Ontario's NDP

Reading the Tor Star they had an article by Urqhart on the NDP and it did strike a cord with me -- the basic hypothesis was that the NDP although not poised to form a government will influence the direction of the government. I as a former provincial bureaucrat well understand that message -- having worked under all three of the parties -- I can honestly say that they are pretty much of a muchness when they get into power -- self interest does tend to reign.

That all being said the NDP does tend to have some real gems in their policy platform -- they actually consult with real people -- as compared to the Tories and the Liberals who tend to talk to the same 5 or 6 people and their pollsters and roll it out to their party faithful as the publics latest greatest needs and wants.

As a bureaucrat we routinely borrowed recycled from the NDP platform, added the correct wording made some vague reference to consistency with the Government platform and helped them to make it their own.

The NDP in power is a scary thing -- not because of their platform -- but because they are just not able to make decisions -- everything is done by consensus and takes far too much time -- I actually had to consult with a sowing circle (yes like knitting) out of some small town in Ontario when looking at ag stabilization programs. Very nice people but they had absolutely no idea what they were there for.

The NDP the official supplier of some good policy -- and damn good at it too. Now take this with a grain of salt as some of their ideas were just plain wacky -- take this lets just freeze everything in Ontario back in 2003. Howard needs some better advice.

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.