Babel-on-the-Bay

There is something wrong here. We hear that the Ontario Liberal government is concerned about Tiny Tim Hudak’s negativism. We are told by Dalton McGuinty’s people that Timmy’s Conservatives should be helping keep the Whigs out of the clutches of the rapacious New Democratic Party (NDP). How did the world get turned so backwards in this province?

There was a time when we liberals demanded of David Peterson’s people that they negotiate immediately with the NDP to end the threat of a Conservative minority government. It was 1985 and we issued in the first Liberal government in Ontario since Liberal Premier Mitch Hepburn went back to Elgin County in 1942 to watch the grass grow. (The Conservatives soon defeated his replacement, Harry Nixon.)

As Premier, David Peterson never had much chance to figure out where he was in the political spectrum but he never felt he had to apologize for making a deal with the NDP. Yet here we have McGuinty complaining that he would rather make a deal with someone as ignorant as Conservative Tim Hudak than make a deal with Andrea Horwath of the NDP. This is enough to make a real liberal want to cry.

What Dalton McGuinty does not understand is that Ontario does not want or need two right wing political parties. If he even knew where the middle ground might be, he is a long way to the right of it. Ontario Liberals should not have to hold their nose when voting for provincial Liberal Party candidates. McGuinty has got to go.

Nothing makes that clearer than the fight Health Minister Deb Mathews is currently having with the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). As the purported saviour of the political playpen of Ontario health services, Mathews is actually arguing with the OMA over whether we need more doctors. Almost a million Ontario residents cannot get a family doctor and she is refusing to pay for additional doctors. The OMA has made it very clear that they will accept a freeze on the doctor’s incomes if the money goes to new doctors. It could not be plainer that the OMA is trying to solve the problem of looking after patients and the provincial government only cares about the money.

As Ontario citizens, it is our responsibility to back the doctors. How many of those people making over $500,000 a year do you think are doctors? We should make the NDP wealth surtax at least four per cent. The doctors will not mind. They would consider it a direct contribution to good health care for the people of Ontario. After all, Dalton McGuinty does not give a damn.

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  peter@lowry.me

The Ontario Conservatives have called in the first team. The rumour seems clear that Leslie Noble and Tom Long are taking over the management of Conservative leader Tim Hudak’s next provincial campaign. This remains in the rumour category because Noble and Long want to keep their respective private sector clients until telling them “So sorry, the Conservative Party calls.”

There are those among us that did not think Tom Long would accept the campaign management position because he might still harbour visions of replacing Tiny Tim as Conservative leader in Ontario. Since his failed bid in going for the national leadership of the Alliance Party in 2000, Long has longed for a return to the political spotlight. He is the type of person who likes to start at the top.

Teamed with Leslie Noble and Hudak’s wife Deb Hutton, it will be like the backroom of Mike Harris’ successful campaigns in 1995 and 1999. One thing you can count on is that there will not be a mistake such as Hudak’s last campaign manager, Mike Spiro, made in 2011. Spiro had a solid strategy going into the campaign but the length of the run-up to that campaign did him in. He did not adapt as needed through the summer to deal with the obvious concerns of Ontario voters over the economy.

But whether Tiny Tim can be resurrected is the problem. The current dissention in the Conservative back benches is not as much the problem as Hudak himself. He did not seem to remain up for campaigning last year. It was either the length of that campaign or he tires too easily. They might have to find a new strategy to fortify his presence throughout the campaign. Worst case they could send him on a holiday somewhere and tell everyone he has a communicable disease. Have we ever had a winner on a sympathy vote in Ontario?

The good news for the Tory brain trust is that the next provincial campaign is likely to be before the end of 2013 and will happen fast. It looks like the NDP will instigate it as that party has the most to gain in dumping McGuinty. It certainly cannot continue to support him. McGuinty has abused the NDP and shows no intention of coming over to the left side of the political ledger.

The only thing that can change the game is the early resignation of Dalton McGuinty. He has a brief window before the federal party gets into its leadership contest and once that is in full swing, there will be no room for a provincial event. Politics is always interesting.

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  peter@lowry.me

If you make more than $500,000 a year in Ontario, you are going to have to pay the NDP tax. It is a surtax of two per cent of money you earn over $500,000. a year. Obviously, if you make that kind of money, you will not have to miss your grand tour of Europe next year. In fact, if Premier McGuinty had not made such a fuss about it, you might not have noticed the tax unless your accountant pointed it out to you.

If you pay this tax, it is a badge of honour. You should fly an orange flag from the battlements of your Ontario mansions. It means you are doing your part to end the deficit caused by the financial woes of 2008. General Motors paid back the money it was given back then. You are now doing your part.

Unfortunately, some of us do not make as much money. We are unable to join you in the role of deficit fighter. Mind you, we also had damn little to do with the bad times that hit us in 2008. Our banks might not have been caught up in the sub-prime mortgage scandal. We might not have been involved in Wall Street ponzi schemes. In fact, most Canadians had no involvement whatsoever in the cause of the financial hard times nor in the ham-fisted remedies utilized by our reluctant governments.

But we can assure you, we have paid and paid. We are paying the higher municipal taxes now because of the accelerated infrastructure programs forced on our municipalities by federal and provincial governments. We are paying other taxes that disappear into the maw of deficit reduction. We are paying the employment insurance and welfare for the people laid off by governments to reduce costs.

As long as you understand, we are all doing our part here. Mind you, it is a bit churlish of Premier McGuinty to call it the NDP tax that you high earners are paying. After all, it is not as though his Whigs have a majority at Queen’s Park.

McGuinty needed some cooperation and he sure was not going to get it from Tiny Tim Hudak and that odd assortment of Ontario Landowners and Harrisites who call themselves Conservatives. Some of his own caucus have been complaining about Tiny Tim leaving the field to the New Democratic Party’s Andrea Horwath when he would not play the negotiation game. Andrea preened for the news media while Tiny Tim when home to sulk.

It was certainly indicative of how much future cooperation Dalton McGuinty is going to get when instead of voting for the revised budget, the NDP sat on their hands and abstained from voting. That let the Liberal budget pass but we might lay a few dollars on an election before the end of next year in Ontario.

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  peter@lowry.me