This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Richard Shillington studies the Cons’ income-splitting scheme for the Broadbent Institute, and finds that it’s even more biased toward the wealthy than previously advertised: • The average benefit of income splitting across all households is only $185, though nine out of 10
Continue readingTag: Tim Hudak
Montreal Simon: Stephen Harper, Tim Hudak, and the Con Climate Change Deniers
When I first saw this picture of Stephen Harper and Tony Abbott having breakfast together, I thought something had gone wrong with their "special relationship."I mean they both looked so tense, and the cat looked sooooo jealous.And that even after Abbott called Harper a "beacon" for Conservatives all over the world.But
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: None of the Above and Latinos for Reform
During the 2010 U.S. mid-term election campaign, a group of “discontents” emerged, calling themselves Latinos for Reform. President Obama had secured most of the Latino vote in 2008, so the group’s message was that Obama had let them down. Given the Republican’s anti-immigration policies, LFR knew that voting GOP
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Ontario Election and the Never-ending Con Nightmare
It was dull grey rainy Sunday on the waterfront where I live, but at least it gave me a chance to collect my thoughts, wonder what is happening to this country I sometimes no longer recognize.And of course try to figure out who the hell I'm going to vote for
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: So Why Does Tim Hudak Want to Kill the Ontario College of Trades?
Every Ontario Conservative is singing from the same Hymnal. “Close the Ontario College of Trades, close the Ontario College of Trades …. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.” Seemed strange to me because before they starting singing about it, I’d never heard anyone wanting to make this an election issue. I’ve been following Canada’s
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Political Eh-conomy Radio: 1,000,000 and $14, two numbers, two politics
This week’s podcast focuses on two numbers, one million and fourteen, that draw out some interesting links between economics and politics in Ontario and beyond. https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/podcast-140606-ontario.mp3 One million is the number of jobs that Tim Hudak has promised to create in Ontario if elected next week. This one million claim has
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Beware of Those Bearing Pledges. They Might Just Have to Honour Them
Men should pledge themselves to nothing; for reflection makes a liar of their resolution. Sophocles Pledges are nothing new for politicians. Some are broad in scope, like FDR’s pledge to a New Deal for Americans, or President Obama’s pledge to not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a
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 readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: And They Wonder Why More Women Don’t Get Into Politics
In an interview in 2012, Hilary Clinton was asked “Which designers do you prefer?” Her response was brilliant: “Would you ever ask a man that question?” Says journalist Mary Elizabeth Williams: That terse exchange over her wardrobe … exemplifies everything that endears Clinton to her supporters – and everything that
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Ghastly Ontario Debate and the Fatal Weakness of Progressives
It only took about fifteen minutes of watching the Ontario leader's debate before I started to wish that I was watching something else. Anything else.Or just lounging around with my friends on a lovely warm evening, like I suspect most people in the province were doing.Because it was bad eh?It
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Tim Hudak’s Sacred Oath and the Big Whopper
Well I see that Tim Hudak still will not admit that he can't count, and that his Million Job Plan is nothing but a scam.But he has come up with a new and daring scheme to try to make it look like his platform is Canadian rather than American.Require his
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Tim Hudak Wants to be Like Mitch Daniels. No Wonder. He’s Another Mike Harris
Indiana- Louise Cohoon was at home when her 80-year-old mother called in a panic from Terre Haute: The $97 monthly Medicaid payment she relied on to supplement her $600-a-month income had been cut without warning by a private company that had taken over the state’s welfare system. (1) Hold that
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Tea Bagger Tim Hudak and the American Invasion
Damn. What a happy coincidence. Last night I was complaining about how the Liberals and the NDP were failing to go after Tim Hudak for his botched million job plan.And for his connections to American right-wing extremists like the sinister Koch brothers, in whose think tanks that plan was hatched.But
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Tim Hudak and the Made in Amerika Monster
Well I'd like to tell you I'm having totally relaxing weekend eh? But sadly I'm not.I mean how can I relax when Stephen Harper just spent three days in my neighbourhood pretending to be Mother Theresa? Or ranting and raving like a maniac.Which naturally enough had me deeply concerned about my
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Sometimes You Just Have To Hold Your Nose
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 readingTrashy's World: Mr. Hudak meets Mr. Dictionary for the very first time!
As I write this, Timmie is Googling the word “economics”… Ms. Wynne is being so unfair using such darned big words!!! I have italicized the phrase noting the flaw that anyone with even a passing understanding of arithmetic would notice immediately. And he thinks he is fit to govern the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Ric McIver Progressive Conservative leadership campaign lurches to life as Hancock Government sends mixed signals
Tory leadership candidate Ric McIver, shown on his extremely uninformative campaign website. Below: Education Minister Jeff Johnson and newly appointed Jobs, Skills, Etc. Minister Kyle Fawcett. Ho-hum. After days of virtual silence, former infrastructure minister Ric McIver made the first official appearance of his campaign for the leadership of Alberta’s
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Andrew Coyne assures us "Hudak’s bogus plan is no reason not to vote for him"
The media reaction to Hudak’s 8 fold screwup in his Million 75,000 Jobs Plan has been almost as ridiculous as the mistake in the plan itself. I already wrote about what the CBC’s frontpage was doing in the interest of “balance” and “nonpartisanship”. But what about the media op-eds? The latest
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Media stenography: The CBC can’t bring itself to call Hudak’s plan what it is
If you haven’t heard, Hudak’s so called Million Jobs plan is more like a 75,000 jobs plan, based on an obvious mistake that meant most of his numbers were multiplied by 8. That is the best case scenario, accepting all the numbers selectively pulled from a particular report, accepting the
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
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