It's a wrap!

The 2011 Ontario Provincial election will go down in history as having the lowest voter turnout ever. All across Ontario voters were just not engaged in the voting process, and what was considered to be one of the most important elections in recent history given that we might be heading into another recession.

For 3 of the 4 major political parties, the results were depressing. For the Liberals they went from 72 seats, down to 70 seats before the election to end up with 53 seats, 1 short of a majority. They lost 4 cabinet ministers, and did not gain any new seats. I do have to give credit, where credit is due and say that they ran a good campaign given the fact that everyone felt at the start of the summer they were going to be reduced to 3rd party status. The reason they are still in power is a result of the Liberals taking a page out of PM Harper's playbook from the May Federal Election, which was to talk about the ecomony, and it would be ill advised to change governments as we might be heading into another recession.

Over to the PC's....Tim Hudak just never connected with the average voter, he came across as a bit cocky when he was talking to voters, and the Liberals did a good job of placing the Harris label on him as the campaign began. The chain gang, and GPS plan for criminals did not fly with voters, and the fact that they did not put any effort into Toronto and Ottawa to try and break the Liberal strongholds. Harper was able to get Conservatives elected in what were once strong Liberal ridings because they focused on certain ridings and put the required resources into those ridings. Yes, the PC's did pick up seats at the expense of the Liberals outside of the 416,  but this election was the one for them to win, like their Federal counterparts did in May.

The NDP's new leader, Andrea Horwath did a great job and while they only gained 7 seats they are now a force at Queens Park. The success had to do with several factors, like the Orange Wave that was experienced in the May Federal election, and the death of Jack Layton in the summer. I had a chance to attend a few all candidate meetings not just in my riding of Simcoe Grey, but in a couple of other ridings, and I found the NDP candidates to be very weak in their presentations. Like what Harris did to Ontario, the voters also won't forget what Bob Rae did to Ontario as the NDP Premier from 1990-1995. Another factor was the fact that they stayed on message and did not engage in negative ads like the Liberals and PC's did.

Finally the Green Party under their new leader Mike Schreiner. In 2007 they went from over 8% of the vote, down to 2.9% during this election. When the economy is the number one issue, the Greens, and their policies just don't register with voters. According to the Green Party their membership increased by 130% and they hit a record in fundraising. Mike Schreiner decided to run in Simcoe Grey which is considered the safest Conservative riding in the Country, both Federal and Provincial. Mike knew he was not going to beat PC, Jim Wilson, but they had a plan to focus on rural Ontario to make gains which seemed to backfire. For the Greens to be successful they need to bring in some big political guns over the next few months, and reshape the party. I'm not saying that Mike needs to be replaced, he's a great public speaker and seems to connect with people, but for the party to make any gains in what will most likely be another election in 18 months, they need to play politics like the big boys.

So it should be an interest time down at Queens Park, and let's hope everyone can play nice together, but I don't really think they will.

Until next time, which will be in about 18 months.

Can Hudak close the deal!

With all recent polls showing a surge in Liberal support, and even the chance of another Liberal Majority, PC's across Ontario must be asking what went wrong. As the election is still 2 days away, Tim Hudak and the PC's could still win this, but just in case they don't here are the reasons why they might not be able to close the deal.

Most of last year and even up to July of this year the PC's were at least 10-12 points ahead of the Liberals. The PC's came out with their platform in May, and had MPP's and selected candidates holding press conferences and town hall meetings all across the Province. They labelled McGuinty as the Tax Man, and the person who has broken promise after promise, gave us the HST, EcoFees, and blew 1 billion on eHealth.

I feel that Hudak just did not connect with the average person on the street. People did not know him, and even to this day they still don't. The Liberals were quick to place the Harris label on him, and it stuck. Hudak was a junior minister in the Harris cabinet during the days of massive cuts to our health care system.

The top issues facing voters is creating jobs, health care, and education. Hudak had the chance to come out with bold ideas during the campaign, and instead he talks about GPS devices on criminals, and creating chain gangs. He also stayed the course in both Health Care and Education, and was going to follow the Liberal plan which was taken from the last budget.

Another big negative was PM Harper, and Finance Minister Flaherty coming out and indirectly throwing his support behind Hudak. The Liberals took full advantage of this, and with the start of talks with the Federal Government about The Health Accord which expires in 2012, the Liberals came out with ads saying who would you rather have fighting for you in Ottawa, the Liberals who have hired 11,000 nurses, built 18 new hospitals, and has the lowest wait times in Canada. On the other hand you have Hudak, who was part of the Harris government that fired nurses, closed hospitals, and we had the longest wait times in Canada.

I really think the turning points for Hudak were the upcoming Health Accord talks, the tearing up of the Samsung deal, the GPS and Chain Gangs. So if Hudak does not win even an minority government he only has himself to blame, and I'm quite sure another leadership race will just be around the corner for the PC's.

Until next time!

Torstar / Metroland Endorse Liberals

The Toronto Star came out with their endorsement, and while it was no surprise, I was taken back a bit after reading the editorial from the Metroland group of community newspapers in my riding of Simcoe Grey.

In the past the Metroland papers in my area which are the Alliston Herald, Wasaga Sun, Stayner Sun, and the Collingwood Connection have 9 out of 10 times given their endorsements to Conservative candidates. They did it in the 2006 Federal, 2006 Municipal, 2007 Provincial, 2008 Federal, 2010 Municipal, 2011, and 2011 Federal elections.

But for this election they have either been told by their owners at Torstar to tow the corporate line, and follow their endorsements, or they actually believe that McGuinty is the best of the 3 other leaders to run the province for the next 4 years, or in the case of a minority government for at least the next 18 months.

So am I in a bit of shock? Yes, and has my view of the local Metroland newspapers changed? Not at all, as I know deep down inside the Editor(s) at Metroland are true blue to the core, and must be pulling their hair out at this endorsement.

Until next time!

The Leaders Debate in a Nutshell

Here are some notes from the Leaders Debate without the Leader of the Green Party!

The Liberals have opened 18 new hospitals, 400 new schools, hired 11,000 nurses, and 2900 new doctors. PC's closed 28 hospitals, fired 6000 nurses and did not build no new schools when they were in power.

According to the Liberals the Smart Meters are not a new tax as the Government does not get the revenue it goes to the Hydro suppliers.

Hudak kept attacking McGunity on tax increases, yet Hudak and Horwath won't get rid of the HST.

Lots of attack against the Liberals about their Green Energy Act.

Horwath will increase business taxes to 14%, Liberals and PC's will lower it to 10%

Hudak will cancel the Samsung deal saying it will not create jobs. McGuinty claims the Green Enery Act has created 90,000 new jobs in Ontario.

Hudak and Horwath slam McGuinty on the auto bailout. The auto bailout saved 400,000 jobs in North America and made Ontario the leader over Detroit as the largest car maker in North America.

Horwath attacks Hudak on being the government which de-regulated our energy sector which lead to black and brown outs and higher energy costs.

Samsung is bringing in 7 billion into the Province by building 4 plants and creating 16,000 jobs over 5 years.

Hudak claims he'll create 200,000 new high paying jobs but won't really say how he intends to do it.

After California, Ontario is the second largest place for job investment in North America.

The Mississauga plant closing is an election ploy according to Hudak and Horwath.

Lots of questions about Post Secondary education.....The Liberals plan on lowering rates by 30% or $ 1600.00 a year. The PC's plan is to give people who have the marks the right to an education, and increase loans to students. The NDP will freeze rates, and take the interest off the OSAP loans.

Horwath attacks the other two on how low the attack ads have become and they are not talking about the facts.

McGuinty says we have the lowest default rate among students compared to the highest during the time the NDP were in power.

NDP says the health care system needs improvment. Wait times are too high, and we need better long term care. She wants to cap the Salaries of the CEO's of our Hospitals.

Liberals talk about the new health accord that the next Premier will have to sit down with the PM and make sure that our health care stays in government control and not for the private sector.

NDP says our Health Care sucks while the Liberals claim different.

Liberals slam the NDP on saying that our health care system is poor and quote the new hospitals, Nurses and Doctors.

Hudak bring up how sick his daughter Miller is and how hard he noticed the medical staff work, but the system needs more improvement and the PC will invest 6 billion which is the same amount as the Liberals intend to do.

NDP says that the PC and Liberals are looking to make health care for profit.

Liberals say the PC's Health care plan has a big hole in it, along with their Education platform.

Hudak attacks McGuinty on e-health. Liberals claim 7 million people have electronic health records now and that not all the money was wasted as the PC's claim. Hudak keeps calling McGuinty a lier. Hudak will close the LHIN's. Liberals quote a medical expert saying that closing the LHIN would be very stupid.

Closing remarks....
Liberals say that we are the number 1 producer of cars in North America, we've survived the recession and we are on track to grow.

PC's say can you trust the Liberals for 4 more years. PC's plan on creating jobs

The NDP says they will put people first and not corporations.

Overall I feel that Dalton held his own, Tim came across as a bit angry and Andrea was average so no real winner of the television debate.

A Leaders Debate without a Leader!

On Tuesday September 27th, 2011 is the leaders debate. Well not a full fledged leaders debate as Ontario Green Party Leader, Mike Schreiner won't be part of the debate.

Now some say, well the Ontario Green Party has no seats so they don't deserve to be in the debate. To me that's just an easy excuse to give. The Ontario Green Party is running candidates in each riding across the Province. Are the Ontario Reform Party? No, Are the Freedom Party?, No, are the Communist Party?, No.

In 2007 the Ontario Greens received over 350,000 votes and they deserve a seat at the table, but it won't happen this time around. On a positive note, Steve Pakin from the Agenda on TVO has given equal airtime to the Greens on his show. Since the start of the Election, the Greens have had one of their candidates appear on the show along with candidates from the Liberals, PC's and NDP. Kudos to TVO and Steve Pakin for allowing this to happen.

I will be watching the Leaders Debate because I can't wait for the 3 "Leaders" to stand around and bash one another and not talk about the real issues that are facing the people of Ontario. Maybe if Schreiner was allowed to be included in the debate it would have a been a true leaders debate talking about the real issues. But I guess we will have to wait until 2015 in the case of a majority government, or sooner in the case of a minority government.

Until next time!

Pick any 3 letters!

I came across this video on YouTube which kind of sums it all up in regards to what Hudak would do if he became Premier on October 6th. The answer is quite simple actually, he would look for the Gravy Train and get rid of all the waste in government. I think he should ask his buddy, Rob Ford how that worked for him.

Hudak and his crime proposal.

Hudak seems to be switching gears from immigrant workers to his crime proposal. It seems he tried to do what the Liberals did to John Tory in the 2007 election by taking a very small part of the Liberals platform and tried to make it a major election issue.

Now let's focus on what I feel will be another flap by Hudak. The PC's want to do the following if elected:

1. Have sex offenders register so the public will know who they are and where they live.
2. Place GPS devices on sex offenders so if they leave a certain area the police will be notified
3. Chain gangs

Overall crime in Canada is now below levels from the 1960's. Yet the PC's want to have big brother watching all of our moves and tracking what we do if we were to get in trouble with the law.

I agree that sex offenders are the scum of our society, but as a society even these types of people have rights. They were found guilty, thrown in jail and served the time, and then released. Yes they should be registered and they are, but for the public to be able to log onto a website and find out where they live I feel is just wrong. This could lead to some people harassing these offenders because of crimes they were convicted and served the time. Once they leave jail they are placed on parole and under our law are not allowed to live within a certain distance of a school, these people have restrictions placed on them and they must adhere to these rules or go back to jail. That's the job of our parole officers, and it should not be the job of the general public to police.

The placing of GPS devices on sex offenders is not that bad of an idea, but when we are faced with large budget deficits, and a soaring Provincial debt where will the money come from for these devices and how much will it cost to have people sitting on a room and monitoring these people 24/7. I suspect tens of millions each year and this money could be used elsewhere in our local communities to educate our youth, and offer programs to ensure that people don't go down the wrong road.

Chain gangs I feel is a stupid idea and I for one would not want a chain gang working in my community near our schools and having our kids exposed to this. We are not Mississippi, or any of the other southern states that still have chain gangs.

Again I think some of Hudak's ideas will not fly with voters as we are not the United States, or crime rate is dropping and even police forces across the Province think his ideas are bad ideas.

Until next time!