It would never occur to me to withhold my vote in any election. Yet the one occurring in Ontario on June 12 is particularly striking in its paucity of real choice. I can’t remember a campaign for which I have felt less enthusiasm. Of course, Tim Hudak’s extremism disqualified him
Continue readingTag: ontario election 2014
Northern Reflections: No Sunshine
You would expect that Ontario’s Liberals would be defeated in this election. After all, Tom Walkom writes: The Liberals have been in power for 11 long years. They’ve presided over a host of scandals, ranging from the ORNGE air ambulance fiasco to the gas plant affair. The economy is just
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Timely Reminder of Young Tim Hudak’s Faulty Math
While much of the media seem to give young Tim Hudak a free pass on his ludicrouse claim that he will create one million jobs in Ontario over eight years by slashing both jobs and corporate taxes, Paul Boothe at Maclean’s is offering a more critical perspective: A very surprising
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Your #voteon narrative for today: not good for opposition parties.
Your one narrative that is going around the media and which Premier Wynne has decided to target extensively today: Tim Hudak’s bungled million jobs plan numbers: ..Based on a backgrounder distributed by the Progressive Conservatives to journalists, but not posted on their website, it is clear that the planners confused
Continue readingcartoon life: Fiscal barbarians in Ontario
Filed under: art Tagged: Hudak, Huns, Ontario election 2014
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: More on Conference Board Model of Corporate Tax Cuts
Further to my post yesterday about how the Ontario PCs have vastly overstated their own consultants’ estimates of the number of jobs produced by their various policy proposals (including lower corporate taxes, lower electricity prices, interprovincial free trade, and regulatory reduction), some have asked me about precisesly how the Conference Board
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Major Numerical Problems in Tim Hudak’s Jobs Plan
When Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak kicked off the current election campaign with a plan to “create a million new jobs” in Ontario, he tried to dress up the platform launch with a certain scientific respectability. The party released a “technical backgrounder” showing the precise composition of the million new jobs,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Therein Lies The Tragedy
Traditional Dippers are bewildered and disillusioned by Andrea Horwath. Yesterday, in the Globe and Mail, Gerry Caplan published an open letter to the leader of Ontario’s New Democrats: Since your decision to defeat the Liberal budget, many of the party’s most loyal supporters have been bewildered, frustrated, and exasperated. Your
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: UPDATED: Gerald Caplan’s Lament
The NDP exists for a reason: to express certain principles and to represent certain voters. Today it is not easy to say what the Ontario party’s principles are or for whom it speaks. This lament, which Gerald Caplan places near the beginning of his open letter to Ontario NDP leader
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Hudak job cuts impact on communities
Today the Ontario Federation of Labour and CUPE Ontario published calculations I prepared of how Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak’s promise to eliminate 100,000 public sector jobs will be felt at the local level, on cities and communities across the province. The original OFL release provides info on the magnitude of these impacts for
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: Promises to fix long term care tepid despite 29 violent deaths
We hope they will take time to remember the 29. Today the Ontario Health Coalition is launching their rocking chair tour across the province to draw attention to the lack of staffing in the province’s nursing homes. Lack of staffing … Continue reading →
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: They Don’t Know What They’re Talking About
Yesterday, Tasha Kheiriddin announced that she would not be voting for Tim Hudak: I have been a life-long small-c conservative. I supported the Common Sense Revolution of Mike Harris. I believe in balanced budgets, low taxes and value for money. I like the PCs’ plans for ending corporate welfare and
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: An interview with Brant MPP Dave Levac (Part 2 – Issues/Campaign)
Here is Part 2 of my conversation with Brant MPP and Speaker of the House Dave Levac I had with on Victoria Day Monday, dealing with the election campaign and issues. Part 1 of that conversation which dealt with him being Speaker and what that entails and his reflections on
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: An interview with Brant MPP @DaveLevac (Part 1 – Speaker stuff)
I was up in Brantford yesterday and had the opportunity to visit the campaign offices of Dave Levac, current Liberal MPP for Brant and Speaker of the House in the past session. I was given the opportunity to have a sit down interview with Mr. Levac to discuss some questions
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: And Speaking Of Tale Tales
Here’s a whopper from one of young Tim’s chief disciples, Lisa MacLeod: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Political Rhetoric Pierced
Hyperbole is, of course, a mainstay of political campaigns, as those vying for public office offer a blunt message to potential voters. Keep it simple and repetitive seems the overarching strategy, never more apparent than in young Tim Hudak’s 1 million jobs plan. Will people be fooled by his claim
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Whither the Ontario NDP’s social conscience?
I’ve been observing this Ontario campaign with some curiosity as to why the Ontario Liberals decided they were going to target Andrea Horwath and the Ontario NDP first in the (pre)-camapaign over them failing to support their rather progressive budget, rather then go after Tim Hudak’s far-right stances/policies, which seemed
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Who Smells Best
It’s not just Andrea Horwath’s Dippers who are acting out of character. Tom Walkom writes that, in this election, all of Ontario’s political parties are not to be found at their usual addresses. The economy has changed everything: Ontario has been hit hard by the slump. Weak U.S. demand and,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: In League With The Elite
Carol Goar writes that the NDP has forsaken its traditional role as the champion of the poor. That is the case with Tom Mulcair’s federal party. And it certainly is the case with Andrea Horwath’s provincial party. Goar writes: Horwath is following a well-worn path as Star columnist Rick Salutin
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Hudak’s Hallucinations
Tim Hudak has been traveling around Ontario, pledging to create a million jobs by cutting taxes. Linda McQuaig writes that the problem is that Hudak’s plan is an hallucination: But what makes Hudak’s plan veer beyond nutty to insidious is the fact that it’s coupled with a plan to cut
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