Ontario Politics 2016

[Nuggs]

Ridiculous.... and to think I asked for this posting.... That'll teach me.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[George Wallace]

Baby steps, but "Change may be in the wind":

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

PC candidate Raymond Cho wins Scarborough-Rouge River byelection
'With tonight's victory, this first step, the great leader Patrick Brown will become premier of Ontario': Cho
CBC News Posted: Sep 01, 2016 6:13 PM ET Last Updated: Sep 01, 2016 11:45 PM ET

Progressive Conservative candidate Raymond Cho has won the Scarborough-Rouge River provincial byelection, held to replace former Liberal MPP Bas Balkissoon.

With all 234 polls reporting, Cho won the seat by 2,429 votes.

Eleven candidates ran in the Toronto riding, which has been a Liberal stronghold since its creation in 1999. They included Piragal Thiru for the Liberal Party and Neethan Shan for the NDP.

Following the win, PC party senior advisor Babu Nagalingam joked, "We will now be called Scarborough-Blue River," pointing to the signature blue colour of the party.

"Tonight there is a blue wave that has crossed the Rouge River in Raymond Cho," PC leader Patrick Brown said. "Tonight we made history. Thanks to your hard work we won a riding that has been a Liberal-held riding since it was created 20 years ago."

"This is only the beginning," Cho said, jubilant over the win. "With tonight's victory, this first step, the great leader Patrick Brown will become premier of Ontario [in] 2018."

'Of course we're disappointed'

Liberal Party candidate Piragal Thiru, who came second with about 30 per cent of the vote, was met with cheers and applause by loyal supporters.

In a statement shortly after the outcome was announced, Premier Kathleen Wynne said, "The result in Scarborough-Rouge River is disappointing and gives me cause for reflection. The good people of that riding have elected Liberals for many years. I'll be talking with our Scarborough members in the coming days, as well as our outstanding candidate Pirigal Thiru."

"Are we disappointed tonight? Of course we're disappointed. But we're resilient," Scarborough-Centre MPP Brad Duguid said.

"Byelections are a time to listen. As a party I think we've been in power for so long because we've been listening," Duguid said.

​In March, Balkissoon resigned from the seat he held since 2005, with little explanation other than to tell the Scarborough Mirror in April that he wanted to spend more time with family. Neither Wynne nor the party have spoken about the reason for his departure.

Sex-ed curriculum about-face didn't hurt PCs

Ahead of the byelection, Brown acknowledged that his changing position on the Liberal government's sex-ed curriculum could cost the party the seat but it clearly didn't hurt the PCs Thursday night.

After promising last week to get rid of controversial changes to the curriculum, which encompasses topics such as same-sex relationships, gender identity and masturbation, Brown did an about-face on the topic on Monday, calling it a "mistake" to pledge to scrap it.

Before Brown's reversal Cho maintained the issue was one that his riding was passionate about.

"When I look at my riding, the huge majority are Muslim, Catholic, Hindu, Chinese. All these parents are quite concerned about this issue," Cho said.

More on LINK.

 

[George Wallace]

 

[Remius]

Baby steps, but "Change may be in the wind":

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

More on LINK.

I really, really hope so. 

But by-elections with a 28 percent turnout at this particular time of the year might not be the best indicator.  Either way I'm glad the Liberals lost that one.  At the very least they can't use a win as a validation of their agenda.

 

[Brad Sallows]

ORPP was mainly a vehicle to create another large, deep-pocketed customer for ON's deficit-financing instruments.  (ON, not having a sovereign currency or federal bank, has to finance its deficits conventionally.  Having organizations/agencies with lots of funds available - particularly organizations with mandates to buy highly-rated debt - is critical to ON.)

CPP expansion is simply the same gambit, but the pool is expanded at the expense of all Canadians who get to enjoy the low CPP investor's rate of return.  (There is neither a current nor likely pension crisis among the middle class; all dollars being fungible, increased CPP contributions directly reduce other retirement savings, so the CPP expansion should generally be expected to lower expected retirement income.)  That is why the reform was structured to start with more contributions immediately, with increased payouts well down the road.  (Current retirees get nothing extra and soon-to-be retirees will get very little.  Only people with many years of contribution time remaining will benefit much, but their contributions of course go in immediately.)

ON, by inflicting this sh!t on everyone, is not being a very good Canadian at present.

 

[Jed]

ORPP was mainly a vehicle to create another large, deep-pocketed customer for ON's deficit-financing instruments.  (ON, not having a sovereign currency or federal bank, has to finance its deficits conventionally.  Having organizations/agencies with lots of funds available - particularly organizations with mandates to buy highly-rated debt - is critical to ON.)

CPP expansion is simply the same gambit, but the pool is expanded at the expense of all Canadians who get to enjoy the low CPP investor's rate of return.  (There is neither a current nor likely pension crisis among the middle class; all dollars being fungible, increased CPP contributions directly reduce other retirement savings, so the CPP expansion should generally be expected to lower expected retirement income.)  That is why the reform was structured to start with more contributions immediately, with increased payouts well down the road.  (Current retirees get nothing extra and soon-to-be retirees will get very little.  Only people with many years of contribution time remaining will benefit much, but their contributions of course go in immediately.)

ON, by inflicting this sh!t on everyone, is not being a very good Canadian at present.

They are doing a good job of alienating the rest of the country.

 

[mariomike]

They are doing a good job of alienating the rest of the country.

Time for this?

Why Ontario has a strong economic case for seceding from Canada
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/why-ontario-has-a-strong-economic-case-for-seceding-from-canada/article6296852/

Or, time for the GTA to secede from Ontario?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_municipalities_in_the_Greater_Toronto_Area#/media/File:Greater_toronto_area_map.svg

 

[Brad Sallows]

Except for the last point - Canadian taxpayers pay equalization, not provinces - I suppose ON can still claim to be shortchanged (I doubt most of those points have changed much in the past few years since Ibbitson's article was written).  But most of ON's problems stem from provincial policies which are hamstringing economic growth.  It may be a great thing that the province is on the bleeding edge of trying to attach real costs to some externalities, but there is no evading this fact: if a consumer must pay more to consume one thing at the same rate he will have to spend less on something else.  In effect, it roughly translates to a fall in productivity (same amount of money for less stuff).

 

[Fishbone Jones]

A lamppost could win the next election by, simply, promising to lower electrical rates. This bitch won't stop until they take the office keys away from her.

 

[the 48th regulator]

Baby steps, but "Change may be in the wind":

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

More on LINK.

Sad thing is, Raymond Cho was my councillor in Toronto/Scarborough for ever, and by far the worst representative of Voters ever.  He has tried his hardest to become an MPP and ran for all three parties.  Don't expect much from that clown!

 

[mariomike]

Sad thing is, Raymond Cho was my councillor in Toronto/Scarborough for ever, and by far the worst representative of Voters ever.  He has tried his hardest to become an MPP and ran for all three parties.  Don't expect much from that clown!

First elected as a Metro Councillor in 1991. People in the area know him. I met him a couple of times. Seemed like a nice man.  Never heard of Piragal Thiru for the Liberal Party or Neethan Shan for the NDP.

What a dream team!

 

[the 48th regulator]

First elected as a Metro Councillor in 1991. People in the area know him. I met him a couple of times. Seemed like a nice man.  Never heard of Piragal Thiru for the Liberal Party or Neethan Shan for the NDP.

What a dream team!

Neethan Shan has ran for the NDP in the past, and a go getter. Piragal Thiru never heard of him, and is new in this area.  However, living here for 14 years I can tell you Cho was the bane of everyones existence!

 

[George Wallace]

Sad thing is, Raymond Cho was my councillor in Toronto/Scarborough for ever, and by far the worst representative of Voters ever.  He has tried his hardest to become an MPP and ran for all three parties.  Don't expect much from that clown!

First elected as a Metro Councillor in 1991. People in the area know him. I met him a couple of times. Seemed like a nice man.  Never heard of Piragal Thiru for the Liberal Party or Neethan Shan for the NDP.

What a dream team!

Sad that the choices we are left with are what are leading us down these paths.  Seems that at all levels, the true leaders out there are not venturing into politics, leaving us with less than stellar performers. 

 

[mariomike]

However, living here for 14 years I can tell you Cho was the bane of everyones existence!

I read that only 28.14% of the eligible voters even bothered to show up. In 2014, the turnout was 47.48%.

It was interesting how when Mr. Brown introduced Mr. Cho to speak, Cho handed the mic straight to Doug. Doug said something about subways.

Globe: "Do you think Doug would be a good candidate?" Patrick Brown: "I think, um, well, Doug would be a good candidate."

Jonathan Goldsbie: "That was an A-plus awkward pause."

Asked about the first thing he'll do at Queen's Park, Cho ( age 79 ) says, "Party politics is kind of new... I have to learn a lot of things."

We may have lost Councillor Cho, but Mikey Stirpe  Ford ( our youngest Councillor ever ) will occupy his late uncle Rob's seat — as well as his office at city hall.

But, the really good news is... Ford Fest is back in town!

"We’re going to be having our Ford Fest in the next week and we’ll be announcing that.”
http://www.torontosun.com/2016/09/03/coming-soon-ford-fest

Come for your free burger. Stay for the fun! 

This is about Ontario politics, so I will add it here,

Sep 2, 2016

Thorncliffe Park public school to offer alternate sex-ed curriculum
http://www.680news.com/2016/09/02/thorncliffe-park-public-school-to-offer-alternate-sex-ed-curriculum/
Last year hundreds of parents pulled their children out of class at Thorncliffe Park public school because they were uncomfortable with Ontario’s new sex-education curriculum.

I included a pic  of Singin' Jimmy in case the red beret caught anyone'seen eye . He actually got 213 votes in Ward 18. 

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Who and what is that in the first picture?

 

[mariomike]

That's Singin' Jimmy. He was a member of the Rob Ford Rangers.

That's also him in the bottom pic taking one in the kisser.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Singin' Jimmy  :rofl:

OK, Mike, there has to be a story behind someone like that! Spill!! :nod:

 

[mariomike]

After Rob dropped out of the mayoral election due to illness, Jimmy and his crew defected from Doug and Ford Nation and supported Mrs. Chow. That was a bit of a shock.

Rob's real security was handled by Jerry and Big Mike. I believe Jimmy is in his 80's.

That's Rob doing a hard hat inspection.

Also, in that pic, Jimmy was trying to protect that girl ( forget her name ) with the lei thing around her neck at a Scarborough Ford Fest. The crowd was getting pretty hostile towards her, and the guy ( forget his name too ) with the flag over his shoulders. The other guy's name is Ron. Doug also helped cool them down.

 

[George Wallace]

http://globalnews.ca/news/2927414/wynne-to-prorogue-ontario-legislature-deliver-throne-speech-on-monday/

Wynne to prorogue Ontario legislature, deliver throne speech on Monday

TORONTO – Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is proroguing the legislature so that her government can deliver a new throne speech Monday.

A speech from the throne is an opportunity for the Liberal government to outline a new set of priorities less than two years away from the next provincial election.

Major pieces of legislation for the government’s previous priorities have already been passed, including ones to enable a cap and trade system and the partial sale of Hydro One.

All government bills are being kept active, including election finance reforms, but it’s not yet clear what will happen to private members’ bills.

More coming.

 

[Kirkhill]

http://globalnews.ca/news/2927414/wynne-to-prorogue-ontario-legislature-deliver-throne-speech-on-monday/

Wynne to prorogue Ontario legislature, deliver throne speech on Monday

TORONTO – Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is proroguing the legislature so that her government can deliver a new throne speech Monday.

A speech from the throne is an opportunity for the Liberal government to outline a new set of priorities less than two years away from the next provincial election.

Major pieces of legislation for the government’s previous priorities have already been passed, including ones to enable a cap and trade system and the partial sale of Hydro One.

All government bills are being kept active, including election finance reforms, but it’s not yet clear what will happen to private members’ bills.

More coming.

I assume we can expect to see expressions of outrage in the media headlines?