Blue Like You

Archive for the ‘Ontario election’ Category

Dalton McGuinty’s attempt to bribe Ontario voters with a new holiday is having its repercussions. In fact the very groups he was likely trying to woo may be out of luck.

The Star explains who is and who isn’t allowed to enjoy the new holiday - Everyone may not get Family Day holiday:

But not everyone is counting down the days to Feb. 18. Especially those who work in unionized environments, where issues like vacation days and statutory holidays are written into the collective agreement.

Members of the Toronto police service were recently told that they would not be entitled to the new holiday in a routine order issued to the police force last week. Staff was told to treat the day as a “regular work day.”

The Toronto Police Services Board said that because their collective agreement gives more days off than the minimum required by the Employment Standards Act, they are not under obligation to add Family Day to their list of holidays.

One gets the feeling that not a lot of thought or research was put into this policy:

Family Day became law quickly last fall and as a result has led to both confusion and controversy about who is entitled to the holiday and how much it will cost businesses and the city.

City of Toronto officials voted in December to give city employees the holiday off. But they say that it will cost taxpayers $2.3 million to give city workers the holiday, not counting lost productivity. It’s also expected to cost TTC $2.5 million and would have cost the Toronto police service $2.2 million.

Toronto, eh? Isn’t that the city where they are constantly whining for more money?

And BTW, isn’t Ontario the province constantly whining for more cash too? But of course, we’re doing so very, very well here! Especially in manufacturing. Gimme a break.

Nice move, Dalton.

I hope the ROC appreciates the fact that there is no end in sight to Ontario’s plan to upload the costs of socialism.

Good old Pogo. I used to love reading my youngest aunt’s stash of Walt Kelly’s comic books even though I was too young to really appreciate them at the time.

His wisdom still rings true today. In today’s Sun column (Tory would have been sitting prettier under MMP), Christina Blizzard points out a number of trends that threaten democracy - the biggest one of all being voter apathy. First she explores the very different results that MMP would have delivered to Ontario had it been in effect during the last election.

But the way that referendum was thrust on us in a similar manner that FB-funding was announced, left voters with little time to properly sort out the issues in a rational process.

Fear-mongering and paranoia overcame the debates. Personally, I ended up being against MMP and have no regrets on that score, but it was a difficult process trying to sort out the various ramifications of a very complex question. Little information was given to voters before the election. Similarly, John Tory’s fatal flaw was to spring FB-funding on us as a campaign platform that allowed the opposing side to run with the fear-ball all the way to the goal line.

Blizzard interviewed Peter MacLeod, of Queen’s University’s Centre for the Study of Democracy, and received this observation:

“The recent election wasn’t a contest of ideas, it was a monologue about one bad idea. Yet Ontarians had no way to tune into a different conversation,” he said.

“There was no space for a discussion about any number of issues — mainly because we’ve created a political culture where ideas and issues have themselves become dangerous,” he said.

“No wonder so many people simply change the channel or pull the plug.”

During the Ontario election the faith-based finding issue was front and centre.

My Sept. 17 post (You’re being duped, Ontario) has drawn the attention of Leonard Baak, who is the president of Education Equality in Ontario, which advocates for a one school system.

Mr. Baak seems to feel that one of my anonymous readers has slandered him (at Tue Sep 18, 06:43:00 PM EDT), so it’s only fair to highlight his response here so that he can explain his position:

(Thu Nov 08, 08:37:00 PM EST)

Ya gotta love anonymous slander.

For the record, I am neither a disgruntled father nor did I ever want my kids in the Catholic system. Nor is my passion for one school system a reflection of personal anger. If Mr./Ms. anonymous has any evidence to support this, please do tell.

An extreme overcrowding situation in my local public school led me to try — unsuccessfully — to enrol my kids in our local Catholic elementary school. It was my second choice. I do not think sectarian religion has any place in publicly funded education — never have. The duplication also costs hundreds of millions of dollars a year that could be better spent in classrooms and on vital programs and educational supports (special ed, ESL, specialist teachers (gym, librarians), etc). The separate Catholic school system is a shameful and inexcusable waste of valuable education resources. The lost opportunities stemming from that waste result in real pain that is evidenced every year in endless rounds of school board cutbacks.

My local public school was too overcrowded to accommodate all of the students in its attendance zone and could not legally add any more portables. The school board’s solution was to bus junior kindergarten kids 90 minutes a day (45 minutes each way) to a less crowded school for a two and a half hour school day. I would not subject a four year old to that. For that reason, I applied to and was turned away by my local Catholic elementary school. I ended up enrolling the kids in a private school for two years at a cost of over $1700 per month to escape an overcrowding situation that my (non-Church-going) Catholic neighbours could escape for free by virtue of the “colour” of their faith.

I was shocked to discover, upon appeal to the Ministry of Education, that these publicly funded schools had an absolute and unfettered right to reject non-Catholic children until grade 9 and to reject non-Catholic teachers at all grade levels. This in a society that professes to value the fundamental equality of its citizens? I grew up in Nova Scotia, where such blatant discrimination has never been tolerated (it only continues to exist in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta — Ontario most blatantly).

As a practicing Christian, I was equally shocked that this discriminatory status quo is not opposed by and is even defended by other Christians — or people who profess to be of that faith. If they really loved their neighbours as themselves (remember the Great Commandment?), they would insist that all religious schools be funded equally or not at all. Everyone, including Catholics, should be equal before and under the law. Catholic and Christian teaching demands no less.

And don’t give me any garbage about Catholics supporting the right of other faiths to their own funding. Polls during the recent election showed that only 15% of Ontarians supported extended religious school funding. Even if they were all Catholics (which they were not), Catholics make up 34% of the Ontario population. That would suggest that most Catholics support one school system as well or are unabashed and unapologetic bigots who favour educational choice and religious school options only for their own kind. I’ll charitably assume the former.

Catholic school/Church vested interests in Ontario only offer quiet and ineffectual platitudes to other faiths with regard to extended religious school funding and only because if they didn’t, they’d look like bigots. They typically only do this when the heat (and scrutiny) is on their own system. During the election, many Catholic teachers openly supported the Liberals with their unconscionable, bigoted, Catholics-first-and-only status quo position on religious school funding. The Catholic trustees, teachers union, and principals’ council all applauded Liberal announcements in news releases and public comments while ignoring the fact that the Tories offered ever more money. While saying they support equal rights for other faiths, they were quietly working against those who proposed to make it a reality. They knew damned well that dividing a limited pie even further would be detrimental to all children in the existing publicly funded systems. You can see it already in current education funding.

English Catholic school boards generally receive hundreds of dollars more per pupil per year than their coterminous English public boards. French public boards similarly receive substantially more per pupil per year than their coterminous French Catholic boards, which are always the larger of the French boards. French boards universally receive thousands of dollars more per pupil per year than their coterminous English boards, whether public or Catholic. This is not favouritism of Catholic over public or of French over English, but a clear recognition in the education funding formula of the inefficiencies of smaller boards serving more dispersed student populations. The smaller boards receive higher funding to allow them to offer an educational experience of comparable quality to their larger counterparts.

My motivation is opposing the continuation of the separate Catholic system is that I agree with most Ontarians that it is wrong to segregate children by faith and it is a gross injustice to provide publicly funded school choice to the members of a single privileged faith alone. I am also interested in seeing better stewardship of the funding committed to public education and religious neutrality in government. I think a single public school system is the best way to accomplish that. Religious schools, if they are to be funded at all, should be funded at arm’s length through modest tax credits that are not significant enough to promote an exodus from truly inclusive and multicultural public schools.

Attempting to ascribe my actions to hateful motives is dishonest in the extreme.

Regards,
Leonard Baak.

Thank you, Mr. Baak. I have several readers who totally agree with your point of view.

I personally feel that the status quo is unacceptable because it discriminates according to religious faith. But what about Eden High Christian School in Niagara, and other such anomalies?

And already there is a Toronto school for gays and lesbians (Oasis).

How do we explain the Toronto District School Board talking about a school for blacks-only?

Just where does the Minister of Education stand on all this NOW?

I am not a member of the Ontario PC party. During the Harris years I supported it, because I felt Mike Harris prescribed the medicine that Ontario needed to get well again after Bob Rae’s effect on the economy.

We all choked it down. The medicine worked, but it left a bad taste in the mouths of many Ontarioans.

John Tory is the anti-Harris, if you will. Liberal-lite. That’s why I never took out a party membership.

John Tory is by all accounts a wonderful, kind, generous and enthusiastic man. But he is not what the PC party needs right now.

John, for the sake of the party, please step down. Allow Elizabeth Witmer or Bob Runciman take over as interim leader until the party can recover, and rediscover its mission and focus.

Tough medicine, John. But necessary.

Because after four more years of Dalton McGuinty, we’re going to need another Mike Harris.

Very disturbing story on the front page of the Record - Election Aftermath: Voter turnout was at record low.

Across the region, nearly as many people stayed home as took to the polls Wednesday in an election that saw the lowest voter turnout in Ontario history.

About 51 per cent of the region’s 334,000 eligible voters bothered to cast ballots.

In most local ridings fewer than half the number of eligible voters cast ballots. Turnout was lowest in Cambridge, which registered just 49.3 per cent of the vote, a 4.5-point drop from the 2003 election.

“I have never seen such apathy since I’ve been involved in politics,” said Cambridge MPP Gerry Martiniuk, who was elected to a fourth term in a tight race against Liberal Kathryn McGarry….

I find this so puzzling. Not only was there a lot of emotion fanned by the Liberal war room against FB-funding, but there was also a rare referendum on the very way we determine democracy in Ontario. How is it possible that so few people care or ‘are too busy’ to vote? Would you have time to stand in a long line for a free case of beer if it were offered?

Voting ahead is the way to go. It’s easy, convenient and not crowded.

You’re not just a bunch of lemmings, fellow Ontarioans - You’re apathetic lemmings. Especially those who live in Waterloo Region.

Anyone who didn’t vote has no right to complain about anything for the next four years.

I am disgusted.

Check out MDL - Click on Strategists debate faith-based school funding with Bernard Lord, Joy MacPhail and Martha Hall Findlay.

Now that the dust has settled, anyone who was taken in by the FB-funding issue is going to feel somewhat manipulated when they watch this video.

Duff talks about fears of Muslims and immigration as an undercurrent in Ontario.

Joy MacPhail - All Canadians were poorly served by Ontarioans and their malaise.

What is Martha trying to say? That the discussion was positive? That they might consider it?
Joy calls her up on it.

Duff brings up the push for elimination of funding for Catholic Schools.

Bernard Lord calls it an ‘inconsistency’ in Ontario.

In the previous clip (“A discussion of the future of the Ontario PC Party”), Peter Shurman says he never liked the term ‘Faith-Based funding’. He prefers ‘Inclusive Public Education’.

More at Daimnation! - Warren the K reveals his secrets.

What a bunch of lemmings.

It was a hollow victory, Dalton. Very hollow.

John Tory must not have read Warren Kinsella’s “Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics”.

Tip #1 in the book by the Prince of Darkness is - The Press is the enemy. He quotes U.S. television host and former political staffer Chris Matthews from his best-selling book Hardball:

“…Failure, misery, disaster - that’s what makes the bells go off in a journalist’s nervous system: the kind of story where somebody gets hurt”.

Kinsella’s advice: “Don’t be the one who gets hurt.”

I think part of the reason for last night’s massacre lies in character of John Tory - open, honest, forthright, accessible, compassionate, principled, reliable, responsible and candid.

He also loves to talk, which is great if you’re the executive of a large corporation.

Not so good if you’re a politician on the wrong end of a media feeding-frenzy.

Admittedly, Tory threw out the chum himself when he proposed his faith-based funding policy and didn’t take an immediate cue that this was not going to be popular. He stood by his principles right to the end; wavering only to admit that a free vote was a more democratic way of handling it.

But McGuinty’s handlers knew what to do - Keep your guy on message, and away from any potential disaster in terms of a media “Gotcha” moment; either with reporters or the public. So all we saw of Dalton McGuinty was carefully crafted scripts and tightly controlled media sessions where he kept hammering away on the importance of safeguarding ‘public education’ and ‘public health’.

Oh, his goons did accidentally allow one little gaffe, but somehow it got overlooked in the Tory carnage. For the most part, they were in control - no matter what it took to accomplish that goal.

For the most part McGuinty was safely tucked away in classroom settings, challenged only by the tough questions of fourth-graders. No one was permitted to embarrass him with his record of broken promises.

There are other little subtle tricks like suggesting lines of questioning to reporters just before your opponent’s media scrum. Getting unions onside isn’t a bad idea either.

Global’s Sean Mallen provides some insight on the former:

But back to the McGuinty bus. His media team is full of former TV reporters, one of whom is regularly calling me and other Global reporters on the tour to gently inquire into the subjects of our stories and suggest an alternative, more Liberal-friendly interpretation. Another former reporter, now part of the Liberal spin machine, has been sending me emails advising of a potential “gotcha” question for NDP Leader Howard Hampton.

It is all part of the game in the campaigning of the 21st Century and all parties are doing it. Our blackberries hum all day with party news releases parsing and critiquing every word uttered by the other guy. But the Liberals seem to have the largest and most aggressive media management strategy. It is a rare John Tory event that is not prefaced by an email to our blackberries from the Liberal War Room, suggesting a line of questioning.

Brilliant strategy - And straight from Kinsella’s book.

By contrast, John Tory seems to be too open and honest for politics.

Or perhaps just too naive.

Dalton promised a province-wide pesticide ban.

Get ready for it, and check out how Halifax is doing.

It’s on the store shelves, but people are ‘not supposed to use it’. However, they still do.

Why? It seems that Halifax doesn’t have the resources to follow up.

Get ready for a whole new regime of unionized bureaucracy, Ontario! Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll all go on strike.

Please read Joe Warmington’s column - McGuinty not only skipped a last chance to debate the issues with his rivals, he also missed getting an earful from this voter. (H/T ASTTR)

I was disappointed because I had a number of questions for him — including why doesn’t he have a Support Our Troops ribbon on his campaign bus as the other leaders do?

…I find it a strange statement coming from a guy who put through the Highway of Heroes designation for the 401…

I don’t find it strange at all. Dalton is allergic to controversy, and will do anything at all to avoid it.

Four more years of slippery McGuinty.

I think this is an issue we should investigate before the next election - Teachers took time off to work for Liberals.

Supply teachers have to be hired. Where does that money come from?

Meanwhile in Kitchener, the public board is throwing around the idea of making the kids pay for substitute teachers if they want to go on a field trip.

Isn’t public education wonderful?