Category: Canadian politics

Conservatives Still Out in Front

In the latest Nanos daily tracking poll the Tories  lead by nearly 10 points over their nearest rivals the Liberals. More importantly the Conservatives are commandingly out in front in the key battleground of Ontario’s Rust Belt. If this trend keeps up through the campaign we might even see university towns like Guelph turn Tory blue.

From Nanos

Canada (n=939 committed voters)
Conservative 38.4% (-0.2)
Liberal 28.7% (+1.1 )
NDP 19.6% (-0.3)
Bloc Quebecois 9.1% (-1.0 )
Green 4.1% (+0.3)
Undecided 21.7% (-0.3)

Taxpayers Still On the Hook for Eco-fees

From CTV

Ontario taxpayers are on the hook for millions of dollars for shutting down the eco fee program introduced last July and then quickly cancelled, Environment Minister John Wilkinson confirmed Monday.

The province expected it would cost $8 million a year to keep six key items targeted by the eco fees — fire extinguishers, syringes, medications, rechargeable batteries, products with mercury and compact fluorescent light bulbs — out of landfills.

However, Stewardship Ontario, the agency that runs the blue box program and was responsible for the eco fees, is also looking to recover stranded costs from eco fees that it estimates at $10 million.

This is just another bad liberal tax that has become a poisoned chalice for the government.

Family Tax Cut



Prime Minister Harper announced as his first official campaign pledge a tax cut for families that further reduces the burden on Canadians However  this tax cut won’t come in to effect  until the Tories balance the books. Again the prime minister is showing that he is the prudent and responsible choice that we can trust.


Here’s an article on how all the parties are trying to appeal to families in this election

$6 billion for what ?

middling results and slow progress for students in Ontario during the era of the Education Premier.


Following the defeat of the Bob Rae government, Conservative premier Mike Harris introduced standardized testing and from 1995 to 1999, results showed significant testing improvement.


However, following the defeat of the Conservatives under Ernie Eves, test scores have remained relatively stagnant — despite complaints that the tests themselves have been watered down.


“They came up with, I think, a pretty good curriculum, especially in math,” Doretta Wilson, with the Society for Quality Education, said of the Harris Tories.


“Over time, that curriculum has been revised and I think diluted a little bit.”


In some respects the late 90s don’t seem so bad right now.

Audio Entirely Bogus

Today Michael ignatieff in his first official press conference of the campaign spoke glowingly about his political idol former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. However they might have disagreed on one element of Pearson’s legacy at least in a previous life.
Before ignatieff entered politics he had some pretty harsh words to say about one of Pearson’s most proud achievements peacekeeping.

From Maclean’s

Following a 2005 lecture at the University of Dublin’s Trinity College, Ignatieff excoriated Canadians for trading on Canada’s “entirely bogus reputation as peacekeepers” for 40 years and for favouring “hospitals and schools and roads” over international citizenship. “If you are a human rights defender and you want something done to stop [a] massacre, you have to go to the Pentagon, because no one else is serious,” Ignatieff said.

In all fairness ignatieff by now is probably changed his position and his tune on the subject but it is a perfect example of how flexible you have to be with your ideas when entering public life.