Disingenuousness and Hypocrisy to Campaign to Woo "Progressives"–Updated
In their desperate attempt to halt their slide down the polls, the Ontario Liberals are preparing to spread out across Toronto’s subway to distribute flyers charging the NDP with abandoning the environment while crowing about David Suzuki’s pat on the back. Oh the irony. The OLP is hardly known for its commitment to the environment. […]
Continue readingActs of Citizenship: Ontario Liberals in Free Fall: Predictably Resort to Useless Smearing and a Failed Strategy
So the Ontario Liberals want the coming provincial election to be about ethical issues such as women’s reproductive rights. Now I get the strategy. Distraught with their free falling in the polls, the Liberals are desperate to pander to their supposed base (i.e. progressives, women, progressive women) and thus have taken to publicly demonizing the […]
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 readingImpolitical: The reviews for the Hudak platform are in…
That should raise some doubt about Mr. Front Runner who seems to be playing a very, very safe and talking pointed campaign at the moment. Why on earth are all those news organizations saying such brutal things about Mr. Hudak and his platform? Could ma…
Continue readingImpolitical: Horwath gaffe watch
So, the Ontario election campaign is getting a little more interesting of late. This quote by NDP leader Andrea Horwath really deserves a second look: “I’m putting a party back in the party,” Horwath, 48, said Sunday, one day after raising eyebro…
Continue readingImpolitical: Ontario’s declining GHG emissions
Saw this on Live Free or Die’s blog where he cites a recent Pembina item on Ontario’s declining greenhouse gas emissions.
Good roundup of GHG data. This part stood out for me:
Inside Canada, provincial emissions results almost always generate some int…