scrubbedexpat091

So it appears Doug Ford and his party has won a majority government. How do you all feel about him leading the province?

One thing I noticed in the media is their promise to lower gas prices, has he said how he would do this? And is gas really that costly out there? (assuming the article means gasoline for cars.)

I understand the hydro issue though, seems the gov't has let that spiral out of control.

Doug Ford leads Ontario PCs to majority government, CBC News projects | CBC News

Teaandtoday5

Hurlabrick

Doug Ford was by a long way my least favourite of the candidates for the PC's when they had the leadership election. BUT the choice wasn't that hard for me - Wynne and her '10c a litre of gas doesn't make any difference to anyone' let them eat cake reprise? Horwath and the big government 'tax and spend'? Had to go with the PC's despite Ford!

macadian

Got to agree....would rather Elliot had won the PC leadership, but it is what it is. Lib or NDP equalled TSB....that is to say, Tax, Spend and Borrow.....enough already!

dave_j

Seems you CAN fool all of the people all of the time, at least you can in Ontario.....

Souvy

I don't see it as people voting for Ford but voting against the Liberals. Both the Conservatives and the NDP made huge gains and they are at opposite ends of the political spectrum.

I can see something similar happening here in Quebec come October. The Conservatives and NDP don't field provincial candidates but the ruling Liberals are under serious threat from the CAQ, which is right wing. I can see the CAQ winning. If it does, the Federal parties will put massive effort into Quebec for the federal elections. This is a province of swing voters, evidenced by the massive shift to the NDP a few years ago (all because of one TV show).

iaink

How do I feel? Lets just say I'm selling up and leaving the country.

Atlantic Xpat

I've not followed things closely, being somewhere where we have enough of our own provincial politics, but isn't the defining theme of Ford's platform, aside from not being costed at all, that he is going to cut costs, but not jobs, lower the price of everything, especially gas and beer and somehow do this while simultaneously lowering taxes? If you compare that level of bullshit and impossibility to the NDP tax and spend approach, then I suppose at least the NDP were being honest. But anyway, Doug Ford, who'dve thunk it. I suppose in the Trump era nothing is surprising any more.

BristolUK

Presumably in the way of getting fed up of a long time government rather than a party. Like the UK did.

Hey...look who's back.

Atlantic Xpat

The dead have risen?!

BristolUK

On the radio I heard the speech by the NDP leader about now being the official opposition.

The way she said O-F-F-I-C-I-A-L O-P-P-O-S-I-T-I-O-N drawing it all out, it sounding like a Boxing announcer. Most unseemly.

Linotype

Damn, now Kenny is set to win here in Alberta:
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/0...ax_a_23453876/

dbd33

I don't vote as I don't feel engaged enough with Canada for that to be appropriate; the Canadians should decide what they want to do however stupid it may be. I expected Ford to win and, remembering the last PC government, I went and had as much medical stuff as possible done while there's still a good health service. It's a bit limiting though, you can't get next year's illnesses fixed today so I suppose we'll just have to budget for trips to Buffalo.

I bought petrol today, it was $65 but I was in Guelph, it'd be $55 if I bought it near home. I don't anticipate that the price will change, I don't believe a word Ford says and trust Trump more than I do him. I am however grateful to his brother for his contribution to my win in the Graun death pool that year.

iaink

I suspect its one of the more minor apocalyptic consequences of electing the Antichrist.

Oakvillian

Not my preferred result, but I have a suspicion reality will catch up with the election promises fairly soon - such as those promises were. It seems that much of the rhetoric during the campaign was about stuff not actually in the provincial government's remit.

Sacking the head of Hydro One, for example: this is a private company, albeit one in which the government holds a lot of shares, so I'd love to know how Ford thinks he can accomplish the removal of a CEO who was appointed by - and is responsible to - the Board of Directors.

The nonsense about reopening (again, ad nauseam) the debate about Toronto public transit provision is another silly one. Perhaps Ford didn't quite realize that he was standing for provincial office, he finished being a Toronto city councillor when he ran unsuccessfully for the mayoralty.

Weirdly, one of the more likely benefits of a Ford government will actually be liberalization: somewhere along the way he made noises about dismantling the stranglehold the LCBO has on alcohol distribution, which would lead to greater access to booze at keener prices. Of course, this is extremely unlikely to happen once he realizes how much the LCBO contributes to government coffers.

I can't really reconcile the vague "fiscally conservative" claims with the wild and uncosted spending promises that were made. So much of the electoral rhetoric was about burning the candle at both ends - lowering taxes while increasing spending, not making any service cuts, and magically reducing hospital waiting times at the same time - that it will simply not be possible to keep all the promises made. Unless the deficit is going to be absolutely monumentally huge for the next few years and put all the claims of Liberal fiscal irresponsibility well and truly in the shade.

Of course, the most sensible way of freeing up vast swaths of funding in local and provincial government would be to abolish the stupid Catholic school system. But oh, no, Ford instead has said he'll reopen the (done and dusted, and not even an issue in the broader electorate) debate about sex ed in schools, pandering to all flavours of the religious nutjob spectrum, and guaranteeing entrenched support for the wasteful and morally insupportable separate school boards. So that ain't gonna happen.

I'll wait and see, I think. I suspect there won't be much of an appetite for a second term: ideally we'll head for a minority government next time around, so the politicos actually have to work together to compromise in order to get anything done. That has to be the preferred way forward while public opinion is so polarized.

I'm sorry to see my previous local MPP lose his seat. I'd met him a few times at various functions (I'm on the board of a local youth choir; he regularly came to our concerts) and got on well with him; he was an enthusiastic supporter of the local community way beyond the needs of big-P Politics. I hope the new guy is as keen to support grassroots stuff in his riding.