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.

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.

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!

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.

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.