Category: Provincial Politics

When someone asked why this blog had no forecast on the BC election, the only answer was “Are you crazy? Nobody knows how BC voters will finally vote.”

And they did it again on Tuesday. You might disagree with what they did but, as usual, they made it a surprise. British Columbia voters are so convoluted in their voting, they even deny their vote after they cast it. It goes back to the days of Wacky Bennett who served as Premier for 20 years and you could never find a voter who would admit they voted for him. There is some sort of fog that envelopes the province just before the election that tells everyone how to confuse the pollsters this time.

One of the reasons for this dilemma is that all the parties in BC provincial politics are basically the same. They are right wing, further right wing, extremely right wing and to the right of Attila the Hun. The BC Liberal Party is run by a bunch of Conservatives. It has become extremely rare for the provincial New Democrats to have a left-wing thought. A BC union leader once explained it as “What do you expect when even the union members are right wing?”

It is a big part of the ‘lotus land’ mystique. It is the culture in BC to confuse those of us east of the Rocky Mountains. What if all those easterners decided to migrate west? There would be nobody left in Ottawa to run the country.

It would hardly matter in BC. What they do in the Lower Mainland is send all the provincial politicians to the Island in hopes that the ferry will sink. Federal politicians in BC are rather strange creatures but if you send them to Ottawa, maybe they will stay there and not come back to bother anyone.

In case you had not noticed in the party leadership contests for the Liberals and the New Democrats, the real mavericks in those races came from BC. These were very creative people who were out to embarrass their respective parties by acting intelligently. You noticed, of course, that Justin Trudeau tried to convince people that he was an honorary BCer because his mother was a Sinclair of BC fame.

But there are many of us easterners who know and love British Columbia. We know you for the beauty and majesty of your land, your coast and your islands. We know you for your wonderful sense of humour. We also know you for your political shenanigans.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

At Casino Rama the other night, a gambler was wagering heavily at a blackjack table. He was a typical Ontario gambler in that he was wagering on two of the table spots and playing the extra bets offered. The agencies of the Ontario government that provide and regulate gambling were colluding to fleece this player of his money while the operators were quietly rooting for him. The rule in Ontario is that the government wants you to gamble and wants you to lose while the casino operators want you to win occasionally so that you come back..

And you can win, sometimes. Despite how most people play this popular casino game, blackjack is just a game of odds. It offers many thousands of variables. The key to the game is the knowledge that the odds are not in favour of the players. Even if you know the odds on every single combination, you can only win an average of 48 hands out of every hundred. That is better than roulette that will pay you as much as 35 to one on the number bets while the real odds are 38 to one. Blackjack odds are almost as good as the odds on craps which are the best deal in the house. The problem with craps is you have to know what you are doing.

But any idiot can play blackjack—and often does. And rules be damned. Some players wonder why people look at them strangely before leaving the table. You try to only comment on a play when asked. That was why the player the other evening did not know why he was losing. He was betting $75 each on two spots and putting another $25 chip in each spot for a bet on receiving a perfect pair in the first two cards.

The player was very impressed when he drew a pair of sixes, both of the same suit. For his $25 bet, the casino paid him 25 to one ($625) for which he was high-fiving everyone at the table—except the dealer who is not allowed to do that. What he did not seem to know was that the real odds of drawing a perfect pair is more like 35 to one. He was grossly underpaid for his bet.

And that is how the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) are helping get more profit out of Ontario’s gamblers. They are encouraging the casino operators to come up with new, higher profit gimmicks to fleece the unsuspecting. And that is why the casino will cheerfully supply the gambler with a pamphlet explaining the mechanics of the games but not the odds. They are required to tell gamblers to set a limit but nowhere do they tell the occasional winner how to parlay their winnings or manage their money.

In Ontario, we deal excitement for the suckers. Just do not expect to win very often.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

The Beer Store is fighting back folks. A total of four Ontario retail beer stores (just under one per cent of the stores) are to be modernized. They will serve as leaders in the supposedly better way of merchandising beer. Ontario’s foreign-owned Brewers’ Retail is not going to give in to convenience stores without a fight. The old In and Out stores are rallying the troops.

The troops are not only to be rallied and trained (that is new) but they are to be issued new uniforms. They will be labelled on the back as Beer Champion or Beer Enthusiast. They forgot about the employees who get to wear one saying Returns Skank. The good news is that this uniform closely resembles hazardous material garb.

It has also been revealed that the foreign owners of The Beer Store have finally learned that not all Canadians are over seven foot tall. They say they are going to fix that impossible to read beer wall. It is supposed to help you find the beer you want and check prices but has baffled Ontarians for years.

One experiment is to replace the beer wall with digital touch screens. That might work if you bring a kid with you to show you how to use the program.

The funniest line in all this info is that there is now to be ambient music and helpful, pleasant staff. Since you will never hear music, ambient or otherwise, over the crashing of cases of bottles and kegs, it will have to be loud heavy metal. And as for helpful, pleasant staff, the best we usually get out of them is “Are yuh gonna buy beer?” or “we ain’t got none!”

What The Beer Store has continued to fail to understand is that they are not going to attract women to the stores as they exist or how they now envisage them. It takes an entirely different approach to satisfying the female customer for beer.

What was hoped in switching sales over to the convenience stores is that some of the more competitive convenience stores might start to develop expertise in the cooking and entertaining with beer. Women, being far better networkers than men, would start to share this information and patronize these more knowledgeable stores. And as you know, success breeds on success.

And Brewers’ Retail is a disgrace across Ontario. If your favourite political party does not fix this problem damn soon, we will have to find a party that will.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

Talk of mixed metaphors! The Ontario budget last week was more of a bucket list than the chore of being sent out for a bucket of water. And Finance Minister Charles is no water boy for New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath.

Charles Sousa is going to have to realize that his budget is a bust. It offers neither direction nor panacea. It is not something for which Charles is allowed any pride. It must be so bad that the party has called for a province-wide Internet conversation with Charles next Wednesday to try to help him find an explanation for the shambles he has created. He would be smart to turn the event into an election pep rally.

The one thing that is obvious about Charles’ budget is that he never looked beyond his own Ministry and Andrea Horwath’s instructions. And he left large loopholes in the NDP items for Andrea to use as an excuse to vote against the budget. Charles has to know enough about the NDP to not phrase things as ‘maybes’ and ‘moving towards.’

To suggest that the budget is the product of wide consultation with Ontario taxpayers is an insult to those taxpayers. One of the best suggestions he received was from a small group of physicians who cannot understand why people with money do not pay more taxes. What the physicians do not realize is that it is the holes in the tax bucket caused by loopholes and exemptions wielded by the accountants that only these people can afford that leaves them relatively unscathed by the tax process.

If anything is the nail in Charles Sousa’s coffin as finance minister, it is the dumping this week by the Caterpillar company of the former Lovat company in Ontario that Caterpillar bought five years ago. This was the company that made the huge drills for digging subways and underground light rail lines.  And more Ontario jobs bite the dust!

Despite the paucity of the budget, Premier Kathleen Wynne was given an inordinate amount of time on Global Television today to try to explain the budget. In a low-ball interview on Tom Clark’s West Block, the Premier did her own dance of the seven veils for us with her own interpretation of what the budget meant. Hopefully, it is not as confusing as her explanation. After Tom did the warm-up, she gave it another shot on Focus Ontario and it was not much better. What was particularly galling was listening to former Ontario Tory Leader John Tory alibi her.

Wynne did admit on the Ontario show that tolling the HOV lanes on the 400 series highways would just be the beginning of tolls for all lanes to pay for Toronto’s infrastructure needs. What was even more chilling for seniors was her unexpected indication that there was going to be means tests for Ontario Drug Benefits. Andrea Horwath had better get the message that this budget needs to be deep sixed.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

Ontario Minister of Finance Charles Sousa was one of the three Mississauga MPPs who were supposedly rescued from defeat in the last election by the cancellation of the Mississauga gas plant. According to the Auditor General that means electing Mr. Sousa cost Ontario taxpayers about $95 million. Charles might be a nice guy but he is certainly not worth that much as Finance Minister.

In fact, judging by this first budget effort, the Liberals should have given the Mississauga complainers the finger and cut Charles loose. He might have surprised us and still won election but it turns out he is no great success as finance minister. Premier Wynne and her caucus are now saddled with a sorry budget effort for which the New Democrats claim credit and they can have it.

We have known for some time now that Ontario’s main economic problem is not the provincial deficit. The deficit is the least of our problems. Having the lowest corporate tax rate and still losing jobs is a disaster. Corporate tax incentives that do not work are a related and serious problem. Capping salaries for provincially funded jobs is a joke when you fail to tax those incomes properly.

And who do you think is really going to pay for the profitability of automobile insurance companies when the government tells them to lower insurance rates? Does Charles or NDP Leader Andrea Horwath think they are proving anything with that lame-brained insurance scam?

There are always a few things in a hodgepodge budget such as this that you might agree with. Maybe that was what Charles was hoping. What it lacks though is a sense of purpose. Where is it taking us? What is its theme? What is Liberal about it?

What Charles has done is fed the opposition ammunition for a general election. He has failed to protect his party. He has told the voters that he is nothing but a servant of the New Democrats. If the voters had wanted an NDP budget, they would have voted the NDP into office.

But the one really stupid and damning idea in the budget is the idea of selling passes for those rare HOV lanes on the 400 series highways. HOV means high occupancy vehicles. They are supposed to encourage people to car pool. In case Charles did not know, those lanes are supposed to be lightly used. If they are heavily used, they will just be another lane of bumper to bumper traffic. Smarten up!

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

Ontario’s Premier Wynne should not be so reluctant to have an election. All she is doing is delaying the departure of Conservative Leader Timmy Hudak. It hardly seems fair. Ontario never deserved Mike Harris as Premier and there is no reason they should have to tolerate a Mike Harris Lite.

Mind you, Timmy told the Toronto Star last week that he is a changed man, a fighter for what he believes. It is what he believes in that has put him so out of touch with the people of Ontario. Hudak seems to consider former American President Ronald Regan and the recently deceased Brit Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as deities. He must think of Mike Harris as their high priest.

What Timmy does not see is that Stephen Harper and crew in Ottawa are on the job and too many people screwing our economy could do lasting damage. The Ontario Liberals are about as far right as the people of Ontario can handle while the Tories are running down the economy in Ottawa.

Premier Wynne should realize that while voter dissatisfaction with her party is high, most of it is based on the foolishness of former Premier Dalton McGuinty. Give Timmy Hudak a month out on the polls, pressing the flesh and saying what he thinks and the Wynne Liberals are going to look pretty damn good to the voters.

The only thing that saved Hudak’s bacon when he was releasing all those ridiculous policy papers recently was that nobody read them. The few people who were paid to read them are convinced that they are a joke and refuse to grade them.

Timmy will promise anything to get elected. That must have been where he was coming from when he proposed that the province use magic money to pay for Toronto’s highway infrastructure and subways. These are things that he will never support as Premier but Timmy is not one to quibble over details.

For Kathleen Wynne, the real concern should be New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath. If Andrea ever got a good speaking coach, speech writer, personal trainer, hairdresser and decent clothes, she would pose something of a challenge.

But the good news is that Tiny Tim Hudak will be toast after this coming election. The Conservatives will not allow him to completely destroy their party.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

Ontario’s Premier Wynne might be desperate. Like most politicians fighting off an election—that they might lose—she is telling voters that an election in this province will cost over $90 million. Strangely enough, that is close to what the Auditor General said shutting down the Mississauga gas-fired power plant cost—over and above the government estimate. Does this mean that it is alright to waste a few hundred million saving some seats in a general election but it is not alright to spend about 100 million letting the voters comment on it?

Sooner or later, Kathleen Wynne has to call an election. This triumvirate at Queen’s Park of Horwath, Hudak and Wynne is not only unappealing, it is appalling. Mind you, with that selection of leaders, is it any wonder that fewer and fewer people in Ontario are bothering to vote?

And the question of an election should not be left to New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath. If she can be bought off by a supposed reduction in auto insurance rates, home care for the elderly and closing some corporate tax concessions, you have to suspect that her vote comes very cheap.

With all the leaks and statements that have been made, poor Charles Souza is not going to have anything new to say when he announces his budget later this week. The announcement of $100 million for northern roads simply does not parse. Does this mean Ontario was not spending more than that on Northern infrastructure? And if the province is not spending more, why is it not?

And speaking of stupid, did you know that the Premier made the announcement of the $100 million for northern infrastructure support at the site where the province is rebuilding a highway rest stop—in the middle of Barrie! There is something like 20 gas stations and at least 50 restaurants grouped within a few kilometres of the five Barrie Highway 400 interchanges. Around Toronto, you can drive over 100 kilometres on 400-series highways without seeing a highway rest stop. Figure that one?

What Horwath, Hudak and Wynne need to realize is that minority governments are becoming a more frequent situation. Politicians need to learn to live with them. Tory Leader Timmy Hudak has to bring his marbles and play nice. Going away and pouting no longer works. Ms. Horwath has to show us what she can do. If she ever wants to be premier, she is going to have to demonstrate some leadership. Ms. Wynne needs to retake her grade-four geography. That used to be when our children first learned about Ontario.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

There needs to be a better solution to this power plant problem in Mississauga and Oakville. These were natural gas powered plants that some people said should not be built where they were planned. It boils down to an argument about location.

And the Not-In-My-Back-Yard people won. These NIMBYs were vociferous and backed by the Conservative Party of Ontario. The NIMBY organization in Mississauga is called the Coalition of Homeowners for Intelligent Power (CHIP) and claims some 10,000 homeowners in Mississauga and Etobicoke as members.

Obviously, there should have been some political oversight of this argument when the Ontario Power Authority had to go to the Ontario Municipal Board to force Mississauga and then Oakville to stop objecting to the plants. It involved a 280 megawatt generating capability, located on Loreland Avenue in Mississauga and a 900 megawatt plant on former Ford property on Royal Windsor Drive in Oakville. These clean-burning gas plants were replacing the old Lakeview coal-fired plant. They were needed to meet the rapidly growing demand for power in the two municipalities.

For some reason, the government dropped the ball but this was hardly the first mistake made by the McGuinty government. The actual decision to cancel the plants was in the heat of the 2011 election campaign. It was a purely political action under the direction of Liberal Campaign Chair Greg Sorbara. As Sorbara acted under the authority of Premier McGuinty, the chickens have to roost on him.

But, to be fair, why should Sorbara, McGuinty or even over-paid Ontario Power Authority executives have to open their piggy banks and cough up whatever all this costs. This CHIP organization should also be willing to pay for the cancellation. They were the people who kept demanding the end of the Mississauga plant. And the Auditor General tells us that the Mississauga plant only cost Ontario $275 million. When you spread it across 10,000 people, it is only $27,500 per homeowner. They said cancel the plant. They got what they wanted. It is now time to pay.

We hope that people in Oakville are richer than people in Mississauga. We hear that the auditor’s report on the Oakville plant costs might be four times as much as Mississauga. They are going to need deep pockets!

What we do not want is for the people throughout the rest of Ontario to pay for this damn foolishness. We need a rule that says if you do not like something such as a wind turbine, you should have the right to buy the property it is on and chop it down. Or how about if you do not like casinos: all you have to do is offer to pay the city the extra taxes the casino would generate and live in a casino-free community. Think about it!

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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