Provincial Politics – Page 124

Premier Wynne, have you considered grovelling?

March 1, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Was it only a week ago that the Ontario Liberal government was touting its brilliant solution to the teachers’ failure to do unpaid work? Yes, peace and tranquility had returned to that front. Or so we thought. The problem is that the Ontario government is fighting battles on so many fronts, it is getting hard to say how to solve them all. At least with the teachers, we know that a little grovelling would help.

The basic problem with the teachers is that Kathleen Wynne was there as a Minister of Cabinet when the decision was made to screw the teachers. She cannot claim to have been down the hall primping her hair when the dirty deed was done. And she cannot send this Sandals person to do her grovelling for her. Wynne has to take the hit herself.

It is sad to see it come to this but when you decide to screw your friends it is very different than screwing someone who expects it. Former friends make quite tenacious enemies. Their memories of hurt feelings last a long time. You have a lot of ground to make up. It can be done but you have to be genuinely contrite and you have to rub a lot of salve into those hurt feelings. You might even need a looser purse.

The impasse is such at this time that the Ontario Government is going to have to say: To hell with the deficit, let’s be fair to our friends the teachers. It is also obvious now that teachers’ duties are going to have to be better defined. There are requirements and nice-to-haves. Maybe some things can be traded between columns.

The hardest thing for Kathleen Wynne is to turn on her friend Dalton McGuinty. She should not feel bad about that. He took the bullet when he resigned last fall. He is already toast. If she could just accept the fact, dump on Dalton and go on, she would be much better off.

It is not that Kathleen Wynne is particularly interested in our suggestions but we will throw this one in gratis. You should examine why and how the party made friends with the teachers in the first place. It was not just their mistreatment by the Mike Harris government. Maybe they still bear a grudge from the Rae Days of 17 years ago. Whatever it was, it is something Ontario Liberals have to rebuild.

Do not forget that Tiny Tim Hudak’s hordes are gathering in the hinterlands. They are going to march on Queen’s Park, chop down those damn windmills and return us to the medieval times of half-day kindergarten. The Twenty-first Century never happened!

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Is there a ‘political memory’?

February 27, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Quebec students are starting their warm-up exercises early this year. Their studies are, of course, important but there is nothing like a good protest to meet members of a sexual persuasion that interests you, to get some healthy outdoor exercise, vent your lungs and to get physical with thugs from the various police forces. And yet it all appears to be instigated by Quebec’s Pequiste Premier Pauline Marois. She seems to be blind to the reason she won the last provincial election.

Are political memories that short? What caused the downfall of former Premier Jean Charest? Was it not the same damn issue? Are not tuition fees in Quebec always the lowest such fees in Canada? And do the students care? They are students. They need little excuse to join the revolution. Any tuition fees annoy them. Any increase in tuition fees is, to them, an act of war. You would think that Pauline Marois would know that.

It reminds you of Bob Rae, now temporary leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, when he was New Democratic Premier of Ontario. He was sitting on the provincial throne looking good until he was convinced that some austerity was in order in the province. He turned to the teachers and other unionized workers in the province and told them to pony up. All he asked them for was for a wage freeze and some unpaid days off. Next thing we knew, a guy named Michael Harris was Premier of Ontario.

And yet there was Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty just a year ago telling the teachers and other unionists that they were going to have to, once again, help Ontario out of its deficit. And when you think of how hard those teachers worked to help Mr. McGuinty get re-elected, it was enough to make you cry. Nobody seems to have a political memory.

And sure, we can sit here in Ontario and laugh at the foolish Pequiste and her problems in Quebec but not for long. We in Ontario have lucked out with an apparently docile student population in this province whose parents have more money than brains. Yah, they want their son or daughter to be a doctor or lawyer or whatever but there is a tipping point on costs and we probably have already passed it.

Tuition rates in Ontario are an outrage. Any history buff can tell you that when students finally get mad, they can become a potent force. Fuck with them at your peril.

And any true liberal knows that individual rights include the right to learning. Our objective should be to eliminate tuition fees. Chew on that for a bit Premier Wynne.

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Revelling in others’ marketing mistakes.

February 25, 2013 by Peter Lowry

It is quite sad that the Toronto Star editorial writers seem to have so little understanding of the vagaries and ups and downs of the market place. Maybe being part of a vast, monolithic organization as Torstar causes them to be somewhat immune to such concerns. In one of their many anti-casino diatribes, they appeared to be chortling over the misfortunes of a multi-billion dollar resort casino in Atlantic City.

Yet, maybe there is a message in this. The problem with Revel, the Atlantic City casino resort, is that it denied everything. It was much too ritzy to survive in that tacky-town market. It ignored the day-trippers from New York who built that city. It focussed on an ocean that everyone turned their back on. It was a marketing experiment by people who must have flunked Marketing 101. And they spent billions during the second worst time in American economic history.

What Paul Godfrey and friends have against calling a casino a casino, we will never know. We can tell you truthfully that nobody visits Atlantic City to see the ocean, be pampered in luxury hotels and enjoy fine cuisine. They come to gamble, dammit.

So what does that mean in Toronto? Why are we talking resort hotels on the Exhibition grounds? Why would anyone want to overcrowd the Convention Centre, basket ball/hockey palace and baseball park area with more hotel rooms and a casino? The truth is that Toronto is already a destination. It has lots of great hotels, wonderful restaurants representing the world of cuisine, the best of theatres, sports, parks and entertainments. All it needs is a few casinos to spice things up and be a full service city.

If you pushed a bit, Woodbine Entertainment could have table games in place in less than a month. It already has a casino in place, if it would just get rid of some of those slots. There are also a bunch of questionable banquet halls around the city where casinos could spring up like magic.

Be honest people. Toronto will never be Las Vegas North. You really do not want it to be. You want Toronto to be the open, friendly, welcoming city that accepts people, it always has been. You do not want to force your standards on others. You believe in live and let live. And if people want to gamble—which is quite legal—you want it to be in friendly, well managed, properly regulated premises. That should be our only concern.

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Tories have opening at Queen’s Park.

February 22, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Some Conservative friends want to run a want ad for the opening at Queen’s Park. They want to fill the position of Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition and Leader of the Ontario Conservative Party. The previous job holder, Tiny Tim Hudak, appears to have left the building.

It is not as though Timmy has given up. Nor has he resigned. They just think it is time for Timmy to admit that he is not up to the job. It is time to end the embarrassment. Timmy just needs to look back to his predecessor, John Tory. John knew when it was time to resign. He gave the party his best shot. He did not need to be told when to turn in his key to the leader’s office. He left with grace and his head held high.

Now is Timmy’s time. He gave it his best shot in the last Ontario election. He has had more than a year as Leader of the Opposition in a minority house of cards. He effectively turned the job of Leader of the Opposition over to New Democrat Andrea Horwath. And Andrea pulled it off with her virtue intact. There were no demands on her. She even kept the job alive when the former Premier prorogued the Legislature so that the Liberals could have some playtime to pick a new leader.

And now there is a new leader and a new Throne Speech and all that Timmy finds to say is that the new cabinet is too big and he will not support the speech. First of all, Timmy has to understand that you end up with a lot of political debts to pay when you win both the Leader’s and Premier’s job at the same time. And everyone understands that the Leader of the Opposition will not support the Throne Speech but you are also supposed to pick a few things from it and propose alternatives. That is the job stupid!

Instead of doing his job in the old tried and proven ways, Timmy has been showering the news media with supposed white papers of policy alternatives that are of no interest to anybody. His transit solutions could cost him the vote of every Conservative on Toronto City Council. His white paper on post-secondary education is earning him derision from students and academics across the province.

What Conservatives are now realizing is that Tiny Tim has stopped trying to build to win in Ontario. He is using politics of division. He divides people not to conquer but purely for the sake of dividing. He wants to see the day that we have walled cities again to keep his rural riff-raff away from the decent people. He does not understand that some of those decent people are well-meaning but obviously misguided Conservatives.

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Timmy can smell the fear.

February 20, 2013 by Peter Lowry

While we can all appreciate the need to quickly get the Ontario legislature back in business, a little more time to consider the throne speech would have helped. NDP leader Andrea Horwath gave the speech guarded approval yesterday but Conservative leader Tiny Tim Hudak rejected it. There was little to please either leader. Worse, there was little to capture the imagination of the voters. And Tiny Tim could smell the fear.

The throne speech was long on rhetoric and short on facts. It was supposed to be a feel good speech and all it did was give the impatient among us cramps in our buttocks. And it should be pointed out to the Wynne government that the only people who give a damn about when Ontario gets rid of its deficit is the bond rating service of Standard and Poors.

Throne speeches have changed a bit over the years. They started out as a dull detailing of the legislation to be put forward by the government during a session of parliament. Today, the speech is written to reach the voters and to provide them with an appreciation of what this wonderful, fearless government is going to present during the session and the opposition can only oppose at their peril.

With what we heard yesterday, it was a darn good thing that Andrea Horwath had already promised to support it. No real liberal could support such bilge.

The throne speech was a melange of old and new, the forgotten and the forlorn. Who does not want to help our youth find jobs, improve the skills of our workforce, fix social assistance programs, aid people with disabilities to find employment and build a strong, prosperous province. Now how many times have we heard that?

There was nothing new in what took about 3800 words. Oh yes, there were the usual curtsies in the direction of putting aboriginal communities to work, trotting out more all-day kindergarten and continuing the tutition grants for undergraduates, home care for the elderly, better access to mental health services and home renovation tax credits. The list was interminable and, in case anyone was left out, they promised they are going to create opportunities for everyone.

But what the silly speech failed to do was to provide leadership, to surprise, please, thrill, innovate, wow, challenge, build or propose a future for Ontario on which we could sign-on and work together for a better future for all.

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Ontario’s Beer Stores find their niche.

February 16, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Ontario’s Environment Minister Jim Bradley went to a Beer Store yesterday. He was there for another ribbon cutting ceremony. It was to recognize the new role of the Brewers Warehousing and its Beer Stores across Ontario. This Beer Store is now officially Recycling Plus.

Instead of the cooling glass of beer, symbol of the Beer Store for many years, the new store sports a Statue of Liberty with the slogan: Give me your empties, your tired electronics, your muddied paint cans…the contents of your teeming garage (paraphrased from Emma Lazarus, American poet, 1849 to 1887).

Instead of wielding a giant pair of scissors, Jimmy Bradley pushed the first bin of junk to be recycled down the rails of the store. All of this was duly recorded by the news media. The only regret was that the Minister could not then offer the media a cooling beer for all their hard work covering the event. This recycling place does not have any beer.

And that has been our point for years. The stores should either sell beer or be recycling depots. They are lousy retailers and they are destroying Ontario’s beer business. Step two is to get Brewers Warehousing completely out of the beer business. The company is not good at that job. Maybe it has a role in distribution but that is up to the beer companies. They might appreciate the efficiencies of having their products all delivered at the same time but we really should return to a more competitive beer business in Ontario. It is also better for business to ask for the elimination of government price fixing.

Convenience stores and grocery stores need to be free to create their own specials and price cuts on six packs to attract business. All that government should care about is that it gets its due in tax revenues.

We had better admit that this first Beer Store/recycling centre is just a pilot but Babel-on-the-Bay has been advocating getting the Beer Stores out of retail beer sales for many years. There is hope on the horizon.

But one question, if we may, about the new role: Will the employees of these new recycling centres have to wear hazmat outfits?

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

Timmy Hudak confuses ideology with thinking.

February 15, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Ontario Opposition Leader Tiny Tim Hudak has come up with another of his white paper policies. The subject of this one is education and return on investment. If you have read this one, please raise your hand,

Seeing no hands raised, it should be noted that this so-called white paper is almost unreadable. If you attempt to read it on-line, you are in for a technological treat in just finding out how to read it. After you have finally figured out how to do it, you will find that the effort is not worth it. It is a pedantic, badly written, boring document with nothing new to say. It cries out for enforced standards in the English language that would allow us to pillory the miscreant who did such a disgraceful job of editing.

To be fair, the document is nicely designed with excellent type selection and good quality pictures. Now if it had just said something worthwhile.

The essence of the document is that Timmy wants to tie student loans to marks. Get good marks and Timmy’s professorial police will approve your next semester’s student loans. Mind you, in Timmy’s Brave New World (sorry Mr. Huxley) most students will be directed to the labor force and streamed through the community colleges for faster trades training. He is not about to support mediocre university students who try harder.

Timmy’s penchant for cost savings is evident in the document as he searches for areas of left-wing waste. He is determined that he is going to save us money—no matter how much it hurts us.

Some of the white paper is believed to be authored by Cambridge-North Dumfries MPP Rob Leone. A former assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, he says he wants to fund institutions of higher learning based on the jobs won by their graduates. That is certainly an unusual idea and many people are interested in learning how he expects to be able to do that.

Timmy must be disappointed that his white paper has not won universal applause since being released earlier this week. No doubt some are still trying to read it and many more have given up. It is surprising though to read a document about higher education written in language that should be easily understood by someone with a grade eight education. Maybe Tiny Tim is just defining his market.

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On tar sands, politicians, pipelines and greed.

February 12, 2013 by Peter Lowry

If you like how you have been ripped off on gasoline prices, you have to love the Alberta tar sands exploiters. Whether corporate or political, these are the same people who have been lying to you for years. And, like it or not folks, the bastards are winning.

There are just too many pipeline strategies at play for an ecologist to track or to fight. It hardly matters the tragedy that Enbridge caused near Kalamazoo, Michigan a couple years ago. People forget, unless you live there.

And what is the difference between Kinder Morgan and Northern Gateway in British Columbia? Is Northern Gateway just the stalking horse for the Kinder Morgan plan? After all, the first stage of the Kinder Morgan route is in place from Edmonton to Burnaby—now they just want to triple the volumes.

Did you know that experts for the pipeline people have testified that bitumen slurry from the tar sands is lighter than water and therefore floats? Those living along the Kalamazoo River in Michigan can probably point out that the bitumen, as would any form of asphalt, eventually separates from the slurry and sinks.

The one excellent use for bitumen is to pave highways. And these roads are not gold as your Alberta politicians think. Alberta’s Premier Alison Redford is weeping buckets these days because the tar sands exploiters are getting ripped off by the Americans who have adequate supply and are not as committed to buying that bitumen. Would you want to refine gunk that pollutes about three times as much and costs more to convert into gasoline or heating oil?

We would never want anyone to freeze in the dark but Canadians from outside Alberta probably expect Albertans will eventually pay taxes like the rest of the country.

Can you believe that New Brunswick Premier David Alward actually thinks the Irving Refineries in Saint John will want to refine bitumen sent through reversed pipelines from Alberta? Those pipelines are to be used at high temperature and under high pressure to get that bitumen slurry to sea ports where it can be shipped to the markets that will pay for it. It will work—as long as the pipelines last!

And then there is the conundrum of poor President Obama. The guy is listening to pleadings from the Canadian government to okay the damn Keystone XL pipeline to the Texas coast where bitumen can be shipped to countries that do not care about pollution. What is a guy to do when a good neighbour pleads? And if he rejects the TransCanada Pipelines bid, there is always the Enbridge back-up route through Illinois as an alternative. As Mr. Obama can tell you: it is tough to care about the environment!

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If you were wondering why Wynne won’t?

February 11, 2013 by Peter Lowry

There is a feeling of deep sadness to the announcement of the Wynne Cabinet in Ontario. On Global Television’s Focus Ontario yesterday, former Ontario Tory leader John Tory forecast that there would not be an election in Ontario this year. As you know, John has been wrong before.

Looking at this cabinet tells the story. Wynne has chosen the losing options. She has gone with the city mouse’s solutions. In a scenario of limited choice, she has chosen badly.

Cabinet making is a tough job at the best of times and this is hardly a good time. A new premier’s options for cabinet are there in the party caucus. It is one of the reason’s the party with the most seats in the House is asked to form a government. It is the new premier’s opportunity to surprise, thrill, affect change and to set new directions.

And the vultures gather in case it does not happen. If there is no vision, no chutzpah, no future, there will be carrion for the feasting. There is no forgiveness in the opposition. There is no cease fire for the asking. Conservative leader Tiny Tim Hudak can just about taste the vindication of his hero Mike Harris. New Democrat leader Andrea Horwath can see the opportunity for herself as Ontario’s second female premier.

Wynne’s problem in cabinet making is that she is dealing the cards with an insider’s knowledge but the public reaction is based on perceptions. Laurel Broten cannot be in a cabinet that must outlive the use of Bill 115. It spelled her death knell as a liberal politician. For Deb Mathews to stay in the Health Ministry and become deputy premier was an acceptance of the errors of McGuinty’s final year. This does not indicate change to the voters.

For people to label MPP Charles Sousa as second choice for finance minister was an attempt to castrate him before he takes out his banker’s pen. For Wynne to retain the agriculture minister’s position is an insult to Ontario’s farming community. If she is to do a proper job as premier, she has no time for the farmers. People will probably welcome the addition of MPP Nasir Naqvi to the cabinet but they will not be as complimentary about the re-appointment of MPP Harinder Takhar.

Our new premier might not welcome comments from the boonies about her cabinet making but life is not always fair. And, after all, has she ever listened to us before?

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Wynne: Working her way out of the bubble.

February 1, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Last weekend’s event in Toronto’s old Maple Leaf Gardens site was like midwifery in an igloo. The emergence of the new leader was a private event that did not involve the bitterness of the outside world. While an estimated 15,000 unionists protested outside on Carlton Street, just over 2000 people inside the Gardens, decided on the next premier of Ontario.

Wynne won but she has her work cut out for her from day one. Her first week is now behind her and she can only check off so much of her to-do list—some sceptics see it as a bucket list. Most of her meetings were to set agendas for more meetings but she has much to accomplish before the legislature is reconvened.

Her meeting with Lieutenant Governor David Onley was to set the time table for swearing in her cabinet and herself as premier before facing the opposition in the legislature. Both Opposition Leader Tiny Tim Hudak and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath are busy drawing lines in the sand for Premier Wynne.

One surprise was that Wynne immediately set the wheels in motion for her review commission on party nominations. The original proposal was scoffed at by this blog but we are more than willing to hear what the commission has to say. They might find it helpful to read the extensive work by Tom Axworthy of Queen’s University on Liberal Party Renewal before filing their report. Tom’s report was prepared in 2006 and has been gathering dust ever since.

Mind you, the commission, headed by Mary McGowan with five fellow commissioners, has its work cut out for it. The main problem with Kathleen Wynne’s proposals is that she offers to share the decision as to the timing of nominations with the provincial council. The last time a party council stood up to a party leader was in 1967 and it lead to a leadership convention that defeated former Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker.

The problem today is not on that scale. Wynne has watched McGuinty dictate to the Liberal Party in Ontario for the past 10 years. She only thinks that sharing power would be friendlier. What is needed is to return to the idea that the power comes from the party to the leader. This makes the party stronger. It improves and greatly expands policy development. It makes fundraising more open, democratic and honest. And it produces stronger, more riding-oriented candidates who can win more electoral districts. Also, in the long run, it will give us better leaders.

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