Provincial Politics – Page 2

A Hapless Hepburn.

May 15, 2022May 14, 2022 by Peter Lowry

As a former Torontonian and a life-long Ontario resident, the Toronto Star is a tough habit to break. Like many readers, I have a difficult time reading much of Rosie DiManno. That reporter could see a raindrop and write 2000 words about it. My favourites are the political reporters. I, more often than not, will agree with a Chantal Hébert, Susan Delacourt, Martin Regg Cohn, Althia Raj or Bob Hepburn. And occasionally I might disagree. Today is Bob Hepburn’s turn in the penalty box.

And he needs to pay attention. In writing about politics, you have to run fairly fast to keep up with what is happening. You should not quote old polls this far into an election campaign. The polls at the beginning of this campaign were meaningless. Few voters really knew conservative Doug Ford, fewer knew much about the NDP’s Andrea Horwath and it was the rare person who knew anything about liberal Steven Del Duca.

But that is changing. Even the pollsters are admitting that the liberal party numbers are on the move. This is what a political campaign is about. It is a time when the politicians should listen and let the citizens speak. Even as a campaign manager, I would always spend an occasional afternoon knocking on doors and listening to voters. It is the only way I know to feel the campaign and where it is headed.

What worries me the most about Hepburn’s recent suggestion that Monday’s debate is make-or-break time for Del Duca is that Del Duca might listen to him. I would be especially concerned if Del Duca actually changed his approach in the debate on Monday. He has established an effective persona in this campaign and people are liking it. We know now that he is no braggart like Ford nor as confusing as Horwath. He is just a guy like you or me who wants to do a job for us. There might be some patchwork in the team behind him but, on the whole, they can help him do the job. All we have to do is pick the good ones and send them to Queen’s Park. They will work for us.

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Doug Ford’s Legacy.

May 14, 2022May 13, 2022 by Peter Lowry

The question was posed the other day as to what is Doug Ford’s legacy as premier of Ontario? It led to a lengthy discussion. In the end, the conclusion was that his legacy has been subsumed in the Coronavirus. COVID-19 showed us that Ford is a braggart and poorly suited to lead.

Our hospitals in Ontario are in a state of disrepair—thanks to Doug Ford. We are facing years of catching up in surgeries. We have exhausted and disparaged nursing staffs. We are in dire need of rethinking and rebuilding healthcare in Ontario.

Doug Ford’s failure to recognize that long-term care should not be a for-profit business caused many deaths during the worst of the pandemic. Instead of acting quickly to stem the deaths in facilities that shared part-time workers, Ford vacillated.

Mind you, Ford is often quick to say he will throw money at a problem. If it is a hospital, the money is coming. How many times does he have to tell you the money is coming, before something happens?

His bluffs were called when it came to schools. Not all children can learn remotely. They need the social environment of school to grow and learn. They need the help of a human teacher. And the scientists could not be put off in cleaning up the air in classrooms.

And Ford is no environmentalist. He rescued highway 413 from the discard box in Transport and sold his developer friends on buying up farmland around the proposed highway interchanges. It did not worry him that the highway—from nowhere to nowhere—was through wetlands that helped make the area ideal for farming. Nor did it matter to him that the highway paralleled highways 401 and 407 and was not needed.

That Ford is a cheapskate has certainly been proved. He is nickel-diming the voters with a nickel off the provincial gas tax—if they vote for him. He took the tolls off two of the shortest new highways in Ontario—that connect the tolled 407 highway to the overcrowded 401.

The conclusion will be that Ontario has already tired of Mr. Ford.

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Liberalism Reborn.

May 11, 2022May 10, 2022 by Peter Lowry

It seems that the conservative and new democrat party leaders in Ontario are fighting a liberal party that no longer exists. They think they are fighting the Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGinty era liberals. They are not.

I was never a fan of Kathleen Wynne as premier. McGinty might have been dull but he was progressive and he moved the province forward. Yet Kathleen Wynne was overly cautious and she always tip-toed into reform. I thought that her opening up alcohol sales in grocery stores was the stupidest, slowest reform in the province’s history. I used to groan when she held another news event as she drew out the process.

And whatever Gods replaced Kathleen Wynne with Doug Ford as premier had a sick sense of humour. Doug is not just a loud-mouthed braggard, he is incompetent. His pushing the previously rejected highway 413 looks to me like one of the most corrupt acts by an Ontario government in the past 100 years. Not only do we not need this highway but we desperately need to keep the good farmland and we desperately need to keep the wetlands that the area needs to remain fertile and producing food for us.

And anyone who thinks Ford brought us through the pandemic unscathed was not paying attention. Ford got us on that on-again-off-again routine of mask mandates and closures. He set us up for a foul-up. He angered people and left us with a hard core of belligerents, running around the province, fighting mask mandates and other rules needed to protect people from the spread of COVID.

But the point of this blog is to tell you that there is something different in the air than the Coronavirus. There is an opportunity here in Ontario. I have been checking ridings across Ontario that I know and are likely to change in this election. Reading the biographies of some of the liberal candidates in those ridings is encouraging. I think we are going to see a lot more than just seven liberals at Queen’s Park after June 2. I think you are going to see a better breed of liberal. These people are progressives. They are not going to sit back and wait for things to happen. I think we are going to like them.

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The Motivated Voter.

May 10, 2022May 9, 2022 by Peter Lowry

If there is one voter who drives the pollsters and political parties crazy, it’s the motivated voter. This is the voter that will get to the polling station and vote at the first opportunity. They hardly need a phone call to remind them or a ride to the polls. They know why they are voting and it is usually against. In this particular election in Ontario, it is against that blowhard, Doug Ford.

And, as a pollster, if you don’t know why that particular voter is motivated, you are not doing the job. Someone who has an automated telephone system call you and just ask who you will be voting for is a jerk. Not only do children often answer the family telephone but even adults just press the most convenient button to get rid of the call. It is called interactive voice response (IVR). It is the cheapest form of polling—and probably the least reliable.

Let me ask you this: If you are a nurse working in a hospital in Ontario, who do you think you would be motivated to vote against? If you work in long-term care, who would you be motivated to vote against? If you are a public-school teacher in Ontario, who would you be motivated to vote against? I can think of a few more categories but I am sure you get the idea. And these are all Ontario voters motivated to vote against Doug Ford and the conservatives.

Mr. Ford and his conservatives have discouraged many voters. The problem for the pollsters is that most voters cannot identify opposition leader Andrea Horwath, let alone the will-o’-the-wisp liberal leader Steven Del Duca. And if you want to be sure of your vote against someone, you need to know who to vote for.

Personally, I would never vote for an NDP candidate in my riding. Andrea Horwath has led her party nowhere. I was trying to check on a problem in her Hamilton riding regarding one of the hospitals and was advised by her Queen’s Park office to call her riding office in downtown Hamilton. I tried that number and the person I was helping in Hamilton repeatedly called that number. It was always busy. It was busy to the point that you expect the staff is tired of answering for her. Those lines must be off the hook.

You should find out about the liberal candidate in your riding. We certainly need more liberals at Queen’s Park.

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Doug Ford, meet Mike Harris.

May 9, 2022May 8, 2022 by Peter Lowry

It’s unusual for a premier, who wants to continue as premier, to criticize a former premier of the same political party. Not that Ontario premier Doug Ford gives a damn. Most Ontario voters who lived through conservative Mike Harris’ time as premier, twenty years ago, thought less of him when he left the premier’s office. One thing for sure about the current election, nobody will be inclined to erect statues honouring conservative Doug Ford either.

Mike Harris, for all his faults, left the Ontario premier’s office to later take over as chair of Chartwell Retirement Residences. These included long-term care residences that have been feeding ground for the Coronavirus COVID-19.

But that is not why Doug Ford criticized Mike Harris. The former premier did more that provide a feeding ground for the pandemic. He also sold Highway 407 across the top of Toronto that has become manna for the ownership consortium. Mr. Ford says he would not have done that.

Obviously to sell off 108 kilometres of controlled access highway on a 99-year lease for $3.1 billion—that is now worth about $30 billion—does not help make Mr. Harris seem very smart. Greedy yes. Smart no.

Mr. Ford made these remarks while congratulating himself for cancelling the provincial tolls on the short connecting roads of Highway 412 and 418. These are nickel and dime savings while leaving the tolls on the 43 kilometer provincially owned stretch of 407 from Pickering through to Highways 35/115.

Though it all seems to be in keeping with the nickel-dime election campaign that the Ford conservatives are currently running in Ontario. Not only can Ontario drivers save a nickel here and a dime there on road tolls but he is saying that if they just re-elect him, he will cut back five cents on the gasoline tax. Another nickel saved—as gasoline prices stretch for $2.00 a litre.

The only problem with all Mr. Ford’s promises is that he is saying that it can all be done with a little deficit financing. Mr. Ford has even got the right-wing Fraser Institute disappointed in him. If he continues as premier, the Fraser Institute believes he is likely to add another $100 billion to the province’s debt in the next five years.

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Del Duca Emerges.

May 7, 2022May 6, 2022 by Peter Lowry

Met liberal leader Steven Del Duca the other day. He was not what I expected. He turns out to be a modest man in a rough and tumble business. I now understand the commercials that the liberals are running with him speaking quietly about family. I think he will be an unusual premier but exactly the type of person we desperately need to speak for the province of Ontario.

The contrast to Doug Ford is stark. Ford is a blowhard label salesman who forces himself forward. Del Duca stands back a bit.

Del Duca was dressed as any urbanite on his way to his summer cottage. In Jeans and open necked shirt, he comes across as “every man.” Instead of a huge bus, he is be travelling Ontario in a more modest van. And he seems to know that only lawyers (he is one) and undertakers wear a tie north of Highway 7.

We met in Barrie. Our Barrie mayor, and our local liberal candidate, Jeff Lehman, introduced me. I only asked Del Duca one question. I wanted to know what he thought about the short election time of which the Ford conservatives are taking advantage.

Del Duca seemed to think about the question, so Jeff jumped in to agree that there were only 15 days between the Writ of Election being published and the polls opening for the voters. Since I had run the ground game for Lehman’s campaign 12 years ago, when he first became mayor, he easily understood my question.

Of course, Lehman is lucky. He and his team have been out canvassing for the past month and have been getting a good reception from the voters. Del Duca is obviously counting on Lehman as part of the liberal team to be elected to the legislature in this election. He needs Jeff’s experience as chair of the large municipalities in Ontario. And as a Barrie MPP, Lehman’s experience teaching at the London School of Economics and in providing advice to governments across Canada provides him with a solid base for a senior role in the rebuilt liberal caucus in the Ontario government.

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Now for the Nasty Stuff.

May 6, 2022May 6, 2022 by Peter Lowry

The election in Ontario might be the shortest in the history of the province, but it certainly won’t be the most courteous. How could it be? The voters are frustrated with the pandemic and angry. The politicians are confused. And the news media are misleading us. Nobody is being polite or honest. And if the party leaders show up for the debates, they should be searched for weapons.

Even in a blog about politics, there is no point in being overly polite. Who would bother to read something serious and respectful? I would be accused of making fun of my readers.

I got the first piece of campaign literature from the conservatives via Canada Post the other day. It was just a card. It was the conservative idea of an attack advertisement. It was red on one side and blue on the other. The red side included a nice picture of liberal leader Steven Del Duca and former leader Kathleen Wynne. The two leaders were laughing and smiling. Maybe the person who put the ad together thought the picture would remind voters of how Wynne quit before the campaign was over last time. The copy went on to mention some specious complaints about what Ms. Wynne did as premier.

The blue side of the card featured a picture of a blue Doug Ford and his campaign slogan. It reads: “Doug Ford Get It Done.” I am not sure if that is an admonition for him to do something or just what.

What is amusing about the conservative claims is what they say they are doing. With the highest inflation in almost a hundred years, they say they are keeping costs down and rebuilding Ontario’s economy. They say they are working for workers but their proposed budget last week gives tax credits to the rich. They claim they are building infrastructure with a highway 413 that we do not need. And they plan to stay open as the pandemic crushes our hospital staffs.

I figure that the quality of literature in this election will just go down from that sort of beginning. The only news is that obviously the conservatives know that their main opponents are the liberals.

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The ‘Don’t Care’ Politicos.

May 5, 2022May 4, 2022 by Peter Lowry

It’s election time in Ontario. And nobody cares about the environment. Oh sure, what’s his name, the green party guy is expected to complain a lot but even his seat in the legislature isn’t guaranteed. Did you hear that one of Doug Ford’s goodies, promised last week, was a nickel off the provincial gas tax? Wow, the price is reaching $2 a litre and Ford wants us to vote for him for five cents.

The only environmental agreement between the opposition parties is that they will all put an end to Ford’s highway 413. They seem to agree that the highway is a threat to the environment and hardly needed. To lose all that good farm land and wetlands makes little sense—for a highway that is going no where.

And don’t bet on the federal government to save our world. The Trudeau government is still pouring billions into twinning that damn pipeline across the Rockies to carry Alberta tar sands bitumen to the Burrard Inlet for overseas shipment. And all this time, they have been pushing their environmental plans for 2030 and, I guess, keeping that pipeline secret from Mr. Trudeau’s environment minister Steven Guilbault.

Minister Guilbault is supposed to be some sort of climate activist. That seems like a lonely position these days as the federal conservatives keep coming on strong with no climate solutions in that party’s future. There are two greenies in Canada’s parliament. They do not seem to be doing any persuading.

Even Quebec is having an election this year and the ruling Coalition Avenir Québec is mainly ignoring the environment. The opposition in that province is scattered over a number of parties with slim hopes. The last time I checked, it looked like the Parti Québécois had the best environmental plan. And that party is certainly not going anywhere.

With everyone worrying if the conflict in Ukraine is going to lead to a world war, climate change has taken a back seat. Yet, every day we are hearing about climate change and extremes of weather. Mother Nature might not wait until we humans get involved in saving our planet.

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Ford’s 15-Day Election.

May 4, 2022May 3, 2022 by Peter Lowry

It’s election time in Ontario and it is the shortest election in the province’s history. It will be just 15 days after the election is called that the voting starts. Despite the election act that calls for 28 days of dueling promises, Mr. Ford has convinced Ontario’s chief election officer to have 10 days of voting in addition to the final voting and counting day on June 2.

These additional days of voting used to be called advance polls. They were for those going on vacation or for some other reason were to going to be unable to vote on election day. Now they are just additional days on which you can vote.

But what is a convenience for the voters is a problem for political parties. It limits their canvassing days. Much of the effort the party workers put into knocking on doors and getting out literature now has to be redirected much earlier than before to getting out the vote. There are now 11 days out of 28, legally allowed for the election, that have to be devoted to helping voters to get to the polls. (There are also four days between the ten days of voting and the final voting day on June 2.)

The question you might ask is who benefits from fewer days for the election? Obviously, it will be the conservatives under Doug Ford who will benefit. Any wannabe autocrat will tell you that the fewer days that their opponents have to campaign against them, the better. There is also the fact that the conservatives have more financing and workers than the other parties.

And if you had been wondering why premier Ford has been going all over the province, at our expense, making announcements of public money for this project or that project, was because of the abbreviated election that was coming. Ford even dishonoured his own commitment to having the provincial budget by the end of March each year to the week before the election so that he could promise more nickels and dimes to lure unsuspecting voters.

And don’t you love the way Mr. Ford keeps the taxes down. He just creates a lot more debt for us.

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The Needed and the Needy.

May 3, 2022May 2, 2022 by Peter Lowry

A friend sent me an ad for a Brit t-shirt company known for their political opinions that certainly sums up the Ford administration in Ontario. They cost almost as much to ship to Canada as the pence they cost so I will just tell you what one of the T-shirts said about the motto of the Brit conservative party:

“We’ve lied to you before.

“We’re lying to you now.

“We’ll lie to you again.

“We’re nothing if not consistent.”

Now, if that doesn’t ring true for the conservatives at Queens’ Park in Toronto, you have not been paying attention over the past four years.

I mention this because I am going to have lots of time to study this election. The liberal candidate in my riding is the mayor of Barrie. I helped him get elected mayor 12 years ago. He probably thinks I’m too old to help in this campaign. I hear that he and his canvas teams have been out knocking on doors in the riding for the past month and getting a good reception.

With his name recognition and the disappearing act over the past four years of the carpet bagger Ford appointed to run here last time, there is little conjecture on the outcome. This riding will be a liberal win from the conservatives.

And that is the way this election needs to go. It is a riding-by-riding battle. Just assume there are no leaders. Ford is a blowhard and incompetent. Horwath of the NDP is a nebbish as leader of the opposition who did little to curb Ford over the past four years. And I have absolutely no idea how good a leader Del Duca might be for the liberals. Wherever he has been since chosen leader, we have heard little that sounds liberal and little leadership.

What you need to do is ignore the leaders of the parties and vote for the best candidate in your electoral district. It means you need to listen if a canvasser comes to your door. You need to read that literature they hand you. You have the responsibility in this election to elect the best candidate. And I don’t care if one of those candidates is your bother-in-law. It is a secret ballot.

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