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2014 Ontario General Election

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Crantor said:
If I would credit who came out on top I would give it to Mr. Hudak but i wouldn't characterise him as the clear winner.  I didn't see any knock out punches.
I didn't hear any, either (listened on the radio).

Interesting hearing Hudak's ad-libbed promise:  "if I don't keep my promises in the Million Jobs Plan, I'll resign."  If it's an 8-year plan, he's assuming maybe a second term?

Ties in with his promise to have his pay docked if he doesn't meet his financial targets (see attached oath).
 
I guess his resignation will depend on his math to calulate his success  ;D

I'll take his smoke and mirrors over what the other two are promising any day.
 
Economists poke holes in Hudak’s job-creation plan

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/economists-poke-holes-in-hudaks-job-creation-plan/article18881984/

More detail on the smoke and mirrors.
 
Baden Guy said:
Economists poke holes in Hudak’s job-creation plan

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/economists-poke-holes-in-hudaks-job-creation-plan/article18881984/

More detail on the smoke and mirrors.

And the rebuttal from the National Post http://business.financialpost.com/2014/05/29/terence-corcoran-nothing-bogus-about-hudak-plan/
 
Baden Guy said:
Economists poke holes in Hudak’s job-creation plan

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/economists-poke-holes-in-hudaks-job-creation-plan/article18881984/

More detail on the smoke and mirrors.

And just as many say he's got a solid plan.

You can't believe everthing that left wing, union supported econimists have to say on the subject. It's a biased opinion.
 
Hatchet Man said:
And the rebuttal from the National Post http://business.financialpost.com/2014/05/29/terence-corcoran-nothing-bogus-about-hudak-plan/

And there it is. From the REAL experts that are in the game for money, not the ones that can't add 2+2 because of idealogical reasons.
 
Hatchet Man said:
And the rebuttal from the National Post http://business.financialpost.com/2014/05/29/terence-corcoran-nothing-bogus-about-hudak-plan/

As well as one from Andrew Coyne: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/05/28/andrew-coyne-tim-hudaks-bogus-million-jobs-plan-is-no-reason-not-to-vote-for-him/
 
Crispy Bacon said:
As well as one from Andrew Coyne: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/05/28/andrew-coyne-tim-hudaks-bogus-million-jobs-plan-is-no-reason-not-to-vote-for-him/

That wasn't quite a rebuttal...just that his bogus plan is no reason not to vote for him.  He pretty much states that the million jobs is parlour wizardry at best. 

But I prefer his crystal ball to their denials and their side stepping.  Coyne has it right on the money though.

What grates me teh most is neither Horvath or Wynn has specified how they would balance the budget and that they have avoided talking cuts when we know damn well they will have to do as much as Hudak to get thing under control.  Just that they are selling the unions and public service a trojan horse.

At least Hudak is up front about it and isn't dancing around it.

I'd vote now if there wasn't a risk that something like Hudak being a serial killer or a lizard monster or something else might come up between now and election day  ;D
 
I found this quote amusing
"If you think taxes are too low, vote for Wynne or Horvath"
 
Standings as of June 2, before yesterday's debate:

http://www.threehundredeight.com/p/ontario.html

Main%2BProjection.png
 
Well what I would hope to see is maybe some more erosion from the Liberals after Wynn's poor performance last night.  Maybe not towards the Cons but maybe towards the NDP (Horvath may have gained after her performance) to split some voting.  And maybe some undecided folks finally pledging towards Hudak to give him an edge to win.

A minority Hudak government at most (unless a coalition forms) even if the polls go his way after last night.  I can't see an immense jump between now and then.

 
 
I think your province needs to hope for a "BC Scenario" where polls go out the door and the people give a party a clear mandate.
 
Attack ads are really getting out of hand: 

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid867119956001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAybGjzqk~,6NfTc6c241F8RVDY60fjAj_JENn4BuUd&bctid=3605738086001
 
E.R. Campbell said:


And the Globe and Mail has an interesting follow-up on what I believe is the fundamental question: “What is needed to get Ontario’s economy back on track?” Each leader (someone in the campaign, anyway) responds with 800 words or less.

What is a bit interesting is the readers' choices: Hudak: 14% approval; Horwath: 19% approval; and Wynne: 67% approval (at 0700 rs, 5 Jun 14)
 
Infanteer said:
I think your province needs to hope for a "BC Scenario" where polls go out the door and the people give a party a clear mandate.


I'm not sure what the polls are saying ... and neither is Kathleen Wynne, I think, if her recent statements, reported in The Star, are any indication. Even if the published polls show her on the way to a majority she is campaigning as if she is in second place. Maybe her own polling is telling her something we aren't hearing.

I suspect she fears the NDP splitting the left of centre vote and allowing PC candidates to come up the middle, as this report in the Ottawa Citizen suggests.
 
The Globe and Mail's editorial board has made its choice, and it may surprise some. The editorial says, in part:

    "... in a perfect world, we’d be urging Ontarians to vote for the non-existent Liberal Progressive Conservative Party: a party that believes in fiscal responsibility as the foundation of government, but not its point; a party that understands
      the necessity of government to build a better society, but also government’s limitations; a party that puts the free market at the centre of its thinking, while acknowledging its imperfections; a party that chooses policies based on evidence,
      not dogma; a party powered by ideas, but still able to feel the pain of real people; a party that favours amelioration over revolution; a party that if entrusted with the stewardship of the once healthy but now mildly ill patient known as Ontario,
      could credibly promise to leave her in better shape.        '

      There are three major parties in this contest, and none of them entirely fits the bill. We do not live in that perfect world. That is not a statement of despair or a call to apathy. Democracy has always been messy and imperfect.
      Elections are hardly ever about choosing between polar opposites, or self-evidently right and unmistakably wrong options, as far apart as noon and midnight. At election time, all choices are relative. At election time, all parties
      are graded on the curve."

                      And

    "And then there are Tim Hudak’s Tories. Are they the ideal alternative? No, far from it. Are they a viable alternative? Yes, barely.

      They deserve praise for taking a hard line with public servants, calling for an across-the-board wage freeze. Union attacks on Mr. Hudak, and support for Ms. Wynne, leave a reasonable apprehension that the Liberals won’t be firm
        in future contract talks. And absent a willingness to stand up to its own supporters, a Liberal government will miss its budget targets. Mr. Hudak also has the right idea on business subsidies: Get rid of them. His impulse runs counter to
        the Liberal tendency, which has been to move ever more deeply into the game of subsidizing businesses in an attempt to protect or create jobs. Several Liberal financial miscues, notably Green Energy, grew out of a mistaken belief that
        government has to get into industrial strategy. The game has long been powered by lobbying and fraught with muck, and the Tories are right to want to find a way out of it.

        But Mr. Hudak is also running on a platform of simplistic slogans. The Million Jobs Plan has been rightly mocked for failures of basic arithmetic. The promise to cut 100,000 government workers contains some reasonable ideas borrowed
        from Don Drummond’s Liberal-commissioned report on right-sizing government, but the rest is just about offering a nice round number for campaign purposes. The pledge to cut red tape by one-third is similarly just a slogan, not a plan to govern.
        The Tory platform is about signalling to the electorate that they are erasing the “progressive” from Progressive Conservative. To govern that way would be misguided, because governing best is not merely about figuring out how to govern less.
        There is much immaturity in the Conservative plan.

      In a perfect world, Ontario voters would have (at least) two excellent alternatives to choose from. They instead have two imperfect choices: a tired Liberal Party that has yet to learn enough from its mistakes, and an untested
      Progressive Conservative Party that needs to moderate and mature. The only way it will do so is if it is given the chance to govern. As for the Liberals, spending some time in the wilderness will allow them to rethink and recover themselves.
      On balance, in our imperfect world, we choose the Progressive Conservative Party – but kept on the short leash of a minority government. In two years’ time, if all goes well for the maturing of the Tories and the rebuilding of the Liberals,
      Ontarians could find themselves returning to the polls, facing what the province desperately needs: two much stronger choices."

I agree, broadly, with the Good Grey Globe, but not on holding the PCs to minority status. Minority government is bad government. There is nothing, ever, to argue in favour of a minority. Minorities cannot do what they were elected to do - for good or ill. All we ever get, in all of recorded history, from minority governments in Canada is destructive compromise - and don't for the love of heaven tell me about medicare, that is, still, a nonsensical policy that, almost exactly, explains what is wrong with minorities. Minorities are for stupid people  that's why they are so popular amongst so many Canadians.

Edited to add:

My, personal dilemma is that I an absolutely certain that:

    1. Ontario needs a new, better government, NOW! The Liberals must be replaced. (Readers might want to note that I am a card carrying Conservative at both the federal and provincial (ON) levels.)

    2. The NDP is not a credible government in waiting.

    3. Tim Hudak is neither right nor ready to be premier of Ontario.

I'm going to vote Conservative on Thursday because imperative 1 and judgment 2 outweigh consideration 3. We've had weak, bad premiers before and Ontario has proven to be resilient.
 
E.R. Campbell said:
We've had weak, bad premiers before and Ontario has proven to be resilient.
You know the field is thin when even engaged and well-informed voters have to consider this as a factor  :not-again:
 
I think the big problem for the Ontrario PCs is that with their big campaign pitches (100k cuts, million jobs etc) they pulled the numbers out of the air to sound good but have lost a lot of credibility when anyone that bothered to read the details found the obvious logic holes/ basic math issues.

I think if they had kept the promises for job growth vague, identified that they would freeze PS wages and look at downsizing (ALL PS, including MPPs should be included if they do that), and a few other things, they could have easily hammered the Liberals for the gas plant and other issues, and a number of other critical failings.  NDP are still suffering from the Rae days, so they could have positioned themselves as the only viable candidate to the incumbents.

Instead they are stuck with this ridiculous campaign promises that they won't admit are just stupid, readjust and come back at it, so they seem to be effectively putting the useless liberals right back in (possible minority?). 

Don't get me wrong, I don't like any of them.  Before the campaign, I was going towards 'not liberals'; now I'm looking for good alternatives outside the big three to register a meaningful protest vote, if I can be bothered at all.  I find it really frustrating, particularily when I know there are a lot of really good, talented people in politics for all the right reasons.  They just rarely seem to be the ones in positions of power or influence, and quietly toil away in the backbenches when the big giant heads and their cabals of policy wonks run amok slowly destroying the country.
 
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