When Babel-on-the-Bay publishes its Morning Line on the federal election in early September, much will hinge on Ontario. With more than a third of the seats in parliament at play in this one province, national parties worry most about their position here. And watching from Barrie, Ontario, we have the catbird seat.
And what we really love about the current feud between Prime Minister Harper and Premier Kathleen Wynne is we can let them go at it. We do not like either one. One of the reasons for their feud is that they are too much alike. He is a bully and she is always ready for a fight. Like Harper, Wynne might not be particularly good at her job but in the last provincial election, she was the best we could find. In a field of nobodies, you have to pick somebody.
Luckily, we do not have that problem this October. Despite the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair’s weaker showing in the leaders’ debate, the voters now know that they do have options. The Conservative savaging of Liberal Justin Trudeau’s youth is not going to work.
But by fighting with the some of the premiers, Steven Harper thinks he can gain some advantage. Mind you only a bully would pick on two women and a fellow Conservative. And picking on Rachel Notley in Alberta is just plain silly. The Alberta voters are still on a honeymoon with their surprise NDP premier. Complaining about her tax plans at this stage will do Harper no good.
While we have known the Conservative Premier Paul Davis of Newfoundland and Labrador is no fan of Prime Minister Harper, you would think that Harper would try to cool the animosity during his too long election campaign. It is just that anyone who threatens Newfoundlanders’ fishing rights is picking a fight they cannot win.
But the stupidest fight of all is with Wynne in Ontario. It’s hardly that the jogging granny is Ontario’s favourite pin-up girl. Nobody is under the illusion that the woman is a Liberal. She won the Liberal leadership under a cloud, picks candidates for the wrong reasons and casually says one thing one day and something else the next.
In a spate of anti-liberal programs such as selling off a chunk of Hydro One and making the Weston family richer selling booze, the one good effort is at helping Ontario residents with their pensions. So this does not sit well with the Prime Minister. He picked the fight by not being willing to go along. It was no skin off his big nose. This is his ideology speaking and she can call him any name she wants.
Harper, of course is kidding himself by thinking he can do as well in Ontario as the last election. His emphasis on tar sands exploitation robbed Ontario of manufacturing capability to the extent that we are unable to do anything other than throw natural resources at a falling market and falling loonie.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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