2014 Ontario General Election

[Cloud Cover]

Yawn  and enough of this  :endnigh: stuff. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. 4 more years of foolishness will put a bullet into the liberal party in Ontario, Hudak and Horwath will be tossed away like broken china and new blood will emerge.

Don't worry>> stay focused on what is most important to you - your family, your friends, your beliefs, heck even your dog is more important than this one thing. And keep your sense of humour, show leadership, maturity, courage and spirit- these are the things that help us all endure the good with the bad. The end of the world is not imminent just because of this one election, there were actually no good choices this time anyway.     

 

[Marchog]

Yawn  and enough of this  :endnigh: stuff. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. 4 more years of foolishness will put a bullet into the liberal party in Ontario, Hudak and Horwath will be tossed away like broken china and new blood will emerge.

Don't worry>> stay focused on what is most important to you - your family, your friends, your beliefs, heck even your dog is more important than this one thing. And keep your sense of humour, show leadership, maturity, courage and spirit- these are the things that help us all endure the good with the bad. The end of the world is not imminent just because of this one election, there were actually no good choices this time anyway.     

Wise words. At least it'll cause the other parties to rethink things and (especially the PCs) not trot out a robotic leader that can barely even get the support of their own natural base. That said, if what the Liberals have done recently can't put a bullet in them, the pessimist in me says nothing will. What more would it take? I ask that non-rhetorically.

 

[Edward Campbell]

I agree with whisky601 (I know he misspells whisky, it's only a venal sin).

This is Ontario and Canada, not Latin America, and what matters is that Ontario is living on borrowed money and it must be repaid ... soon. The bond market will speak and Premier Wynne will oisten, in fact she'' jump like an obedient dog, just as will any other Canadian leaders, even Quebec leaders ... eventually.

Premier Wynne will, once the dust has settled, and while we are all preoccupied with our summer vacations, announce that balancing the budget is priority 1 and she deeply regrets that, despite all her promises, she will not reintroduce her last budget, she will raise taxes ... she will not this and she will that and the other thing, too.

The good news is that the PC Party will get rid of Tim Hudak; it is even possible that it will learn from its mistakes and that it will elect a moderate, centrist ... please see my comments, elsewhere, about why US politics and the US culture wars are neither welcome in nor applicable to Canada.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I see ON has decided to go with the "budget will balance itself" strategy.

BC teachers are getting ready to strike, but I suppose they're going to have to keep playing second fiddle to ON teachers as "best paid in Canada" for a while longer.

 

[Marchog]

it is even possible that it will learn from its mistakes and that it will elect a moderate, centrist ... please see my comments, elsewhere, about why US politics and the US culture wars are neither welcome in nor applicable to Canada.

Hudak did not run on a socially conservative platform in any way, I'm confused as to why you're blaming "culture wars". Socons stayed home this election. He did run on a quasi-libertarian hack-and-slash platform though, and look where it got him.

 

[Cloud Cover]

I agree with whisky601 (I know he misspells whisky, it's only a venal sin).

LOL.

"Whiskey" is Jackspeak for a tactical grid position on the Westerly part of Canada's 3 oceans. "Whisky" is something that you and I would drink, and have, so far as I can recall     

 

[Fishbone Jones]

There it is folks. Ontario is Toronto, the rest of us are just country bumpkins that only deserve a passing glance. Toronto gets what it wants. Get ready for our gas to take a jump so that McWynne can give TO the transportation infrastructure it wants.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

He's gone

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/ontario-election-2014-tim-hudak-to-step-down-as-pc-leader

The good news is that the PC Party will get rid of Tim Hudak; it is even possible that it will learn from its mistakes and that it will elect a moderate, centrist ... please see my comments, elsewhere, about why US politics and the US culture wars are neither welcome in nor applicable to Canada.

 

[X Royal]

He's gone

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/ontario-election-2014-tim-hudak-to-step-down-as-pc-leader

What do you expect when the PC's kept flogging the same dead horse (2 elections) who couldn't win in a no horse race.
OK Wynne does look a little horsey.

 

[a_majoor]

Well, when I'm done in the Forces, my future course is now set: Alberta or perhaps Saskatchewan.

Pity, I really like Kingston and had been thinking about this as a future home and base of operations....

 

[Nemo888]

The Liberals still red handed from a corruption scandal and an electorate and even their own party thinking of Horvath as a petty opportunist how could you lose?  Extremist dogma over sound financial planning. Don't cut for cuttings sake and don't cut faster than growth. The solution in Ontario is temporarily raising taxes and cutting at slightly less than the economic growth rate until the budget is balanced. A solution that has never been tried. Harris cut income taxes by 30% and only cut expenses by a fraction of that. The province never recovered and Hudak was held accountable.

 

[a_majoor]

If the Liberal's own Duncan report said they needed to cut 17% just to stabilize the budget, then I suggest we are far past the point that "small" cuts will help at all. Indeed, since the report was ignored by McGuinty and his successors, who continued running huge deficits, the needed cuts will actually have to be 20% or more. Since growth is virtually non existent, your prescription of minuscule cuts that might balance the budget in a century or two is meaningless in any real sense.

And lets face it, when London lost over a thousand jobs in rapid succession due to large companies either leaving or downsizing because Ontario wasn't competitive (Kelloggs, Caterpillar and Cargill), raising taxes by any amount is simply going to increase the parade of jobs and capital heading to greener pastures (remember Alberta and Saskatchewan? Why do you think I am researching these places rather than Quebec or Nova Scotia?).

Face it Nemo, while the Unions beat the taxpayers at the ballot box, taxpayers can vote with their wallets and feet every day. Not everyone is going to stick around to be forced to pay for undisciplined spending on current consumption, green fantasies and crony capitalist payouts.

 

[Nemo888]

No provincial government can do much about globalization. Those jobs left because the US is trying to emulate Mexico. Lower wages, fewer environmental controls and rampant corruption allowing financial donations to outweigh the electorate's votes. You seem to think this condition is better than what we have. I disagree. I like a strong middle class, not just rich and poor. Unions are not the problem and the electorate clearly saw through that ruse.

 

[The_Falcon]

Face it Nemo, while the Unions beat the taxpayers at the ballot box, taxpayers can vote with their wallets and feet every day. Not everyone is going to stick around to be forced to pay for undisciplined spending on current consumption, green fantasies and crony capitalist payouts.

Submitted several applications for positions in Las Vegas, and a couple of cruise lines.  Really really wish, I could stay here for the next 4 years.

 

[Edward Campbell]

The Globe and Mail "gets it" in an editorial. Indeed, the first pargraph says it all:

    "The two leading parties in the Ontario election ran campaigns focused not on the middle of the electorate, but on the fringes. This election was the Progressive Conservative Party’s to lose, and that Tim Hudak did. He mistakenly chose to
      run a campaign designed to motivate the Conservative base. The hard-right platform failed to win over anyone else. He did, however, succeed in frightening some voters into shifting to the NDP and Liberals. Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals
      also aimed at a voting base, albeit not their own. The Liberals drove their campaign bus on the left side of the road, the better to pick up frustrated NDP supporters, including NDPers afraid of a Hudak government. In a few key ridings,
      it worked. But to govern successfully, and to give the province a chance to climb out of the fiscal ditch, the next government has to stop focussing on the edge of the road. As premier, Ms. Wynne is going to have to move back
      toward the centre lane."

No one who matters - and that would be bond buyers - cares who promised what; no one who matters - bond buyers again - cares what the people of Toronto or Ontario or Canada want; those who matter - the bond buyers - will set the agenda. Much of what Tim Hudak said, after you got past the slogans and numbers, made and still  makes good, practical sense ... it it what any province (read Ontario and Quebec) that chooses to live on credit must do. If you want to see the future of Ontario, look at Italy; if you want to see the future of Quebec look at Spain. All four 'states' will, eventually, dig themselves out, some (Ontario) will, most likely, do it more quickly and in a less emotionally wrenching way than will the others.

 

[CombatDoc]

I fear that in economic terms, "Onterrible" will live up to its nickname. 

 

[observor 69]

From todays Toronto Star editorial page:


But the new Wynne government will also have to come to grips with Ontario’s worrisome fiscal reality.


The province has a $300-billion debt and its deficit of $12.5 billion will jump in the next year with new spending. To avoid a credit-rating downgrade, Wynne must spell out more precisely how her government intends to balance the budget within the three years it has pledged. Will Wynne play Hudak-lite and cut public service jobs or government spending? So far she has offered few details.


Inevitably, the Liberal government will face its own hard choices. That will almost certainly mean confrontations with public sector unions. Their leaders should not confuse voters’ rejection of Hudak’s deep cuts with complacency in the face of stubborn government deficits. Wynne has a mandate to govern and to balance the books – and that will mean asking some to take less.


It will be a hard road to navigate. But Wynne has shown a sure touch in the premier’s office and rare political skill in engineering this victory.


http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2014/06/12/kathleen_wynnes_victory_sends_a_strong_message_editorial.html

 

[Edward Campbell]

There it is folks. Ontario is Toronto, the rest of us are just country bumpkins that only deserve a passing glance. Toronto gets what it wants. Get ready for our gas to take a jump so that McWynne can give TO the transportation infrastructure it wants.

But, in an article in the Globe and Mail, Marcus Gee argues that the promises cannot be relied upon. Mr Gee says that "the rejoicing we will hear from the city [Toronto] over the victory of Ms. Wynne and the subduing of Mr. Hudak’s Huns may prove premature."

It's the same old problem: money. Toronto, like Ottawa, like Windsor, and so on, wants more More, MORE and Queens Park simply cannot borrow that much more.

 

[blacktriangle]

If anyone is interested, you can get close to 50 acres and a beautiful home in certain parts of the USA for less than a townhome in your average Ontario city…

Willing to sub-divide land at a fair price for the right person


Cheap beers and AR-15 practice every weekend guys!

 

[The Bread Guy]

There it is folks. Ontario is Toronto, the rest of us are just country bumpkins that only deserve a passing glance. Toronto gets what it wants.

True, but that's not news to those of us living north of the 705 area code.