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Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by Dashie
(Post 11293647)
I was reading about this earlier:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/06...n_5461428.html To be honest, I don't like any of them much. They all seem to put a huge amount of energy into slagging each other off and telling you what you want to hear, and very little energy into showing how they'll achieve it and why they themselves are not crap. I know that's universal to an extent, but that doesn't make it helpful, and it does seem worse here. |
Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by Oakvillian
(Post 11289782)
I did the vote compass thing - for interest more than anything else, as I'm not yet a citizen. I was comforted to see how closely my gut-feel voting "intention" lined up with where the tool put me - my dot was almost on top of the party's dot.
I'm still very surprised that Oakville is a liberal-held riding, given its reputation as a hotbed of smug middle-class suburbanites, who one might have assumed would be a happy hunting ground for Hudak's PC folks. It's certainly one of their target constituencies, though their candidate's a bit of a nonentity, a former London-based merchant banker. Our incumbent MPP seems properly engaged with the local community and is actually also quite a nice bloke, for a politician - I've met him a few times through organizations I'm involved with. I suspect he'll be back in on June 12, though it'll be a tighter race than 2011. Strangely, considering the amount of news acreage it's gathering across the province, the "Gas Plant Scandal" really isn't an issue in the riding itself. Perhaps at least in part because all three major parties' candidates last time around campaigned on the promise that they'd support cancellation/relocation. And the local electorate remembers that, even if Hudak and Horwath have conveniently forgotten. |
Re: Ontario Election
Honestly, this is where the multiple representation vote thing that was on the cards 5-6 years ago could be interesting. I have no qualms about voting for Kevin Flynn in Oakville, he's been great for the riding and is a good guy. Since I'm still undecided about what I'm going to do on Thursday, it would have been nice to have the option to vote for Flynn independent of what party I decide to go for in the end. Sigh.
Last week I thought I was leaning one way, but after some chats this weekend I'm reconsidering... again... |
Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by Oakvillian
(Post 11289782)
Strangely, considering the amount of news acreage it's gathering across the province, the "Gas Plant Scandal" really isn't an issue in the riding itself. Perhaps at least in part because all three major parties' candidates last time around campaigned on the promise that they'd support cancellation/relocation. And the local electorate remembers that, even if Hudak and Horwath have conveniently forgotten. They haven't forgotten, they had just planned to do it differently than the Liberals did. There were clauses in the contracts that would have allowed them to cancel the plants without undue financial penalties, or damned near no penalties at all (ie. if X% of the building hasn't been approved by such-and-such a date then the contracts expire, etc., etc.). That is what the NDP and Conservatives were promising to do - to let the contracts die/expire. But the Liberals, because they were desperate to save themselves a couple of seats in that election, ignored those provisions in the contracts and barreled on full steam ahead by cancelling the plants immediately. In doing so, they incurred massive financial penalties that wouldn't have been incurred had they simply taken their time as the other parties were promising to do. So the issue isn't that it was done but, rather, how it was done. And how it was done leads directly into why it was done - to save a couple of Liberal seats. Then there was their destruction of evidence, their allowing non-government employees into the Premier's to wipe computers clean (a staffer's boyfriend...seriously?), their obfuscation when asked to produce documents relating to the decision, their lies, the very limited scope that they allowed for the inquiry into the scandal, their control of the committee conducting that inquiry, and their complete unwillingness to take responsibility and own up to what they did. |
Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by Novocastrian
(Post 11289892)
Interesting switch from PC to the Greens. I'd probably vote green too if the Liberal incumbent in RH was safe, but he's not. He needs every vote he can get to fend off the Lunatics.
How anyone can vote for a Liberal candidate after everything that party has done while in power is beyond me. The half of them should be in bloody jail, not the Legislature. |
Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by Partially discharged
(Post 11293812)
If the Catholic parents want their own school board they can fund it themselves...then we'll see how strongly they are committed to the catholic school board cause.
They did up until the '80s (and there were Catholic schools everywhere) at which point they were finally given something that had been guaranteed to them in the Constitution. |
Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by colchar
(Post 11294604)
How anyone can vote for a Liberal candidate after everything that party has done while in power is beyond me. The half of them should be in bloody jail, not the Legislature.
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Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by Novocastrian
(Post 11294629)
...on balance they've done pretty well.
Oh really? Let's leave aside their multiple scandals, boondoggles, police investigations, corruption, etc. and just look at the basic facts: Harris resigns 2001... Unemployment 6.6 Ontario debt 123.1billion. Ontario budget surplus 400 million. Net debt to GDP 29.1 Equalization status - 'have' McGuinty resigns 2012... Unemployment 7.9 Ontario debt 237.6 billion Ontario budget deficit 14.4 million Net debt to GDP 36.9 Equalization status - 'have not' I'd love to hear how you think that, on balance, they have done pretty well. How bad do they have to be for you to think they have done poorly :confused: |
Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by colchar
(Post 11294613)
They did up until the '80s (and there were Catholic schools everywhere) at which point they were finally given something that had been guaranteed to them in the Constitution.
...where I live there are 4 school boards (english public, english catholic, french public, french catholic) each with their own fiefdoms, bureaucracies, playgrounds, gymnasiums, unions, school bus routes. |
Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by colchar
(Post 11294666)
Oh really? Let's leave aside their multiple scandals, boondoggles, police investigations, corruption, etc. and just look at the basic facts:
Harris resigns 2001... Unemployment 6.6 Ontario debt 123.1billion. Ontario budget surplus 400 million. Net debt to GDP 29.1 Equalization status - 'have' McGuinty resigns 2012... Unemployment 7.9 Ontario debt 237.6 billion Ontario budget deficit 14.4 million Net debt to GDP 36.9 Equalization status - 'have not' I'd love to hear how you think that, on balance, they have done pretty well. How bad do they have to be for you to think they have done poorly :confused: The increased debt is only a problem for the raving right and the increased unemployment is a direct result of the contraction in the manufacturing sector caused by the US recession and the insistence of the Federal government in propping up big oil. Oh, and talking of power plants, they've fulfilled their promise to close the coal plants while decreasing Ontario's electricity consumption through energy conservation measures. They've invested significantly in education (something you don't seem to have benefited from). |
Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by Partially discharged
(Post 11294677)
I honestly think it is time to move on from something that was granted back in 1867? and from what I understand that constitutional right was only for Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan and the 3 territories. Society, especially in urban canada, is a lot more diverse than catholic and non-catholic.
...where I live there are 4 school boards (english public, english catholic, french public, french catholic) each with their own fiefdoms, bureaucracies, playgrounds, gymnasiums, unions, school bus routes. I don't necessarily disagree but the fact is that Catholic schools were guaranteed in the Constitution and that right cannot be taken away without changing the Constitution - an endeavor that would open up 100 other cans of worms that simply aren't worth opening. |
Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by colchar
(Post 11294685)
I don't necessarily disagree but the fact is that Catholic schools were guaranteed in the Constitution and that right cannot be taken away without changing the Constitution - an endeavor that would open up 100 other cans of worms that simply aren't worth opening.
None of the parties will particularly touch the education side of things with a 10 foot pole right now. John Tory (who I otherwise like!) tried that when he ran awhile back, and the PCs got completely slaughtered with it. Granted, that was looking at creating MORE boards for more religions... but still. I looked at that issue on CBC's vote compass... none of the main three will touch it right now. Greens are saying they'd ditch the Catholic one... but, well, you know. Hudak's rationale at least makes a bit of sense - it would create one giant mother union of teachers that would be way too powerful. I'll at least give him that... |
Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by Novocastrian
(Post 11294680)
The increased debt is only a problem for the raving right and the increased unemployment is a direct result of the contraction in the manufacturing sector caused by the US recession and the insistence of the Federal government in propping up big oil. Oh, and talking of power plants, they've fulfilled their promise to close the coal plants while decreasing Ontario's electricity consumption through energy conservation measures. First of all, they haven't closed them as the last one will not close until the end of this year. Second, they promised to close them all by 2007 but, as usual, they screwed that up. and third, their energy conservation measures are both a joke and a scandal (taking away the rights of municipalities and forcing wind turbines onto rural areas that did not want them). They've invested significantly in education (something you don't seem to have benefited from). Oh spare me. I am well educated. You, however, do not seem to be since you cannot see what a disaster the Liberals have been for this province. Surely anyone with common sense, and especially someone with an education, can see that. The only ways someone wouldn't be able to see that is if they were stupid, uneducated, or ideologically blinded. I am not advocating that anyone vote for the Conservatives, or any other party for that matter, as I voted Conservative in the last election and NDP in this one (I voted at an advance poll the day they opened in my riding). I am simply advocating that people look at what a disaster the Liberals have been, how many lies they have told (starting with Dalton promising not to raise taxes and then immediately bringing in the largest tax increase in Ontario's history and running right up to the whoppers Wynne has been telling in this election campaign), how corrupt they are, and how many billions of dollars they have wasted and that they vote for anybody but the Liberals as that party has lost any moral authority to govern this province. |
Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by SchnookoLoly
(Post 11294689)
Hudak's rationale at least makes a bit of sense - it would create one giant mother union of teachers that would be way too powerful. I'll at least give him that...
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Re: Ontario Election
Originally Posted by Partially discharged
(Post 11294677)
I honestly think it is time to move on from something that was granted back in 1867? and from what I understand that constitutional right was only for Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan and the 3 territories. Society, especially in urban canada, is a lot more diverse than catholic and non-catholic.
...where I live there are 4 school boards (english public, english catholic, french public, french catholic) each with their own fiefdoms, bureaucracies, playgrounds, gymnasiums, unions, school bus routes. |
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