Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s battle with the Ontario Liberal Government seems to have produced two unpleasant results (from my POV) – Support for the CPC in Ontario is going down, while numbers for both federal and provincial Liberals are going up in this province.
While Flaherty may be responsible for the federal polling results, the Ontario picture is likely due more to an extremely weak opposition. As the Ottawa Sun’s Antonella Artuso reports, nothing seems to be sticking to Dalton McGuinty:
…Pollster Nik Nanos said the Liberals now enjoy a 15-point advantage over the Tories, up from 11 points in the October election.
Supporting the McGuinty government is a “default” position for voters who don’t see the opposition as proactive on important issues, such as the province’s economic slowdown, Nanos said.
“They’re not wearing anything as a government,” he said. “It’s classic … free ride politics.”
The Nanos Research poll finds the Liberals have the support of 45% of decided voters, followed by the Conservatives at 30%, the NDP at 14% and the Green Party at 10%….
Strangely, even the media seems outraged today by Dalton’s arrogance. Joe Warmington is especially angered the way Dalton dodged the media surrounding his closed-door session with Chinese business people:
…Somebody has to call out the premier and remind him he’s in that job at our pleasure in an open, democratic society where the press is entitled to cover his every public move. This means his meeting with a business delegation from Jiangsu, China, and its Vice-Governor Zhang Weiguo, should have some reasonable media opportunities. As premier, he’s on our clock — as were cabinet ministers Michael Chan and John Wilkinson…
Well, Joe. I don’t know about that. With polls like the one that just came out, I think you can be assured that Dalton’s actions will become even more arrogant and secretive. Don’t look for any transparency from this guy in the near future. He has the Ontario Lemmings eating out of his hand.
But I do wonder if any of that Teflon the premier wears was made in China?
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Update
: Aww… Doesn’t this warm the cockles of your plebeian heart? –
I talked rights: Preem. Chinese VIP ‘listened intently’:
…McGuinty said he made it clear to Zhang that he would be attending question period following the meeting and would give opposition MPPs an opportunity to hold him to account.
“He was surprised at that process,” McGuinty said. “But I embrace that process.”
Yeah, right.
