It is a waste of time to worry about public opinion polls months before an election. Watching Premier Kathleen Wynne working her political wiles last week also seemed like a waste of time. It was her reaction to an opposition question about a $1.89 cup of tea that worries us. It was a bad answer. It was bad politics. And she was inadvertently asking for more stupid questions just like it.
Any smart political person would know how to redirect the question. She needed to tell the questioner about the importance of the Pan Am Games that are coming to Toronto in 2015. Why the hell should the Premier of Ontario need to deal with such minutiae if the people looking after the games are doing their job?
Part of the problem was the guy Wynne appointed to handle the Pan Am Games in cabinet was pathetic when he tried to answer the question in committee, prior to the Premier trying to answer it in the House. He actually gave the right answer but that was not why the Conservative MPP asked him. Instead of giving a political answer and holding the floor for a while, Sport Minister Michael Chan answered in about seven or eight words. He might as well have been speaking a foreign language. Is this a politician?
There are just too many disappointments in the Liberal Cabinet. Here we had high hopes for Health Minister Deb Matthews. She keeps getting up in the House with whiny blame-game answers to basic questions. Here is a competent person who just cannot seem to be able to get ahead of the political game. It is as if she thinks she is running some billion dollar corporation and she cannot understand these people asking her simple questions. She needs a course in Politics 101.
And then there is Finance Minister Charles Sousa. We had high expectations of him. We thought he would be far better than Dwight Duncan, that wonder kid from Windsor. We honestly thought that Charles was better tuned to the political realities of the job. His first budget did not even please the New Democrats who wrote it. He might as well have stayed home in Mississauga. He is in the fast lane to the political dump.
Is it any wonder that the polls show that the public would prefer New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath as Premier? Most agree that she seems like a very nice person. They just do not know where Horwath and her party want to go. This explains why more Ontario voters would probably vote Liberal, but just not enough to give the Liberals a majority.
The polls are also quite conclusive that the only Ontario voters who like Conservative Leader Timmy Hudak are hard core Conservatives. You have no doubt heard of people who would vote for their party even if it was led by a big yellow dog. Next time you see Timmy, toss him a dog biscuit!
-30-
Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]