Blue Like You

Archive for October 5th, 2007

As far as I know, Dalton McGuinty has not visited Caledonia - not even once.

I had expected that he would at least hear their frustrations in person, but our aloof, elusive Premier-in-the-Bubble was MIA in Caledonia.

Perhaps the reason is that he doesn’t feel it’s worth his time in terms of a riding that he could hope to win.

When looking for some recent information on Caledonia and how the folks there are feeling, I came upon this Globe piece from Sept. 24 following the debate - John Tory’s sleepover.

Karen Howlett wrote an open letter to Dalton:

Remember Etta Young, the elderly woman in Cobourg that Opposition Leader John Tory told us about during last week’s all-candidates’ debate? She’s the one who doesn’t have a family doctor and has placed an ad in her local newspaper looking for one. Or the woman in Mississauga who’se been waiting more than a year for an operation on her knee and is walking with two canes?

Well, the reason Mr. Tory has all these anecdotes at the ready when he criticizes the way your Liberal Party governed over the past four years is because he never stops travelling around the province, talking to ordinary folks.

He says you just trotted out statistics when you defended your record during the debate because you don’t spend enough time doing the same. In fact, he just said a few minutes ago at a rally in Sarnia that you “shuffled your feet and recited a few numbers” during the debate…

Howlett goes on to tell the story about when John Tory actually slept over.

The point here is that you can either vote for the Bubble-Premier or you can vote for a person who really cares.

Things don’t look very promising right now, but I’m still hoping for a Thanksgiving miracle.

Update: John Tory’s week in review.

I love the National Post!

The lead editorial today (John Tory for Ontario Premier) explains that “on health, crime, education and taxes, he has the better approach”:

Most notably, Mr. Tory has said that, as premier, he would be open to contracting with private companies that serve patients within the single-payer public health system. Since Ontario already follows this practice in a number of areas, we do not see Mr. Tory’s position as controversial. Indeed, champions of the government health care monopoly should be welcoming every effort to wring more efficiency from the current system. But you would not know this from the hysterical attacks Mr. Tory’s sensible views on this subject have attracted from Mr. McGuinty and his media cheerleaders.

Yes, the fear-mongers have been very good at their job.

The Post continues to explain why they support John Tory’s policy in the areas of taxation, health care, crime, the economy and education.

Then they shine a spotlight on the duplicity and hypocrisy of the McGuinty campaign:

We should also note that, for all the furor surrounding Mr. Tory’s allegedly radical plan, the over-the-top response from Mr. McGuinty’s camp should be seen as more off-putting than the proposal itself. Beginning last month, the Premier, posturing earnestly as a champion of diversity, has suggested that Mr. Tory’s plan would somehow lead to the sociological balkanization of the province — all the while hypocritically ignoring the fact that he himself attended a publicly funded Catholic school as a child.

I totally agree. If overblown rhetoric and apocalyptic scenarios win this election, then I think then Ontario voters have only themselves to blame for the kind of leader we end up with.

The Post suggests that John Tory has the kind of personality that could make us proud:

Indeed, it is arguable that the entire country, not just Ontario, has a stake in the Oct. 10 election. As one Canadian writer put it in a very fine column about Mr. Tory this week, Mr. Tory’s archetype is former Ontario premier Bill Davis, “the ultimate consensus politician, who presided at a time when Ontario had more stature in Confederation than it does now.” Given the manner in which premiers’ meetings have descended into unsightly orgies of interprovincial money-grubbing in recent years, it would be nice to see Canada’s largest province put forward a leader who could draw these squabbling men into something like common purpose. It is hard to imagine anyone in this country better able to do that than John Tory.

If Ontario voters get sucked in to the vicious, demonizing lies of the McGuinty campaign and choose four more years of this arrogant, unaccountable regime, I will at least derive a small amount of comfort from rereading this editorial - and the knowledge that just as Torontonians are beginning to realize the cost of electing David Miller over John Tory in 2003, Ontario too will likely wake up from this Neverland Nanny State dream and see that it was just that - a dream.

Or more likely a nightmare.

In McGuinty-land, everything is fine and everyone is well looked after. Oh, there is ’still some work to do’, but all in all things are running smoothly, right?

Not according to 92-year-old Etta Young. She has had no family doctor for over a year now, and the family finally resorted to placing an ad in the local newspaper -

“Wanted! In desperate search to find physician for my 91-year-old mother.”

The retired nurse says that sometimes she feels so bad, “There’s times I’ve actually cried”.

“I have angina, I have asthma, I have arthritis in my hip, and I can’t even go see a doctor,” said Ms. Young, who makes do with walk-in clinics. “When I’m having pain, I feel completely hopeless. I think, ‘Is this really happening to me?’ I’ve always had a doctor.”

Mr. Tory said Ms. Young shows what’s wrong with Ontario’s health system. “The thing that motivates me to have the degree of determination I do,” Mr. Tory told a crowd of mostly seniors, “to say I am going myself to the United States to bring doctors home, is meeting people like Mrs. Young.”

Mr. Tory used the woman to illustrate his two-pronged, stepped-up approach against Dalton McGuinty: charging that the Premier does not talk to average folk and that he hasn’t done anything to ease the doctor shortage.

But wait! That’s not totally true, John.

Dalton has emerged from his bubble once in a while to talk to the common man. Let me see. It was just the other day, wasn’t it?

Oh yes. Dalton McGuinty had an extensive conversation that day. In fact he referred to it again and again:

Yesterday, Mr. McGuinty cited his meeting with Mr. Brady as proof that he is interacting with voters.

“Maybe you weren’t there when I met Mr. Brady in Ottawa and mainstreeted in a hospital corridor,” he told reporters after a speech to a business audience at the Empire and Canadian clubs in Toronto. “I’ve had a great opportunity to meet with Ontarians to get a better sense of where they are at and where they want us to go.”

Yesterday was the second time Mr. McGuinty has mentioned Mr. Brady by name, even though he did not stop to interact with him. The first time was at a Liberal barbecue rally in Ottawa last week.

When reminded yesterday that he actually brushed aside Mr. Brady’s comments about cancer treatment, Mr. McGuinty replied: “Let me tell you about what we are doing on the cancer front.” He then cited a list of actions he said the Liberals have taken to invest in cancer.

(i.e. Lib-Spin - ed.)

Dalton McGuinty even bends enough to talk to his own supporters! - (Globe):

Mr. McGuinty denied that he is avoiding direct contact with voters, saying he has met with many Ontarians.

“I think I just spoke to 500 people in that room alone,” Mr. McGuinty said after his speech.

*Gasp!*

But back to the doctor shortage - John Tory has a plan:

Mr. Tory promised that he would provide financial incentives to lure some of the estimated 9,000 Canadian-trained doctors working in the United States back to Ontario. He also said he would encourage young doctors to stay here by letting them defer paying back loans for medical school, and provide more flexible retirement arrangements for older doctors to allow them to continue practising part-time.

Etta Young seems convinced:

Ms. Young told reporters that she thinks the health-care system is “absolutely dreadful. Maybe I’ve just lost faith, I don’t know,” she said. “I’m sure if Mr. Tory can do what he says he can do, boy, he deserves to get in.”

I agree, Ms. Young.

And I hope Ontario voters give John Tory the opportunity to help you.