Blue Like You

I don’t think there’s anything that frustrates a political canvasser more than when the person who opens the door says, "Well I’ve always voted (fill in the blank), and I’ll be doing it again".

Case  closed. Mind shut.

At this point you know you’re wasting your time trying to convince the voter otherwise, so you wish them a good day and move on.

This seems to be the mindset of many Northern Ontario voters, as John Ivison has discovered - Too conservative to vote Tory. In this case, the definition of ‘conservative’ appears to refer to a tendency to avoid change - as in changing the way you and your ancestors have ever voted since time began:

…It’s as predictable as the girls going to bingo and the boys getting stinko on a Sudbury Saturday Night — come election day, more Northern Ontarians vote for the Liberals than for any other party…

…Apart from high gas prices and bears that invade city backyards, voters aren’t feeling angry. Simply put: Many Northern Ontarians are too conservative to vote Conservative. "I’ll just vote the way I’ve always voted — Liberal," said one man in a Sudbury branch of Tim Hortons.

It’s ironic that the Conservatives’ national campaign has played so heavily on the theme that this is no time for risky changes. Voters in Nickel Belt and Sudbury look set to punish them for that sentiment and re-elect candidates for the party that bought loyalty with federal dollars in an attempt to diversify a region over-dependent on the boom-bust cycle of resource industries….

…Ms. Marleau is confident she will be re-elected for the seventh time. "I’ve been in politics so long, voters know me very well and know what I’ve done," said the former health minister. Not everyone, it appears — the Sudbury Star says her only recent achievement was "the odd communique about getting a passport office, which is an eye-roller, since the Liberals couldn’t deliver one during the 13 years in which the party was in power.

But Ms. Marleau should benefit from her longevity as the local MP — after 20 years in politics, voters seem to think that if you can still tie your own shoelaces, you deserve to be re-elected…

Then on to North Bay :

Mr. Rota has other challenges, namely the performance of his leader and the Green Shift policy. One afternoon last week, he tried to sell the key platform plank to the sisters at St. Joseph’s Mother House in North Bay. Go to the party’s Web site and punch in your information to find out about your tax credits, he said. "Say you’ve two parents and three kids, it will give you the difference," he enthused.

One of the older nuns looked bemused — perhaps by the example offered, which was relevant to hardly anyone in the room, or perhaps by such new-fangled concepts as Web sites and the Internet. The bottom line is that in a week of asking people if they understood the Green Shift, no-one, including at least one Liberal candidate, could explain it without plunging into a sea of platitudes…

However, the good news for Rota is that "to the sisters of St. Joseph’s Mother House, Mr. Rota represents hope to the Tories’ fear. "You’re preaching to the choir," one nun said."

Wonderful.

Ivison finishes his column with an observation from a gentleman at Tim Horton’s saying that he expects things will "just stay the same".  The image that immediately came to me was of the older crew from Air Farce sitting around the table nodding in agreement, "Oh yeah", "Uh-huh", "You got that right", ‘Tell me about it, eh?", as they add more sugar to their coffee.

I guess I’m wondering if there is anything the Liberal party could possibly do that would be so egregious that Northerners would finally wake up and smell the Timmies?

Adscam obviously wasn’t it.

Why won’t the Ontario Government allow Ombudsman Andre Marin to have his areas of oversight extended to hospitals?

According to Marin, "Ontario remains the only province that doesn’t allow its ombudsman to investigate hospitals and long-term care homes." (Sun)

Marin feels that since health care comprises such a huge portion of the provincial budget, and there are problems deliberately kept away from the public scrutiny such as C difficile, that he should be allowed to investigate (Star):

Ontario’s ombudsman says the superbug C. difficile, which has cost the lives of about 260 people, would have been investigated by now if the government wasn’t too frightened of embarrassment to let him do it.

André Marin says he’s "uncovered a treasure trove of government maladministration" and that it’s time the province let him look at hospitals.

Right now, hospitals are beyond Marin’s investigative powers and he used the release of his annual report yesterday to demand change.

"With the annual health-care budget eating up a whopping $40 billion, or 40 per cent of the government’s total spending, it’s unthinkable that this sector isn’t subject to the same kind of oversight as the rest of government," Marin said…

Health Minister George Smitherman has responded that "It’s not in the government’s plans to move forward on".

And why would you, if you are in control of the majority of the bobbleheads in Queen’s Park, and are already planning your third term?

Why in heaven’s name would you jeopardize your political standing for values that are as insignificant as integrity, accountability and the safeguarding of human life?

Because it’s all about staying in power , right George?

And BTW, where exactly is that Health Tax going?

* * * *

Related: No minimum standard for senior care - Star.

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11 AM Update: NDP MPP France Gelinas is pressing this issue right now in the Legislature. Good for her!

Andrea Horwath is raising a similar issue regarding CAS, which the Ombudsman suggested should also be under his purview.

Good work, ladies! Keep the heat up.

Afternoon Update: McGuinty to shake up cabinet. (Check out the Globe comments.)

Dalton McGuinty has just announced that he will be seeking a third term in office! (Globe )

I have no pithy words for this horrible turn of events. Feelings are ranging from shock, horror, disgust and personal anguish, heart palpitations and a dull, sick, thud in the pit of my stomach.

Check out comments following the article, which are actually quite a hoot:

Robert Loblaw from Canada writes: "Dalton must run for a third term - there are so many more things that need to be banned."

* Posted 13/06/08 at 3:23 PM EDT

Atlantica Party.ca - worked for the Bloc from Canada writes:

"Good !

He’s staying in Ontario .

I was afraid he was thinking of taking on a job that may affect other parts of the country."

* Posted 13/06/08 at 3:32 PM EDT

Rick C from Canada writes: "Maybe Dalton should try to actually do something during his second term before talking about a third."

* Posted 13/06/08 at 3:43 PM EDT

Ah, you just head over there and read them all for yourself.

I’m going to try saying a prayer. I think that’s our only hope.

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Update: Speaking of prayers, this whole Lord’s Prayer controversy has turned into quite the can of worms, as Blizzard notes above.

Now we have TWO PRAYERS instead of one on a daily basis, and the secularists are not happy. Activist Henry Beissel states:

"I think it’s very sad that Canada can’t move forward into the 21st century," he said. "This type of religious fanaticism and racism belongs to past centuries and it’s time to move on."

Nice move, Dalton. Now the Lord’s Prayer is religious fanaticism.

How about focusing on something that actually needs to be fixed. Like job losses, maybe?

Bigger Update: HAMPTON TO STEP DOWN AS NDP LEADER: SOURCES. (Note to certain other person. Can you take a hint?)

The Girl in Blue - Friday the 13th just got scarier. That’s right! Friday the 13th!! I should have stayed in bed. Not a good day in Ontario.

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?

Update on hydro increase: It gets worse - Government caught in middle of electricity rate battle Nov. 5 (Ian Urquhart):

…But just in case, the Liberals kept one foot firmly on the brake, with a hard cap on rates charged by government-owned Ontario Power Generation (OPG) for electricity from its “heritage assets,” the nuclear plants and major hydro facilities such as Niagara Falls.

That cap comes off on April 1, 2008, however, and now the province’s tolerance for higher electricity rates is really going to be put to the test, as OPG served notice late last week that it will be seeking a 14-per-cent hike…

…The government was silent on the matter last week. “The intention is just (to) leave it with the OEB,” said a spokesperson for Energy Minister Gerry Phillips…

A footnote: It is no accident that OPG’s proposal for a rate hike was released three weeks after the Oct. 10 election. An informed source says OPG was ready to roll last summer but was prevailed upon by its single shareholder, the government, to wait until now.

So that’s a second source saying the same thing. Sounds like somebody was pulling some strings.

From Nov. 3 Globe - OPG to seek 14-percent rate hike:

…The spectre of rising electricity prices is a sensitive topic for the government. OPG’s announcement comes just three weeks after the provincial election, when Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals won a second majority. Energy industry sources said government officials instructed OPG not to apply for the higher rates until after the election.

Energy Ministry spokesman Steve Erwin responded, “It’s up to OPG, not us, to decide when they do or do not want to file such an application.”

“McGuinty gets re-elected, and the cost of living goes up for Ontarians at a time when they can afford it least,” said Progressive Conservative MPP John Yakabuski…

Yeah, that’s sure going to help the old manufacturing sector.

More Ontario comment: Cross-border medicine (Christina Blizzard)

We don’t expect much from this Liberal crew - (John Snobelen):

…The dismissal or demotion of several senior ministers and the promotion of many new MPPs will consolidate more power in the premier’s office. Dalton and a few key ministers will run the show and that tells me Dalton isn’t planning on leaving any time soon. Why should he? He has won two majorities in a row and both opposition parties are now in disarray having squandered the chance to defeat McGuinty over his broken promises.

No opposition, low expectations and a very compliant cabinet spells a cake walk for this premier into the next election. Maybe McGuinty will go for three majorities in a row. Maybe he will be handed a third election victory by opposition parties that just aren’t up to the job of defeating him. Maybe.

There is some good news in all the changes. Michael Bryant can’t be happy about the shift to aboriginal affairs but the creation of this ministry is a good idea and maybe the energy Bryant brought to banning pitbulls will help bring some justice to Caledonia…

On that last note, we can only hope.

If you’re anything like me, when you get campaign brochures from a candidate on the ‘other’ team, you throw it out after drawing on the mustache and horns.

However, reader Paul recently alerted me to the importance of examining this literature during an election campaign. In his own riding he found several half-truths and falsified information (dare I say lies?) on a Liberal pamphlet:

1.In four short years, we have reduced Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels.

2. And hiring 8000 nurses so far for better patient care and 9000 more in the works.(A quick search of the Ontario Nurse’s Association website shows this as being untrue.They have hired but nowhere near 9,000.

Paul said he was going to take the brochure to his local PC candidate. I haven’t heard the outcome yet.

However, the incident made me decide to check out the brochure from our local Liberal incumbent, John Milloy. One item in the pamphlet really stuck out - “Smarter Ontario - Test scores are up”.

Now that is just not true, according to the Society for Quality Education. Test scores have flat-lined. Now if John really wanted to stretch the truth, perhaps he could say he was referring to a few years ago. But I feel this is a misleading statement.

There is another line in the pamphlet which says “No days lost to teacher strikes”. Now that is not completely true either because there was an Ontario College teachers strike during the McGuinty reign. Our family was personally affected. It caused a lot of stress and worry for students and families alike.

Those are just two examples. Check out the campaign literature sitting around at your house.

Perhaps being ‘Liberal’ means being liberal with the truth.

Today is a wonderful day in Lemming Land.

Four years ago today the 2003 Ontario election ended, and as this news release notes, “every day of that campaign that Dalton McGuinty made a promise, Dalton McGuinty made a promise that he broke.”

Sandy brings us up to speed on all those broken promises here.

But hey, Ontario. This is what you live for, right?

Never mind that some people are actually suggesting that we may need some kind of reform in education; maybe even a voucher system? And *gasp* competition? And actually firing incompetent teachers?

No, that’s not the Ontario way. We are the way we are and we’re not going to change.

Even if we’re left behind.

According to pollster Nik Nanos, president of SES Research, the Ontario Liberal Party is moving into majority territory at the expense of the NDP (H/T National Newswatch). Women voters, in particular, seem to be heading in that direction:

“New Democratic women are moving out of the NDP column and into the Liberal column, potentially to block John Tory,” Nanos said.

The poll indicates Liberal support among women rose by 11 per cent over the past week and more than half of all women — 53 per cent — now say they intend to vote Liberal.

It appears much of that movement came at the expense of the NDP, which saw its support among women fall by 10 points to 13 per cent.

However, the survey was obviously conducted prior to John Tory’s announcement yesterday, so anything could happen over the next week.

Margaret Wente has some positive things to say about the PC leader, but wonders if he’ll be the best Premier Ontario never had.

I guess when it comes down to it, being open and honest in politics is not always a winning strategy.

Sad state of affairs for Ontario.