A coalition of worried environmental groups is calling on Premier Kathleen Wynne to refrain from transferring provincially owned land in Scarborough to Ottawa over fears that ecological protections in Bill C-40, the Rouge National Urban Park Act, are substantially weaker than those already in place. Days after the federal Conservatives
Continue readingTag: Ontario politics
Politics and its Discontents: Lisa MacLeod Revisited
The other day I wrote a commentary on recently re-elected Nepean-Carlton Ontario Progressive Conservative Lisa MacLeod. In a thinly-disguised job application/op-ed piece for the Star, Ms. MacLeod talked about what is needed for revitalized leadership of her party, brought to electoral ruin by the soon-to-be-departed leader Tim Hudak. Perhaps not
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Lisa MacLeod’s Ambition
I’ll say right off the top that I am no fan of recently re-elected Ontario Progressive Conservative Lisa MacLeod, and not just because she is a member of what has become an extremist party. Her embrace of the politics of division, her strident hyper-partisanship, and now, post-election, her hypocrisy, rankle.
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Wynne Wins
We know Kathleen Wynne likes to run, but this spring she was running against 10 years of baggage, a widespread time for a change sentiment, and more scandals than the opposition could fit in a 30-second TV spot. Luckily, she was also running against Tim Hudak. Given these challenges, the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Red in Central Canada, blue in Ottawa an immutable rule that favours Harper’s Tories? Don’t bet on it!
Is Justin Trudeau finished because Kathleen Wynne just won in Ontario, like the mainstream media’s pundits are telling you? Don’t be too sure! (Say, as one Twitter commenter asked, who is that old man with Mr. Trudeau?) Below: The same guy with NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. Weird! Below them: Lawrence
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Waitin’ for the end of the world … Hear, O Ontario! Mr. Manning will be with you momentarily
Preston Manning readies himself before the mirror of his Seventh Floor office at the Prophetic Market Institute in Calgary, the Calgary skyline in the background obscured by a June rainstorm, one of those June rainstorms, as he ponders the frightening meaning of last Thursday’s Ontario election. Actual Alberta market fundamentalists
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: I can’t blame the NDP for the election call
Despite being a nonpartisan lefty, during the campaign I wasn’t particularly kind to the NDP. I derided the choice to call an election as a gamble that risked either a fairly horrible outcome (Hudak forming government), or a relatively small loss (slightly less influence within a majority Liberal government) for
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Ontario election: OK, that didn’t really work … can we get back to being New Democrats now?
Ontario’s victorious Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne last summer. Below: Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak. Well! That didn’t work out quite as well as we’d hoped, did it? Can we get back to being New Democrats now? I speak, of course, of the results of
Continue readingOntario Election: Evaluating Voter Engagement In My Riding Of Parkdale-High Park
Obviously some of the onus is on voters to research candidates, platforms, and issues, and to think for themselves about who and what they want to cast their ballot for. That being said, the opportunity to engage with a candidate one-on-one can have a tremendous impact on voter intention –
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The effect on strategic voting of Wynne ruling out a coalition
Unfortunately, for those of us who think that some form of Liberal-NDP election deal or coalition would be vastly superior to the PCs forming a government with the largest minority, Kathleen Wynne has said that she won’t form a coalition with the NDP. Unsurprisingly, as this move changes the possible
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The NDP email on "strategic voting" is largely nonsense
The NDP has sent several emails to supporters before and during the campaign premised on the idea that the best way to stop the Conservatives is to vote for the NDP. Here is the latest: “This election, there is one simple trick you can use to stop a Conservative majority:
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Riding by riding strategic voting in the 2014 Ontario Election
I’ve always advocated for strategic voting on this blog where we vote based on promoting certain goals given the constraints of both our local riding and the broader election. This can take many forms; for instance, in “safe” ridings where the outcome is all but determined I often advocate voting
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Game theory and corporate tax rates: the Ontario Liberals are almost certainly wrong
I don’t know what the optimal corporate tax rate is. I suspect neither does anyone. I believe there is reasonable evidence out there that given the kinds of goals and values we likely share, that a somewhat higher corporate tax rate is preferred, but what exactly that rate is –
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Ontario Debate Aftermath #voteon
My initial (biased) impressions of the debate are: – As someone who is supporting the OLP, I’d have much preferred if Wynne had started stronger, but the first two topics were always going to be the tough ones, and I’m not sure whether I’d have done much better. I did
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Wynne & OLP have (polling) momentum going into debate
… or so it would appear from the latest polling. Ekos had a 5 pt OLP lead yesterday, while Abacus had a 2 or 7 pt OLP lead (depending on their likely voter or all voter screen), and today Nanos finally enters the polling arena. The Nanos polling company has
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Advance polling in Ontario opens today – please #voteon
By now, most people in Ontario will have gotten their voting cards, or will shortly. If you live in Ontario, regardless of who you support, I encourage you to go out and vote. There are plenty of people literally dying in the world fighting to have the right to live
Continue readingreeves report: MNR lacks real-time data on controversial spring bear hunt
Black bear. (Flickr photo by Casey Brown) JUST OVER HALFWAY through the reintroduced six-week spring bear hunt, which runs from May 1 to June 15, the province of Ontario has issued close to 2,300 licenses for black bears. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Natural Resources has no idea how many of those
Continue readingreeves report: Environmental Legislation Killed by the Ontario Election
Environment Minister Jim Bradley and Natural Resources Minister David Orazietti speak with reporters at Queen’s Park. June, 2013. (Photo by Andrew Reeves) SO WE KEEP WAITING. Ontario’s environmental community had reason for optimism when Kathleen Wynne assumed leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party in January 2013, knowing the new premier
Continue readingOntario Election: Sloppy Progressive Conservative Web Slip-Ups
Between multiple events involving organizations the Ontario Progressive Conservatives oppose funding and an uncomfortably embarrassing botched presser on board a TTC subway, Tim Hudak can barely catch a break this election season. Indeed, as is apparent from ceaseless mishaps and slip-ups, the PC’s are running by far the sloppiest campaign
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: The Best Thing That Could Happen in the Ontario Election is Nothing
Kevin Logan-Cowichan Conversations Contributor So they have finally done it. The Backroom Brain Trust (or is that Brian Trust?) which have concocted endless, hair-brained strategies and tactics under the banner of the “Orange Wave” must think they are real clever eh? After losing Government in Nova Scotia, ditching Government in
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