Category: Provincial Politics

That is an interesting strategy. We are supposed to ignore the blunders of the last ten years. Ontario Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne is going to run for re-election as premier on a strategy of fixing federal pensions. Lord knows, the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) needs fixing but this might not be waters in which she should be swimming.

It was 1967 when an Ontario premier last tried a political distraction on federal turf. It was Premier John Robarts who chaired the Confederation for Tomorrow Conference that tried to move Canada’s Premiers toward agreement on Canada’s constitution.  It was an impressive effort. It failed. The unfinished office building in which the meeting was held was a metaphor for the unfinished thinking of the people involved.

Nor has the brain-trust behind Kathleen Wynne thought this pension proposal through. For a plan to supplement the CPP to gain any traction with the voters, it has to cost little, promise much and apply across Canada. The problem is there is no current fix to the CPP that can be accommodated under traditional economic thinking or the current federal government. And Kathleen Wynne’s people are not outside-the-box people.

And she does not seem to be aware that when Ontario voters learn that nothing can change for the first ten years of a new plan, voters will lose interest. It is the old problem of paying forward. We need some faster gratification folks.

Where Kathleen Wynne and her people really fail is their lack of understanding of how their shenanigans could help balkanize our country. That, Canada does not need. We have enough problems with Quebec without trying to prove pequistes such as Quebec Premier Pauline Marois are right. A plan for a high-speed electrified rail corridor from Windsor to Quebec City could do more to bind Quebec with the rest of Canada than any other political strategy.

And if Kathleen Wynne really wants to show her colors as a Canadian federalist, she should address the bigotry of Quebec’s secularism charter. The federal Conservative’s have no understanding nor answer to the charter other than a court challenge. To rely on the courts in this circumstance is to enable Marois to win. That is the condition for separatism that she needs. Ontario has to talk togetherness.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

With more than a million Ontario voters living in condominiums, you would think that condo owners would get more attention from Ontario politicians. You might even think that some of those politicians who are not in power would consider that condominium owners deserve ownership rights. The problem is that these political nitwits still think of condo owners as apartment renters. Yet, they do not even consider condo owners worthy of the same rights as renters.

Since the Condominium Act of 1998, condominium living in Ontario has been very much of a crap shoot. If you were lucky enough to get competent, fair, honest condominium management, you had hope. The only problem has been the large and growing bands of opportunists who see condominium owners as easy pickings. Would you waste time selling something like chimney repairs or driveway oiling to individual homeowners when you can sell more than 200 homeowners at once? An industry was born.

Property managers were the most serious need and they sprang from rental apartment buildings, shopping mall management, industrial parks and businesses that made money buying for others. A high rise condominium building can often have an annual buying power in the million-dollar plus range and this is not business to be sneezed at. This is opportunity and there is considerable interest in the riches of property management.

As is natural, law firms also got into the act—or at least read the Condominium Act and start to sell their services. There is always lots of conflict brewing and when times are slow, the creative firm can dream up new rules for condo owners to buy.

Engineers have had a field day. These worthies are supported by the Condominium Act and condo boards are supposed to listen to them. And that listening can cause a lot of expense that a smart homeowner would never agree to. But condo boards are the lowest common denominator of their buildings and they tend to do what their property manager tells them—especially if they think the property manager has read and understood the Condominium Act.

The biggest problem in condominium living is the Ontario government. In their ignorance the government tends to write new laws that supersede any previous laws and leave the previous law in limbo unless there is a court case to decide. That pleases lawyers, disquiets judges and keeps the hallowed halls of the Ontario Legislature a make-work place for idle politicians. And you only think that is funny until an incompetent condominium board decides you are going to have individual suite metering for electricity when your condo declaration says this is paid collectively—and you can spend the next five years of your life in the courts.

And it is all thanks to those incompetents at Queen’s Park.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

You just hate to be the curmudgeon who is always complaining about those damn filthy, smelly beer stores in Ontario. A complainant can feel lonely. You start to doubt yourself. You feel guilty. You begin to think that you are the only person in this God-forsaken province who knows that Ontario is run by a bunch of ignorant, incompetent nincompoops.

But, Hark! Help is on the way. It is none other than Martin Regg Cohn, provincial political affairs columnist at the Toronto Star. And Martin is a true professional. He is not only a journalist of note but one who has reported from the capitals of the world. He has reported with distinction on our national affairs. He is the epitome of a gentleman of letters. And he says it the way it is: “The Beer Store is Ontario’s longest-running public disgrace and economic blight.”

Martin not only calls a spade a spade but he knows where to place the blame for this public disgrace. He lays the blame squarely on all the major political parties. He interviewed the three party leaders and found out what we already knew. Premier Kathleen Wynne told him everything was hunky-dory in beer heaven and she had no panel studying any change. New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath had not been scripted on that subject and therefore could not answer. And, even if her brain trust had studied the question, there are too many unionized workers involved to risk change.

That left the field clear for the Conservative’s prize, Timmy Hudak. Martin reports that Timmy is saving himself for the election. He admits that the status quo makes no sense and his party might offer beer drinkers more options. That would make sense only if the Conservative Party offered the voters a better option.

What seems to disquiet Martin about this Beer Store situation is that Ontario’s beer monopoly is owned by beer companies outside of Canada. In the great Canadian tradition, people such as Toronto’s famed E.P. Taylor became rich on beer and buying up competitors and then sold out to foreign interests—because they could come up with the price.

No matter who owns those disgusting, smelly, pig-sty-like Beer Stores, they have become nothing more than recycling dumps where your feet stick to the floors and you never know where to find the brand of beer you want to buy. Welcome aboard Martin.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

Obviously Premier Kathleen Wynne was not listening to the results of the last provincial by-elections in Ontario. She wants to stick her neck in a noose in two more. The lady is not a fast learner. The five by-elections in the summer left the Liberals behind and demonstrated the frustration the public feels with the three major Ontario parties. Wynne hardly needs further attrition in her caucus.

It is important to understand that the provincial government does not have to call the first of the two by-elections until March. Why call the by-elections and then have a general election within the following two months. There is no sense to that. The Liberals can hardly afford to suffer the ignominy of being blocked out in the by-elections just before a general election.

As things stand at Queen’s Park, Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s spring budget is not going to win any prizes with the New Democrats. And the Conservatives have already told everyone that they would not approve the budget even if it was written by the late right-wing economist Milton Friedman.

As things stand, the Horwath-Hudak relay team are taking us into an election in 2014 come hell or high water. They cannot allow Wynne’s Liberals any more time to get entrenched or to gain approval of the voters. You will be able to tell how successful Sousa’s budget might be by the speed with which the two opposition parties damn it.

It was interesting watching an Ontario Legislature session wrap up last weekend on Global Television with Horwath and Hudak. The interviewer was obviously favouring the Conservative’s Tim Hudak and even prompted him by asking for some personal news. The information that Timmy and his wife are expecting another child in the New Year was the only bright note in the entire interview.

Conversely, Andrea Horwath for the New Democrats had her hair done and was sporting a very professional make-up job. The lady looked very good. It was also obvious that she was getting some speaking advice. She was speaking in a less pushed manner and was making her case more carefully.

What was particularly impressive was that at one point, she smiled. It was probably the first time that many Ontario voters had seen her smile. It was electric. If she just smiles like that through the election campaign, she will make Wynne look like the Wicked Witch of the West.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

The third party advertising in Ontario has already gone too far. Now the Conservatives are proving it is a sham. And it is hardly to their credit. A new group, calling itself “Working Canadians” has emerged to counter the so called “Working Families.” Neither group is particularly subtle in letting people know where they stand.

In 2011, Working Families ran scathing television advertising in opposition to the provincial Conservatives. Its ads ridiculed Conservative Leader Tim Hudak—which is hardly a difficult task. What was wrong was that the ads should have said: ‘On behalf of the Ontario Liberal Party.’ It would have been stating the obvious but it would also have meant that the McGuinty Liberals would have been responsible for the expense.

Now we are to see and hear advertising for the Conservatives for which they do not claim responsibility. The new Working Canadians group is being fronted by Catherine Swift chair of the right-wing Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Swift says the only organization behind this new group is the somewhat secretive Merit Canada that lobbies against unions in the construction industry.

Of course, Ms. Swift insists that the new Working Canadians is non-partisan. Her concern in all of this is that she believes paying for public servants such as teachers, nurses and police officers is the reason for what she calls a “structural deficit” in Ontario. She fails to say what the alternative to paying these civil servants might be.

It is reported that she is concerned about Ontario going bankrupt in the same way as Greece or Detroit. Despite her post-graduate degree in economics from an Ontario university, Ms. Swift failed to explain why Ontario might need to declare bankruptcy. It seems that Ms. Swift is of the opinion that “the average taxpayer does not have a clue about this.”

Nobody seems to be surprised that the Ontario Conservatives intend to make right-to-work legislation a mainstay of their next Ontario election campaign. They are already warming up by calling Ontario Public Sector union heads “union elites.” Ontario Conservative politicians might not be aware that a basic tenet of unionism is that everyone is equal. There are not supposed to be any union elites.

But while it makes the upcoming election more interesting, something really has to be done about third party advertising. It should be illegal as it interferes with the proper conduct of the election, allows people to hide behind false fronts and attempts to convince people of information that might also be false.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

There seems to be good and bad coming out of Queen’s Park these days. It is nice to see that Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi’s proposed bill protecting temporary workers is being greeted with approval. At the same time Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli’s long term energy plan seems to be met with derision.

Mind you, Chiarelli’s portfolio is a lot like pig farming; after a while you get used to the smell. After years of every flavour of Ontario government thinking they are finally solving the Ontario Hydro problem, all we get to see are the bills. We are still paying the price for David Peterson, Bob Rae and Mike Harris. It took the green thumb of Dalton McGuinty to grow electricity pricing in Ontario into what seems to be a huge Ponzi scheme. And we just keep paying.

Looking after temporary workers is a different challenge. It used to be the case in Ontario that there were people that wanted temporary jobs. It gave them experience, new surroundings, opportunity for finding full-time employment and to make a little money towards paying bills. What is of serious concern today is that temporary workers now exceed 700,000 people including more than 100,000 foreign workers. And the federal government appears to be encouraging foreign workers to come to Canada to keep domestic wage demands low.

And there is good reason to refer to these temporary jobs as “precarious.” With the continuous drain of manufacturing jobs in Ontario to “right-to-work” jurisdictions in the United States and the current economy, there are just too many people vying for every available temporary job. And what back-breaking or demeaning work is turned down by Canadians will be quickly taken by foreign workers. It is a feast for those who would cheat and steal from these workers and the Ontario government is finally taking some action. The very least we can do is make the temp agencies equally liable with employers if their temps are not paid. We also have to put an end to bogus fees charged by the agencies to temp workers.

The only regret is that we do not have enough Ministers in the Wynne government as pro-active as MPP Yasir Naqvi. There is less and less time left for Premier Wynne and her government to show that they can be pro-active about Ontario’s economy. Asking Prime Minister Harper for his cooperation is a fool’s errand. If he gets involved on the Ring of Fire file, it will only be on his terms. He is hardly likely to promise anything to Ontario on the pension file.

Wynne has to make made-in-Ontario moves. If she does not, the voters will make the moves for her and Ontario voters hardly deserve a Horwath or Hudak government.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]