Ontario Byelections

[Shady]

The Liberals and NDP thrive on low information voters.

[Topaz]

The Liberals and NDP thrive on low information voters.

ANYONE that is linked to Harris will never been voted for so the PC have to get rid of Hudak and get a fresh face.

[Topaz]

To all voters in Toronto, apparently, in the next provincial election, Hudak says that he's going to take Toronto because of the one strong vote they got!

[Argus]

ANYONE that is linked to Harris will never been voted for so the PC have to get rid of Hudak and get a fresh face.

They don't need to look for someone you would vote for. They need someone I would vote for. And given a choice between Harris and Wynne, I'd vote Harris.

[Sandy MacNab]

ANYONE that is linked to Harris will never been voted for so the PC have to get rid of Hudak and get a fresh face.

I understand Hudak is a dud on his own and thoughts of Harris don't even enter iinto the equation for most voters.

[Topaz]

The reason I mention Harris is because Hudak said he thinks Harris was a good Premier and agrees with what he did and so if Hudak did make into the Premier chair , Ontario would have Harris style of governing and people do remember he was part of the Harris government.

[Newfoundlander]

If Holyday wasn't 70 I'd want him to run for leader. Many are saying Hudak is done but who is a decent alternative? Frank Klees?

Vic Fedeli? Christine Elliott?

[Argus]

The reason I mention Harris is because Hudak said he thinks Harris was a good Premier and agrees with what he did and so if Hudak did make into the Premier chair , Ontario would have Harris style of governing and people do remember he was part of the Harris government.

Harris was the best premier we've had in quite some time. Mind you, that's a pretty low bar to pass. He had to make cuts. But he used a meat cleaver when he should have cut more carefully and in a more considered manner. Unfortunately, Hudak seems like a clumsy, thinner skinned, angrier version of Harris.

[cybercoma]

She's a disaster as premier.

Well, if you think so, then she must be doing a pretty good job.

[cybercoma]

.

Edited August 4, 2013 by cybercoma

[cybercoma]

I voted Tory not because I like them but because it's time to get in the hard-nosed bean counters who will slash spending. That's never a popular thing, which is why the left wing parties are not going to do it. They're all about 'helping people'.

They're not mutually exclusive. The NDP governments have balanced more budgets and had more surpluses than any other provincial party.

[Shady]

They're not mutually exclusive. The NDP governments have balanced more budgets and had more surpluses than any other provincial party.

Unfortunately, we don't have the NDP from other provinces. We have the ones from Ontario. The ones that tax and spend and bankrupt.

[Smallc]

The NDP of the past is not necessarily the NDP of now. Manitoba had a good NDP government, but now it's getting tired, and I would think that in fall 2015, it will be the turn of the PCs to form government...and that's not a bad thing.

[bleeding heart]

Yes, the NDP generally do a decent job, not especially remarkable, but on par with the other two big parties..

They're centre-left, not radical leftists with communist economics.....

[Argus]

Yes, the NDP generally do a decent job, not especially remarkable, but on par with the other two big parties..

They're centre-left, not radical leftists with communist economics.....

But still not a party a straight, white, middle class male ought to expect much from, other than help in lightening his wallet.

[Rue]

The Tory party is not doing well with Hudak. He is a dud. You can't

get around that fact. He is a political dud. To not be able to sweep

4 seats with a parasite like Wynne in power is inexcusable.

I really do not see the Liberals getting thrown out. I think they will squeak in

a minority and be propped by the NDP and Wynne is NDP in everything but name

so it means little.

The conservative wing Hudak comes from is out of touch with cosmopolitan Toronto.

He can not take GTA and Ottawa or Windsor and that spells disaster.

He will take traditional conservative Tory rural areas but not minority and city

ridings and no one wants to come out and say that.

The Tories need a progressive Tory not a right wing Tory to take Ontario.

They need a young fresh face from the business world.

Not sure one exists and therein lays the problem. Provincial politics is a waste land.

No one in their right mind left or right wants to inherit a bankrupt government.

I would run but I refuse to be Liberal or Tory provincially to me they are both equally screwed up with one just an extension of the NDP and the other a bunch of angry social credit types left over from the Harris Ronald Reagan Thatcher are Gods era.

Harris economic policies never worked as they never provided any trickle down. No Reagan trickle down policy ever did. It was a joke. The Liberals are simply NDP going the other extreme. One side

allowed chaos to reign from greedy multi nationals, the other tries to turn this friggin province

into a bankrupt state run economic catastrophe.

A moderate Tory conservative Liberal along the lines of a Bill Davis, David Crombie does not exist.

The closest we had to that moniker is a radio show host and people will not vote for that guy because his name is Tory and he is perceived as a privileged rich boy although he is as moderate smack dab in the centre as we ever had.

So I am sitting it out. I just can't support Hudak, Wynne makes me puke and the little toad of an NDP leader gives me hemmeroids thinking about her idiotic comments.

We need to bring in the Taliban. They can come live with Omar when they release him and run our province.

Far too many people showing their faces.

Edited August 5, 2013 by Rue

[segnosaur]

The Tory party is not doing well with Hudak. He is a dud. You can't

get around that fact. He is a political dud. To not be able to sweep

4 seats with a parasite like Wynne in power is inexcusable.

I agree... Hudak and the PCs had a lot going for them prior to the election, and failed to capitalize. Probably be best for everyone if he left.

The conservative wing Hudak comes from is out of touch with cosmopolitan Toronto.

He can not take GTA and Ottawa or Windsor and that spells disaster.

Here's where I disagree...

While you might be right in that the Hudak would never win central Toronto, I don't think any conservative would. On the other hand, I don't think Ottawa would be such a write-off (remember, there are a lot of successful businesses, and the Ottawa economy is less dependent on provincial jobs).

And as Mike Harris showed, it is possible to win a majority based largely on the '905' area and rural regions of the province.

The Tories need a progressive Tory not a right wing Tory to take Ontario.

Ummm... why?

The province already has 'progressives' in the form of the Liberals and NDP. It makes a bit more sense to try to differentiate themselves than to provide the same thing that everyone else is offering.

Harris economic policies never worked...

Actually they did.

During Harris' time in power:

- Real GDP increased from around $30,000 per capita (measured in 1997 dollars) to around $35,000 (adjusted for inflation)

- It should also be noted that he was able to bring in balanced budgets, and increased health care expenditures, at the same time that the federal liberals were decreasing transfers to the provincial governments.

[Boges]

Interestingly for all those Election reform people out there, the PCs are saying these byelections were a success because they received the most votes "total" last Thursday even though they only won one seat.

The PCs only finished 2 points behind the Liberals in the 2011 election but the Liberals only came one seat short of a majority.

I'm not a big election reform advocate but you could look at the Ontario PCs as an example as to why we need election reform.

Wait they're conservative, no one cares.

[Boges]

Two more the day before Valentines.

http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2014/01/15/wynne_calls_byelections_in_thornhill_niagara_falls.html

Considering most see a General Election coming this Spring, I classify these elections as a massive waste of money.

Oh and there's this.

Wynne will meet later in the day with reporters at the Queens Quay LCBO store where she is touting Ontario’s wine industry, which is largely based in Niagara.

On Monday, the Liberals pledged $26.2 million for the Niagara Health System to help build a new hospital and two urgent-care centres.

God I hope the Niagara Falls voters see through this ridiculous attempt to buy their votes, this government keeps doing this.

Also this government has crippled the Fort Erie Racetrack (in the riding) I would hope they punish this party for what they've done there.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Boges

[Boges]

And they lose both. PC's retain Thornhill and the NDP steal Niagara Falls away from the Liberals.

Edited February 14, 2014 by Boges

[jbg]

Shocker on Thornhill. </sarcasm>

[Boges]

Well considering the reason the seat was vacated because the former MPP had a very public spat with Hudak it wasn't a lock they'd win.

I've heard that Harper's visit to Israel helped as 40% of the riding is Jewish.

Edited February 15, 2014 by Boges

[ironstone]

Many people apparently believe that the Ontario Conservatives can't win because they are right-wing and not "progressive".So,can anyone provide any evidence that Ontario is better off in any way after 10 years under an extremely "progressive" government?The McGuinty/Wynne Liberals have effectively doubled the provincial debt,electricity prices are rapidly climbing,businesses are leaving,they bungled E-Health,they ripped off taxpayers with the gas plant fiasco and the list goes on...

These are some of the actions and policies of a "progressive"government.Can someone please explain how Ontario is better off now?

I forgot to mention we are now officially a have-not province and are dependant on handouts which mainly come from non-progressive provinces.

[Boges]

It's really hard to defend the Liberals record.

The only thing they've really accomplished is reversing the "war" the Harris PC's had waged on the civil service. And then they've gone completely the other direction. The Ontario public service pretty much gets anything they want from this government.

People don't like Hudak but can't really point to anything he's done that's really all that extreme.

There is this Right to Work thing which is a method of reducing wages. But Union wages especially in the public service are a problem. There seems to be a class difference. There are people in the public service and people that aren't.

If you can get a government job you can do things like sexual acts at work and get your job back.

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2014/01/20140131-195607.html

PETERBOROUGH, Ontario - A nursing home employee who was fired after video footage of abusive treatment at the facility surfaced should be allowed to return to work, a provincial arbitrator has ruled.

The man was one of four staffers fired after Camille Parent hid a camera in his 85-year-old mother's room at St. Joseph's at Fleming last April.

Footage captured the man canoodling with a female co-worker while Parent's mother lay in bed beside them.