John Tory -- Redux

Well in the postmortem on the election Mr Tory has come to the realization that the religious schools proposal was not a smart idea -- well who knew. To compound this he now realises that he needed to listen to those amoung his team that were telling him to back off on this earlier in the campaign -- again who knew.

Had a chat with a Tory insider and they revealed that Tory has a hard time letting go of that back room role -- where you can push an issue, only to have it over ruled by a more street savvy politician. I guess he misses the advice, guidance, decision making for lack of a better description, of the Bill Davis's of the world. I think John has learned its a little tougher out there then he expected, and lets face it I don't think he expected the McGuinty liberals to play to the racist anti-muslim undercurrent in Ontario. But all is fair in love and war and the Liberals capitalised on the anti-Muslim vote -- and got themselves a majority with the support of 21% of the eligible voters. Ain't democracy grand.

51% of eligible voters voted

Frankly I am disgusted -- what good is having a democracy if you refuse to participate? To put this into context the Ontario Liberals got 71 seats based on the votes 21% of eligible voters. This means that one in five Ontarion's felt that the Liberal vision of Ontario was the correct one -- I won't make assumptions about those who chose not to vote.

I am not going to dispute the legitimacy of the Ontario Liberals right to rule -- they won the election based on the rules we have. I disagree with McGuinty that campaigns that call politicians liars, promise breakers et al would convince people not to vote. I mean lets get serious any party that has the Liberal war machine, namely Warren Kinsella and his ilk, behind it -- is going to run negative campaigns. And lets face it negative campaign work.

The disenfranchisement of the voter has to much more than that -- politicians are politicians, some are reptilian in nature others are saints -- most are in between -- they have been like this for centuries, and the public has been aware of it. Why are people refusing to vote? Would love to see some polling on this -- I am assuming it is a lack of a decisive vision for the future -- lets face it most of the policy initiatives across all parties came out of the same photocopier. The futility of voting when people feel nothing substantive is going to change.

The political parties and media also does a piss poor job in educating the voter on the need to vote -- the need to be part of the discussion -- it rather is seen as a closed club, fraught with insiders, full of scandals and graft and frankly from the media pretty poor reporting.

I personally think papers like the Toronto Star further exacerbate the problem with less than ethical reporting -- one sided and inflammatory headlines, bullying people into questioning their convictions and further alienating and marginalizing people who do not fit their narrow view of an idealized Ontarion and thereby increasing apathy and a sense of futility.

But then of course I could be wrong.

Scandal in Sarnia -- yes its true

Apparently a P3 (I know not politically correct to use P3) hospital in Sarnia is going to cost approximately 250% of the original estimated price. The original cost was suppose to be $140 million and now it is hovering around $319 million. Not sure who broke the story NDP or PC's -- came right after Furious George Smitherman had visited the riding and guaranteed this not to be the case.

What is not reported is whether the $319 million price tag is for essentially the same project as the $140 million price tag -- been there seen scope creep like crazy -- but then of course we would not have had the headline -- and some reporter would have had to do some investigating. Sounds like work eh. Now the fact the locals will have to raise an additional $30 million because of this is reprehensible -- who ever approved the new figure should pay the cost -- George sounds like it is yours.

What I do find interesting though on the Toronto Star's on line edition the story played prominently yesterday and attributed the story to the NDP -- the story no longer seems to exist on their servers -- looks like a case of pre-election censorship going on.

MMP -- referendum time for a choice

The whole referendum on the current First Past the Post or Mixed Member Proportional issue has been very poorly dealt with by Elections Ontario -- it has been too little too late with very little public education or debate about it. The whole strategy appears to be to be to not get this initiative approved. That being said the proposed modified system seems to be a political compromise -- and really quite confusing.

The vote needs 60% of Ontarion's to vote (of those who actually vote) in favour of the change for the MMP to be effective for the next election -- four years hence. Just want to make sure everyone understands it is not for this election.

There have been a fair amount of editorials (the Toronto Star in particular)who have railed against this new system -- they feel it is a step backward for democracy and raise the specter of a "Star Chamber" type of government where the will of the public is undercut by non elected party insiders. By the way the Tor Star editorial was factually wrong on a number of counts -- but they are the Star so that would be par for the course.

I really think they need to grow up. The current system of forced compliance to party vote is far more damaging to democracy then MMP would be. Right now a MPP cannot vote against party position in the house without the threat of discipline, the MPP cannot effectively represent their riding -- and from what I have seen the Caucus and decision making is ultimately controlled by a small number of individuals, most of whom are not elected. In addition parties with 5% to 10% of the popular vote and their constituencies are being shut out of the legislature.

I personally think the first past the post system is flawed -- too many seats awarded on a small number of votes. As it is currently designed one seat may be worth 10,000 votes while others are worth 300,000 -- not really fair. In addition being able to have a majority government without the requirement of a majority of the votes is kind of counter intuitive. The current system also marginalizes the smaller parties influence on the government of the day -- NDP, Greens, and the Family Coalition Party come to mind -- a party with 10% of the popular vote may have no seat in the legislature -- that is shutting out a fair amount of the population from the democratic process.

Will I vote for MMP yes -- do I think it will pass no, so why -- well hopefully a large percentage of Ontarion's will vote yes to the referendum -- so in the next election, four years hence, we may actually have another referendum with a properly designed and communicated proposal for electoral reform.

The Ontario PC's

This Globe and Mail Cartoon really struck home for me. Apparently Tory is now starting to rethink his position on Religious schools -- don't think it will help.

High Gear -- for a tricycle

Looks like we are coming into the last critical weeks -- and well not much is happening.

The Liberal's seems to recognise their lead and have McGuinty talking about "Canada" issues. He ventured into the realm of foreign takeovers -- interesting territory -- and over the last couple of days has delivered a couple of good speeches -- good for a person who is about as exciting as dry toast. Though I did take exception to have all those new immigrants into the public school system -- oh yeah the one with funding going to the catholics -- yeah thats right.

Tory -- well why bother, religious school funding, privatise parts of health care, beer and wine in the corner store -- right with you bud.

Hampton -- is he campaigning -- oh yes tax the rich.

Miller -- I know he is not campaigning -- but he could actually speak to the candidates and get some attention for Toronto. Guess not too busy flying from conference to conference -- and talking about raising taxes. Idiot!

Toronto Star -- fundamental and unethical bias

I could not be a reporter or work for the Star -- something about ethics and self respect. I always find it amazing the Star was quick to condemn Black and his newspapers for bias in reporting -- when they really have mastered the the wholer concept. What has me mad today -- the vote liberal bias is so strong it shows itself in every article, the editorials, the just general tone. McGuinty Is struggling -- he should be winning hands down based on the performance of both Tory and Hampton.
However the Star seems to now have decided that McGuinty needs to be elected at all costs -- including if it means they use propaganda and editorial bias in articles.

Earlier in the campaign after the debate the Star sold the front page of the Metro (one of their papers) to the liberals in a very misleading piece of advertising which looked like a real front page -- in which they proclaimed McGuinty the winner -- sleaze journalism. Can't blame the Liberals -- sleaze electioneering is the name of the game.

Tory -- trying very hard to lose the election

Just after the massive success of his religious school funding program was not endorsed by over 70% of Ontarions in a recent survey, Tory has decided to change his strategy -- he has decided to raise the issue of parallel provision of private healthcare in Ontario as part of his non-election strategy. I think he has another winner.

I think everyone is well aware that these private services are being well provided to all Canadians by our neighbours to the south. Why mess with success? Contrary to public perception it is just not the well heeled, Belinda Stronach comes to mind, that are availing themselves to private healthcare but also the average joe is driving to Buffalo for their knee or hip replacement surgery.

The prices from I understand are reasonable -- fitting on credit cards. The question is why are people doing this considering the enviable state of Canadian Healthcare -- why are people spending their money south of the border -- do they just like the American's so much? More than likely it is the 2 to 3 year process most Canadian must endure to get through the Ontario system -- referrals to specialist who are not taking appointments.

A former colleague of mine went to Buffalo for knee replacement surgery -- he was a practically disabled but could not get a firm date for a replacement in Ontario -- he voted with his chequebook.

But seriously folks in Canada and especially in Ontario you dare not talk about private delivery of healthcare services -- it is political suicide (lets keep those elephants in the closet where they belong). That way we can continue to extol the virtue of our truly public system, apart from those pieces that are already delivered by private firms, and tell the Americans they are philistines for operating a private healthcare system, while still availing ourselves to it. How Canadian!

In truth I think we can learn alot from places like France, Germany and the Netherlands in public/private delivery of Healthcare -- but we first have to get over the hating the American thing.

The new campaign....... Just like the old one

The Globe and Mail's Editorial Board took the Liberals to task for rerunning the 2003 campaign in 2007. The premise was the Liberals are still trying to get voters to remember the "bad old days" of the Harris PC government as a strategy to defeat PC's in this election. This they felt was an ineffective strategy and that the Liberals should run on their record instead -- not so sure on that one.

The PC's seem to be responding to the "Harris legacy" approach however -- their campaign signs and literature don't seem to recognize the PC brand but rather the John Tory brand. The campaign literature I have seen again stresses the the John Tory brand. I am not sure that Tory will win based on the "John Tory" instead of the PC party brand -- and if he doesn't he may actually be harming the party in the future -- one man parties tend to fall out of favour pretty quickly and repositioning the brand back to the party might take more than one subsequent election.

There is also this underlying current of what they did in the past was somehow wrong -- whether you agree the policies and directions of the Harris PC's or not they were elected to two majority governments -- with strong mandates. There are still a large number of Ontarion's who agree with the direction taken, maybe not all of them, but with alot of them. I would marginalize them at your own peril.

Its a long way to tipperary, its a long way to go to the sweetest girl I know

So we had the launch -- the emergence of the super hero the McGuinty "Education Premier"; the stumbling John Tory -- always seems to be on his back foot trying to explain what he really means: Howard Hampton the .... well not sure on that one -- really light on details and well he is driving around in a hybrid -- lets call him the hybrid contender; and then there is the Green Party's Frank de Jong -- the abolish the Catholic School Board guy and we are greener than anybody else guy.

Is there a point to this rambling well not really but there has not been much of a point to this election so far -- the Liberals and Tories trying to come up with a wedge issue (Liberals -- preservation of public education, their definition includes Catholic as part of this; the Tories broken promises and leadership of Dalton) the other parties well hate to say it are along for the ride.

The Liberals are starting with the strategic voting approach early to get NDP voters and will probably be backed up by a TV campaign from the Working Families Coalition (AKA Ontario Liberals).

The Tories, well Tory in my opinion is hopeless -- someone needs to work with this man -- drive the message -- don't react to Dalton's.

Howard -- nice man met him a number of times, would I vote for him -- right after hell froze over.

De Jong -- good Dutch name -- got to like that, and yes he should be part of the leadership debate and I have gone green have those really neat new lightbulbs and led lights on my sailboat, however the gas guzzeling SUV I drive probably would entitle me to a good flogging.

Education Minister's riding a beach head riding for education

I sit here with the vision of an armada of boats approaching the Normandy coast -- brave Canadian boys with eyes trained on the beaches, suddenly there is the rattle of gun fire, the whine of mortars .... Don't know who writes Dalton's speeches but this one is a loser -- instead the imagery shifts to the blatant hypocrisy of preserving system that benefits one religion over all others -- not even the protestant system survives -- that changed long ago into the public secular schools we have today -- next time he should raise the imagery of George Orwells Animal Farm -- guess some are more equal than others.

Liberal and PC fiscal platforms

I have spent some time looking at both the PC and Liberal fiscal platform -- guess what they pretty similar apart from the pledge to eliminate the health tax over a three year period. The revenue projections are similar the planned expenditures are similar -- the concentration of monies to envelopes are similar --except for the health tax thing -- the pledge to fund religious schools and the Tories pledge to find efficiencies.

I personally think the Tories if elected (which I doubt) will stall the elimination of the Health tax draw it out over a few more years to protect their revenue base. It really is not as hot an issue as the politicians think -- it is a construct of the political camps and the media in their need to create issues around the election. To further my point if it had been such a strong voter driven issue -- you really think the Liberals would be saying they cannot afford to get rid of it -- and it needs to stay -- on the eve of an election.

The Toronto Star Editorial board has obviously renewed its Liberal Party Membership based on their September 10 editorial. Their tacit support of the Liberal Fiscal plan is without basis -- not saying the PC one is any better -- the Toronto Star should leave the electioneering to the politicians -- but then it wouldn't be the Toronto Star. Their analysis is a typical slippery slope argument where by challenging one part of the plan the whole world goes to hell in a handbasket.

It does remind me of the time I was in the lock up and had a rather candid conversation with the Toronto Star staff that was there at the time -- (s)he said (s)he had very little freedom in what they wrote, rather (s)he was given the message and then told to fill in the facts to meet the message. I did ask her/him what happens if the facts don't match the message -- well then you don't report the facts. But I digress.

On the issue of efficiencies -- it can easily be done -- without the world coming to an end. Been there done that -- seen where the bodies or in this case money is buried. Cricket anyone?

Creationism in the schools

Ok that does it, I really do think Ontario needs a wholly secular funded school system -- right now. Yes that does mean we stop funding the separate school board.

Why you ask?

Mr Tory was asked the question whether he thought this would be allowed to be taught in a publically funded school system he said yes, well maybe sort of kind of. The liberals were quick to pounce on this until it was pointed out it is taught in the Ontario Roman Catholic schools (publicly funded), not as part of the curriculum however -- but as part of "religious eduction". Somehow this makes it better -- guess under a religious school -- the religious part should be taken less seriously -- because it of course it is religion, who believes that stuff anyway?

Prudent -- what in the name of all that is%^&$# is that for a strategy

John Tory presented a prudent election campaign -- what is prudent -- is that showing leadership with health care, education, falling competitiveness, an auto sector that is going the way of the buggy whip manufacturers league. Just not sexy, and not the leadership that Ontario needs --maybe that is what he is peddling -- dependable leadership -- Tory(ies) need to repackage it to more than just that -- it should be aspirational leadership -- over the top and visionary. It should be driving the province to a better and more successful future -- it should be big and with cahonas!

McGuinty is rolling out the goodies -- not a day has passed in the last two months that we have not had an announcement for more money for this that or the other thing -- very little policy -- nothing new, just money. To the Liberals credit the voters are buying it -- they recognise the strategy is divisive -- pitting group against group in their struggle to get as much $$ as possible -- but it works. Boy does it work.

I have it on good authority the Tories are going to go negative -- looking for the Achilles heel -- nasty personal attacks on individual senior Ministers -- I also hear the Liberal are not worried -- they know they can sacrifice a few for the greater good -- all the while doling out the goodies and keeping their core team intact.

Boy is this going to be fun.

Working Families Coalition

The Tories have decided to challenge the legitimacy of the Working Families Coalition -- which they say is a front for the Ontario Liberal Party to get around the Elections act. (Globe and Mail story)

The coalition is fronted by a number of unions and liberal party staffers -- and amazingly he says tongue in cheek some of these very organizations got payouts in the latest round of Liberal pork barreling.

My take on this is if looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck -- it probably is a duck.

Guess the provincial Liberals learned a lot at the feet of their master Chretien.

This however will not be resolved during the course of this election -- the liberals are safe for now.

Funding for Religious Schools

I strongly believe in a secular school system, religion in my opinion has no place in publicly funded schools. That being said I am not a fool either, I recognize as we do fund the catholic schools, and that no party in their right mind is going to remove the funding for the catholic separate school boards that we in all eventuality will end up funding other religious schools.

Interestingly enough I saw a statistic a couple of days ago that 75% of Ontario residents believe in a secular education system. However we also know that 52% of Ontarians list their religion as Catholic -- from a political standpoint you can see why there is going to be no change.

The liberal governments stand on this issue is completely irrational -- and plays the majority against the minorities -- it is alright and non divisive for catholics to be educated in a separate system but not the Jews, Muslims, Hindi, etc would cause a general failure of society as a whole. Personally I think these are cheap political tactics aimed at an underlying mainstream of polite racism.

As i said if I ran the world, or Ontario at least, we would have a secular education system. However I don't and we will end up with a true Ontario compromise -- we will fund everyone -- to some extent at least. However this will not come as a result of this election.

As a friend of mine just reminded me -- when the Liberals came in they canceled the previous conservative governments tax credit for private schools and there was nary a whisper of dissent. The conservatives are very silly to make this a stump issue in this election -- lack of political acuity or just plain desperate.

Background:

Separate school

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A separate school is a publicly funded school which includes religious education in its curriculum, as opposed to a private school or public school.

In Canada these are usually Roman Catholic schools which are run parallel to the public school system which historically had been either Protestant or Roman Catholic, but which in recent years has become secular. The separate schools in Ontario, however, are fully denominational and not secular. In some communities, there is a Separate Protestant school district (board) alongside the public system (and possibly Separate Catholic), but this is generally the exception.

Protection of the Separate School system was a major issue of contention in the negotiations that led to Canadian confederation, due in large part to racial and religious tension between the (largely Francophone) Roman Catholic population in Canada and the Protestant majority. The issue was a subject of debate at the 1864 Quebec Conference and was finally resolved at the London Conference of 1866 with a guarantee to protect the separate school system in Quebec and Ontario.

In the Quebec education system there were separate Protestant and Catholic school systems until 1998 when the system was replaced with linguistically based secular school systems. Similarly, Newfoundland and Labrador had schools organised on a confessional basis with separate denominational schools for Catholics, Seventh-day Adventists, Salvationists, Pentecostals, and an integrated stream. This was abolished by referendum in 1997 and a single secular system was introduced to replace the previous streams.

The question of separate schools has been most controversial in Ontario and Manitoba. The ending of public support for separate schools in the latter province in the 1890s prompted a national crisis known as the Manitoba Schools Question, and led to Pope Leo XIII's papal encyclical Affari Vos.

In Ontario, funding for the Catholic separate school system was initially only guaranteed until grade nine under the British North America (BNA) Act. This funding was gradually extended until 1984 when the government of William Davis extended funding to include the last three (Grades 11-OAC) years of secondary school after having rejected that proposal fifteen years earlier. The historically Protestant system was eventually transformed into the present day public board, and school prayer was banned in the early 1980s.

A province-wide newspaper survey conducted between 1997 and 1999 in 45 dailies indicated that 79% of 7551 respondents in Ontario favoured a single public school system. But rumours that the Catholic Church had instructed its parishioners not to respond to the survey suggest that it may have produced inaccurate results. Regardless of whether the results were accurate or not, no widely supported movement to amend the Constitution Act, 1867 has developed.

In Ontario the only separate schools are Catholic (except for one elementary school in Penetanguishene, Ontario, the Burkevale Protestant Separate School, under the Penetanguishene Protestant Separate School Board, which has no other schools); other faith groups do not receive similar funding. This restriction has often been criticized as contrary to the spirit of official multiculturalism. The provincial policy has been ruled as discriminatory by the Supreme Court of Canada, and on November 5, 1999 the United Nations Human Rights Committee condemned Canada and Ontario for having violating the equality provisions (Article 26) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee restated its concerns on November 2, 2005, when it published its Concluding Observations regarding Canada's fifth periodic report under the Covenant. The Committee observed that Canada had failed to "adopt steps in order to eliminate discrimination on the basis of religion in the funding of schools in Ontario."

In Alberta in some areas that were originally populated by Franco-Albertan French Catholics before the province came into existence, the Catholic church controls the public schools and the separate schools are protestant. This applies to St. Albert and St. Paul.