Blue Like You

Archive for the ‘Dalton McGuinty’ Category

I’m begging you.

"…we’ve toppled over a cliff, and no one really knows how far down we might fall…"

But lemmings don’t care about that.

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Update: I was looking for a picture of a lemming. Not much luck, but ironically I did come across this which turned out to be quite prophetic.

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Via the Star:

…federal Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said the premier "has always shown a lot of courage and determination.

"He’s an inspiration for what I intend to do for the country," Dion said at the provincial meeting.

Well if that doesn’t send chills up and down your carbon-taxed spine, I don’t know what will.

Dalton predicts that the Ontario Liberals will "win a third straight majority in 2011," because no other party is up to challenges facing the province .

As John Tory notes, Dalton’s Liberals are already "showing signs of arrogance that normally would have taken them two full terms to arrive at".

Not only that, but Dalton also seems to feel that questions from reporters about whether or not he would consider raising taxes in the face of an economic downturn in order to maintain existing programs are ‘ silly’.

Never mind that he does have a record of doing just that.

So what exactly is it that Stephane Dion admires so much? Is it Dalton’s ability to win two consecutive majorities? Or is it that Dalton is getting a free ride with no serious opposition? Or is he inspired by Dalton’s arrogance?

Or is it his ability to manufacture non-existing crises and then pretend to have found the solution?

Does Dion admire Dalton’s ban fetish?

Does Dion agree with enabling the victimization of Muslim women by ignoring published evidence of polygamy? (Added as an update)

If Stephane Dion were to become Prime Minister of Canada, would he be looking to Dalton McGuinty as his mentor?

I honestly don’t think Ontario could survive the effects of a Double-Dalton.

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Update: For a lighter read, this imagined diary by Joseph Brean is hilarious - Dear Diary: Dalton McGuinty.

Enjoy.

Not-so-funny-update : McGuinty celebrates while citizens die - BBS. This is a must-read. I have to admit it even flew under my radar until now. Nice job, George. Memories of SARS, eh?

Monday update: Ontario picks Darlington for new reactors (Globe). Check out the comments at this Globe site as well.

Ontario passes passes ban on smoking in cars with kids under 16 (CP). Ah, great but what if the kids are the ones smoking?

Ian Urquhart speculates on the possibility of Dalton McGuinty replacing Stephane Dion as federal Liberal leader.

In other news, Dalton won’t give up his precious Health Tax (the majority of which goes to general revenues.)

I’m torn between wanting to get rid of Dalton as Ontario Premier, and the nightmare scenario of imagining him as Prime Minister of Canada. And who would succeed Dalton anyway? Nobody I’m cheering for, that’s for sure.

On second thought, hang in there Stephane!

Continuing the ‘Small man’ spat (which is really quite hilarious when you consider the relative size of Dalton McGuinty vs. Peter Van Loan) . . .

Brother David’s compatriots are now rushing to little Dalton’s defence. That big bully Van Loan should apologize, according to Stephane Dion. Never mind that the LPC would benefit enormously from any increase in seats in the land of Lemmingville, so his actions are hardly altruistic.

The Post article quotes Dion as saying, “Premier McGuinty is taking his job seriously, and representing the people of Ontario … The ridiculous comments made by Minister Van Loan are contemptible at best, and disrespectful of the office that Mr. McGuinty was recently reelected to hold.”

Yet it is perfectly fine for Stephane Dion to call the Prime Minister ‘pathetic’, and infer that he is a liar, thereby disrespecting the highest political office in our country:

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is pathetic. Court documents show that he misled the House. Court documents told the truth, not the Prime Minister…

But of course, that is Liberal entitlement.

Meanwhile, Dalton McGuinty tries to keep his hands clean. Other people do his dirty work for him.

He will rise above all this name-calling:

At Queen’s Park, McGuinty insisted he had no interest in a petty squabble with Van Loan and warned that Ottawa should look at the bigger picture. “Why is it that whenever we Torontonians Ontarians stand up for ourselves we’re accused of being un-Canadian?” he said.

As John Stossel would say, ‘Give me a break!’

Dalton McGuinty - ‘partisan‘?

Nah… Never!

‘Doesn’t even understand the federal bill’?

C’mon, Peter. That’s really pushing it!

The National Post editorial page has it all today - two smackdowns aimed McGuinty, one at the Red Star, and assorted others.

Dalton McGuinty has been trying to demonstrate action on two files by crying to Ottawa, and not having much success.

In the Post editorial, Harper to cities: ‘Grow up’, we have their reaction to yesterday’s Enquirer-style Toronto Star headline - PM to cities: Drop dead, but the piece is more of a reality check for McGuinty than a criticism of the Star’s crass attempt to grab market-share and/or malign the Prime Minister (which they later attempted to cover up):

And then there is Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who asks: “Why can’t [Mr. Harper] come to the table and lend direct support to Canadian municipalities?” All of these politicians are getting plenty of encouragement from the Toronto Star, which yesterday ran a banner headline claiming that Mr. Harper told cities to “drop dead.”

The Post also takes a shot at Toronto Mayor David Miller, calling him “whiner-in-chief”. This is what left-wing politicians do best - pander to their union buddies and then upload their whining to the next level of government.

This article closes with the following observation:

It is hard to remember another time when politics in Ontario were this childish. Mr. McGuinty, the mayors and their media cheerleaders are effectively staging a collective temper tantrum until they get a bigger allowance. Mr. Harper isn’t asking them to “drop dead.” He’s asking them to grow up.

Exactly. What McGuinty, Miller et al appear to have forgotten, is that there is only a finite resource of tax dollars to tap. Regular people are losing jobs, while public unions are still living in some kind of Lemming la-la land where reality never seems to intrude. At some point McGuinty and Miller are going to have to say ‘no‘ to their union buddies, and then watch their support plummet!

Another wakeup call for McGuinty in this editorial, Hands off the bank, where the benefits of central-bank independence are itemized. As you know, McGuinty and Charest have been screaming and whining for the government to lower interest rates:

But most agree that money works best, and presents the least peril of catastrophe, when it is kept out of the reach of central planners and politicians with vote-driven agendas. Yet apparently those distinguished financial experts Dalton McGuinty and Jean Charest disagree.

The collapse of the U.S. dollar against our own, they announced on Thursday, is hurting the economies of Ontario and Quebec (even as it helps other provinces). The adjustments will be difficult for workers and executives. Why not just increase the money supply a tad to soften the blow? What could it hurt?

BONUS: Great McGuinty smackdown letter in the Post (Economics 101 for McGuinty) by Charlie Cahill of Ottawa:

Dalton McGuinty says that Stephen Harper “listened to me intently” when the Ontario Premier asked the Prime Minster to lower the Canadian dollar vs. the U.S. dollar.

I doubt that the PM was listening intently. Any Grade 11 student of economics knows that monetary policy is the job of the Bank of Canada with no political interference, as the same article points out so well.

Fiscal policy is the work of the government of the day. Small wonder the PM appeared to “listen intently.” He must have wondered if this man is really fit to be the leader of Ontario since he has shown his ignorance of the most basic part of monetary/fiscal policy.

Harper must also have wondered how on earth McGuinty got another majority government!

This is what you elected, Ontario (and Quebec) - Whiners. Not problem solvers. Not innovative thinkers.

As with every other problem, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is showing ‘action’ on the devastating effects of the high dollar by complaining to Ottawa - Harper Urged to Slow Dollar (Post). He and his fellow all-talk-no-action Quebec counterpart want a First Ministers’ summit to try to convince Harper to lower the interest rates in an effort to tame our strong loonie.

And here’s the smack-down (Post):

“This notion that Canadian premiers, through a complaint, are going to change the course of the U.S. dollar is lunacy,” said Finn Poschmann, director of research at the C.D. Howe Institute, a Toronto-based economic think-tank.

Interest rates are not set by the prime minister, but by the Bank of Canada, which operates independently of the government. And experts question whether the Bank of Canada could yield any influence on forces pushing up the dollar.

“There’s nothing the Bank of Canada can do to stop a global trend, which is that the U.S. dollar is going to weaken,” said David Watt, senior currency strategist at Royal Bank of Canada.

I said that days ago, and I’m no economist - just your average Jo. (What do you say now, LKO?)

Post Reporter Paul Vieira notes at the end of the article:

Openly complaining about the central bank and the high dollar does allow the premiers to say they are fighting for their local economies –even if they know they yield little power to alter the actual course of exchange markets.

Or maybe they just don’t have a clue, Paul.

You blew it Lemmingland. Four more years of whining and inaction.

Four more years of passing the buck to Ottawa.

Get used to it.

If a Premier who is rumoured to have not kept his word tells a voter that what he (the voter) says isn’t true, does that mean that he’s calling that citizen is a liar?- Globe:

Ontario Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty shifted his campaign strategy yesterday by ramping up his attack on his archrival, warning voters of a return to Mike-Harris-style health cuts if the Progressive Conservatives win the election.

But as Mr. McGuinty touted improvements his party made to health care during a campaign stop at an Ottawa hospital, he was rebuffed by a terminally ill cancer patient who accused the Liberals for not financing certain cancer drugs.

Mike Brady, 63, refused to shake Mr. McGuinty’s extended hand, telling him he has cancer and “you’re not helping any.”

“That’s not true,” Mr. McGuinty replied, before continuing his tour of the hospital.

So was the cancer patient lying, Dalton? Or were you?

More at the Star.

Do you think that Dalton McGuinty’s re-election efforts to pillory John Tory’s proposal for Faith-Based funding have more to do with opportunistic tactics than altruistic concern for public education? Well whatever the reason, polls show the strategy is working.

And the Ontario Liberals appear to have some heavy-hitting support behind them. Why? Because of course, union jobs may be in jeopardy.

In today’s Sun, Lorrie Goldstein berates MSM, strategists and politicians who pounce on a perceived weakness and play it to the hilt; deliberately distorting the truth and ignoring clarifications - An Education in Election Coverage:

A proposal by Conservative Leader John Tory to extend public funding to non-Catholic religious schools (Catholic ones are already funded) if they agree to teach Ontario’s approved curriculum and meet other criteria, has been transformed by hysterical media and shameless Liberals into a silly suggestion Tory would allow the teaching of creationism as an alternative to evolution in schools.

That’s not what Tory’s policy — which has been public for months — says.

One phone call to the education ministry by the media would have revealed that Ontario’s existing, publicly funded Catholic schools only teach evolution — in the science curriculum.

However they may also teach creationism — in religious studies and world religion courses, where the context is obviously entirely different.

Tory’s promise is to extend public funding to Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu and other religious schools, which 53,000 students attend, on the same basis as Catholic schools, which 650,000 students attend, now receive it.

Instead of explaining this, the media, overwhelmingly hostile to Tory’s proposal, seized on one poorly worded remark by him early in the campaign, that the “theory” of evolution is still called a “theory” (true, but it’s the widely accepted one) and that creationism could be taught in addition to evolution (true, but not as part of the science curriculum) to suggest Tory was advocating what they knew he wasn’t — using public funds to teach creationism on a par with evolution as a scientific theory.

The Tory campaign sent out a clarification a few hours later, but by then, the Liberals were also pretending Tory was saying what they knew he wasn’t.

This gave the story “legs.” Why? Because the media wanted it to be a story and the Liberals fed them the quotes needed to make it one, even though it had no basis in reality. Typical.

Well said, Lorrie.

And the time-strained electorate gobbles up the sound-bytes without bothering to investigate the issues.

Although Goldstein himself supports a “single, secular, public school system”, he suggests we follow the open-minded attitude of Pope John Paul II who “advocated continuing scientific investigation into the “Big Bang” theory of creation, and the theory of evolution, stressing these were not antithetical to faith.”

Unfortunately, lying and politics seem to go hand-in-hand, so I doubt we will ever progress to level of adults rather than “‘gotcha’” journalists and scheming politicians”.

Because in politics, only winning matters, right?

An interesting schism in opinion seems to be developing between the Ontario Council of Catholic Bishops (OCCB), and the Catholic Premier of Ontario who as you know, insists that only Catholic faith-based schools can be publicly funded. (Post) - Catholic Schools Debate Vaccine:

It is up to parents to decide whether their daughters get the vaccine, but HPV can only be contracted through sex, and sex outside marriage carries “profound risks to a young person’s spiritual, emotional, moral and physical health,” the Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement’

The fear is that if Grade 8 girls were to receive the vaccination, it would be sending mixed messages, since the Catholic position is one of chastity and abstinence before marriage.

In their letter, the bishops express “regret” that the program was introduced in Ontario schools without more study and public education. The note urges parents to keep in mind some important considerations when deciding whether to let their daughter have the shot, saying the vaccine could have “unintended and unwanted consequences.”

Yes, wasn’t it interesting that this program was launched just before the writ was dropped?

Ah, but Auditor General Jim McCarter foiled that plot. I like that guy.

Meanwhile, Dalton has a plan if any Catholic School Boards don’t comply:

“But if we run into a lot of resistance from a particular school board, we’ve already thought this through – we can do it through public health,” he said.

And if you recall, the OCCB challenged Dalton earlier, when it came out in favour of public funding for all faith-based schools; essentially endorsing John Tory’s position.

Meanwhile, there have been rumours that public Catholic funding may be on the way out, but Dalton vehemently denies it, even though one of his key education advisers has been speculating otherwise.

You know, Dalton McGuinty himself is a perfect example of why nobody in Ontario should fear extremist religious viewpoints being cultured in faith-based schools.

It obviously didn’t affect him.