Northern Reflections: Short-Termism

Susan Delacourt writes that Ontario’s election highlights how short voters’ attention spans have become. After all, ghosts haunted each of the party leaders: The ironic part of the past Ontario campaign, as several commentators pointed out, is that all the leaders were contending with ghosts: Kathleen Wynne with the memory

Continue reading

Northern Reflections: The Third Round

Yesterday, Ontarians watched the third and final debate. It was the best of the three encounters. Martin Regg Cohn’s observations are pretty accurate: First, despite the attempts by both the Tories and Liberals to paint the NDP as dangerously radical, Horwath held her own. She not only gave no ground,

Continue reading

Northern Reflections: On The Rise

Andrea Horvath’s political stock is on the rise. Tom Walkom writes: A funny thing happened on the way to the June 7 election. The voters discovered in New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath another alternative to Wynne. What’s more, to so-called progressive voters, Horwath seemed to offer the best of

Continue reading

Northern Reflections: Math Challenged

Over the weekend, it emerged that Ontario’s NDP had made an error when costing the party’s platform. Adam Radwanski writes: As Ontarians were settling into their long weekends, perhaps discussing among themselves whether they should for once consider voting for an NDP government on June 7, news came of a

Continue reading

Northern Reflections: A Fact Full Election?

Last week, Bob Rae told a crowd of distinguished dignitaries, “Facts matter. Our politics needs to understand and respect this.” Robin Sears wonders if Ontarians do understand this: Like travelling medicine shows and revival preachers of old, their caravan booms noise and angry rhetoric but leaves little behind as it

Continue reading

Northern Reflections: A Very Select Few

The Conservative Party of Ontario prefers cult to policy. That’s increasingly obvious in the Ontario election. Martin Regg Cohn writes: At a Doug Ford rally, the leader is always late, leaving extra time for his populist anthem to penetrate your being. A throbbing earworm that burrows deep inside your consciousness.

Continue reading

Northern Reflections: He’s A Fraud

Efficiencies. That’s the word Doug Ford is using instead of “cuts.” That’s because he — or his party — have learned something from the last time around. Linda McQuaig writes: Former Conservative leader Tim Hudak went into the last Ontario election humming the familiar right-wing refrain about government waste and

Continue reading

Northern Reflections: The Old Paradigm

In Ontario, the conventional wisdom dictates that elections are won in the middle. That wisdom goes all the way back to the 1940’s, wen the Progressive Conservatives won 12 consecutive elections. Steve Paikin writes: In 1943, the Tories had a 49-year-old war veteran named George Drew (born 124 years ago

Continue reading

Northern Reflections: An I.Q. Test

Michael Harris writes that the Ontario election is an I.Q. test for voters. And the question is, “What will voters do with a tired government that has been around for 15 years and wants another term?” There is no doubt that the Liberals are getting long in the tooth. But

Continue reading

Northern Reflections: Ford’s Definition Of Change

Doug Ford became the leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party by forming an alliance with Tanya Granic Allen. Martin Regg Cohn writes: Homophobia. Islamophobia. Anti-abortion hysteria and harassment. Demonizing gay marriage. Lord knows, and Ford knows, the camp of Granic Allen — an anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-Muslim, burka-baiting candidate —

Continue reading

Northern Reflections: Don’t Believe It

California Governor Jerry Brown visited Ontario this week. He’s worried that the province will back track on its promise to fight climate change. Tom Walkom writes: The governor has harnessed his power as a populist-environmentalist to lead the crusade against global warming — by pushing back against the climate-denier-in-chief in

Continue reading