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.

Congratulations to the Ontario Liberals

In a sweeping victory the Liberals have maintained a 35 seat majority with a 42% of the vote. A very hearty congratulations to the Liberals and their campaign -- not to take anything away from them Tory basically handed them the election with a series of missteps and gaffe's -- the largest being the religious school funding.

It will be interesting to see how the Liberals handle the Catholic School funding issue -- not that they will extend to other faiths in the short run -- but they will probably face increased level of scrutiny on the Catholic School funding -- with every silly religion decision made by Catholic Trustees being put on the front page of the newspapers. I would expect we can expect silence from the Liberals on this issue for now -- not sure that will make the issue go away.

The NDP increased their popular vote -- not sure what that will bring, as the Liberals are able to push through or not do whatever they want. I think the PC's and the NDP are going to take on the oppose everything role in the media for the next four years -- and frankly their ability to hold the Liberals to account will be severely muted.

In the mean time we can expect the Status Quo -- as Ontarion's voted for the liberal platform of change -- which was unremarkable -- and steeped in the Status Quo.

Who did I vote for -- and I did vote, I went with the party that most closely matced my liberal social policy/conservative fiscal beliefs -- let you figure that one out.

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.

Howard -- Its the message stupid!

To Ontario's media representatives present:

Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton: "We've become the child poverty capital of Canada -- don't any of you people (reporters) care? Don't you care that there are seniors living in soiled diapers? Don't you care about that? I'm asking you, 'What do you care about?' That's what I know people care about. These are real issues."

Howard, piece of advice, they would report on other issues if everyone had not kept pandering to the bigotry and racial bias in Ontario and if you had something substantive to say.

Liked the quote from a senior (paraphrased) -- he has trouble voting for the liar or the idiot but wants Hampton to tell him what his platform is instead of just attacking people.

A vote for Liberals is a Vote for bigotry

Thought I would put out a provocative headline and then like most of the news media report on some non event. The title has some truth to it around the baser prejudices the liberals are playing to on the religious school funding issues. The liberals are going to win, and frankly they should, they have run an uncontroversial campaign with few missteps. They have allowed Tory to self destruct, and they did not have to wait to long. Howard -- well he has unfortunately been irrelevant -- too bad -- lost me on the tax the rich crap.

While I am rambling how about the following headlines:

1. A vote for McGuinty is a vote for the pope!
2. Its time we elected a papist -- Vote Liberal
3. Hate homosexuals, abortion, want your kids not to use birth control -- vote Liberal

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.

PC's -- Slip Sliding Away

In what appears to be a last desperate attempt to appeal to a larger block of undecided voters Tory has backed away from his moral high ground on the Religious schools issue. Tory as I indicated yesterday is now saying that he will put this policy initiative up to a free vote -- the initiative will be modeled by former premier Bill Davis (the guy who gave public money to to the Catholic Schools. The moral high ground was that of fairness and quelling the terms of the UN criticism of Ontario. Guess the high ground gets pretty lonely sometimes.

McGuinty characterised this strategy as as divisive and that it would take up three years of the legislatures time unnecessarily. Not sure I agree with that, I think any debate where we look at current funding, and the integration of new and existing Canadians into the public school system is of value. The current system is divisive by its very nature, we need to do more to remove barriers to a quality education for all of Ontario's children.

Tory embraces democracy (sort of)

Tory announced that if elected that he would allow a free vote on religious school funding in the legislature -- this is apparently to quell the divisions with in his own party and to appeal to the broader voter base. I would hope they would include the vote on whether to stop funding the Catholic Schools in Ontario in that free vote -- I somehow doubt that.

McGuinty replied to this announcement somewhat cynically, and Hampton wants the issue off the table so we can talk about real stuff.

The continuation of funding of the Catholic Schools at the expense of the other religions is pure unbridled bigotry and racism -- don't want those Madrassas set up in Ontario churning out terrorists. Now if they were to take a look at the policies of the Catholic church they may want to revise their stance on funding it -- institutionalised homophobia, unfettered sexism, protection of peadophiles, centuries of crimes against humanity including the recent native schools debacle .. need I continue.

The only real answer is to stop funding all religious schools in Ontario, politically this may not be palatable but at least I am honest.

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.

Dalton should be cleaning the floor with his opponents

John Tory is still struggling with his extension of funding to faith based schools, beer and wine in the corner store and a parallel private health care (paid for at public rates) service. He is getting slagged by his own party members -- questioned unmercifully at PC events as to why he is following this lose-lose strategy. He still has been unable to reach the undecided voters -- his manner is polished -- but lets face it it just ain't working -- whether he want to stick to his principles or not -- the game here is to form a government -- not to be in opposition.



Howard Hampton -- is rolling out nothing new -- had hopes when he started talking about extending dental coverage to children and the $10 minimum wage, I thought we might actually have some new proposals to talk about -- however we have gone back to the old canards of protecting the auto sector, protecting this and that, rolling back this and rolling back that -- the past is a wonderful place to remember -- you tend to forget the imperfections -- however the past is not a place I want to move Ontario forward to.

Dalton what is happening -- you just are not getting the message out. They are handing you this election on a silver platter and the best you can do is talk about a minority government (Harper is at it as well). Smitherman is running around -- well being Smitherman. Where is the campaign? Guess you just need to want it more.

The Debate -- the killer blow

I heard a guy name Guido had some killer blow in the washroom at the debate -- really excellent stuff.

The debate in my opinion plodded on McGuinty being accused of broken promises, McGuinty attacking the former Harris Government and the former NDP government (liked Tory quip on Sir John A), Tory looking very well polished -- not really saying anything (except the broken promise thing), Hampton -- well nice try but really did not seem to even be part of the debate at times.

Now when I call it a debate I am doing so very loosely -- in most cases they did not really answer the questions or debate their answers -- we just went back to broken promises , accusations of negativity, and how terrible previous governments were.

The moderator Steve Paiken did an absolutely terrible job of keeping this anywhere on track -- this needs to be debate -- not a series of quotes for the media.

I am shocked the Toronto Star proclaimed McGuinty the winner based on the fact the other two did not land a killer blow. That unbiased bastion of honest reporting obviously was not in hte washroom with Guido.

In my opinion nobody won -- nor could they have it was not a debate! Guido however .......

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.

The hob nailed boot on the back .....

Howard decided that it was time to bring out the old tax the rich and the corporations plank to reduce the tax on middle and lower income brackets. At least this time he calls rich over $150,000 -- last time I think it was $80,000 lost him Oshawa and most of the auto workers.

The ads running on youtube are great -- at least we are seeing some creativity in the non-negative campaigning -- and of course everyone cleared the rights for these.






And I really agree with Dalton -- there is no negative campaigning going on -- yes really -- where was that bottle of scotch, going to have a non drink to go with it.

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?