Blue Like You

Archive for October 3rd, 2007

I totally agree:

Retired transit worker Al Balfour, 76, stopped Tory to complain about the healthcare system — and especially the healthcare tax. He said he suffered a stroke several weeks ago and that he had to wait five hours at a local hospital to see a doctor.

“Liberal government, you can shove it where the sun don’t shine,” Mr. Balfour said.

“Those are your words,” said Mr. Tory with a laugh. “But you can tell your friends.”

Very informative article in today’s National Post - Education finances in Ontario: A pre-election fact guide, by David R. Johnson, professor of economics at Wilfrid Laurier University and fellow-in-residence at the C.D. Howe Institute:

…With about five million households in the province, and an annual increase since 2003-2004 in education spending of roughly $600 per household, Ontario’s per student funding will exceed that of every other province except Manitoba.

Does spending more money per student increase student learning? A vast research literature asks if smaller elementary classes, or more teachers per student, actually improve elementary assessment results. There is little evidence they do…

Ontario spent more money per student than Alberta, had smaller classes than Alberta and obtained poorer results. This and many other similar examples show there is no obvious relationship between the amount of money put into the public education sector and the outcome

Read the whole article - it’s quite enlightening.

Meanwhile, we have this report from Marketwire that the Caledonia Citizens Alliance estimates the tab for Caledonia to date around the $290 million mark:

“We are concerned that the Premier has been hiding many of the associated costs of this dispute from the Ontario taxpayers,” says Ken Hewitt, spokesperson for the Alliance. “McGuinty’s accounting fails to take into consideration the astronomical OPP and Hydro costs that are a direct result of this crisis in Caledonia,” continued Mr. Hewitt.

The Ontario Government has not yet released what it calls “other ongoing costs” and claims they are yet to be determined. Frank Stoneman, a local business owner and volunteer with the Alliance expressed his concerns, “This lack of information and accountability from the Provincial Government disturbs me. $290 million is $30 million more than the budget for the Ministry of the Environment in 2006. It’s a great deal of our hard-earned money.“

No wonder Dalton McGuinty needs ‘every penny’ of your health tax! (It goes into general revenues.)

John Tory makes a good point - Dalton McGuinty has been campaigning inside a political bubble:

“Those people don’t get inside Dalton McGuinty’s political bubble,” Tory said to applause. “The real people that have the real problems don’t get inside his political bubble.”

That’s an insult to every single person in Ontario, Tory said.

Indeed, it would seem that Premier McGuinty and his cohorts would rather insult cancer patients, bully parents of autistic children in court, and threaten media than have a frank discussion with them.

So what would John Tory do instead?

He (Tory) said four years ago Ontario was short 2,000 doctors and remains short by the same number with one in five people in Ottawa, for instance, still unable to find a family doctor. Overall, more than one million Ontarians were without a doctor four years ago and that number is more than one million today. Because of that poor leadership, he said, McGuinty deserves to get the boot from voters.

Tory said he will travel personally to the United States in a bid to persuade the 9,000 Ontario-trained doctors practising there to return home.

He said his party will boost spending on health care and still get rid of the health tax McGuinty imposed shortly after taking office. That tax unfairly hits lower income Ontarians harder than more well off taxpayers.

“You will no longer be paying the evil health care tax,” he promised.

Do you want to be insulted for four more years?

Or would you rather see results?

So many stories; so little time.

In today’s Sun, Dr. Sandy Buchman reminds us that if we don’t have our health, little else matters - Did we forget health care?

I would argue that safety is another crucial issue, but yes, health care is right up there too.

Dr. Buchman points out:

For most Ontarians, the initial contact with the health care system is their family doctor.

Today, despite laudable efforts of present and past governments, more than one million adults and 130,000 children have no family doctor. Ontario ranks seventh among Canadian provinces in terms of doctors per 100,000 people.

Yes, the health issue is highly important and should return to the spotlight.

However, Dalton McGuinty and his Ass-Kickers are doing their best to keep FB-funding in the forefront - McGuinty tries to keep school issue alive:

While Mr. Tory has been hoping to put the schools issue behind him by promising a free vote among MPPs, Mr. McGuinty evoked the possibility of a three-year debate on school funding if Mr. Tory is elected.

“Instead of dealing with this matter in an upfront, transparent way, he is now saying that he wants to plunge this province into three years of destruction and distraction,” he said.

“And now what he lacks the courage to do immediately, he plans to do by stealth.”

The comments represent a change in tone from Mr. Mc-Guinty, who initially took the high road in responding to the Conservative shift.

Meanwhile, John Tory was trying to restore the focus on issues of higher importance:

“What’s really important is that people focus on the really important hot issues in the next eight days,” Mr. Tory said. “And that includes things like the doctor shortage, why kids with autism aren’t getting treated, why the economy is languishing on Dalton McGuinty’s watch, why millions and billions of our dollars are being wasted and spent improperly.”

That’s when 64-year-old Scarborough resident Jim Devine cut in from the sidelines at Sun Valley Grocery Store.

“What about the education, sir?” an obviously irritated Mr. Devine asked, with a security official making sure he did not get too close.

When Mr. Tory noted that a Conservative government plans to invest $1-billion in education in the first year and $2.4-billion the second year, Mr. Devine — who claims he normally votes PC — kept pushing, criticizing Mr. Tory for changing his faith-based stance and calling for a free vote.

Now the interesting thing is that Globe tells us that “Liberal officials denied that Mr. Devine is a party supporter but he has a Liberal sign on his lawn.”

So the question is, did Mr. Devine really just switch his political allegiance in the last few months?

Or was he a stealthy plant?

Is someone lying here?

Nah… I’m sure you can trust Dalton McGuinty.