Category: Canadian politics

Ontario PCs Launch New Survey To Connect With Voters

As the Ontario Liberals are content  in slinging mud and depicting the PC party as a bunch of Vandals about to sack the eternal city. Tim Hudak has decided if not to take the high road at least be more constructive. By reaching out to voters in a new survey that will hopefully tap into the pulse  of the electorate in time for the 2011 election in Ontario. As well here’s one of the best defenses of the Harris record I’ve read to date.

Opposition Leader Tim Hudak says “from the environment to taxes to education” the Tories want to let people have their say on how Ontario can do better.
The Tories want to know what kind of tax relief will best help families and what are the best ways to create good, private-sector jobs.
The questions also make it clear tax cuts will be a big part of the Conservative agenda, asking if the HST should be reduced or eliminated.
More private delivery of social services is also on the survey, along with a hard line on labour, proposing cuts to the size of the public service.

Better Late Than Never For McGuinty

The Premier has finally discovered social media can be used as a way to connect with voters. Although this is a new frontier for McGuinty, Tim Hudak has been leading the way on online social advocacy in Ontario.

“When people show up and tell me they’re unhappy with certain things, you can’t help but say you know, I better make sure I give full thought to where we move next on this score. When people are tweeting at me, I get that.”

The rock ‘n roll and twitter wars I can’t take it anymore, here is a comparison of each of the twitter accounts of all the party leaders in Ontario.

It is clear  Tim Hudak is a leader online and in the polls. A general strategy for any politician is not to follow anyone under the sun, but make a concerted effort to reach out to your core supporters and base. This populist approach might pay off during election time.

McGuinty’s Walk in the Snow

A choice that all leaders have to make to face the music or get out of the way.

Source Windsor Star
The list of Canadian premiers and prime ministers hounded out of office by their own side is almost as long as the list of departed party leaders.


So expect McGuinty to take a “long walk in the snow,” to quote a famous line of Pierre Trudeau’s.


Despite all the hagiography written about the late Liberal deity this week, bad polls forced the great Trudeau to reconsider his future and step down in 1984.


It was either that or face the enormous humiliation of being dumped during a Liberal leadership convention.


The party had already decided he had become a serious impediment on their return to power and wanted him out.


Unless the HST suddenly disappears or hydro bills suddenly shrink — two big, black “Fs” that will never disappear from McGuinty’s report card — the premier will almost certainly have to tender his resignation some time in 2011, no doubt to spend more time with his family.
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San Francisco’s Unhappy Meals

 

 

As some of you might recall I covered the issue of San Francisco banning toys from happy meals. Click here

San Francisco is the latest city to fall under the Rasputin like spell of the food police. In a recent motion the San Francisco board of supervisors wants to pass a bylaw that would ban the sale of toys in happy meals. Effectively targeting McDonald’s and many other fast food restaurants. The unintended consequence of targeting McDonald’s though would mean that many small restaurants would be squeezed even more and perhaps go out of business.

As well this gives rise to the culture of Protectionista’s who rather cut off their nose to spite their face than see the big picture of the interconnectedness between the economy and public policy. This move also seems eerily similar to Toronto city Council passing a motion of declaring themselves a nuclear free zone. You know  “nannys ” are on the scene when you have protectorate politicians in charge of our political discourse.

update to this story

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

 

Bigger isn’t Better

The study decline in value of the university degree is a quiet Failure  of the Liberal government at Queens Park. However government mismanagement is not the only cause of a decline in  esteem of the average university education. The rise of private for profit online universities like the University of Phoenix compound an already bad situation and turn it into a downward spiral.

Source Queen’s Journal

Yet this may just be the beginning. The next phase of the Reaching Higher plan has a target of providing 70 per cent of the Ontario population with a university degree.


Much of the population is employed in industry, retail or services; why is it an advantage for many of these people to have degrees? Why is the government continuing to emphasize quantity of education over quality?


In many ways, Ontario has been giving education the “Field of Dreams” approach: if you build an educated population, industry and commerce will come.


The problem is that we have been building bigger, not better.

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