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The Economy Premier?

Posted by Joanne on 2 September 2010, 1:25 pm

Not content to merely be known as the ‘Education Premier’, Dalton McGuinty has now taken to giving advice to the Bank of Canada – Ontario premier urges Bank of Canada not to hike interest rate.

He actually has the gall to talk about the need for ‘prudence’(!):

“It points to the need for continuing prudence,” he said.

“Try as we might, we cannot completely uncouple ourselves from the American economy. They’re our single largest trading partner and consumer confidence — American consumer confidence — is a powerful factor in determining the health and vitality of our own economy here.”

McGuinty made the remarks from a Toronto elementary school where he was promoting a new expense for Ontario: full-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds.

The self-described education premier announced plans last fall to forge ahead with the costly project despite the economic downturn and warnings of a record-setting deficit.

The program, which is expected to cost $1.5 billion a year once fully implemented, is being slowly phased in over five years, starting with 600 schools this fall.

Ontario is also seeing higher inflation than other provinces, largely due to the July 1 implementation of the new harmonized sales tax.

Consumer prices in Ontario rose 2.9 per cent in July — the largest year-over-year hike among the provinces — with the HST accounting for about 1.3 per cent of that increase. Canada’s annual inflation rate rose by eight-tenths of a point to 1.8 per cent, according to Statistics Canada…

Is it possible that Dalton McGuinty is finally beginning to wake up to the possible nightmarish consequences of his many disastrous policies?

Nah, he’s just hoping he can get away with it.

Filed under Arrogance, Big Green, Culture of Conceit, Dalton Days, Dalton McGuinty, Flicking politicians, Follow the money, HST, Hypocrisy, Incompetence, Just trust Dalton, Lemmings love Fiberals, Lemmings love taxes, Liberal arrogance, Ontario economy, Premier Hudak in 2011, Socialism, Unions, Your tax-dollars, eHealth, economy, education, scandals.
11 Comments

WE THE PEOPLE must take a stand

Posted by Joanne on 1 September 2010, 8:36 am

Mary T nailed it when she mused that it’s rather hypocritical of Iggy to say ‘we make the rules‘, and then force his democratically-elected caucus members to vote the way he wants, rather than according their constituents’ wishes on the subject of the Long-Gun Registry.

What with this and the Liberal obsession about the long-form census, they seem to be evolving into the Party of Bureaucratic Coercion and Enforcement.

I’m with Prairie Tory on this one, wondering what’s their game-plan?

This dog won’t hunt – except among Big City and Top-Cop elitists and irate public sector unions.

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Worth Reading:

More from Tom Brodbeck at Raise a Little Hell.

Why the Gun Registry Needs To Go – Garry Breitkreuz

Filed under CPC majority solution, Culture of Conceit, Entitlement, Follow the money, Harper best PM ever, Iffy, Iggo Waffles, Iggy, Iggyssiah, Incompetence, Liberal Party of Donolo, Liberal Party of Toronto, Liberal arrogance, Liberal entitlement, Liberal machine, Michael Ignatieff, Nanny State, Too many Fools on the Hill, Too many pigs at the trough, ToryBoy, Unions, grassroots power.
72 Comments

Greenies and a higher calling

Posted by Joanne on 31 July 2010, 8:04 pm

Georges Laraque channeling Prince Charles or vice versa?

‘I can only somehow imagine that I find myself being born into this position for a purpose.

- Prince of Wales

“I get excited joining causes, that’s what I was born for, to change the world.”

- New Deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada.

So who makes these decisions? Gaia?

Just askin’

Filed under Big Environment, Big Green, Canadian Politics, Follow the money, Shifty Green, Your tax-dollars.
17 Comments

Being McGuinty means always having to say you’re sorry

Posted by Joanne on 28 July 2010, 8:04 am

I hope the Ontario PC party‘s war room is busy collecting clips of Dalton’s many apologies.  They will make great ‘truth ad’ fodder for the next election. Just edit them all onto one video.   Run it day and night.    “I’m sorry.  I goofed.  We messed up.  We dropped the ball…”

I’m sure that his strategists are relying on the widely-acknowledged principle that any emerging screw-ups should be nipped in the bud before they take on a life of their own, but lately Premier Pinocchio has had to spew an awful lot of mea culpas – the latest being for eco-fee mismanagement.  Christina Blizzard documents more of the recent ones including G20 communication problems and OPP raids, and then of course there was eHealth, OLG, and the list goes on.

And the man just exudes sincerity and compassion, no?

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Saturday Update

Eco fee group strikes secret deal – Canoe

Filed under Dalton McGuinty, Flicking politicians, Follow the money, Lemmings love Fiberals, Lemmings love taxes, Liberal arrogance, OPP, Ontario Politics, Ontario government, Ours to Recover, Premier Hudak in 2011, Propaganda, Protests, Too many pigs at the trough, Truth ads, Your tax-dollars, eHealth, grassroots power, scandals.
30 Comments

Welcome to Ontario – where ‘Stupid’ rules

Posted by Joanne on 21 July 2010, 10:36 am

Lorrie Goldstein has some good advice for the ROC – When it comes to environmental policy,  do the opposite of Dalton McGuinty:

Indeed, a good rule of (green) thumb for Canadians is if Ontario is doing something to “help the environment,” you should run screaming from the idea as if Frankenstein had suddenly been unleashed on your community.

Should you one day catch any of your politicians starting to babble like our premier does about all things green, the appropriate response would be to hunt them down with pitch forks and burning torches, before they do something really stupid.

In Ontario, alas, it’s too late. Stupid already rules.

Yes but maybe not so much stupid as cunning.

Dalton knows how to fleece us and still stay popular.

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Update

Stupid also seems to rule south of the border – Kerry Lynch: Green dream – meet reality - Orange County Register (via The Record)

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Walkom: The painful stupidity of Dalton McGuinty’s eco fees – Yikes! He said it too!! And from the Star!!!

Eco tax likely to be back in some form – Walter Robinson, Sun

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Thursday Update

Green energy problems continue to plague Ontario’s Liberal government – Keith Leslie (Record)

MUST READ:

Those solar-power pay scales never did make much sense - Peter Shawn Taylor (Record):

...Selling to the government at 80.2¢ or 58.8¢ what the government then turns around and sells to the public for 6.5¢ is clearly too good to be true. This huge gap must ultimately be borne by consumers and taxpayers. And it is clearly unsustainable over the long run.

No solar investor can therefore defend this business model on its own merits. Rather, it’s about taking advantage of temporary government stupidity. The new rates simply limit this stupidity somewhat.

There was also plenty of international evidence that the rich tariffs couldn’t last, if anyone had bothered to look. Spain, in many ways the inspiration for Ontario’s solar regime, cut its feed-in tariffs sharply in 2008 because they were too rich, and is now discussing a 30 per cent retroactive reduction in contracts already signed. Germany and Italy are also cutting their rates. In the interests of sanity, Ontario should cut its solar rates even further…

Temporary government stupidity? That’s being generous.

Filed under Big Environment, Big Green, Culture of Conceit, Dalton McGuinty, Flicking politicians, Follow the money, Global Warming, Goldstein, Lemmings love Fiberals, Lemmings love taxes, Let's ban CFLs, Shifty Green, Voter cynicism, Wind farms, Your tax-dollars, environment, environmentalists, scandals.
39 Comments

I’ll believe it when I see it – Part 2

Posted by Joanne on 19 July 2010, 9:41 pm

The McGuinty Government apparently has finally listened to the Ontario PC party (among others) and will be scrapping the eco-tax.

Or so they say.

What a colossal waste of everyone’s time!

And what about the poor suckers who already paid it? With HST?

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Twitter Update

Mike Murphy – “the eco-fee may be reflected in the product’s sticker price-in which case the consumer is none the wiser”-Stewardship Ont.

#ecotax

McGuintyhas2Go

Also please check out Moose and Squirrel – McGuinty blinks — Ontario’s Liberals drop the eco-fee tax grab.

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Tuesday Update

Eco fees go bye-bye for now – Blast Furnace. A stunningly lucid take on the matter from a Progressive Blogger.

Premier Backtrack strikes again - National Post:

…the occasional mea culpa is even considered a sign of political maturity. But when the practice becomes business as usual, you have to wonder: Does anyone in this government think things through before they open their mouths?

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Wednesday Update
Taxpayers to fund eco fee for 90 days – National Post:

Despite the plan to stop charging the fee at the cash register, Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak slammed Mr. McGuinty for an attempt to “sneak” the eco-fee plan in at a later date.

“Dalton McGuinty is not really scrapping this tax. He is just looking for 90 days until he can find a more clever way to bury it in the price of products,” Mr. Hudak said. “We believe the shell game will continue.”

Filed under Big Environment, Big Green, Dalton McGuinty, Flicking politicians, Follow the money, HST, Incompetence, Ontario Politics, Ontario economy, Ontario election, Ontario government, Ours to Recover, Premier Hudak in 2011, Too many pigs at the trough, Voter cynicism, scandals.
38 Comments

Shorter Dwight Duncan

Posted by Joanne on 19 July 2010, 11:02 am

There.  I tried.

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Update

Dalton McGuinty Must Stop ‘Finger-Pointing’ and Accept Responsibility for His Eco-Tax Grab – Ontario PC Party:

The Ontario PC Caucus has obtained correspondence between the CEO of Stewardship Ontario and senior officials in John Gerretsen’s and Dalton McGuinty’s offices, which undermines the latest attempt by the McGuinty Liberals to deflect blame for the eco-tax grab on third parties.

In her letter to John Gerretsen, Stewardship Ontario CEO, and long-time Liberal, Gemma Zecchini, confirms that Gerretsen himself personally approved the Liberal eco-tax scheme and details how the responsibility for enforcing the tax falls on the McGuinty Government alone. Zecchini’s letter also accuses the McGuinty Government of ‘finger-pointing’ in order to assign Stewardship Ontario blame for “problems not of its making and outside of its powers to remedy,” further exposing Liberal attempts to dodge responsibility for the tax…

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Breaking – Canadian Tire scraps eco fees (Star):

Canadian Tire is scrapping new eco fees that came into effect July 1 on thousands of potentially toxic household products, saying the recycling charge developed by Stewardship Ontario and the province is too confusing for customers.

The chain – one of Canada’s most prominent retailers — is asking the beleaguered agency and Environment Minister John Gerretsen to take the controversial eco fee program back to the drawing board and come up with a replacement that makes more sense.

“Safely recycling toxic materials like rust remover or camping fuel is important so we don’t have toxic waste seeping into our landfills and environment,” Mike Arnett, president of Canadian Tire Retail said in a letter to customers Monday.

But the company “can no longer support passing along a recycling fee to customers that has inconsistencies between products and is difficult to explain.”

But won’t they have to pay it anyway? Will the eco fees simply be buried in the price? That’s worse.

Filed under Appeasement never works, Dalton Days, Dalton McGuinty, Follow the money, Ontario Politics, Ontario economy, Ontario election, Ontario government, Premier Hudak in 2011, Unions.
22 Comments
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