Provincial Politics – Page 44

The road downhill for Ontario casinos.

January 3, 2020 by Peter Lowry

Being a kid when Bugsy Siegel and organized crime put Las Vegas on the world map, I have always been cautious of people who offer the opportunity to risk your gambling money. I always assume that they are not doing it to be benevolent. You have to be careful of your money. As much as I like to gamble, I am always wary.

That was why when I started going to Las Vegas as a young man, I also started reading books on gambling. I learned that there was much more to it than just keeping an eye on the dealer. When I realized that I was going to lose more often than win, I looked for strategies to minimize losses and improve winnings. The wife and I have our rules when gambling and we stick to them.

For the past 25 years, we have been welcomed at Casino Rama near Orillia. We know the dealers, craps crews, supervisors and staff that used to make it such a friendly and fun place. We would often go for dinner and a show, compliments of the casino. That was until Gateway Casinos and Entertainment took over the management of the largest casino in the province. And to add insult to injury, they also took over the nearby Innisfil Slots operations, as it expanded to add table games.

That was also when Woodbine Entertainment put in its temporary casino at the racetrack. The three casinos have gone downhill together. Woodbine hardly cares. Its temporary casino is ugly, unfriendly, cold and uninterested in its customers. In the largest market in Canada, it can always get more. It doesn’t even think it needs to go the expense of offering proper craps tables—and that shows how little these companies know about casinos. It is the craps tables that are the heart of a casino. They are an important draw. The casinos I have known that excluded craps tables did so for racist reasons.

But what is the main draw at any major casino in Las Vegas and around the world is good food. Woodbine is lucky, it has had good food for many years.

But I would advise people going to Rama or Innisfil casinos these days that they eat first. When the Innisfil Casino offers you a free lunch, that is frankly what I think it is worth. Rama’s popular Cedar restaurant has been turned into a low-class hamburger joint with high prices. Better you get something tasty from Tim Horton’s.

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Liberals are not dead in Ontario.

January 2, 2020 by Peter Lowry

It seems we do have a contest for the leadership of the Ontario liberals. While overshadowed by the Trudeau party in Ottawa, this Ontario group is starting to come together. They do not seem to know much about making good videos but I sat through a streaming video of the candidate’s presentations to learn more about some of them.

I might have recently mentioned that I wanted to hear what motivates Kate Graham, a political science teacher at the University of Western Ontario. She seems very smart but she needs a political speech writer. And after hearing her speak, I am still not sure why she is buying her way into this race.

In comparison, Michael Coteau MPP is aggressively going down the road talking the talk. I like his approach and I have followed his campaign closely. Some smart ass at party headquarters must have moved my name and e-mail address to Don Valley East riding that Michael represents in the legislature. As I am a former candidate from that area, he must wonder that we have never met.

They must have released the party lists to all the candidates now and Steven Del Duca was the next to send me his solicitation for support. Steven is an old-style liberal and, despite his losing his riding in the 2018 election, he reeks of back room support and confidence. The assumption is that he has the contest in the bag but we can always root for the good guys.

Mitzie Hunter MPP also spoke. She said nothing new.

But I really enjoyed hearing from Alvin Tedjo. He was obviously new to politics. He did not know that it is not liberal policy to do away with religious schools–as much as the public would support such a move. Dumping the costs of supporting separate school boards is just not on the liberal agenda, yet.

Maybe the sixth candidate for leader needs another look. All I can say about Brenda Hollingsworth at this stage is that if I ever have to appear in court in Ottawa, I would want this lady working for me. Queen’s Park just might have enough lawyers.

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Stiffing Steel City.

December 19, 2019 by Peter Lowry

Why does everyone take a swipe at Hamilton? It was over 100 years ago that STELCO was created and ever since, the city, the province and our country have benefitted by it. Its steel has helped create and defend our nation. Hamilton is a city built by steel.

It was no surprise that premier Ford did not have the nerve to tell the city that the Light Rapid Transit project, on which the city had already spent hundreds of millions, was losing a billion dollars that was promised in provincial funding.

To add insult to denying the funding, the provincial patsy, transport minister, Caroline Mulroney, fed the news media some Mulroney baloney about the full price being more than $5 billion. This amount was later calculated to include inflation, rough estimates and 30 years of operating costs and maintenance.

This fiasco reminds us of the famous one-stop Scarborough subway that Doug Ford was going to build in Toronto. Somebody should have warned the burghers of Hamilton that Doug Ford is famous for his promises and more famous for reneging on his promises.

Any Ontario resident who knows Hamilton knows that the city is in desperate need of good public transportation. The transit job cannot be done with just buses on already congested roads. You simply cannot reduce car and truck traffic in the city without an effective transportation alternative. Buses only add to the problems.

Caroline Mulroney was sent to Hamilton by Doug Ford to sweet talk the news media into believing that Ford had the city’s best interest at heart. Frankly, it is unlikely that Caroline Mulroney, who was educated and worked previously in the United States, would know where Hamilton was located or anything about the city.

If there was one thing her lackies missed in her briefing, Hamilton is home to a very fine university. It was steel that built that university and you should never think of Hamiltonians as stupid. They are not.

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Bad government begets bad opposition.

December 18, 2019 by Peter Lowry

They seem to go hand in hand. The more you loath the government of the day, the more you can loath their opposition. You have to admit that the Ontario government of premier Doug Ford is a disaster. So why does his opposition in the legislature have to be so worthless?

It might just be the fault of the voters. They were so pissed with the hypocrisy and perceived errors of the liberals at Queen’s Park that they voted conservative out of spite. I think when the premier of the day, Kathleen Wynne, so amateurishly gave up before the end of the campaign, the voters trooped to the polls to make sure.

Wynne led her disgusted liberals to being less than a rump, not even allowed the designation as a political party.

But this should have been a big day for Andrea Horwath’s new democrats. They had moved up to the role of official opposition. They would get to lead off in question period. They were there to challenge the government. They were there to prevent the excesses of conservatism. They were there to protect the citizens.

And Andrea Horwath and her NDP have blown it.

The problem was that Doug Ford did not like being booed when he went out in public. He could solve this by not taking the blame for every action of his government. He solved the problem we hear by having his cabinet front for him in the legislature. “Your ministry, your problem,” he told his cabinet ministers.

It was also an opportunity for the lesser members of his cabinet to show their stuff. Stephen Lecce, from Vaughan who cut his political teeth doing communications in prime minister Stephen Harper’s office, brought his smooth approach into the troubled education ministry. And Caroline Mulroney once more, showed her incompetence trying to comprehend the transport ministry.

But the NDP have left the teachers’ unions to deal with the government. They will probably do a better job of it.

And we will discuss the Mulroney baloney tomorrow.

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When you’re not feeling the love.

December 15, 2019 by Peter Lowry

An Ontario liberal was complaining to me the other day that he now has two liberal parties hounding him for money. He has usually been quite generous in his donations to both federal and provincial parties and their candidates but he says it has become oppressive. “I just do not feel I’m getting anything for my money,” he told me. “I used to believe I could talk to the party people about policies and political priorities. I felt that on the local level we would have policy discussions and be part of choosing our candidates.”

He told me, sadly, that amongst all the pleas for money, he is just not feeling the love.

He is upset that the candidates for the provincial leadership are ignoring Barrie. As our town is central to Ontario, we actually influence five or six ridings as well as the two that cover parts of Barrie. Yet, the leadership candidates are not coming anywhere near this neck of the woods.

That is not as bad for the three previous cabinet colleagues in the race, but it seems terribly unfair to the other three contenders. Here they are helping dispatch much of the party’s debts from the last election while the fat cats from Bay Street have already made their choice. It is the safe choice as the winner they have chosen promises no surprises.

It was supposed to be an exciting race. The candidates are three women and three men—a nice balance. There are also three with some experience and three fresh faces—all fine people and fully vetted by the party hierarchy!

I must admit that I have not found out much about Brenda Hollingworth, who jumped into the race on what was the last day for such a perilous jump. And an expensive jump, too. Hopefully we will learn something of this candidate in due course.

I am also waiting to find out more about Kate Graham from London. I understand she is an academic with a post-graduate degree in political science. I am also curious about Alvin Tedjo and his policy ideas.

The first hurdles in the race are on February 8 and 9 at the elections of delegates. This is when the regional party bosses do their stuff. They make sure that only sheep to be shorn show up for the March publicity event. Those who want to be delegates to the delegated convention are required to state their preference and the fix will be in.

That is when you will find out the first vote strength of former MPP and cabinet member Steven Del Duca from Woodbridge. What we are hearing is that the race is all over but the shouting.

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The existential Doug Ford?

December 6, 2019 by Peter Lowry

For today’s philosophy class, we are going to debate whether or not we have seen the real Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, this past week? When we saw him in action at the premiers’ meeting at the Toronto Airport on Monday, are we to assume that all the premiers were acting out for the national audience that would be seeing them on the late day news? And where was the Doug Ford who rarely came out of hiding during the recent national election campaign?

As much as you wished he was in rehab, he must have been in training at a political obedience school. Obviously, somebody got to him. It was like the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Instead of the boorish, brash and boisterous Doug Ford, we have all grown to hate, we saw a civilized version of deceased brother Rob Ford. Rob always was the Ford brother who understood politics. The older brother was just a load of bull in a china shop.

But what have we here? Ford shows up in the Toronto hotel, where the premiers were meeting, with a cheesy load of Toronto Maple Leaf jerseys. It was the old political chestnut of giving the local team’s jersey to the visiting politician. Whoever on Ford’s staff dreamed that one up has been in politics far too long.

And you would think that with all the trouble Dougie has gotten himself into as a climate-change denier, there would have been some gas pump stickers for his fellow premiers. They also need to assure their voters that fighting carbon should not cost money for the major polluters across Canada.

But was any of it real? (That is what we mean by existential.) Seeing as how the communique from this type of meeting is agreed upon well in advance, there was nothing contentious in it. There was no mention of pipe lines that Quebec does not like or dress codes denoting religion that Quebec does not like—and someone else might like. They want you to think the premiers are a harmonious group—not a troublemaker in the bunch!

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Kenney’s apocalypse or fiscal restraint?

December 4, 2019 by Peter Lowry

It must depend on where you are in the food chain. Premier Jason Kenney of Alberta looks like he has never missed a dinner. To him, a little fiscal restraint is no big deal.

When hundreds of protesters showed up at the united conservative party’s ‘love-in’ with Andrew Scheer last weekend, you could see that there was a difference in opinion. The impression was that these people could brave the cold of an Alberta winter and they intended to fry a fish named Kenney. They gathered in front of the Westin Calgary Airport Inn and kept warm waving their signs and calling for Kenney and his friends to come out and play.

Regrettably, Kenney and his friends in suits stayed inside where it was warm. He bemoaned the fact that the protestors were ranting and roaring about the loss of 6000 jobs so that Kenney and company of the UCP could balance the province’s books.

Kenney referred to the cuts in the provincial budget as a modest period of fiscal restraint. He objected to the protestors “making it out as the arrival of the apocalypse.”

I guess it all depends on for whom it is apocalyptic.

And if you ever thought that Jason Kenney and company might be a little out of touch with reality, you had to see what was going on inside the hotel. It was a love-in between the federal conservative leader and the Alberta version of a provincial united conservative party. The keynote speaker at this annual meeting was Federal leader Andrew Scheer. These people jumped up to give Scheer a standing ovation. After Mr. Scheer had received a less than enthusiastic reception in Montreal and Ottawa conservative meetings last week, this meeting showed the lack of clear consensus among conservatives.

We live in interesting times.

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Running in place.

December 2, 2019 by Peter Lowry

The serious jogger does it when blocked by traffic or a stoplight. It is called running in place because your legs keep moving but you are not moving forward. By keeping up the motion, the jogger is not cooling down or loosing that high of a good run.

This is mentioned, because until today, the candidates for the liberal party leadership seem to have been running in place. Fund raising and team building might have absorbed most of their time but the average liberal was not seeing much action.

This lack of build up about the coming delegated convention might be the problem but I got comments from some Ontario readers that they had no idea what I was writing about the other day.

Let me explain: The Ontario Liberal Party is planning to hold a delegated convention at the Mississauga International Centre on March 7, 2020. At time of writing, there are at least five, if not six, approved contenders for the job of leader. Contender number six has yet to be approved by the party. Why the party might reject her is between her and the liberals who run the party—which is just number one of the reasons that I believe this contest is badly run.

What I was commenting on the other day was the ease with which people can manipulate this form of delegated convention. It starts in the electoral districts. There are quite a few ridings across Ontario that have less than seven members. Those are easy pickings if you need a bunch more delegates. Some ridings are also easy for a small group to take over. The only bad news is that the membership in the party closes today, if you wish to vote for delegates to the March 7 event.

What is considered particularly corrupt is the demand by the party hierarchy that all candidates to be a delegate indicate who they are supporting. In effect, the person is no longer a representative from that part of the province but a representative for that leadership candidate. It defeats the purpose of a delegated convention.

Before the delegate elections in February, I hope to provide some handicapping on the leadership race and some observations on the candidates’ credentials.

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Ontario liberals are down but not out.

November 30, 2019 by Peter Lowry

There are entirely too many media people who think that the Ontario liberals have been shut down. What they do not seem to understand is that a political party is like a very large animal when it has lost a fight. It does not surrender. It might go into a cave somewhere and lick its wounds and think. And some day soon, it is going come out of that cave, ready to fight again.

But before it gets into that fight again, it needs to decide what it wants to be. A political party is not a fixed target. It is made up of an ever-changing mass of people, many with ideas. Some of those ideas are good and some are probably stupid. It is why the party needs to assess its objectives and how it might achieve some of the good ones.

One thing you can be absolutely sure of is that the liberal party cannot win as a top-down organization. It needs a leader who can lead the party where the party wants to go. We certainly do not need another leader who thinks he or she is omnipotent. We need a party that can discuss what liberalism can be in the 21^st Century. It needs a leader who can reflect the ambitions of the membership.

And if none of the six current candidates for the leadership can understand the kind of leadership needed, we better shut down this upcoming convention to choose a new leader. Why would anyone want to repeat the errors of the past that chose Kathleen Wynne?

I am not saying the lady did not try hard. She just did not know what she was doing. She never was a liberal. A liberal is a progressive in a hurry. A liberal is a social democrat with compassion.

What do we do here in Ontario? The job of the provincial government is to look after our people. We look after their education and health. We build a safe, caring environment for them with good food from our well-run farms. We build the infrastructure they need to move easily around our cities and province. We do our best to bring them jobs and opportunity. We are a tourism destination for millions from around the world. Always remember: Ontario is liberal.

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Objectives other than winning.

November 29, 2019 by Peter Lowry

Some people scratch their head and ask why someone will enter a political leadership race when there is little chance of winning? The truth is that there are different reasons and we have seen many of them over the years. Just the positioning of the person within the particular party can be sufficient reason. If you cannot be king or queen, be the king or queen maker.

And never forget that the person who makes you king or queen, becomes a key person in your inner circle.

But first of all, these contests to become the leader of a political party are expensive. If you can prove that you can raise sufficient funds for the task, you have won the party’s confidence of being able to raise the funds for elections.

There are also policy positions to consider. Remember Tanya Granic Allen in the last Ontario conservative leadership contest. She was supported by the anti-abortion, social conservatives. She came last on the first ballot and was dropped from the race. If she had done better, Ford would have been forced to put her voice in the cabinet.

Even in opposition, the leader of a political party has power. The leader makes shadow cabinet, house and committee appointments.

If the party wins, it is those contenders who brought their supporters over to the ultimate winner first, who get first consideration in the formation of the winner’s cabinet.

And you should never assume anything in politics. Looking at the current contest for the liberal leadership, you will never know who is going to win until you can examine the results of the delegate elections in the electoral districts. Here you will find the first whiff of the corruption of delegated conventions. Making the prospective delegates tell who they are supporting means that the delegates are chosen not to represent their electoral districts but the candidate—who might be paying for their membership, their convention expenses and their vote.

But it is at the convention itself that you find the deals between candidates, the manipulation of riding delegates and the fun of the all-night hospitality suites. We will discuss that at another time.

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