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 readingTag: Ontario politics
Progressive Proselytizing: The best case view of the NDP platform
NDP candidate Rosario Marchese cuts through a lot of spin to defend a frank and real representation of the NDP’s platform. In my previous post, I was fairly harsh towards the NDP plan – both as a set of policies and the larger strategies. I wanted to share his post
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The Ontario NDP’s small plan isn’t even good strategy
Shortly after the 2014 Ontario Election was called, I said that progressives – whether nonpartisans like myself or NDP supporters like some of you – should take yes for an answer, and vote to reward Kathleen Wynne’s relatively left leaning and progressive budget. Andrea Horwath’s big chance to change my
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: 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 readingPolitics and its Discontents: Connecting The Dots
H/t Ruth Blair Recommend this Post
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Taking the HST off hydro is bad policy, if good politics
One of the signature campaign planks for the NDP in the 2014 Ontario Election is to remove the HST from our hydro bills, saving perhaps $120 a year for average families. The motivation behind this – reducing the cost to average families – is reasonable and will undoubtedly be a
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: While Wynne goes to the left, Hudak dives hard right
You might have thought that Tim Hudak would have learned his lesson after his disastrous and short lived attempt to push his party towards US style union busting: going hard right in Ontario isn’t a winning strategy. Well, he is at it again with the first two major campaign announcement
Continue readingPOLL: Ontario Election – Who Has the Best Bus?
Will Kathleen Wynne’s steady hands stay at 10 and 2? How many of Tim Hudak’s million jobs are for designing bus wrap slogans? What’s the insurance rate for Andrea Horwath’s campaign vehicle? Transportation, already a prominent issue in the 2014 provincial election, intersects with many aspects of politics, policy, and
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: How not to start an election campaign
Tim Hudak hasn’t exactly started off the unofficial Ontario election campaign in a blaze of glory. His opening day campaign stop yesterday to talk about his “million jobs” pledge stumbled when the recording studio owner (formerly of Triumph) noted he voted against The Music Fund in the 2013 Budget. Okay,
Continue readingreeves report: Kathleen Wynne’s environmental ups and downs
Feature image: Ontario Rangers youth gather at Queen’s Park in January, 2013 to protest cuts to a Ministry of Natural Resources program many former participants claim changed their lives. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has called an election for June 12, and as the parties gear up their campaign platforms, it’s
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Photo Gallery: May Day 2014 in Toronto The theme of the 2014…
Photo Gallery: May Day 2014 in Toronto The theme of the 2014 Toronto May Day (International Workers Day) event was Honour Communities: Fight Capitalism. The chilly evening rally started at Alan Gardens, transformed into a march west on Carlton/College, and concluded at Queen’s Park with a few more speeches. Toronto’s
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Ontario Politics
While I realize that the politics of Ontario is likely not a riveting subject for those living in other jurisdictions, I nonetheless offer this brief post on the election that has been called here for June 12. Given that the Wynne government presented a budget that by anyone’s standards would
Continue readingreeves report: Canada-Ontario Agreement targets aquatic invasives in Great Lakes
Beefing up protections against aquatic invasive species like Asian carp has taken a prominent place in the latest Canada-Ontario Agreement (COA) governing how both governments aim to work together on protecting the Great Lakes. Asian carp in U.S. water. “Aquatic invasives have altered Great Lakes ecosystems and caused significant disruptions
Continue readingreeves report: Rebuilding ‘science team’ at ELA a tough task
Researchers at the Experimental Lakes Area in northern Ontario. Getting the team back together at the Experimental Lakes Area may be tougher than saving the project itself. When Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on May 17, 2012 that funding for the Experimental Lakes Area would no longer be renewed by the
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Wynne suing Hudak is hardly going to help her
The de facto practice of being a politician is to not so subtly imply all manner of scandalous inanities about one’s opponents. When there is an actual underlying scandal, the shrill accusations from opponents tend to reach a fever pitch, and how an incumbent politician deals with the scandal breaking
Continue readingthe reeves report: Deal reached to save Experimental Lakes Area
Ontario’s Experimental Lakes Area. After months of negotiation, Queen’s Park announced Tuesday morning a deal has been struck to transfer ownership of the Experimental Lakes Area living laboratory in northern Ontario to the International Institute for Sustainable Development. As part of the deal to keep the freshwater research facility alive,
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: "You’re either with working women and men or you’re…
“You’re either with working women and men or you’re against them.” – Peter Kormos (1952-2013) It has been one year since we lost Peter Kormos, a former Ontario MPP who died too young, at the age of 60. Kormos, who died on on March 30, 2013 of natural causes, wasn’t
Continue readingthe reeves report: Time running out on ELA interim agreement
Researchers working at one of 58 lakes in the Experimental Lakes Area in northern Ontario. Only three days remain to finalize the interim agreement to find a new operator for the Experimental Lakes Area laboratory in northern Ontario, but the province’s resource minister is “optimistic” things will work out. “We are
Continue readingthe reeves report: Field naturalists granted construction stay at Ostrander Point
The south shore at Ostrander Point in Prince Edward County (Photo by Terry Sprague.) The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists were awarded a stay of construction at Ostrander Point this week that will prevent wind developer Gilead Power from beginning construction on their nine-turbine, 22 megawatt project until the outcome
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