Mike Harris Chief of Staff to replace Brodie

[HisSelf]

The star descibing the fraser institute as ultra conservative is like a midget calling a guy that's 5'8", tall.

The Star aside, the Fraser Institute is indeed pretty far right in the Canadian political spectrum.

Edited May 28, 2008 by HisSelf

[Kitchener]

Gosh, first you imply he didn't merit his appointments, then you deny you said that, then you say it again, his appointments are not merit based.

Is this feigned stupidity on your part? One almost hopes so.

You ascribed to me the claim that Harris is "disqualified" by his lack of relevant experience. I said no such thing. Don't like getting called on your obvious misrepresentations? Tough shit.

Again, sorry for buzzkilling your triumphal attacks on the weird-assed strawman you've confabulated. But your misrepresentations are your problem, not mine.

[M.Dancer]

Is this feigned stupidity on your part? One almost hopes so.

You ascribed to me the claim that Harris is "disqualified" by his lack of relevant experience. I said no such thing. Don't like getting called on your obvious misrepresentations? Tough shit.

Again, sorry for buzzkilling your triumphal attacks on the weird-assed strawman you've confabulated. But your misrepresentations are your problem, not mine.

So then you believe Harris is qualified for board appointments. Then why are you saying the reason he has the positions are "golden parachutes"? Could you perhaps take a position and hold it for a bit...these flip flops are tiresome.

[Keepitsimple]

It is never surprising to see a Harris apologist try to use Rae as an excuse. Let's see. What was the econbomy like when Rae came into office? Hmm that was the recession of 1990 was it not? Hmmm. And what were interest rates like in those days? Anybody remember? Anybody remember the recovery that happened, oh let's see, when was that? If you are crediting Harris with any part of the recovery, then it is you who are naive. The Ontario economy then, as now, was inextricably linked to that of the US. That is where the recovery came from. As for teacher testing. Just what exactly does that prove? What other professions are subjected to this nonsense? Harris just did what a lot of bad politicians do. He picked somebody to beat up on to win popularity.

If Harris were a fixer, he'd probably still be in office. Harris broke things worse than they were when he got into office.

You're right that Rae had the deck stacked against him for much of his term but the facts are the facts.....Harris had to deal with a huge deficit and taxes that were so high that businesses were fleeing Ontario. Those are facts. You might want to read his entire Wikipedia profile - it's fairly balanced - good things and bad. The Harris haters say that he wrecked Healthcare and Education - I, like others, believe that he saved both. He reorganized the use of government revenues so that more could be invested in Healthcare and Education. As I mentioned previously, many of the structural changes that Harris introduced have been left in place by the Liberals - and they have now had 8 years to effect change.......but there are people who will continue to portray Harris as evil incarnate - no matter what the facts may be. As I said, you don't have to like the man - you just have to remember the desperate shape that the province was in - literally teetering on bankruptcy. Tough times required tough medicine.

Provincial income taxes were cut by 30% to pre-1990 levels. In addition, a new Fair Share Health Levy was established and charged to high-income earners to help pay for mounting health care costs.

Shortly after assuming office, the Harris government announced that several hundred nurses would be laid off to cut costs in the health sector. The government also implemented a series of hospital closures on the recommendations of a Health Services Restructuring Commission. Harris compared the laid off hospital workers to the people who lost their jobs after the hula hoop fad died down in the early 1960s, commenting "Just as Hula-Hoops went out and those workers had to have a factory and a company that would manufacture something else that's in, it's the same in government, and you know, governments have put off these decisions for so many years that restructuring sometimes is painful" (The Globe and Mail, 6 March 1997).

Later in its first term, Harris's government increased health spending to record levels to counter transfer cuts from the federal government, and hired new nurses. It also introduced Telehealth Ontario, a new 24-hour toll-free telephone help line with live connection to registered nurses. Harris also announced funding vehicles such as the Ontario R&D Challenge Fund, the Ontario Innovation Trust and the Premier's Research Excellence Awards

.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Harris

[guyser]

And naive right back. The Ministry that was supposed to be monitoring this and enforcing standards had been reduced tot he point where it barely existed anymore and was unable to live up to its obligations. Yeah, the two idiots running the water treatment plant were incompetent and negligent, but the Provincial watchdog that was supposed to police the system did not do its job.

I'd suggest your spin is a bit off.

The brothers were incompetent and negligent?

Not bold faced liars and cheats? They killed people by their actions, not the Ministry. The watchdogs relied on true results being posted to them. Something that didnt happen.

I forgot to mention. Tony Clements is another Harris man Harper has taken on board.

By 15 votes or some ridiculously small margin. ......and I can assure you he wont win again. And the crap that is being pulled in my community that smells of Clements involvement ensures he will not win again.

[HisSelf]

I'd suggest your spin is a bit off.

The brothers were incompetent and negligent?

Not bold faced liars and cheats? They killed people by their actions, not the Ministry. The watchdogs relied on true results being posted to them. Something that didnt happen.

By 15 votes or some ridiculously small margin. ......and I can assure you he wont win again. And the crap that is being pulled in my community that smells of Clements involvement ensures he will not win again.

The brothers were pretty much whatever you want to call them, but it was the job of the Ministry to police them. The entire system was built on that premise. It is simply not good governance to expect micro-municipalties (that exist thanks to the good graces of Queen's Park) to determine whether guys like this know what they are doing.

As far as Harris rescuing Ontario, this is a guy who simply did not have the senior management expertise to make decisions. The idea that you can get on by hiring good people only works when you have the smarts, the training, and the balls to make the right decision when your people present options. Harris had only one out of three. Not good enough.

Edited May 31, 2008 by HisSelf

[margrace]

I'd suggest your spin is a bit off.

The brothers were incompetent and negligent?

Not bold faced liars and cheats? They killed people by their actions, not the Ministry. The watchdogs relied on true results being posted to them. Something that didnt happen.

By 15 votes or some ridiculously small margin. ......and I can assure you he wont win again. And the crap that is being pulled in my community that smells of Clements involvement ensures he will not win again.

Guyser you really are paying attention to Clement. He answered his emails for a while but now nothing. I hope you are right

[Argus]

The brothers were pretty much whatever you want to call them, but it was the job of the Ministry to police them.

Really? Can you point to a program which existed prior to Harris downsizing the department which would likely have caught their false reports? Ie, a random testing program which ignored the results sent in by municipalities but sent people to gather their own samples... that sort of thing.

[Wild Bill]

The brothers were pretty much whatever you want to call them, but it was the job of the Ministry to police them. The entire system was built on that premise. It is simply not good governance to expect micro-municipalties (that exist thanks to the good graces of Queen's Park) to determine whether guys like this know what they are doing.

Really? So you're saying that the province should duplicate the testing of the municipalities? That the province should assume that municipal governments are no more trustworthy than a dirty restaurant and need to be policed?

Man, what a concept! Hey Toronto! Sure you inspect all your own restaurants but your inspectors might be corrupt so we the province are going to periodically investigate you! As well as any other thing you inspect!

Putting aside the horrendous costs of such micro-managing, how much support do you think any such provincial government would ever again receive from municipalities?

Man, your idea of good governance seems kinda fascist to me! If you were to belong to any party that tried to govern in such a fashion I wouldn't count on being re-elected...