The current election campaign in Ontario should go down as the worst campaign in the province’s history. I told liberal leader Steven Del Duca that a 15-day campaign was not to his advantage. At first, he did not understand what I was saying, and then, if he did understand, he ignored me.
I had never heard of an election wherein all voters could casually cast their ballots just 15 days after the election is called. And who do you think benefits from such a scenario? If you are a blowhard and an unreliable schmuck like Doug Ford, the less time people have to think the better.
But who is the bigger fool than the guy who has stayed out of the legislature in his first two years of being party leader? Does Del Duca think he is going to be better known in just 15 days? The truth is that people could actually go to the riding returning office and vote on the day after the writ but few take advantage of that. They usually just take away a mail-in ballot and hope it arrives on time.
The wife and I had a very pleasant visit to the polls on Queen Victoria’s holiday. We chatted for a while with the staff. Business was slow. The poll clerks enjoyed having visitors. And, quite honestly, I don’t know what to make of the slowness of the voting. Are people disinterested in the election or are they too fixed in the habit of voting on the official voting day?
But what really concerns me are the biases and the inadequacies of our Ontario news media. And there is no point in complaining to the CRTC about the biased broadcast media. I was told by the CRTC minions that they only pay attention if all political comment during the campaign by that licensed outlet can be shown to be biased.
Lately I have been more concerned about the Toronto Star and all its little grocery-flyer deliverers around the province. I have had the feeling for some time now that the Star has dispensed with experienced news editors. The new owners and their lawyer seem to think a newspaper should be full of long-winded opinion pieces.
By way of example, on Tuesday this week, there was one news item and two opinion pieces on page one, with lengthy carries in the inner pages of the section. One of the opinions pieces was by the Star’s Martin Regg Cohn. Regg Cohn’s opinion piece on Doug Ford read more like hero worship than a fair discussion of Ford, the quality of his leadership and his campaign tactics.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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