Newfoundlander

What?

The by-election in Toronto-Danforth to replace Jack Layton will be called within the next couple of months, I think it could be a very interesting race without Layton. Claire Prashaw, Layton's constituency assistant, has come forward for the NDP while former Liberal candidate Andrew Lang wants the nomination again. I've heard the Conservatives have been calling people in the riding looking for support, but I don't know if they have a candidate in mind. Does anyone live in Toronto-Danforth, or have any information on what's going on within the riding with regards to the by-election?

Well if you allowed people to start voting at 16, the same age when they can start working and pay taxes, then there can be better education in schools on voting. If 16 year olds are educated about voting, and there are booths located in high schools for instance, there is a good chance they will vote. If they vote once they are likely to continue voting for he rest of their lives.

They definitely should be able to vote.

It was a rather odd decision.

Provincial. I'm a big Keith Martin fan!

I'm a member of the PCs.

Where did you see he numbers, I had been looking for them?

To bad he sucks as premier. People think McGuinty has a bad record, what has Charest done?

Where is he to though? I think I'd still prefer Ted Hsu over most of the bunch, though I'd need to learn more about him.

I'm a big fan of Scott Brison and think he could be a good Prime Minister, however I think his best hope is being Finance Minister. He's still young enough however that if the Liberals manage to get back in power over the next decade he could eventually be a strong leadership candidate, after a stint as a high profile minister.

He has pretty much ruled it out though.

No different then the oil sands, just different species.

Are there subsidies for offshore oil? There should be.

I think the younger McGuinty brother could do a good job, and I also like the idea of Ted Hsu. LeBlanc has disappeared in recent months.

Anybody think of other potential leaders?

But he dominated in certain areas.

And he has a solid base of support there, as well as the 905. Which could help very much if he decided to go federal.

I don't know enough about his policies to have an opinion but he managed to win an election after supposedly wasting billions.

McGuinty has obviously had successes too. As well the economic issues that Ontario have faced might not be that hard to overcome, people are now seeing that no matter how well you govern you can still get f***ed over because of other countries. The Conservatives are saying that they may not be able to balance the budget before the next election so it's not easy to criticize McGuinty. I don't know if he's the right person or not, you're right he does have baggage and that is not good. I think they may do better having a lesser known, someone like Ted Hsu for instance who the Conservatives would have a hard time attacking.

If the two platforms were similar it still means that McGuinty is more popular then Hudak. Harper is not that popular so I doubt it would be hard to become more liked then him either. There's nothing saying he cannot run, he said he would not run but he can go back on that. Sheila Copps says he should be able to run, and MPs are saying that if he decides to run he should step down as interim leader first.

Hudak had a double digit lead on him this Summer, people were saying the NDP were poised to surpass the Liberals. The fact is people will vote for McGuinty, you can discredit the opposition all you like but still people will vote for McGuinty. I'm not saying the guy should become leader, and I'm also not saying he has done a good job as premier but he can win.

The Liberals also gain credibility and come off looking good. The last thing Harper wants is for the Liberals to have either bit of a comeback.

He still managed to win, people are willing to vote for him so his record can't be too bad.

I didn't say anything about people being high-profile. Someone doesn't need to be high-profile to be a good leader, and the party might be better off having someone who isn't that well known. There are people within the caucus now; like David McGuinty, Dominic LeBlanc, Scott Brison, Ted Hsu, and Denis Coderre. There are defeated candidates like; Gerard Kennedy, Mark Holland, Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Martha Hall Findlay, among others. There are provincial politicians throughout the country, maybe even someone in municipal politics. Being in second place and at 28% is much better then third place and 18%.