So it's come to this, has it? A proposed pay freeze for doctors. Cancelling corporate tax cuts. Warnings about belt tightening. In a word: austerity.
But if unions have been worried about the coming cash crush, I haven't heard a word from them. Oh sure, they've thrown out a few warnings through the usual channels, but if I were them, I wouldn't worry. Dalton's going to take good care of his union pals. He needs them. He doesn't need us.
It is about to become clear as crystal for all Ontarians where the power lies in this province. We're going to see union bosses strutting about, protected by the Liberal spin machine and Liberal-friendly media. And remember; these people have no love for Harper and Ford. So wouldn't it be a coincidence if Dalton, the biggest thorn in Harper's side right now, provided covering fire as they mounted their opposition to the relentless forward grind of the right in Canada.
And don't imagine that they are going to be in any way subtle about it. No. Their demands, like those they made on Bob Rae and David Miller, will get longer and louder until Dalton is mortgaged up to his eyeballs. But since Dalton is such a saint who hasn't aged a day since he got into office, he won't let the unions go hungry for too long. Doctors, corporations, even his own staffers will feel the pinch, but not Dalton's union pals.
I actually watched a documentary on Joseph Atkinson, publisher of the Star, recently. Back in the day, Atkinson took on the Toronto Tory elites and punctured their senses of invincibility as the Liberal political machine under Laurier looked on approvingly. But when I look at Toronto today, I see Atkinson's true legacy revealed; the creation of a union-backed Liberal aristocracy tossing crumbs, if they have crumbs to spare, to the people. Like all so-called reformers, all he ended up doing was transferring power from one gang to another.
Yeah, 2012 is going to be a great time for unions in Ontario. Unless we ruin their party.
Those of you out there who have recently discovered this here web space need to take a cue from, um, recent events and start putting the pieces together. These union mouthbreathers are lots of things, but political professionals they are not. Tie these people to the Liberals and expose the money flow. It exists. We know it exists.
But until we prove it, it doesn't exist.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
The System Works
My post of December 23rd, ``Merry Christmas Canadian Cynic``, generated more interest than anything I had written in the past year and a half of blogging. A few things got lost in all the noise. Let's review.
One of the main reasons, if not the main reason, that the PC Party lost the election is because they did not stand up to Liberal pressure tactics. When the Liberals tried to foster dissent between groups of PCs by saying that Bill Davis was being backstabbed when he wasn't, or when the Liberals whipped up fear amongst various mayors that Hudak was going to download costs onto the municipalities, the PCs clammed up instead of fighting back.
When there is evidence that the Liberals are engaging in spin on these or other issues, the PCs do not make this evidence publicly known. This is what happened to Brian Lilley when he went up against the War Room Boss.
By systematically researching the people and issues involved and by providing evidence to substantiate claims made- whatever evidence there is, because, remember, the media must cover both sides of the story- a lot more damage can be done than trying to create anger at the Liberals where there is none. I analyzed Canadian Cynic`s blog and went to a public talk given by him to compile this evidence, as an example of how this research must be done before the fact, and before trying to drive the wedge, so it can hold up better than it would otherwise.
Because Canadian Cynic hasn`t been able to show how anything I have written is defamatory to him (so far), I have to conclude that I did a good enough job researching him and there are enough facts in ``Merry Christmas, Canadian Cynic`` for it to stay up. And that`s all he is to me- a research object. I have no interest in silencing him or his little group. Nothing I do will change their minds. But I can show them that they are not as invincible as they think they are.
If Canadian Cynic can somehow show that parts of what I have written is defamatory enough to him to actually make it all the way to a courtroom and have a judge seriously consider it, then I`ll happily delete those parts. It`s not my intention to defame the man. As it is, I wasn`t *sure* if the comments that were deleted yesterday contained false information. There were competing claims about their validity. The lawyer I spoke to told me to delete the comments because I couldn`t prove they were true or false. When I approved the comment initially, I gave the person who commented the benefit of the doubt.
I am OK with deleting part of my post, no matter how much Cynic and his pals tell themselves they`ve won by making me do that, because they will declare victory anyway. All I care about is that the portions of ``Merry Christmas, Canadian Cynic`` that are true- which is, so far as I know, all of it- remain.
If the PC Party of Ontario identifies the Liberals` weak spots and attacks those weak spots using real and verifiable information, they will win the next election. And then everything Canadian Cynic says about the PC Party of Ontario will matter as much as everything he says about Harper and Ford. That is to say, not at all.
Now, I hope Cynic will continue to pursue this with me. I hope he will draft some BS statement of claim that won`t hold up in court. I hope he will make me one of his objects of hatred. And I hope that the Ontario Liberals do so as well.
In the meantime, I am going to keep on finding out everything I can about the Ontario Liberals, using the same procedure as I did for Cynic. And I am going to continue advocating that the PC Party of Ontario use the same procedure.
Because, as I have shown with this Canadian Cynic example, it works.
UPDATE: Canadian Cynic has managed to figure out my real name after three days of searching (and I *only* had it in a really obvious place, so bravo on him, I suppose) and it looks like he wants to go all the way with this. He also has made no attempt to tell me what is supposedly so defamatory about my post. I can't imagine what it could be, so I'd love to see what a judge has to say about it.
FYI Cynic: You have pissed off a lot of people over the years, some of whom happen to be lawyers. And you know how we righties love to rally around one of our own who's getting law-fared. But, hey, if you WANT to make me into a right wing cause-celebre, then go right ahead.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Merry Christmas, Canadian Cynic
Now, because I try to make a practice of not asking people to do things I wouldn't do myself, I am going to demonstrate what I believe is the correct way to smack down someone on the left following my critique of Brian Lilley yesterday. (And yes, good on Lilley for clearing up the mess, but he shouldn't have had to clear anything up in the first place, which was my point.)
Our subject today is one Robert PJ Day, aka Canadian Cynic. Some of you who've been in this game for a while remember Cynic from his now-defunct blog. More recently, he's begun tweeting at us Blogging Tories, trying valiantly but *always* failing to make a dent in our onslaught. For those who don't know Cynic's M.O., let me refer you to his most infamous post, where he told the grieving mother of a dead Canadian soldier to.....well, I'll let you read it for yourselves. At the time that he wrote that, and for a long time afterwards, Cynic blogged only under his pseudonym. So he wrote what he wrote with the full knowledge that he could do so under cover of anonymity.
I read what Cynic had written, and the other filthy things he wrote about conservatives. I began to wonder. How is it that this guy could get away with what he did? What was it that made him believe that he could go on forever without getting caught? Other than the fact that none of his targets, at that time, knew who he was? The answer, of course, is nothing. So long as he kept some of his real self out of the public eye, he could go on being as mean as he wanted.
So, I thought, why didn't conservatives try to find out who he was? Because they were too busy working themselves up into fits about what he wrote to try and figure out who was writing it. And, I reasoned, that was just the way he wanted it. So, seeing as how nobody else was doing what I wanted to do, I analyzed the Canadian Cynic blog. He had several years worth of drivel on it, and every so often he'd drop some weird hint about who he actually was. A reference to his height and weight here. A reference to Chapel Hill, North Carolina there. Boasts about his academic acheivements over here. Over there, a reveal that he was a Manitoba native. Slowly, slowly, the complete picture emerged.
I even began to notice some interesting patterns. Like how he adorned his blog with a picture of Brian Griffin from Family Guy. Brian is a white dog. And Cynic? Well, what's the Latin root of the word "dog"? Also, Brian likes to drink, and well, so does Cynic. Very very clever, sir! But, as it turned out, not clever enough to hide forever.
(No, Cynic, I wasn't the one who outed you. But me compiling your little hints sure helped narrow it down. And since you offered them willingly, you can't really blame me for being determined enough to find them, can you?)
Oh, but that's not all. Not by a long shot. For I have actually seen and met Robert PJ Day. (Not Canadian Cynic, you understand. Slight difference between the two.) He probably doesn't remember me, but I remember him.
Some time after he was outed, he advertised his presence, and I went with friends. Yes, that's right: I ponied up my own cash to sit and see who this guy really was.
And what did I find?
That "Canadian Cynic" is a persona made up by Robert PJ Day to scare us conservatives into hiding. This persona, such as it is, was created after Robert PJ Day, an ardent anti-creationist, got tired of watching scientists lose debates with creationists because the scientists were nice and conceded points, and the creationists put on a show and bent the rules. And so, when it came time for Robert PJ Day to debate a creationist by the name of Ian Taylor, then-Vice President of the Christian Scientist Association of Ontario, Robert PJ Day decided to do things a little differently. Instead of debating the merits of evolution vs. creationism, Day spent his time during the debate mocking his opponent's beliefs. And it was devastatingly effective. (Hmmm, mocking people's religious beliefs to win. Where have we seen that before?)
So, as Day explained to the audience that summer evening, it was a short leap from mocking Taylor's beliefs to mocking conservatives in general. Everything we believed was to be scrutinized for flaws and mocked, and we were supposed to flounder around hilariously trying to defend ourselves while Day/Cynic and his pals high-fived each other and laughed.
The experience was, to say the least, eye-opening. When I saw what a massive joke on us the whole thing was.....that Cynic was distracting us the way you distract a two-year old while the doctor gives them a needle.....well, the way forward became clear. If Cynic was laughing at us and trying to get a reaction, then we had to do the exact same thing. His teasing could not make us sputter or make us uncomfortable. As soon as we sputtered, we lost.
Hence, the blog you are reading right now. :)
Now, Cynic is free to challenge me on my version of events. That's just fine, because there *was* a video recording made of the proceedings that evening which could have resolved any discrepancy. I have proof that it was made. But because of a certain....how should I put this....intervention, it never saw the light of day.
Do you understand now, Cynic? Do you see what effect your intellectual masturbation is having? You're not driving us underground. You are creating more people like me. You're making the problem, such as you see it, worse. While Harper and Ford take the reins of power and Hudak breathes down McGuinty's neck, you are so obsessed with proving your superiority over us that you sit there all day long tweeting at us, trying to recapture that shining moment when you reduced Ian Taylor to a snivelling wreck.
Cynic. War Room Boss. "Nadine Lumley", whomever that really is. McGuinty. Justin Trudeau. Bob Rae. The people behind QP Comments. I look at each of these left-wing icons as puzzles to be solved. What drives them? How did they get to be the way they are? Why can't they see what we see? I do this because once they can be understood, they can be beaten. Their moves can be predicted. There will be no heroic last minute rescues like there was for McGuinty. There will just be Conservative dominance everywhere.
Harper understands this. When a weak spot opens up, he closes it immediately while always being on the lookout for his opponents' weak spots. He will wait and wait until the opportunity knocks, and then he will grab it. And his opponents, so far, are beaten every time.
And they must be beaten. For if any of them are allowed to be confident that their own weak spots will never be found and exploited, then they will keep on winning. And as long as they keep on winning, the Liberals will keep on hoping. Hoping that someday they will be able to rule this country unopposed again, accountable to no one, pushing past the objections of those who would oppose them on the grounds that their march to power is one and the same as the march of progress.
But even if there was no Harper, the outcome would be the same. Because our rise is the price that is always paid for a minority- them- forcing their agenda on the majority, us. When people get sick of being pulled forward against their will, there is a backlash.
I must confess that after all these years, I am not sure what drives Cynic/Day to be so over the top. I know he hates us conservatives. I get that. But few if any of the people who hate us will go to such lengths. I do know it has something to do with how we supposedly lie all the time. Maybe he thinks he is being truthful when he says what he says about us. Maybe other progressives wish they could be as truthful. :)
Well, Cynic and everyone else, you don't have to worry about me lying anytime soon. All my cards are on the table. They always have been. My motive is clear. It is to show you, and all your fellow travellers on the left, that your attempts to save everyone are in vain. That this is beyond you. This is a democracy, and you can't win the numbers game.
But more importantly, I'm doing this to show everyone on my side that once you and the people like you- McGuinty included- can be exposed for the tough-guy pretenders that you are and that you would have no power if not for the fear you inspire, then there is nothing stopping us from taking everything we want.
Stop being afraid, conservatives. Start making them afraid.
UPDATE: Uh oh. Canadian Cynic is maaaaaaad at me.
Our subject today is one Robert PJ Day, aka Canadian Cynic. Some of you who've been in this game for a while remember Cynic from his now-defunct blog. More recently, he's begun tweeting at us Blogging Tories, trying valiantly but *always* failing to make a dent in our onslaught. For those who don't know Cynic's M.O., let me refer you to his most infamous post, where he told the grieving mother of a dead Canadian soldier to.....well, I'll let you read it for yourselves. At the time that he wrote that, and for a long time afterwards, Cynic blogged only under his pseudonym. So he wrote what he wrote with the full knowledge that he could do so under cover of anonymity.
I read what Cynic had written, and the other filthy things he wrote about conservatives. I began to wonder. How is it that this guy could get away with what he did? What was it that made him believe that he could go on forever without getting caught? Other than the fact that none of his targets, at that time, knew who he was? The answer, of course, is nothing. So long as he kept some of his real self out of the public eye, he could go on being as mean as he wanted.
So, I thought, why didn't conservatives try to find out who he was? Because they were too busy working themselves up into fits about what he wrote to try and figure out who was writing it. And, I reasoned, that was just the way he wanted it. So, seeing as how nobody else was doing what I wanted to do, I analyzed the Canadian Cynic blog. He had several years worth of drivel on it, and every so often he'd drop some weird hint about who he actually was. A reference to his height and weight here. A reference to Chapel Hill, North Carolina there. Boasts about his academic acheivements over here. Over there, a reveal that he was a Manitoba native. Slowly, slowly, the complete picture emerged.
I even began to notice some interesting patterns. Like how he adorned his blog with a picture of Brian Griffin from Family Guy. Brian is a white dog. And Cynic? Well, what's the Latin root of the word "dog"? Also, Brian likes to drink, and well, so does Cynic. Very very clever, sir! But, as it turned out, not clever enough to hide forever.
(No, Cynic, I wasn't the one who outed you. But me compiling your little hints sure helped narrow it down. And since you offered them willingly, you can't really blame me for being determined enough to find them, can you?)
Oh, but that's not all. Not by a long shot. For I have actually seen and met Robert PJ Day. (Not Canadian Cynic, you understand. Slight difference between the two.) He probably doesn't remember me, but I remember him.
Some time after he was outed, he advertised his presence, and I went with friends. Yes, that's right: I ponied up my own cash to sit and see who this guy really was.
And what did I find?
That "Canadian Cynic" is a persona made up by Robert PJ Day to scare us conservatives into hiding. This persona, such as it is, was created after Robert PJ Day, an ardent anti-creationist, got tired of watching scientists lose debates with creationists because the scientists were nice and conceded points, and the creationists put on a show and bent the rules. And so, when it came time for Robert PJ Day to debate a creationist by the name of Ian Taylor, then-Vice President of the Christian Scientist Association of Ontario, Robert PJ Day decided to do things a little differently. Instead of debating the merits of evolution vs. creationism, Day spent his time during the debate mocking his opponent's beliefs. And it was devastatingly effective. (Hmmm, mocking people's religious beliefs to win. Where have we seen that before?)
So, as Day explained to the audience that summer evening, it was a short leap from mocking Taylor's beliefs to mocking conservatives in general. Everything we believed was to be scrutinized for flaws and mocked, and we were supposed to flounder around hilariously trying to defend ourselves while Day/Cynic and his pals high-fived each other and laughed.
The experience was, to say the least, eye-opening. When I saw what a massive joke on us the whole thing was.....that Cynic was distracting us the way you distract a two-year old while the doctor gives them a needle.....well, the way forward became clear. If Cynic was laughing at us and trying to get a reaction, then we had to do the exact same thing. His teasing could not make us sputter or make us uncomfortable. As soon as we sputtered, we lost.
Hence, the blog you are reading right now. :)
Now, Cynic is free to challenge me on my version of events. That's just fine, because there *was* a video recording made of the proceedings that evening which could have resolved any discrepancy. I have proof that it was made. But because of a certain....how should I put this....intervention, it never saw the light of day.
Do you understand now, Cynic? Do you see what effect your intellectual masturbation is having? You're not driving us underground. You are creating more people like me. You're making the problem, such as you see it, worse. While Harper and Ford take the reins of power and Hudak breathes down McGuinty's neck, you are so obsessed with proving your superiority over us that you sit there all day long tweeting at us, trying to recapture that shining moment when you reduced Ian Taylor to a snivelling wreck.
Cynic. War Room Boss. "Nadine Lumley", whomever that really is. McGuinty. Justin Trudeau. Bob Rae. The people behind QP Comments. I look at each of these left-wing icons as puzzles to be solved. What drives them? How did they get to be the way they are? Why can't they see what we see? I do this because once they can be understood, they can be beaten. Their moves can be predicted. There will be no heroic last minute rescues like there was for McGuinty. There will just be Conservative dominance everywhere.
Harper understands this. When a weak spot opens up, he closes it immediately while always being on the lookout for his opponents' weak spots. He will wait and wait until the opportunity knocks, and then he will grab it. And his opponents, so far, are beaten every time.
And they must be beaten. For if any of them are allowed to be confident that their own weak spots will never be found and exploited, then they will keep on winning. And as long as they keep on winning, the Liberals will keep on hoping. Hoping that someday they will be able to rule this country unopposed again, accountable to no one, pushing past the objections of those who would oppose them on the grounds that their march to power is one and the same as the march of progress.
But even if there was no Harper, the outcome would be the same. Because our rise is the price that is always paid for a minority- them- forcing their agenda on the majority, us. When people get sick of being pulled forward against their will, there is a backlash.
I must confess that after all these years, I am not sure what drives Cynic/Day to be so over the top. I know he hates us conservatives. I get that. But few if any of the people who hate us will go to such lengths. I do know it has something to do with how we supposedly lie all the time. Maybe he thinks he is being truthful when he says what he says about us. Maybe other progressives wish they could be as truthful. :)
Well, Cynic and everyone else, you don't have to worry about me lying anytime soon. All my cards are on the table. They always have been. My motive is clear. It is to show you, and all your fellow travellers on the left, that your attempts to save everyone are in vain. That this is beyond you. This is a democracy, and you can't win the numbers game.
But more importantly, I'm doing this to show everyone on my side that once you and the people like you- McGuinty included- can be exposed for the tough-guy pretenders that you are and that you would have no power if not for the fear you inspire, then there is nothing stopping us from taking everything we want.
Stop being afraid, conservatives. Start making them afraid.
UPDATE: Uh oh. Canadian Cynic is maaaaaaad at me.
Don't worry, pal. I'm not going to tell people where to find you, because I don't know and I don't care. I wouldn't want to have to issue a retraction and apology like you did for getting an address wrong. Oops!
All I care about is that you and your pals don't think that you can say whatever you want without fear of an effective reprisal, as above. Once we have that understood, you can tweet till your fingers fall off.
By the way, moron, figuring out who I am is a lot easier than figuring out who you were. But hey, now *you* know what it feels like, huh?
UPDATE #2: I have deleted several comments that appeared here yesterday after consulting with a lawyer friend of mine on the grounds that they may have been defamatory.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Silly Lilley, Tricks Are For Kids
Bra-vo, Mr. Lilley. *Very* well done. You are a credit to Principled Conservatives everywhere. You sure learned from the last time you stepped into the ring with the War Room Boss, didn't you?
Watching this, I can pinpoint the exact moment Lilley drops the ball. Lilley is asked for a quote from one of McGuinty's ministers that proves they're telling two different stories about the sex ed curriculum to different media outlets. Lilley can't provide a quote.
Let me repeat that because it bears repeating. He brought the War Room Boss into a Sun News studio, questioned him about the McGuinty government's policy, acted surprised (surprised!) when the War Room Boss provided a different version of events, and, while all of this was happening, he thought to himself, "I can say McGuinty's ministers said something different to two different media outlets. He'll never call me on it!"
You know what? Lilley's mike is the one that should have been cut. (And if you watch the video, that doesn't even happen, because War Room Boss can speak just fine a short while after Lilley issues the order.) Because Lilley threw rocks at a man with a machine gun, and he got shot down. Of course.
The quote in question is easy to find. It's right here. But I must warn you, that link will take you to Xtra, "Canada's Gay And Lesbian News". Why didn't Lilley have it? Why didn't some Sun News intern take 5 seconds, like I did, and look it up? Why didn't he have a video clip handy and 10 others like it?
Because Lilley, like every other Principled Conservative out there, is so angry-ed up about his Real Conservative Principles that he couldn't be bothered to do his homework. The War Room Boss is a lawyer. Finding the weak spot in people's arguments is what he does. I know that and I'm not even close to being a lawyer. Brian Lilley didn't know that. So he ended up cutting off his guest's mike to reassert control of the situation, and promptly got called a hypocrite on free speech. And that's what people are going to remember.
But why am I singling Lilley out? Didn't we just conclude an election campaign where the Liberals exploited every single crack in our armour until they had turned around a 20 point lead? And when they started trying to exploit those cracks, did we go after their cracks? No way. We just kept saying the same things over and over again and wondering why it wasn't working. Well friends, it wasn't working because the Liberals had popped our balloon and we didn't try to pop theirs.
We don't want to show these people up for the enormous frauds that they are. We just take for granted that our Conservative Principles will carry us through.
Why didn't Lilley say, "There's no way you people can legislate homophobia out of existence"? I wrote a whole blogpost about that! And it's a perfectly conservative and sensible thing to say, and nobody is going to call you a homophobe for saying it! Maybe call on teachers to start doing their goddamned jobs! Maybe call McGuinty out for not being tough enough when it comes to disciplining bullies and the parents of bullies! Anything but "We have a poll and the poll is right" when the guy across from you is saying it isn't!
*Was* the poll factual? Who cares?! Nobody even remembers there WAS a poll anymore! Just like nobody remembers half of what McGuinty and Hudak said during the election anymore! It's not like Lilley could tell you whether the poll was factual or not. He didn't look too hard at it before he brought it to a debate with the War Room Boss, whose *job* it is to find his opponents' mistakes.
You know what's really hilarious about this? Sun News castigated Hudak for not doing a good enough job during the election.
But based on this, do you think *they* could have done a better job????
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Run, Rivers, Run
For those who don't know, Graham (Grahame?) Rivers is the Ontario Liberal Twitter-Police Chief. Whenever you see a bunch of Liberals mass-tweeting Dalton's latest feel-good pablum, chances are this guy is behind it.
Well, my skepticism about The McPremier's ability to navigate the treacherous economic waters ahead irked Mr. Rivers somewhat, because he took the time to tweet at me thusly:
In addition to proving that your humble correspondent's words are read at the highest levels within the OLP, this tweet is noteworthy because it shows the utter lack of accountability within the McGuinty government. It's not up to Dalton anymore to fix the problem. If credit agencies are unhappy with Ontario, well, we'll all just have to wait for the Drummond report so that whenever Dalton releases "this plan", whatever it may be, he can point to Drummond or someone else and say, "He made me do it!"
Hey, didn't the Liberals blab incessantly about the need to release our platform a year early last year and because we didn't, we supposedly had "no plan"? Maybe Graham knows something about that.
Anyway, as I tweeted to Graham in response, there's absolutely no reason to believe Dalton's going to accept any accountability for whatever Drummond comes back with. (The lack of Liberal ideas was confirmed today by Dalton's new press secretary, who apparently speaks for Graham as well. At least Jane Almeida had some creativity, guys!)
The recent behaviour of Dalton's ministers in this respect is instructive. Leadership hopeful Chris "Smoove B" Bentley is righteously indignated about the fact that he can't replace incandescent light bulbs with those stylish twisty bulbs as quickly as he wanted because the feds aren't acting fast enough for him, and Barney the Duncan-saur is shocked by the news that there might be less federal cash for hospitals during a really bad recession. (But when Chretien/Martin cut funding for health care during the last recession, that was OK, because of, um, of stuff!)
If these two goofballs are blaming Harper for things going wrong now, what do you think will happen when the Drummond report lands on Dalton's doorstep? Either Dalton whines that his hands are tied, or he blows Drummond off in an attempt to appear all leaderly-like. And then where will we all be?
As we draw closer and closer to the Drummond report, I get more and more sure that Dalton and his people can't run forever. :)
Well, my skepticism about The McPremier's ability to navigate the treacherous economic waters ahead irked Mr. Rivers somewhat, because he took the time to tweet at me thusly:
Who exactly is this "Drummon" person, Graham(e)? 140 characters. Make them count.
Hey, didn't the Liberals blab incessantly about the need to release our platform a year early last year and because we didn't, we supposedly had "no plan"? Maybe Graham knows something about that.
Anyway, as I tweeted to Graham in response, there's absolutely no reason to believe Dalton's going to accept any accountability for whatever Drummond comes back with. (The lack of Liberal ideas was confirmed today by Dalton's new press secretary, who apparently speaks for Graham as well. At least Jane Almeida had some creativity, guys!)
The recent behaviour of Dalton's ministers in this respect is instructive. Leadership hopeful Chris "Smoove B" Bentley is righteously indignated about the fact that he can't replace incandescent light bulbs with those stylish twisty bulbs as quickly as he wanted because the feds aren't acting fast enough for him, and Barney the Duncan-saur is shocked by the news that there might be less federal cash for hospitals during a really bad recession. (But when Chretien/Martin cut funding for health care during the last recession, that was OK, because of, um, of stuff!)
If these two goofballs are blaming Harper for things going wrong now, what do you think will happen when the Drummond report lands on Dalton's doorstep? Either Dalton whines that his hands are tied, or he blows Drummond off in an attempt to appear all leaderly-like. And then where will we all be?
As we draw closer and closer to the Drummond report, I get more and more sure that Dalton and his people can't run forever. :)
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The Justin Trudeau Defence
It's been said that the princeling is the gift that keeps on giving to Conservatives. His intemperate outburst last week gave us something to laugh at, but the arguments used to defend him are an extra Christmas present in their own right. In short, Trudeau was right to swear at Peter Kent, because what Peter Kent was doing was bad enough to necessitate swearing, and he's Justin Trudeau, so therefore it's OK. (And look at all the Liberals who retweeted Canadian Cynic's tweet! Indicating agreement! Very amusing.)
I've also been seeing an upsurge of people referring to Harper as a fascist on my Facebook news feed. And when people are called out as going too far when they do this, what do they say? Usually some variant of "Fascism is fascism." I decide Harper is a fascist, so he is! And because I decide it, I am right! Because I'm a progressive, and progressives care about people and want to move people forward, so progressives are always right! Derp!
What is the Kyoto Protocol, and why does Harper saying he wants no part of it make the Liberals so purple with fury? The Kyoto Protocol is, and always has been, a document the Liberals signed onto with the full knowledge that it would fail, which is why Michael Ignatieff was forced to concede in a moment of uncharacteristic self-reflection that "We didn't get it done."
I've also been seeing an upsurge of people referring to Harper as a fascist on my Facebook news feed. And when people are called out as going too far when they do this, what do they say? Usually some variant of "Fascism is fascism." I decide Harper is a fascist, so he is! And because I decide it, I am right! Because I'm a progressive, and progressives care about people and want to move people forward, so progressives are always right! Derp!
What is the Kyoto Protocol, and why does Harper saying he wants no part of it make the Liberals so purple with fury? The Kyoto Protocol is, and always has been, a document the Liberals signed onto with the full knowledge that it would fail, which is why Michael Ignatieff was forced to concede in a moment of uncharacteristic self-reflection that "We didn't get it done."
Which, if you recall, led to this fun moment.
So why sign the thing in the first place? Because the Liberals wanted to stop their consciences from nagging at them. Yes we're going to fail, but now we won't feel guilty about not having "tried"!
Guilt is a critical part of the Liberal mindset. Do you think, for example, as Dalton lines his pals' pockets and tries to sneakily implement his agenda over the objections of basically everybody, that he does it without any guilt whatsoever? Do you think a character like George Smitherman, or a massively arrogant human being like Trudeau Sr., or a carpetbagging snob like Bob Rae, or Chretien, or whomever tops your Most Hated Liberal list, did all the things they did without their conscience nagging at them? Absolutely not. So how can they do it? By acting as if they are God's own gifts to humanity.
Dalton is a master at this. Everything he does is spun by his War Room as the actions of a saint who cares about nothing else except helping the province along. That's what gives him his beatific calm. Look at all the great stuff he's done! He implemented full day kindergarten (and then privatized it)! Test scores are going up (marginally)! Labour unrest is down (because he paid the unions off)! And the more we point out how much things *aren't* getting better or how new problems are being created despite their best efforts, the angrier they get! Because our complaints bring them closer to the harsh reality of what Ontario has actually become under Dalton McGuinty.
I've written before about how the Liberals do this to their own supporters. Whenever Liberals are mad about how their favourite new MPP didn't make cabinet, or when they have to carry out some stupid directive from the War Room, or when they're not sure whether they'll be able to hang on to their cushy jobs after the latest revelation of misspent $$$, all Dalton has to do is remind them, "You're helping Move Ontario Forward!" And all is forgiven. Yeccch.
But luckily for us, this cuts both ways. Because if the Liberals *know* they are pissing Ontarians off, but are suppressing it, this gives us a psychological advantage IF we know how to use it. They too can be shamed. They too can be made to feel guilty. Their calm, their moral authority, can be made to disappear. And without that smugness, what do they have? Nothing.
So don't let the Liberals rain on your parade. Don't swallow their "Ontarians are mad at you for what you did! Shame on you!" nonsense. Be as mean as you want to them, and when they complain, use the Justin Trudeau defence to justify it! They'll be screaming shiddle-diddle before you know it!
Guilt is a critical part of the Liberal mindset. Do you think, for example, as Dalton lines his pals' pockets and tries to sneakily implement his agenda over the objections of basically everybody, that he does it without any guilt whatsoever? Do you think a character like George Smitherman, or a massively arrogant human being like Trudeau Sr., or a carpetbagging snob like Bob Rae, or Chretien, or whomever tops your Most Hated Liberal list, did all the things they did without their conscience nagging at them? Absolutely not. So how can they do it? By acting as if they are God's own gifts to humanity.
Dalton is a master at this. Everything he does is spun by his War Room as the actions of a saint who cares about nothing else except helping the province along. That's what gives him his beatific calm. Look at all the great stuff he's done! He implemented full day kindergarten (and then privatized it)! Test scores are going up (marginally)! Labour unrest is down (because he paid the unions off)! And the more we point out how much things *aren't* getting better or how new problems are being created despite their best efforts, the angrier they get! Because our complaints bring them closer to the harsh reality of what Ontario has actually become under Dalton McGuinty.
I've written before about how the Liberals do this to their own supporters. Whenever Liberals are mad about how their favourite new MPP didn't make cabinet, or when they have to carry out some stupid directive from the War Room, or when they're not sure whether they'll be able to hang on to their cushy jobs after the latest revelation of misspent $$$, all Dalton has to do is remind them, "You're helping Move Ontario Forward!" And all is forgiven. Yeccch.
But luckily for us, this cuts both ways. Because if the Liberals *know* they are pissing Ontarians off, but are suppressing it, this gives us a psychological advantage IF we know how to use it. They too can be shamed. They too can be made to feel guilty. Their calm, their moral authority, can be made to disappear. And without that smugness, what do they have? Nothing.
So don't let the Liberals rain on your parade. Don't swallow their "Ontarians are mad at you for what you did! Shame on you!" nonsense. Be as mean as you want to them, and when they complain, use the Justin Trudeau defence to justify it! They'll be screaming shiddle-diddle before you know it!
Monday, December 19, 2011
We Have Met The Enemy, And He Is Us
Liberal slapfest developing in public over Zach Paikin's candidacy for Liberal Policy Chair and what it means to be a Liberal. Go, read. Hurry, before it gets yanked. If it does, I've got pictures! :)
See? Liberals like to argue about picky stuff too! They're human! Stop being afraid of them!
But, um, they seem to be getting consumed by it, and that's not cool. Let's not do that, K?
See? Liberals like to argue about picky stuff too! They're human! Stop being afraid of them!
But, um, they seem to be getting consumed by it, and that's not cool. Let's not do that, K?
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Apocalypse Now
Today we're going to tackle the issue that everyone's thinking about. The big one. The ticking debt clock. And if you're a regular reader of this webspace, you probably know what I'm going to say about it, but let's just get it out there anyway because that's how we do things here at TCAM.
The fact is that a lot of Principled Conservatives did not vote PCPO in October. Because, so they said at the time, the PC's were not serious about tackling the deficit. They were unwilling to make big cuts to health care and education, and because they didn't, any sort of cuts they were willing to make was just so much tinkering around the edges.
The problem with this argument is not *just* that no other conservative politician, or any politician of any stripe, has been willing to talk about seriously cutting healthcare and education. The problem is that any cuts of any sort are, as far as the Canadian public is concerned, completely unacceptable.
You probably heard the story about how Toronto city council was mulling cuts to after-school meals for kids as part of the battle to get the budget under control. The Toronto Star promptly wrote an article featuring pictures of worried-looking kids who may or may not have been hungry as a result of this cut. Doug Ford tried to defend the cuts, offered to pay for the meals out of his own pocket, was roundly condemned for it, eventually backed down, and the Toronto Star gloated. The Star gets results!
Because nobody wants to end up squashed by the Toronto Star like the Ford brothers have been recently, the past two or three election cycles can be boiled down to the Liberals accusing the Conservatives of secretly wanting to cut things, and the Conservatives accusing the Liberals of secretly wanting to tax things. It all becomes a lot like a game of There Ain't No Flies On Us, and as a result voter turnout goes through the floor because people don't want tax raises, and people don't want cuts either. Both of which, by the way, involve taking money away from people. And who wants to give up more money than they should?
The Ontario Liberals feel that they can stay in government forever by invoking memories of Mike Harris. But weren't the Harris cuts needed at the time, and aren't they needed again? The reason why the Harris boogeyman exists is because people have some vague sense that the cuts went "too far." Dalton says he's probably going to have to make cuts himself, but those cuts will be nice progressive moving-Ontario-forward Liberal cuts, so that makes them OK. Unfortunately for Dalton, if his cuts amount to tinkering around the edges (and I believe that they will), then he'll be right back to where he started except he'll have less people willing to vote for him.
So let's stop kidding ourselves. Nobody in this country and possibly nobody walking the planet has the stones to make the types of cuts the Principled Conservatives want. If each and every one of these Principled Conservatives were given the opportunity to make these cuts, and they were confronted with pictures of weepy-eyed kids with trembling lower lips who would be *hurt* (*sniffle sniffle*) as a result of these cuts, every single one of them would go "D'awwwwwwww!!!" and cough up the cash.
As such, the financial apocalypse is a stark inevitability. It's only a question of when, and whether what follows will be better, worse, or identical to the 1930's, and what came after the 1930's.
And it's going to happen because the Canadian public, like the Greeks, like the Italians, like the Spanish, and like the population of every single developed and developing nation who thought the party was going to go on forever, think the problem can be successfully blamed on someone else. Which is why, after the financial apocalypse has hit and its effects have wiped out a generation or two, people will blame free trade, or big corporations, or the Greeks, or whoever, and the cycle will start alllllll over again.
So why vote Conservative?
Because Hudak *wants* to make the cuts but he can't because of all of the above. The conditions have to be right for him to make the cuts. McGuinty doesn't want to make the cuts because he's afraid of the voters being mad at him, but he's being told by Drummond et al. that he has to. If the Liberals will not make the cuts themselves because they're afraid of the reaction of spoiled voters, then we will have the moral authority to force cuts upon these people, because at that point it will be either real cuts or total collapse.
I have begun to respect the way the Ontario Liberals manage to twist themselves out of one crisis after another. But they cannot win. They cannot succeed where every other government on the planet has so far failed. I don't believe it.
Merry Christmas.
The fact is that a lot of Principled Conservatives did not vote PCPO in October. Because, so they said at the time, the PC's were not serious about tackling the deficit. They were unwilling to make big cuts to health care and education, and because they didn't, any sort of cuts they were willing to make was just so much tinkering around the edges.
The problem with this argument is not *just* that no other conservative politician, or any politician of any stripe, has been willing to talk about seriously cutting healthcare and education. The problem is that any cuts of any sort are, as far as the Canadian public is concerned, completely unacceptable.
You probably heard the story about how Toronto city council was mulling cuts to after-school meals for kids as part of the battle to get the budget under control. The Toronto Star promptly wrote an article featuring pictures of worried-looking kids who may or may not have been hungry as a result of this cut. Doug Ford tried to defend the cuts, offered to pay for the meals out of his own pocket, was roundly condemned for it, eventually backed down, and the Toronto Star gloated. The Star gets results!
Because nobody wants to end up squashed by the Toronto Star like the Ford brothers have been recently, the past two or three election cycles can be boiled down to the Liberals accusing the Conservatives of secretly wanting to cut things, and the Conservatives accusing the Liberals of secretly wanting to tax things. It all becomes a lot like a game of There Ain't No Flies On Us, and as a result voter turnout goes through the floor because people don't want tax raises, and people don't want cuts either. Both of which, by the way, involve taking money away from people. And who wants to give up more money than they should?
The Ontario Liberals feel that they can stay in government forever by invoking memories of Mike Harris. But weren't the Harris cuts needed at the time, and aren't they needed again? The reason why the Harris boogeyman exists is because people have some vague sense that the cuts went "too far." Dalton says he's probably going to have to make cuts himself, but those cuts will be nice progressive moving-Ontario-forward Liberal cuts, so that makes them OK. Unfortunately for Dalton, if his cuts amount to tinkering around the edges (and I believe that they will), then he'll be right back to where he started except he'll have less people willing to vote for him.
So let's stop kidding ourselves. Nobody in this country and possibly nobody walking the planet has the stones to make the types of cuts the Principled Conservatives want. If each and every one of these Principled Conservatives were given the opportunity to make these cuts, and they were confronted with pictures of weepy-eyed kids with trembling lower lips who would be *hurt* (*sniffle sniffle*) as a result of these cuts, every single one of them would go "D'awwwwwwww!!!" and cough up the cash.
As such, the financial apocalypse is a stark inevitability. It's only a question of when, and whether what follows will be better, worse, or identical to the 1930's, and what came after the 1930's.
And it's going to happen because the Canadian public, like the Greeks, like the Italians, like the Spanish, and like the population of every single developed and developing nation who thought the party was going to go on forever, think the problem can be successfully blamed on someone else. Which is why, after the financial apocalypse has hit and its effects have wiped out a generation or two, people will blame free trade, or big corporations, or the Greeks, or whoever, and the cycle will start alllllll over again.
So why vote Conservative?
Because Hudak *wants* to make the cuts but he can't because of all of the above. The conditions have to be right for him to make the cuts. McGuinty doesn't want to make the cuts because he's afraid of the voters being mad at him, but he's being told by Drummond et al. that he has to. If the Liberals will not make the cuts themselves because they're afraid of the reaction of spoiled voters, then we will have the moral authority to force cuts upon these people, because at that point it will be either real cuts or total collapse.
I have begun to respect the way the Ontario Liberals manage to twist themselves out of one crisis after another. But they cannot win. They cannot succeed where every other government on the planet has so far failed. I don't believe it.
Merry Christmas.
Friday, December 16, 2011
The Sound Of Silence
Let's see. Yesterday we had another looming credit downgrade, news that the auditor general is going to unpeel some curiously high salaries at ORNGE, a York Region transit strike that continues to fester, and news that perennial Liberal leadership candidate Chris "Smoove B" Bentley chillaxed approach to the Attorney-General's office caused more problems than it solved. CUPE is worried about potential austerity measures by the Liberals, while Tim Hudak is punching away at McGuinty and his union cronies.
And what do we hear from the usual sources? A whole lot of nothing.
If there was a spirited defence mounted by the McGuinty government over this spate of bad news, I have yet to see any evidence of it. I don't know why....maybe it's because it's the weekend before Christmas, maybe it's because Queen's Park isn't in session, or maybe it's because McGuinty's goons are burnt out from a record year of goonery.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what Ontario would look like if not for two things: spin from the Liberals, and complaining from anonymous pretenders to the title of "principled Conservatives." These are the two obstacles to a PC government, and both exist because of fear.
Ontario is a funny place. Once you have a title, you can basically do no wrong. People just sort of accept that you are the man, or woman. Really. There are elected officials at every level in this province who shouldn't be allowed to manage an ice cream truck, let alone a city or a riding. Yet year after year, there they are.
The Liberals have one MPP who, if what I hear is to be believed, is being sued by a close relative of his. There's another fellow who has been re-elected three times in a *very* conservative part of the province, but has yet to come close to a cabinet post because he's just that useless. Then there's a certain lady representing a riding in the GTA whose incompetence is so legendary that her staff have been known to cry with frustration.
What stops voters from pointing out the obvious? Fear. The Liberals have power, and they are not to be trifled with, because the one thing the Liberals are very good at is making their opponents look like dangerous people who will ruin the future. That's why so many of these MPPs disappear between elections, and then reappear with juicy spending announcements at election time. Voters are so used to no reply from their MPPs that when they suddenly roll out these promises, it's like winning the lottery. So they find any number of excuses not to do something about the problem.
Meanwhile, in the PC Party of Ontario, caution about not offending people and not speaking out too loudly has become so commonplace as to be routine. Nobody wants to go too far in attacking McGuinty because the Liberals will supposedly use it against us. That much has been obvious since 2003. What isn't obvious is that PC Party members are terrified of offending their party exec and leader's office.
I watched a room full of people give Changebook standing ovation after standing ovation when it was announced. A few months later, these same people had noticed all sorts of problems with Changebook that hadn't been there a few months before. Nobody spoke out against Changebook publicly, and nobody spoke out about the need to change our strategy when our strategy needed changing, because they were afraid of getting shunned by their friends. But let me tell you: Lots and lots of people spoke up about not giving the Liberals any ammunition. So out went the promise to eliminate the HRCs, out went the promise to eliminate the HST, and out went any hope of doing anything controversial, because of fear of the Liberal attack ad machine.
Dalton McGuinty is the Emperor With No Clothes. His caucus are a group of antiques, incompetents, and elevated municipal ward bosses with nobody driving party renewal. His advisers have been around for the better part of a decade, his War Room Boss hasn't had real teeth since the 1990's, and the chief Liberal egghead is a quiet little guy who you cannot pick out of a lineup. If we, the PC Party of Ontario, got over our hang-ups and neuroses, we could squash these guys like bugs.
I don't write these things because I claim to have some special intelligence, or ability to see what others don't. I'm just not afraid.
I can hear the sound of silence in Ontario, and what it really says about our province.
And what do we hear from the usual sources? A whole lot of nothing.
If there was a spirited defence mounted by the McGuinty government over this spate of bad news, I have yet to see any evidence of it. I don't know why....maybe it's because it's the weekend before Christmas, maybe it's because Queen's Park isn't in session, or maybe it's because McGuinty's goons are burnt out from a record year of goonery.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what Ontario would look like if not for two things: spin from the Liberals, and complaining from anonymous pretenders to the title of "principled Conservatives." These are the two obstacles to a PC government, and both exist because of fear.
Ontario is a funny place. Once you have a title, you can basically do no wrong. People just sort of accept that you are the man, or woman. Really. There are elected officials at every level in this province who shouldn't be allowed to manage an ice cream truck, let alone a city or a riding. Yet year after year, there they are.
The Liberals have one MPP who, if what I hear is to be believed, is being sued by a close relative of his. There's another fellow who has been re-elected three times in a *very* conservative part of the province, but has yet to come close to a cabinet post because he's just that useless. Then there's a certain lady representing a riding in the GTA whose incompetence is so legendary that her staff have been known to cry with frustration.
What stops voters from pointing out the obvious? Fear. The Liberals have power, and they are not to be trifled with, because the one thing the Liberals are very good at is making their opponents look like dangerous people who will ruin the future. That's why so many of these MPPs disappear between elections, and then reappear with juicy spending announcements at election time. Voters are so used to no reply from their MPPs that when they suddenly roll out these promises, it's like winning the lottery. So they find any number of excuses not to do something about the problem.
Meanwhile, in the PC Party of Ontario, caution about not offending people and not speaking out too loudly has become so commonplace as to be routine. Nobody wants to go too far in attacking McGuinty because the Liberals will supposedly use it against us. That much has been obvious since 2003. What isn't obvious is that PC Party members are terrified of offending their party exec and leader's office.
I watched a room full of people give Changebook standing ovation after standing ovation when it was announced. A few months later, these same people had noticed all sorts of problems with Changebook that hadn't been there a few months before. Nobody spoke out against Changebook publicly, and nobody spoke out about the need to change our strategy when our strategy needed changing, because they were afraid of getting shunned by their friends. But let me tell you: Lots and lots of people spoke up about not giving the Liberals any ammunition. So out went the promise to eliminate the HRCs, out went the promise to eliminate the HST, and out went any hope of doing anything controversial, because of fear of the Liberal attack ad machine.
Dalton McGuinty is the Emperor With No Clothes. His caucus are a group of antiques, incompetents, and elevated municipal ward bosses with nobody driving party renewal. His advisers have been around for the better part of a decade, his War Room Boss hasn't had real teeth since the 1990's, and the chief Liberal egghead is a quiet little guy who you cannot pick out of a lineup. If we, the PC Party of Ontario, got over our hang-ups and neuroses, we could squash these guys like bugs.
I don't write these things because I claim to have some special intelligence, or ability to see what others don't. I'm just not afraid.
I can hear the sound of silence in Ontario, and what it really says about our province.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Derp!
I'm going to keep saying this, keep making this point, thousands of times if I have to, until it sinks in.
THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO WILL REMAIN STUCK IN A DITCH UNTIL THE VOTERS AND THE PARTY MEMBERS GET OFF THEIR ASSES AND START MAKING CHANGES INSTEAD OF CONSTANTLY PISSING AND MOANING AND DOING *NOTHING*, WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY EXPECTING TIM HUDAK AND WHOMEVER WE ELECT PRESIDENT (WHICH I HOPE WILL BE KEVIN GAUDET) TO DO *EVERYTHING*.
Let's take a look at some recent examples that illustrate this problem.
Martin Regg Cohn has written that people are angry about parking fees at hospitals. His article has a whole 6 comments on thestar.ca! I have blogposts with more than 6 comments and I'm not even a fancy pants journalist! Derp!
He says parking fees are hidden user fees! They're the most egregious form of price gouging! They're highway robbery! Someone should do something! But wait! Regg Cohn titled his article "Why Hospital CEO's Can't Feel Your Parking Pain."And he says that the Ontario Hospital Association ain't having none of this "reduce the parking fees" silliness! So unless you're a hospital CEO, you can go take a flying leap! Derp!
At this precise moment, political spinmasters of all types are calculating how to use the widespread fury over parking fees at hospitals to their advantage. Tim Hudak needs to intervene immediately and call the government to account on out of control parking fees! It's a middle class tax grab! Wedge issue identified! Commence outrage! We need to *differentiate* ourselves from the McGuinty Liberals on parking fees, say the spinmasters. So in "Changebook II: Cruise Control", released six months before the next election, we'll call for....um...umm...ummmm.....removal of the HST on parking fees! Derp!
No, no, no. We need REAL CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES. Real conservatives are perfectly OK with hospital parking fees! We lost the election because we said we were going to spend money on health care and education. Heresy! We don't need no stinking money for health care! If I get sick I can do surgery on myself! Derp!
Tim Hudak has a piece in the National Post! And what do I see in the comments? Angry Real Conservatives who complain that Hudak lost the election and needs to resign. They came up with clever names like Taxtario, too, and they think the Liberals want to "hunt down children for gay adoption"! But Hudak isn't going to resign, and he shouldn't resign! Because he doesn't feel the need to listen to people (some of whom are likely Liberals) who write comments in a comment section under an article and call it a day! Derp!
You know what he *would* listen to? People showing up to Niagara Falls in February and voting! But that won't happen. Because that's hard. Derp!
In the Star today, it was reported that kids are meeting targets for reading, but don't like reading as much as they did! And then we hear from an Expert. The Expert says that we need targets for how much kids like reading! And then after that we can have targets for how many targets we have! McGuinty's going to introduce his plan for the Trillium Target Foundation in his next platform and commit $387 billion to the establishment of targets in every conceivable walk of life. And instead of refusing outright to implement these targets, people are instead going to complain about why Hudak isn't fixing the problem for them. Derp!
The more I watch the PC voter base tie itself into knots over Liberal distractions while doing nothing to remedy the situation, the more I start to believe that Don Guy really is a genius. How else could you explain the fact that all of these supposedly really conservative people are constantly crying for Hudak to do what they want but make no effort to get it done themselves?
Liberal statism has penetrated so deeply into people's DNA that even the people who want to live with no government money for health care and schools can find no other recourse than to complain about how Hudak won't listen to their golden ideas!
Oh hey, I know what will get people motivated enough to do something! The War Room Boss wrote an article about how conservatives are whiny! We don't want to prove the War Room Boss right, do we? DO WE?
Derp!
THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO WILL REMAIN STUCK IN A DITCH UNTIL THE VOTERS AND THE PARTY MEMBERS GET OFF THEIR ASSES AND START MAKING CHANGES INSTEAD OF CONSTANTLY PISSING AND MOANING AND DOING *NOTHING*, WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY EXPECTING TIM HUDAK AND WHOMEVER WE ELECT PRESIDENT (WHICH I HOPE WILL BE KEVIN GAUDET) TO DO *EVERYTHING*.
Let's take a look at some recent examples that illustrate this problem.
Martin Regg Cohn has written that people are angry about parking fees at hospitals. His article has a whole 6 comments on thestar.ca! I have blogposts with more than 6 comments and I'm not even a fancy pants journalist! Derp!
He says parking fees are hidden user fees! They're the most egregious form of price gouging! They're highway robbery! Someone should do something! But wait! Regg Cohn titled his article "Why Hospital CEO's Can't Feel Your Parking Pain."And he says that the Ontario Hospital Association ain't having none of this "reduce the parking fees" silliness! So unless you're a hospital CEO, you can go take a flying leap! Derp!
At this precise moment, political spinmasters of all types are calculating how to use the widespread fury over parking fees at hospitals to their advantage. Tim Hudak needs to intervene immediately and call the government to account on out of control parking fees! It's a middle class tax grab! Wedge issue identified! Commence outrage! We need to *differentiate* ourselves from the McGuinty Liberals on parking fees, say the spinmasters. So in "Changebook II: Cruise Control", released six months before the next election, we'll call for....um...umm...ummmm.....removal of the HST on parking fees! Derp!
No, no, no. We need REAL CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES. Real conservatives are perfectly OK with hospital parking fees! We lost the election because we said we were going to spend money on health care and education. Heresy! We don't need no stinking money for health care! If I get sick I can do surgery on myself! Derp!
Tim Hudak has a piece in the National Post! And what do I see in the comments? Angry Real Conservatives who complain that Hudak lost the election and needs to resign. They came up with clever names like Taxtario, too, and they think the Liberals want to "hunt down children for gay adoption"! But Hudak isn't going to resign, and he shouldn't resign! Because he doesn't feel the need to listen to people (some of whom are likely Liberals) who write comments in a comment section under an article and call it a day! Derp!
You know what he *would* listen to? People showing up to Niagara Falls in February and voting! But that won't happen. Because that's hard. Derp!
In the Star today, it was reported that kids are meeting targets for reading, but don't like reading as much as they did! And then we hear from an Expert. The Expert says that we need targets for how much kids like reading! And then after that we can have targets for how many targets we have! McGuinty's going to introduce his plan for the Trillium Target Foundation in his next platform and commit $387 billion to the establishment of targets in every conceivable walk of life. And instead of refusing outright to implement these targets, people are instead going to complain about why Hudak isn't fixing the problem for them. Derp!
The more I watch the PC voter base tie itself into knots over Liberal distractions while doing nothing to remedy the situation, the more I start to believe that Don Guy really is a genius. How else could you explain the fact that all of these supposedly really conservative people are constantly crying for Hudak to do what they want but make no effort to get it done themselves?
Liberal statism has penetrated so deeply into people's DNA that even the people who want to live with no government money for health care and schools can find no other recourse than to complain about how Hudak won't listen to their golden ideas!
Oh hey, I know what will get people motivated enough to do something! The War Room Boss wrote an article about how conservatives are whiny! We don't want to prove the War Room Boss right, do we? DO WE?
Derp!
Monday, December 12, 2011
Even More Liberal-On-Liberal Violence
Well, well, well....our anonymous friends over at QPComments had speculated that the race for PCPO President was going to be a brutal, backstabbing affair. But as is often the case, the Liberals ended up hoist on their own petard when their egos got the better of them.
First, a bit of background: The top two contenders for Liberal Party of Canada President (i.e. Alf Apps' replacement) are 1990's throwback Sheila Copps and ex-Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) President Mike Crawley. (Yes, the federal Liberals have a president for each province that has nothing to do with the provincial Liberal parties. It's very confusing, but what did you expect from Liberals?)
Both of these retreads have significant baggage: Sheila Copps is, well, Sheila Copps, and Crawley got himself entangled in one of those confusing green energy contract rigmaroles, as documented by the fine folks over at Wind Concerns Ontario. Crawley is running as the change candidate and Sheila is running as Bob Rae's handpicked favourite, setting the stage for a bloodless coup in which current interim leader Rae takes over the party for good until the next election.
The Liberals are quite divided and angry over yet another race where the establishment has staked out the high ground and threatened to make life very difficult for anyone who opposes them. Discontent bubbled over this weekend when an anonymous Twitter account popped up bashing Crawley asking difficult questions about whether Crawley could be trusted. I'd guess that this account is run by some communications person affiliated with the Copps campaign, but then again I am not a Liberal.
Meanwhile, Steve Paikin's son, Zach Paikin, is running for Policy chair of the federal Liberals. For reasons unknown to me, Paikin has come under attack from Max Naylor, son of University of Toronto President David Naylor. Naylor Jr., who is apparently affiliated with the Ontario Young Liberals (the Ontario Liberal Party's youth wing) posted a lengthy jeremiad on his blog recently. Supposedly Paikin is too pro-Israel for Naylor's liking.
Contrast this with the positive race for President we're having at the PCPO. We're exchanging ideas and having serious discussions about the future of our party, while the Liberals are fixated on the past. None of the three candidates have attacked each other publicly the way the Liberals are doing. And I for one intend to make sure things stay that way, despite Liberal attempts to stir the pot.
Remember, PCPO friends: whatever these losers do, we do the exact polar opposite. :)
First, a bit of background: The top two contenders for Liberal Party of Canada President (i.e. Alf Apps' replacement) are 1990's throwback Sheila Copps and ex-Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) President Mike Crawley. (Yes, the federal Liberals have a president for each province that has nothing to do with the provincial Liberal parties. It's very confusing, but what did you expect from Liberals?)
Both of these retreads have significant baggage: Sheila Copps is, well, Sheila Copps, and Crawley got himself entangled in one of those confusing green energy contract rigmaroles, as documented by the fine folks over at Wind Concerns Ontario. Crawley is running as the change candidate and Sheila is running as Bob Rae's handpicked favourite, setting the stage for a bloodless coup in which current interim leader Rae takes over the party for good until the next election.
The Liberals are quite divided and angry over yet another race where the establishment has staked out the high ground and threatened to make life very difficult for anyone who opposes them. Discontent bubbled over this weekend when an anonymous Twitter account popped up bashing Crawley asking difficult questions about whether Crawley could be trusted. I'd guess that this account is run by some communications person affiliated with the Copps campaign, but then again I am not a Liberal.
Meanwhile, Steve Paikin's son, Zach Paikin, is running for Policy chair of the federal Liberals. For reasons unknown to me, Paikin has come under attack from Max Naylor, son of University of Toronto President David Naylor. Naylor Jr., who is apparently affiliated with the Ontario Young Liberals (the Ontario Liberal Party's youth wing) posted a lengthy jeremiad on his blog recently. Supposedly Paikin is too pro-Israel for Naylor's liking.
Contrast this with the positive race for President we're having at the PCPO. We're exchanging ideas and having serious discussions about the future of our party, while the Liberals are fixated on the past. None of the three candidates have attacked each other publicly the way the Liberals are doing. And I for one intend to make sure things stay that way, despite Liberal attempts to stir the pot.
Remember, PCPO friends: whatever these losers do, we do the exact polar opposite. :)
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
The Day That Was
Lisa Macleod met with Allan Hubley and Rick Mercer. By all accounts, it was a wonderful meeting.
Religious groups who thought McGuinty respected their wishes last time found out the hard way that he doesn't think much of them.
The War Room Boss made a li'l oopsy-doodle.
Hmmm, that's a pretty strange mistake for two supposedly *separate people* to make. You don't think.....
The Liberals coalesced with the NDP while the PC's did not take the Michael Ignatieff route.
Environmental commissioner Gord Miller attacked the Liberals' politicking on energy use and questioned the intelligence of smart meters.
Kevin Gaudet's website is operational, and subsequently he became the first Presidential candidate to be singled out by the Liberal War Room! Quite an honour. Yay Kevin!
Pretty good day, I'd say! :)
Religious groups who thought McGuinty respected their wishes last time found out the hard way that he doesn't think much of them.
The War Room Boss made a li'l oopsy-doodle.
Hmmm, that's a pretty strange mistake for two supposedly *separate people* to make. You don't think.....The Liberals coalesced with the NDP while the PC's did not take the Michael Ignatieff route.
Environmental commissioner Gord Miller attacked the Liberals' politicking on energy use and questioned the intelligence of smart meters.
Kevin Gaudet's website is operational, and subsequently he became the first Presidential candidate to be singled out by the Liberal War Room! Quite an honour. Yay Kevin!
Pretty good day, I'd say! :)
Monday, December 5, 2011
You Got What You Paid For
Ho-hum. Another Auditor General's report that proves basically everything the PCPO was saying during the election was right. Whatever. Who cares.
Green jobs are an expensive waste of money. People are *not* actually getting to see their doctors any easier. People flout the law without fear of being caught. Auto insurance is through the roof, and government agencies like the LCBO are raking in money hand over fist.
Oh, but don't worry. There's probably a typo on page 356 that the Liberals will point to as evidence that the report is meaningless. That and "there's definitely more work to do." Release a few ads with smiling babies and ukelele music and we're back on track.
What's that? You want to know why I'm not popping a forehead vein over this? Because I've seen this movie too many times. There will be some unfocused robble robble robble over the report for a few days and then people will move on. OR......we could take this report and say "This is why we need to cut a bunch of stuff" and then not take it back when the Liberals pull some expert out of mothballs to say why we can't.
We're going to be treated to silly articles about how Liberals you couldn't pick out of a lineup are actually political geniuses until we get serious about turning the anger into something tangible.
Green jobs are an expensive waste of money. People are *not* actually getting to see their doctors any easier. People flout the law without fear of being caught. Auto insurance is through the roof, and government agencies like the LCBO are raking in money hand over fist.
Oh, but don't worry. There's probably a typo on page 356 that the Liberals will point to as evidence that the report is meaningless. That and "there's definitely more work to do." Release a few ads with smiling babies and ukelele music and we're back on track.
What's that? You want to know why I'm not popping a forehead vein over this? Because I've seen this movie too many times. There will be some unfocused robble robble robble over the report for a few days and then people will move on. OR......we could take this report and say "This is why we need to cut a bunch of stuff" and then not take it back when the Liberals pull some expert out of mothballs to say why we can't.
We're going to be treated to silly articles about how Liberals you couldn't pick out of a lineup are actually political geniuses until we get serious about turning the anger into something tangible.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Kevin Gaudet for PC Party President
I endorse Kevin Gaudet for PC Party President.
I worked on Kevin's campaign in Pickering Scarborough East, and got to know him very well. He is an utterly fearless individual. He is deeply committed to the cause. He is fiercely loyal to those who are loyal to him. He's a pleasure to be around.
But you could say that about all three people in the race. Where Kevin stands out is that he is the most willing to speak plainly about where we fell short during the election, and he is the most willing to re-examine the direction in which our party goes before the next go-round.
We can complain about the Working Families Coalition all we want. We can compare ourselves to Harper, Ford, and Harris all we want. Whether we win or lose the next election is up to us and us alone. Kevin exemplifies that mindset.
The Star featured an article today about the Liberal Wizard of Oz, Don Guy. Like everyone with even a passing familiarity with Queen's Park, I'd heard of Don Guy before. What I never understood was why everyone, PC's and Liberals alike, spoke of him in the most reverent of tones. Ironically enough, the only person who seems to want to criticize Don Guy in that article is Don Guy. Nobody else seems to want to question this man's apparent superpowers. He's a genius, they said.
Well, it seems to me that anyone can be a genius when the people you're competing against think that removing the P or C from PC Party of Ontario will catapult us into government and we need not go any further than that. That is the sort of solution I've been hearing from far too many people. It is the sort of solution the Liberals would come up with. A shift in thinking is what we need, and Kevin, a former president of the CTF and the king of the deficit hawks, represents that shift.
Kevin Gaudet does not feel that Don Guy, or any Liberal, is the wonderful Wizard of Oz because of the wonderful things he does and that we shouldn't look behind the curtain. Instead, Kevin Gaudet has the same unshakeable desire to win -despite everything- that Harper does. Kevin Gaudet is not going to flinch when the Liberal war room attacks him. There is not a single thought in Kevin Gaudet's head that resembles the tentative "what will the Liberals think" thinking that I hear from too many PC's, and which underlies campaigns where we try to tiptoe around Liberal attacks. That's running to avoid a loss. Kevin wants to run to win.
If you really want Change Ahead in the PC Party of Ontario, I suggest you vote for Kevin Gaudet for Party President.
I worked on Kevin's campaign in Pickering Scarborough East, and got to know him very well. He is an utterly fearless individual. He is deeply committed to the cause. He is fiercely loyal to those who are loyal to him. He's a pleasure to be around.
But you could say that about all three people in the race. Where Kevin stands out is that he is the most willing to speak plainly about where we fell short during the election, and he is the most willing to re-examine the direction in which our party goes before the next go-round.
We can complain about the Working Families Coalition all we want. We can compare ourselves to Harper, Ford, and Harris all we want. Whether we win or lose the next election is up to us and us alone. Kevin exemplifies that mindset.
The Star featured an article today about the Liberal Wizard of Oz, Don Guy. Like everyone with even a passing familiarity with Queen's Park, I'd heard of Don Guy before. What I never understood was why everyone, PC's and Liberals alike, spoke of him in the most reverent of tones. Ironically enough, the only person who seems to want to criticize Don Guy in that article is Don Guy. Nobody else seems to want to question this man's apparent superpowers. He's a genius, they said.
Well, it seems to me that anyone can be a genius when the people you're competing against think that removing the P or C from PC Party of Ontario will catapult us into government and we need not go any further than that. That is the sort of solution I've been hearing from far too many people. It is the sort of solution the Liberals would come up with. A shift in thinking is what we need, and Kevin, a former president of the CTF and the king of the deficit hawks, represents that shift.
Kevin Gaudet does not feel that Don Guy, or any Liberal, is the wonderful Wizard of Oz because of the wonderful things he does and that we shouldn't look behind the curtain. Instead, Kevin Gaudet has the same unshakeable desire to win -despite everything- that Harper does. Kevin Gaudet is not going to flinch when the Liberal war room attacks him. There is not a single thought in Kevin Gaudet's head that resembles the tentative "what will the Liberals think" thinking that I hear from too many PC's, and which underlies campaigns where we try to tiptoe around Liberal attacks. That's running to avoid a loss. Kevin wants to run to win.
If you really want Change Ahead in the PC Party of Ontario, I suggest you vote for Kevin Gaudet for Party President.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Smoove B Hits A Rough Patch
This post is dedicated to all the Liberals who have had enough of The Man.
The Toronto chessmasters are hard at work making life difficult for my pick for next Liberal leader, Chris "Smoove B" Bentley. Always trying to hold a brother down! As Marcus Gee reports in the Globe, Smoove B's been made into the whipping boy for Dalton's unpopular Green Energy Act. Don't like wind turbines? Think the whole thing's an expensive mess? Having problems getting your solar plant up and running? Go complain to Chris Bentley, because Dalton ain't hearing it.
Now isn't this so typical for Dalton McGuinty? The Green Energy Act was conceived in Toronto, for Toronto, by George Smitherman, yet another Liberal who got too big for his britches and got shown the door. Now it falls to Smoove B, the Working Liberal's Liberal, to defend the thing from his Liberal outpost in London, where the NDP took the neighbouring seat of London Fanshawe and the PC's grabbed a ton of land surrounding the city. If Bentley gets tumbled out of office because he can't make the thing work? Problem solved for Dalton! They bury Bentley and get on with finding the next patsy.
You would think that Dalton, having lost three cabinet ministers because of opposition to wind farms in this province, would be a little worried. And he probably is. But Dalton has never been one of the Toronto chessmasters, has he? And for the strategic geniuses, it is always about the next move, how they're going to *get* those yokel PC's. They don't care how many cabinet ministers and MPP's and staffers they have to bury in the process.
And what do those staffers have to say about all this, as their political careers come to early ends? How long can Bentley and the rest of the leadership hopefuls slog through the mud while Dalton basks in the glory? To say nothing of the talent that didn't get promoted to cabinet, and likely won't as Dalton girds for cuts to the cherished programs he spent time defending. I talk about how grassroots PCs would rather sit and complain than try to take ownership of their party, but they have nothing on the Liberals when it comes to willful blindness.
No matter. Let Bentley get whipped like a government mule, and let the staffers stew in their own juices. Let the resentment build. In time, it will boil over.
The Toronto chessmasters are hard at work making life difficult for my pick for next Liberal leader, Chris "Smoove B" Bentley. Always trying to hold a brother down! As Marcus Gee reports in the Globe, Smoove B's been made into the whipping boy for Dalton's unpopular Green Energy Act. Don't like wind turbines? Think the whole thing's an expensive mess? Having problems getting your solar plant up and running? Go complain to Chris Bentley, because Dalton ain't hearing it.
Now isn't this so typical for Dalton McGuinty? The Green Energy Act was conceived in Toronto, for Toronto, by George Smitherman, yet another Liberal who got too big for his britches and got shown the door. Now it falls to Smoove B, the Working Liberal's Liberal, to defend the thing from his Liberal outpost in London, where the NDP took the neighbouring seat of London Fanshawe and the PC's grabbed a ton of land surrounding the city. If Bentley gets tumbled out of office because he can't make the thing work? Problem solved for Dalton! They bury Bentley and get on with finding the next patsy.
You would think that Dalton, having lost three cabinet ministers because of opposition to wind farms in this province, would be a little worried. And he probably is. But Dalton has never been one of the Toronto chessmasters, has he? And for the strategic geniuses, it is always about the next move, how they're going to *get* those yokel PC's. They don't care how many cabinet ministers and MPP's and staffers they have to bury in the process.
And what do those staffers have to say about all this, as their political careers come to early ends? How long can Bentley and the rest of the leadership hopefuls slog through the mud while Dalton basks in the glory? To say nothing of the talent that didn't get promoted to cabinet, and likely won't as Dalton girds for cuts to the cherished programs he spent time defending. I talk about how grassroots PCs would rather sit and complain than try to take ownership of their party, but they have nothing on the Liberals when it comes to willful blindness.
No matter. Let Bentley get whipped like a government mule, and let the staffers stew in their own juices. Let the resentment build. In time, it will boil over.
Friday, December 2, 2011
All Apologies
Now, for my next trick, I will provide the reasons why Hudak does *not* need to apologize for those flyers that went out during the election. This is a very dangerous stunt and it just might land me on QPcomments (oh the horror!)....but you know, if we don't speak plainly about issues like this, then we can expect the Liberals to spin the narrative *again*, and then we will have to wait to form government until the year 20-Never, which would just suck.
First of all, I would like to make clear that I do not, will not, and have not defended the flyers themselves. I was curious about how they would affect the outcome and they clearly did. (More on that later.)
In any case, releasing them was a very stupid decision and doing so opened the party up to charges of homophobia. Those responsible for them should and (if what I'm hearing is correct) probably have been made persona non grata. So let's be clear. Hudak should *discipline*, to the harshest possible extent, those involved in the production of those flyers.
But he does not need to listen to Liberal demands for him to apologize.
Because the demand to apologize is part of the never-ending Liberal game of chess which delights them so. Everything these people do is part of some neverending strategy to force the PCPO into a position where they are damned if they do, damned if they don't. That's why the Liberals constantly put out press releases admonishing Hudak for voting against their agenda, as if there's something else an Opposition leader should be doing.
Central to the Liberal game of chess that never ends is the idea that everything is just another pincer movement in which to trap Hudak. Including this bill the Liberals are putting forward to supposedly end homophobic bullying in schools. Stop and think about that: a situation where young people are killing themselves due to bullying in schools is something that the Liberals view as just another move in their sick little chess game.
The chief problem I have with both the PC and Liberal bills on this issue is that they are half measures. The Star says as much in their editorial. Ditto the Sun. The Globe went so far as to say in the headline that it's not tough enough on bullies. And look! Here's another article from the Star that suggests that gay-straight alliances won't have to be called gay-straight alliances under the new Liberal bill. (Homophobes!)
The problem is that any bill that is meant to eliminate bullying cannot possibly succeed in the coddling environment that the Liberals have created in our schools, where rubber balls and junk food apparently need to be banned. If a kid is a bully, that kid needs to be expelled, and if a parent's child is a bully, then they're not doing their jobs as parents. But the Liberals won't go *that* far, Lord knows, while the PC's at least tried to give teachers the power to discipline kids without having to be afraid of Momzilla.
But as our friend at QPComments shows, this is just another political football for the Liberals, another issue to be fashioned into a stick to beat the PCs with. It isn't good enough for the PCs to put forward their own bill, and it isn't good enough for Conservatives like me to point out how the bills don't go far enough. No, we all have to support the Liberal agenda or we are homophobes. Or racists. Or pawns of Big Coal. Or Big Pharma. The list is endless. And you know what that's called? It's called *bullying.*
It's bullying because the object of bullying is to get someone you don't like to accept something they don't want to accept. And the Liberals want Hudak (and everyone else too) to accept their superiority and just go along with whatever they're doing, because they're Moving Ontario Forward. They want to turn Hudak into their pawn. Into John Tory. Into someone who backs down in the face of their attacks.
When you apologize to a Liberal, you are apologizing to the bully for making him or her bully you. Don't you ever do it, for any reason.
First of all, I would like to make clear that I do not, will not, and have not defended the flyers themselves. I was curious about how they would affect the outcome and they clearly did. (More on that later.)
In any case, releasing them was a very stupid decision and doing so opened the party up to charges of homophobia. Those responsible for them should and (if what I'm hearing is correct) probably have been made persona non grata. So let's be clear. Hudak should *discipline*, to the harshest possible extent, those involved in the production of those flyers.
But he does not need to listen to Liberal demands for him to apologize.
Because the demand to apologize is part of the never-ending Liberal game of chess which delights them so. Everything these people do is part of some neverending strategy to force the PCPO into a position where they are damned if they do, damned if they don't. That's why the Liberals constantly put out press releases admonishing Hudak for voting against their agenda, as if there's something else an Opposition leader should be doing.
Central to the Liberal game of chess that never ends is the idea that everything is just another pincer movement in which to trap Hudak. Including this bill the Liberals are putting forward to supposedly end homophobic bullying in schools. Stop and think about that: a situation where young people are killing themselves due to bullying in schools is something that the Liberals view as just another move in their sick little chess game.
The chief problem I have with both the PC and Liberal bills on this issue is that they are half measures. The Star says as much in their editorial. Ditto the Sun. The Globe went so far as to say in the headline that it's not tough enough on bullies. And look! Here's another article from the Star that suggests that gay-straight alliances won't have to be called gay-straight alliances under the new Liberal bill. (Homophobes!)
The problem is that any bill that is meant to eliminate bullying cannot possibly succeed in the coddling environment that the Liberals have created in our schools, where rubber balls and junk food apparently need to be banned. If a kid is a bully, that kid needs to be expelled, and if a parent's child is a bully, then they're not doing their jobs as parents. But the Liberals won't go *that* far, Lord knows, while the PC's at least tried to give teachers the power to discipline kids without having to be afraid of Momzilla.
But as our friend at QPComments shows, this is just another political football for the Liberals, another issue to be fashioned into a stick to beat the PCs with. It isn't good enough for the PCs to put forward their own bill, and it isn't good enough for Conservatives like me to point out how the bills don't go far enough. No, we all have to support the Liberal agenda or we are homophobes. Or racists. Or pawns of Big Coal. Or Big Pharma. The list is endless. And you know what that's called? It's called *bullying.*
It's bullying because the object of bullying is to get someone you don't like to accept something they don't want to accept. And the Liberals want Hudak (and everyone else too) to accept their superiority and just go along with whatever they're doing, because they're Moving Ontario Forward. They want to turn Hudak into their pawn. Into John Tory. Into someone who backs down in the face of their attacks.
When you apologize to a Liberal, you are apologizing to the bully for making him or her bully you. Don't you ever do it, for any reason.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Second Reading: November 29th, 2011
I thought I'd kick off a new feature here at The Clown at Midnight, focusing on the PC Party's efforts to wear Dalton down through legislation at Queen's Park.
For you see, my loyal readers, it is my duty to annoy Liberals like the War Room Boss and his cadre of cronies, but it is also my duty to inform you about how our stalwart representatives fight the good fight on our behalf. Since the news media are caught up with other breaking news stories that you can't start your day without, it's up to me to help get the message out there.
Prince Edward Hastings MPP Todd Smith wants to make it harder for the Liberals to just plunk down wind farms wherever they want by giving municipal councils more of a say. Dalton plans to "listen" to the bill, which I suppose is an improvement over his current practice of staying away from QP whenever he can. Looks like losing three cabinet ministers over wind farm opposition can change a man.
And while Smith's bill leaves Dalton blowing in the wind, Rob Leone of Cambridge took it upon himself to author a PMB of his own that passed 54-50 yesterday which would hold the government to account over promises to build hospitals. We know the McGuinty Liberals have had some trouble getting hospitals completed when they said they would, so maybe this humiliating defeat will light a fire under them.
For his part, Hudak will continue to push for reform to the apprenticeship system and hopefully create a situation where the government stops looking down their nose at people who want a career in the trades.
Full steam ahead!
For you see, my loyal readers, it is my duty to annoy Liberals like the War Room Boss and his cadre of cronies, but it is also my duty to inform you about how our stalwart representatives fight the good fight on our behalf. Since the news media are caught up with other breaking news stories that you can't start your day without, it's up to me to help get the message out there.
Prince Edward Hastings MPP Todd Smith wants to make it harder for the Liberals to just plunk down wind farms wherever they want by giving municipal councils more of a say. Dalton plans to "listen" to the bill, which I suppose is an improvement over his current practice of staying away from QP whenever he can. Looks like losing three cabinet ministers over wind farm opposition can change a man.
And while Smith's bill leaves Dalton blowing in the wind, Rob Leone of Cambridge took it upon himself to author a PMB of his own that passed 54-50 yesterday which would hold the government to account over promises to build hospitals. We know the McGuinty Liberals have had some trouble getting hospitals completed when they said they would, so maybe this humiliating defeat will light a fire under them.
For his part, Hudak will continue to push for reform to the apprenticeship system and hopefully create a situation where the government stops looking down their nose at people who want a career in the trades.
Full steam ahead!
Monday, November 28, 2011
More Liberal-On-Liberal Violence
Popcorn, anyone?
Should put to rest any persistent rumours that the platform leak was a trap.
Should put to rest any persistent rumours that the platform leak was a trap.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Liberal Screwup Roundup, November 26th
Since the Liberals are supplying 'em, and you demanded 'em, it's time for another Liberal Screwup Roundup!
We begin with the revelation that Ontario's financial woes are scaring immigrants away. And here I thought the Liberals could offer a pandering tax credit or two and we'd become a hub for skilled workers from other countries. Now we can't even find people to replace the ones who've decamped for the West thanks to Dalton's bungling.
Then we've got more bad press from Martin Regg Cohn in the Star, who lays out a scenario where Dalton isn't in the mood to listen to anybody. And people wonder why Hudak is so annoyed all the time! Here he is trying to keep Dalton from crashing into a brick wall, and the warnings are just not getting through. Maybe if Dalton wasn't surrounded by handlers pumping him full of talking points, he'd be more open to suggestions.
Then finally we have Liberal MPP Kim Craitor (rhymes with "traitor") up to his old tricks again. He's on record as being against the HST on home heating bills, but when it came time to vote on the recent symbolic PC/NDP stand against it, he couldn't be bothered to show up!
These Liberals pretend to be masters at playing all sides against each other, but they're the ones losing out here.
We begin with the revelation that Ontario's financial woes are scaring immigrants away. And here I thought the Liberals could offer a pandering tax credit or two and we'd become a hub for skilled workers from other countries. Now we can't even find people to replace the ones who've decamped for the West thanks to Dalton's bungling.
Then we've got more bad press from Martin Regg Cohn in the Star, who lays out a scenario where Dalton isn't in the mood to listen to anybody. And people wonder why Hudak is so annoyed all the time! Here he is trying to keep Dalton from crashing into a brick wall, and the warnings are just not getting through. Maybe if Dalton wasn't surrounded by handlers pumping him full of talking points, he'd be more open to suggestions.
Then finally we have Liberal MPP Kim Craitor (rhymes with "traitor") up to his old tricks again. He's on record as being against the HST on home heating bills, but when it came time to vote on the recent symbolic PC/NDP stand against it, he couldn't be bothered to show up!
These Liberals pretend to be masters at playing all sides against each other, but they're the ones losing out here.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Can't Win For Losing
Forget waiting for the release of the Drummond report, because the Liberals have started hacking and slashing away already!
We learn today courtesy of the inestimable Robert Benzie via Twitter that at least 200 Liberal staffers were given the boot and are complaining loudly to anyone who will listen. I think that number's quite a low estimate, myself. Pretty ironic that people who spent the last few months defending Dalton's supposed job-creation record got the pink slip from the man himself!
If you're a York Region Transit bus driver, though, you don't need to worry about working any time soon, because Dalton's got your back. He ganged up with the NDP to defeat a PC PMB which would have made life easier for a lot of 905 voters who likely won't be voting Liberal anytime soon. Who says the Liberals are promoters of clean, green transit? Not when there's a union to be paid off!
The NDP can be useful at times, though, as they embarassed the government with the support of the PC Party by passing a bill to remove the HST from home heating bills. The Liberals, of course, don't think much of the opinions of the majority of elected representatives in Queen's Park, so they decided to just pretend it never happened.
Sure looks like the PC's are playing for keeps here. Way to be, guys!
We learn today courtesy of the inestimable Robert Benzie via Twitter that at least 200 Liberal staffers were given the boot and are complaining loudly to anyone who will listen. I think that number's quite a low estimate, myself. Pretty ironic that people who spent the last few months defending Dalton's supposed job-creation record got the pink slip from the man himself!
If you're a York Region Transit bus driver, though, you don't need to worry about working any time soon, because Dalton's got your back. He ganged up with the NDP to defeat a PC PMB which would have made life easier for a lot of 905 voters who likely won't be voting Liberal anytime soon. Who says the Liberals are promoters of clean, green transit? Not when there's a union to be paid off!
The NDP can be useful at times, though, as they embarassed the government with the support of the PC Party by passing a bill to remove the HST from home heating bills. The Liberals, of course, don't think much of the opinions of the majority of elected representatives in Queen's Park, so they decided to just pretend it never happened.
Sure looks like the PC's are playing for keeps here. Way to be, guys!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Trouble In Trinity Spadina!
Run for the hills! There's a bit of a Liberal-on-Liberal tiff going on in downtown Toronto.
The fight seems to be between defeated Liberal candidate Sarah Thomson, and defeated (federal) Liberal candidate Christine Innes, wife of defeated Trin-Spa Liberal MP Tony Ianno. There are allegations of investments that disappeared, and nobody seems to know who's married to whom! Crazy!
With Liberal backbenchers "disaffected" according to the Toronto Star, can the kept-alive-with-prayers Ontario Liberal Party afford this kind of infighting? It threatens to destroy their fragile minority! Election imminent! Red alert! Oh noez!
We here at the PC Party will watch with BIIIIIIIIIIIG smiles on our faces as this fail parade continues to march along. :D :D :D
The fight seems to be between defeated Liberal candidate Sarah Thomson, and defeated (federal) Liberal candidate Christine Innes, wife of defeated Trin-Spa Liberal MP Tony Ianno. There are allegations of investments that disappeared, and nobody seems to know who's married to whom! Crazy!
With Liberal backbenchers "disaffected" according to the Toronto Star, can the kept-alive-with-prayers Ontario Liberal Party afford this kind of infighting? It threatens to destroy their fragile minority! Election imminent! Red alert! Oh noez!
We here at the PC Party will watch with BIIIIIIIIIIIG smiles on our faces as this fail parade continues to march along. :D :D :D
Monday, November 21, 2011
The First Day of Dalton's Last Stand
Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. While the Liberals are focused on a bunch of inside baseball and he-said she-said, as per usual, there were two major developments that hampered them right out of the gate. (The aforementioned inside baseball will be commented on tomorrow, because I *know* that's what all of you, Liberal and Tory alike, really want to hear about. :P)
First of all, the Speaker for the first minority Legislature since the 80's is, shockingly, Dimbulb Dave Levac. The guy who misspoke when he actually mistyped on whether a carbon tax was on the table. The guy who fiddled my time away while Caledonia burned. Truly the kind of inspiring, definitive leadership we're going to need in a one-seat minority! Look! He has to be dragged to the Speaker's chair. ;)
How did this lowlight of a Junior Energy Minister get to be the most one of the most powerful people in the Legislature? Maybe it's because the other three candidates were from GTA or Toronto ridings, which the Liberals likely think they will hold on to forever....except, um, that the former prospective front-runner, Donna Cansfield, admitted she wouldn't be running in the next election:
"I’m not going to run another time. I’m not here for future considerations at all,” said the former cabinet minister who was first elected in 2003.
By signalling she won’t be a candidate in the election expected in 2015 — though with a minority government it could come sooner — Cansfield underscores her autonomy in refereeing the Legislative Assembly."
Yikes! First day and already Liberals are getting while the getting's good.
Now, we know the Liberals like to talk a good game about how they respect women, but it seems that Christine Elliot and Lisa Macleod's endorsements of Cansfield may have provoked a massive stampede to Levac amongst the Liberals. Andrea Horwath was also on the record as saying she wanted to see more women in leadership roles. So we have two Tories and the NDP leader leaning towards Cansfield, which means that for Levac to have won, the Liberals must have backed him en masse. Yeah, we could have had the first female Speaker in Ontario's history, but that would have meant giving the Tories and NDP what they wanted. Can't have that!
You might have heard about how perennial Liberal leadership hopeful Chris "Smoove B" Bentley was about as smooth as chunky peanut butter during his announcement that the Liberals had finally halted construction on That Power Plant 58 days after they said construction had stopped. Why do you suppose Liberal leadership hopeful Chris Bentley is constantly made to look like a doofus and getting handed all these tough files? Hmmm. I wonder. I also wonder if work will begin again once people have moved onto another story.
We don't know how much this decision will cost taxpayers. So how about we ask and ask and ask until we get an answer? No, better yet....how about we answer every single one of their annoying questions about when we're going to apologize for something with a question about when they're going to tell us how much cancelling the plant will cost?
And we've only just begun!
First of all, the Speaker for the first minority Legislature since the 80's is, shockingly, Dimbulb Dave Levac. The guy who misspoke when he actually mistyped on whether a carbon tax was on the table. The guy who fiddled my time away while Caledonia burned. Truly the kind of inspiring, definitive leadership we're going to need in a one-seat minority! Look! He has to be dragged to the Speaker's chair. ;)
How did this lowlight of a Junior Energy Minister get to be the most one of the most powerful people in the Legislature? Maybe it's because the other three candidates were from GTA or Toronto ridings, which the Liberals likely think they will hold on to forever....except, um, that the former prospective front-runner, Donna Cansfield, admitted she wouldn't be running in the next election:
"I’m not going to run another time. I’m not here for future considerations at all,” said the former cabinet minister who was first elected in 2003.
By signalling she won’t be a candidate in the election expected in 2015 — though with a minority government it could come sooner — Cansfield underscores her autonomy in refereeing the Legislative Assembly."
Yikes! First day and already Liberals are getting while the getting's good.
Now, we know the Liberals like to talk a good game about how they respect women, but it seems that Christine Elliot and Lisa Macleod's endorsements of Cansfield may have provoked a massive stampede to Levac amongst the Liberals. Andrea Horwath was also on the record as saying she wanted to see more women in leadership roles. So we have two Tories and the NDP leader leaning towards Cansfield, which means that for Levac to have won, the Liberals must have backed him en masse. Yeah, we could have had the first female Speaker in Ontario's history, but that would have meant giving the Tories and NDP what they wanted. Can't have that!
You might have heard about how perennial Liberal leadership hopeful Chris "Smoove B" Bentley was about as smooth as chunky peanut butter during his announcement that the Liberals had finally halted construction on That Power Plant 58 days after they said construction had stopped. Why do you suppose Liberal leadership hopeful Chris Bentley is constantly made to look like a doofus and getting handed all these tough files? Hmmm. I wonder. I also wonder if work will begin again once people have moved onto another story.
We don't know how much this decision will cost taxpayers. So how about we ask and ask and ask until we get an answer? No, better yet....how about we answer every single one of their annoying questions about when we're going to apologize for something with a question about when they're going to tell us how much cancelling the plant will cost?
And we've only just begun!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Don't Be Like Mike
The Legislature, and consequently, the PC Party of Ontario, gets back to business tomorrow. And I'm sure they remember this guy, right?
Yeah. Don't be like this guy.
Contrary to what your friendly neighbourhood Liberal War Room Boss would have you believe, minority Parliaments are all about rising and falling election threats. We went through years of this silliness at the federal level. He should know, having borne witness to a particularly spectacular failure of will by the federal Liberals on that score some years ago. And no, an election next year is not out of the realm of possibility.
There is a world of difference between "Get ready for an election" and "Mr. McGuinty, your time is up." The PC Party would do well to remember this. The first is OK and keeps your supporters watching. The second makes us look silly.
By all means, keep the heat on McGuinty. Make his life miserable. He deserves it. But there's something to be said for letting McGuinty dig his own grave.
His caucus is packed full of perennially re-elected municipal politicians who owe their success to everyone knowing their name and who are quickly turning their ridings into franchises where nobody's thinking about succession planning. The young up-and-comers were shut out of cabinet. Some of his MPP's are in their 70's and 80's. Others are radicals who will force him into more of those humiliating backtracks that were so common this year. And if that wasn't bad enough, he's got four of his MPP's butting heads over the Speaker position, a Fall Economic Update looming, and nervous staffers considering their career options as the public sector gets squeezed.
Something is going to give. And soon. So we don't need to huff and puff and threaten to blow the house down every week.
Remember: whatever the federal Liberals do, or did, we go in the opposite direction.
Yeah. Don't be like this guy.
Contrary to what your friendly neighbourhood Liberal War Room Boss would have you believe, minority Parliaments are all about rising and falling election threats. We went through years of this silliness at the federal level. He should know, having borne witness to a particularly spectacular failure of will by the federal Liberals on that score some years ago. And no, an election next year is not out of the realm of possibility.
There is a world of difference between "Get ready for an election" and "Mr. McGuinty, your time is up." The PC Party would do well to remember this. The first is OK and keeps your supporters watching. The second makes us look silly.
By all means, keep the heat on McGuinty. Make his life miserable. He deserves it. But there's something to be said for letting McGuinty dig his own grave.
His caucus is packed full of perennially re-elected municipal politicians who owe their success to everyone knowing their name and who are quickly turning their ridings into franchises where nobody's thinking about succession planning. The young up-and-comers were shut out of cabinet. Some of his MPP's are in their 70's and 80's. Others are radicals who will force him into more of those humiliating backtracks that were so common this year. And if that wasn't bad enough, he's got four of his MPP's butting heads over the Speaker position, a Fall Economic Update looming, and nervous staffers considering their career options as the public sector gets squeezed.
Something is going to give. And soon. So we don't need to huff and puff and threaten to blow the house down every week.
Remember: whatever the federal Liberals do, or did, we go in the opposite direction.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Occupy Your Local EDA?
I blog about provincial politics in Ontario. I try not to blog about the Conservative Irritation Of The Day.
I try to focus on one goal, and that goal is getting rid of Dalton McGuinty's Liberals.
The reason why Dalton McGuinty is Premier of Ontario is that he is not distracted by Irritations Of The Day. He doesn't care about the Occupy Toronto movement getting a stay of execution or about a group of idiots at a Toronto school who decided that football and soccer are the latest thing to ban. So if I want Dalton out, I guess I can't be distracted by those things either. But I will have to, at least temporarily, to write this post.
If you think Dalton's Smartest Guys In The Room can't come up with an argument in support of the Occupy Toronto movement or in support of banning footballs that not only they agree with, but you will agree with, then you just don't understand why Dalton is Premier. Not that it matters because it turns out a lot of people think that the opinions of people in V for Vendetta masks are worth listening to. Why else would there be sympathetic stories in the newspapers day after day after day? Why else would prominent businesspeople and politicians be talking about the significance of this protest?
Here's why I think we have Mark Carney and whomever else doing the I-feel-your-pain act when it comes to the Occupy protests: because they are worried about being seen to be hard hearted. And this is the Governor of the Bank of Canada. We are in a pretty bad place economically, and there isn't enough of the good life to go around, but heaven forbid we start worrying about ourselves first! What will people think???
Hey, I have a crazy idea: How about somebody says, out loud, that the reason these people can't find jobs is because they, like most people, expected that they will be taken care of from womb to tomb? Oh no, that's cruel and mean-spirited. Nobody will ever vote for us if we say that. And besides, here's the Liberal War Room Boss suggesting that removing these people would produce another Ipperwash. Oh noez. Did it suddenly get cold in here or is it just me?
The strategy of the Principled Conservative movement for the past umpteen years has been to scream to the heavens about this or that affront to freedom for a day or two and then forget all about it when the next outrage comes down the pipe. I don't watch Sun News for this reason. I don't listen to talk radio for this reason. On rare occasions, when somebody like the Liberal War Room Boss enters our little echo chamber with counter-arguments, we're all suddenly out of ideas. I find it depressing that after trying and failing for years, this is all we have.
Did we boot the Liberals out of Ottawa by screaming about this or that outrage? No! We got better at doing what they did and we worked harder than they did. Now they're the ones doing the fruitless screaming. And oh, is it satisfying. But why is it so hard to make progress anywhere else? Because there is no focus. It's here, there, and everywhere.
At one point Stephen Harper thought he would make Paul Martin look dumb by accusing him of being soft on child porn. He thought it would trigger a firestorm of outrage and catapult him into the Prime Minister's chair. Now, seven years later, he's finally figured out that no, Canadians don't care about who's soft on child porn because they trust the government implicitly. He understands that Canadians really don't care about who's principled and who isn't. He understands that it's all a story we tell ourselves to keep the truth from being known. And so, he is pitiless. Utterly pitiless. And I admire him for it.
But as a movement, we haven't learned this lesson. We are content to read columns in the National Post and the Sun, watch Ezra and Michael Coren pontificate on TV, read Mark Steyn's blog, and let others do the heavy lifting. When Harper's term comes to an end (and it eventually will, because he is after all human), then we can pine for the days of the Harper majority, argue in pubs over whether he was really all that Principled or not, and run away from his legacy on the campaign trail. 'Twas ever thus.
The Occupy People and the helicopter moms who wanted footballs banned at that school wring their hands about the deplorable state of affairs, are overcome with empathy, and then do something that they think will remedy the situation. The Occupy people and the helicopter moms are consistent.
We aren't.
But here's the good news: As more and more people start to realize that all the empathy in the world won't fix what's causing the problems of today, then people are going to get less and less offended when Conservatives say awful things like, well, maybe it's too expensive to take care of people from birth to death. And then the Liberals are going to be in a world of trouble. We can wait until that point, or we can start WORKING.
I try to focus on one goal, and that goal is getting rid of Dalton McGuinty's Liberals.
The reason why Dalton McGuinty is Premier of Ontario is that he is not distracted by Irritations Of The Day. He doesn't care about the Occupy Toronto movement getting a stay of execution or about a group of idiots at a Toronto school who decided that football and soccer are the latest thing to ban. So if I want Dalton out, I guess I can't be distracted by those things either. But I will have to, at least temporarily, to write this post.
If you think Dalton's Smartest Guys In The Room can't come up with an argument in support of the Occupy Toronto movement or in support of banning footballs that not only they agree with, but you will agree with, then you just don't understand why Dalton is Premier. Not that it matters because it turns out a lot of people think that the opinions of people in V for Vendetta masks are worth listening to. Why else would there be sympathetic stories in the newspapers day after day after day? Why else would prominent businesspeople and politicians be talking about the significance of this protest?
Here's why I think we have Mark Carney and whomever else doing the I-feel-your-pain act when it comes to the Occupy protests: because they are worried about being seen to be hard hearted. And this is the Governor of the Bank of Canada. We are in a pretty bad place economically, and there isn't enough of the good life to go around, but heaven forbid we start worrying about ourselves first! What will people think???
Hey, I have a crazy idea: How about somebody says, out loud, that the reason these people can't find jobs is because they, like most people, expected that they will be taken care of from womb to tomb? Oh no, that's cruel and mean-spirited. Nobody will ever vote for us if we say that. And besides, here's the Liberal War Room Boss suggesting that removing these people would produce another Ipperwash. Oh noez. Did it suddenly get cold in here or is it just me?
The strategy of the Principled Conservative movement for the past umpteen years has been to scream to the heavens about this or that affront to freedom for a day or two and then forget all about it when the next outrage comes down the pipe. I don't watch Sun News for this reason. I don't listen to talk radio for this reason. On rare occasions, when somebody like the Liberal War Room Boss enters our little echo chamber with counter-arguments, we're all suddenly out of ideas. I find it depressing that after trying and failing for years, this is all we have.
Did we boot the Liberals out of Ottawa by screaming about this or that outrage? No! We got better at doing what they did and we worked harder than they did. Now they're the ones doing the fruitless screaming. And oh, is it satisfying. But why is it so hard to make progress anywhere else? Because there is no focus. It's here, there, and everywhere.
At one point Stephen Harper thought he would make Paul Martin look dumb by accusing him of being soft on child porn. He thought it would trigger a firestorm of outrage and catapult him into the Prime Minister's chair. Now, seven years later, he's finally figured out that no, Canadians don't care about who's soft on child porn because they trust the government implicitly. He understands that Canadians really don't care about who's principled and who isn't. He understands that it's all a story we tell ourselves to keep the truth from being known. And so, he is pitiless. Utterly pitiless. And I admire him for it.
But as a movement, we haven't learned this lesson. We are content to read columns in the National Post and the Sun, watch Ezra and Michael Coren pontificate on TV, read Mark Steyn's blog, and let others do the heavy lifting. When Harper's term comes to an end (and it eventually will, because he is after all human), then we can pine for the days of the Harper majority, argue in pubs over whether he was really all that Principled or not, and run away from his legacy on the campaign trail. 'Twas ever thus.
The Occupy People and the helicopter moms who wanted footballs banned at that school wring their hands about the deplorable state of affairs, are overcome with empathy, and then do something that they think will remedy the situation. The Occupy people and the helicopter moms are consistent.
We aren't.
But here's the good news: As more and more people start to realize that all the empathy in the world won't fix what's causing the problems of today, then people are going to get less and less offended when Conservatives say awful things like, well, maybe it's too expensive to take care of people from birth to death. And then the Liberals are going to be in a world of trouble. We can wait until that point, or we can start WORKING.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Young And The Restless
A few short days ago, I wrote a post in which I described the pervasive deficit of doing and the surplus of talking amongst supposed Principled Conservatives who are aggrieved with the state of things in Ontario today.
It occured to me shortly afterwards that a demonstration of how this is done may be needed.
As I write this, the youth of the PC Party of Ontario are hard at work on merging the youth and campus wings of the party. For reference purposes, the youth wing is the Ontario Progressive Conservative Youth Association (OPCYA) and the campus wing is the Ontario Progressive Conservative Campus Association (OPCCA). A letter from Grant Dingwall, the OPCYA President, can be read here.
Now, for those of you who have no idea how OPCYA and OPCCA affect your lives (and offhand, I'd guess that's a lot of people), I'll make it very, very simple. We currently have two organizations that draw on the same pool of youth volunteers. People in OPCYA can be in OPCCA and vice versa. Furthermore, in 5 other provinces, there is only one youth organization as opposed to two.
It should be noted that there is no intention to create a youth wing where one currently does not exist, as was the case during the federal convention early this year.
Now, if anyone can raise an objection from a conservative point of view to the idea that we should have one youth organization instead of two, I would like to hear it. Because I haven't heard one yet.
I am aware that merging two youth associations into one youth association is not going to put Ontario back on track. But, by cracky, it is one of the first instances I can recall in a long time where people in our party decided to reform things from within instead of complaining about problems external to the party.
I am also aware that people may not approve of this change, saying that it may go too far or that it may not go far enough. That's fine. That's what democracy is about. But if you feel quite strongly that this merger is the worst idea ever, please note that this idea was conceived of and is being implemented by the youth of our party, and it would be very difficult- in my opinion- to justify an attack on our party's future leaders for doing what they said they would do once elected to their current positions.
So I ask you once again, readers: if the youth wing can work to make this happen, what's stopping you?
It occured to me shortly afterwards that a demonstration of how this is done may be needed.
As I write this, the youth of the PC Party of Ontario are hard at work on merging the youth and campus wings of the party. For reference purposes, the youth wing is the Ontario Progressive Conservative Youth Association (OPCYA) and the campus wing is the Ontario Progressive Conservative Campus Association (OPCCA). A letter from Grant Dingwall, the OPCYA President, can be read here.
Now, for those of you who have no idea how OPCYA and OPCCA affect your lives (and offhand, I'd guess that's a lot of people), I'll make it very, very simple. We currently have two organizations that draw on the same pool of youth volunteers. People in OPCYA can be in OPCCA and vice versa. Furthermore, in 5 other provinces, there is only one youth organization as opposed to two.
It should be noted that there is no intention to create a youth wing where one currently does not exist, as was the case during the federal convention early this year.
Now, if anyone can raise an objection from a conservative point of view to the idea that we should have one youth organization instead of two, I would like to hear it. Because I haven't heard one yet.
I am aware that merging two youth associations into one youth association is not going to put Ontario back on track. But, by cracky, it is one of the first instances I can recall in a long time where people in our party decided to reform things from within instead of complaining about problems external to the party.
I am also aware that people may not approve of this change, saying that it may go too far or that it may not go far enough. That's fine. That's what democracy is about. But if you feel quite strongly that this merger is the worst idea ever, please note that this idea was conceived of and is being implemented by the youth of our party, and it would be very difficult- in my opinion- to justify an attack on our party's future leaders for doing what they said they would do once elected to their current positions.
So I ask you once again, readers: if the youth wing can work to make this happen, what's stopping you?
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Smoke And Mirrors
Three months remain until the PCPO AGM in Niagara Falls. Interesting developments are taking shape in the form of races for party exec, constitutional amendments, and realignment of strategy in preparation for the next go-round. All of which will be discussed in depth on this here blog in the weeks to come.
First and foremost, though, is the question of the leadership review.
For a month now, the media has been falling all over themselves to try and play up the narrative that Tim Hudak has to start working like he's never worked before to prove he should remain leader. This despite no evidence that any organized group of people are working against him. But hey, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, right? (Side note: Hey, Liberals? When the press tries to create rumours like this out of thin air about Bob Rae, then I'll believe you've hit rock bottom.)
Now. I understand there is anger at Hudak. But it is free-flowing anger, not channeled into anything. Like the HST, eHealth, the power plant in Mississauga, the cafeteria in Toronto where menstruating girls were separated from everyone else, and the rest of the 99 problems that have arisen during Dalton's reign that nobody seems to be able to find an acceptable solution to, there is a surplus of talking and a deficit of doing.
And this is why I cannot take so-called Principled Conservatives seriously. Real Principled Conservatives act.
If opposition to Hudak was based on Real Conservative Principles, then the people who have a problem with Tim would have identified themselves already, gotten together, and begun work to get their objective accomplished.
I know, because four years ago, I had a problem with John Tory's performance and I let people know it immediately afterwards, and I donated money to Draft A Leader. Fast forward to four years later and there is nothing for people who have a problem with Tim Hudak that I am aware of (and I am most certainly not one of those people who have a problem with Tim Hudak).
So who are these people?
Is it the Sun News crowd? Nope. They're lining up behind John Snobelen, who is behind Hudak.
Is it the architects of Ford's victory? Uh-uh. One of those architects is Richard Ciano, who is behind Hudak.
Is it the deficit hawks? Kevin Gaudet is setting himself up as their champion. And he's behind Hudak.
Who are these people? Who is leading them? What are their objectives and preferred choice post-leadership review?
I doubt we're ever going to get an answer.
So, people out there who want Hudak gone and read this blog, you don't have to answer. Instead, think. Think about what they keep saying about our party. That we complain about problems but offer no solutions. And ask yourself whether you are part of that problem.
First and foremost, though, is the question of the leadership review.
For a month now, the media has been falling all over themselves to try and play up the narrative that Tim Hudak has to start working like he's never worked before to prove he should remain leader. This despite no evidence that any organized group of people are working against him. But hey, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, right? (Side note: Hey, Liberals? When the press tries to create rumours like this out of thin air about Bob Rae, then I'll believe you've hit rock bottom.)
Now. I understand there is anger at Hudak. But it is free-flowing anger, not channeled into anything. Like the HST, eHealth, the power plant in Mississauga, the cafeteria in Toronto where menstruating girls were separated from everyone else, and the rest of the 99 problems that have arisen during Dalton's reign that nobody seems to be able to find an acceptable solution to, there is a surplus of talking and a deficit of doing.
And this is why I cannot take so-called Principled Conservatives seriously. Real Principled Conservatives act.
If opposition to Hudak was based on Real Conservative Principles, then the people who have a problem with Tim would have identified themselves already, gotten together, and begun work to get their objective accomplished.
I know, because four years ago, I had a problem with John Tory's performance and I let people know it immediately afterwards, and I donated money to Draft A Leader. Fast forward to four years later and there is nothing for people who have a problem with Tim Hudak that I am aware of (and I am most certainly not one of those people who have a problem with Tim Hudak).
So who are these people?
Is it the Sun News crowd? Nope. They're lining up behind John Snobelen, who is behind Hudak.
Is it the architects of Ford's victory? Uh-uh. One of those architects is Richard Ciano, who is behind Hudak.
Is it the deficit hawks? Kevin Gaudet is setting himself up as their champion. And he's behind Hudak.
Who are these people? Who is leading them? What are their objectives and preferred choice post-leadership review?
I doubt we're ever going to get an answer.
So, people out there who want Hudak gone and read this blog, you don't have to answer. Instead, think. Think about what they keep saying about our party. That we complain about problems but offer no solutions. And ask yourself whether you are part of that problem.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
A Drop In The Bucket
And so ends the 2011 election season, an utterly disgraceful one for the Liberals by any measure. Not one result, coast-to-coast, that they can point to and say, "We have the momentum." The best they did was their wins in PEI and here in Ontario, where they held us off at some cost.
So what?
Does anyone out there think that these Liberals are going away any time soon? Did we win?
Absolutely not.
This country, all of it, still belongs to the Liberals. Nothing has changed that. Not the federal majority in both houses. Not our advances provincially, such as they were. Not our victories at the municipal level. Not the establishment of Sun News. Not the dominance in fundraising. Not even the fact that Conservatives seem to be on the rise worldwide. None of that matters.
For you see, I talk to Liberals. And they remain hopeful. Hopeful that good, as they put it, will triumph over evil in the end. All of their misfortune is just a setback. All of our gains are just a bad dream that will end soon.
When I can open a newspaper and see ridiculous, unfounded rumours about leadership challenges to Tim Hudak reported on as if they are fact (and remember, this is a guy who did just take a piece of Dalton's rear end, something nobody else has accomplished in recent memory)....
.....or when, a day before Brad Wall wipes the floor with the NDP, I read about how Harper's decision to dismantle the Wheat Board might hurt the Saskatchewan Party's hopes, and then, after Wall is done wiping the floor with the NDP, there is not even an acknowledgement of how wrong they were.....
....or when people -any people- refuse to take the CBC to task over this ridiculous, ridiculous situation with Rob Ford......
....or when Margaret Wente points out that the Occupy protesters are overeducated, irresponsible adult children who put the cart before the horse in a big way, expecting to graduate into a world that would shower them with neverending praise, and the next day there are letters taking her to task for being too harsh on single mothers.....
.....or when anyone gives a toss about what Bob Rae has to say on any subject, given that he is a carpetbagging, limelight-seeking opportunist of the first order (and that is something not even the Liberals I talk to try to deny).....then I have to conclude that the Liberals, deluded as they unquestionably are, still have reason to hope.
Compare their state of mind, if you will, to ours. I- we- are currently engaged in soul-searching, debating, deliberating, pondering, on what our next tack will be. We actively fear losing what we've gained while the Liberals look at their troubles as just a down period that they'll bounce back from. That's why we are so reluctant to criticize Conservative leaders who do the wrong thing. I don't like that tendency, but I understand it.
I understand it because the battle between us and them has never been a war between equals. Central to Liberal electoral success is the Heritage Moment illusion of the quiet northern nation, governed by the sane, sage practitioners of the golden mean, where we peacefully play hockey on frozen ponds, are kind to our neighbours, are proud of our healthcare system, dutifully watch the CBC and read Canadian novels, and settle our differences without getting emotional. And we Conservatives, who believe people are naturally selfish and self-interested, are an affront to that. We don't have anything as soothing as the Heritage Moment illusion. All we have are hard truths.
Nobody likes having their illusions challenged. But challenge them we must. And if the economy craters, or the Liberal abuse of trust becomes so massive that it cannot be rationalized a la Adscam, then the illusion will disappear and we will have an opportunity to take this province back.
So what?
Does anyone out there think that these Liberals are going away any time soon? Did we win?
Absolutely not.
This country, all of it, still belongs to the Liberals. Nothing has changed that. Not the federal majority in both houses. Not our advances provincially, such as they were. Not our victories at the municipal level. Not the establishment of Sun News. Not the dominance in fundraising. Not even the fact that Conservatives seem to be on the rise worldwide. None of that matters.
For you see, I talk to Liberals. And they remain hopeful. Hopeful that good, as they put it, will triumph over evil in the end. All of their misfortune is just a setback. All of our gains are just a bad dream that will end soon.
When I can open a newspaper and see ridiculous, unfounded rumours about leadership challenges to Tim Hudak reported on as if they are fact (and remember, this is a guy who did just take a piece of Dalton's rear end, something nobody else has accomplished in recent memory)....
.....or when, a day before Brad Wall wipes the floor with the NDP, I read about how Harper's decision to dismantle the Wheat Board might hurt the Saskatchewan Party's hopes, and then, after Wall is done wiping the floor with the NDP, there is not even an acknowledgement of how wrong they were.....
....or when people -any people- refuse to take the CBC to task over this ridiculous, ridiculous situation with Rob Ford......
....or when Margaret Wente points out that the Occupy protesters are overeducated, irresponsible adult children who put the cart before the horse in a big way, expecting to graduate into a world that would shower them with neverending praise, and the next day there are letters taking her to task for being too harsh on single mothers.....
.....or when anyone gives a toss about what Bob Rae has to say on any subject, given that he is a carpetbagging, limelight-seeking opportunist of the first order (and that is something not even the Liberals I talk to try to deny).....then I have to conclude that the Liberals, deluded as they unquestionably are, still have reason to hope.
Compare their state of mind, if you will, to ours. I- we- are currently engaged in soul-searching, debating, deliberating, pondering, on what our next tack will be. We actively fear losing what we've gained while the Liberals look at their troubles as just a down period that they'll bounce back from. That's why we are so reluctant to criticize Conservative leaders who do the wrong thing. I don't like that tendency, but I understand it.
I understand it because the battle between us and them has never been a war between equals. Central to Liberal electoral success is the Heritage Moment illusion of the quiet northern nation, governed by the sane, sage practitioners of the golden mean, where we peacefully play hockey on frozen ponds, are kind to our neighbours, are proud of our healthcare system, dutifully watch the CBC and read Canadian novels, and settle our differences without getting emotional. And we Conservatives, who believe people are naturally selfish and self-interested, are an affront to that. We don't have anything as soothing as the Heritage Moment illusion. All we have are hard truths.
Aye, Mr. Liberal Voter. Why don't ye jes' REEEAD it, then?
Nobody likes having their illusions challenged. But challenge them we must. And if the economy craters, or the Liberal abuse of trust becomes so massive that it cannot be rationalized a la Adscam, then the illusion will disappear and we will have an opportunity to take this province back.
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