Capping off a positively brutal week for Dalton was the news that his ministersandadvisors are "thinking hard" about a carbox tax. They must not have gotten the message that was loudly sent to Stephane Dion in 2008. They also must have not gotten the message loudly sent by, um, Dalton McGuinty in 2008.
Murray, Rubin, and Mintz can be forgiven for not believing Dalton when he says he will not bring in a carbon tax. After all, nobody else in the province of Ontario believes Dalton whenever he says, well, anything.
But this is something different altogether. Here we have an example of a Liberal leader who obviously has dissent in his caucus over the carbon tax issue, and is being contradicted by other Liberals on the matter. You know what that sounds like to me? It sounds like the Liberals can't agree on a plan. They must have no plan. They're in a Plan Free ZoneTM!
Of course we also know Dalton has a hidden agenda to implement a carbon tax, and "gut" the savings of Ontarians everywhere. And let's not forget about the three ring circus that is the Ontario Liberal Party, with ministers contradicting each other all over the place, MPP's quitting left and right, and Dalton being challenged for leadership by Chris "Smoove B" Bentley.
What about the unelected experts that are running the Ontario government who are pushing this tax? Can we say that Dalton is a hostage of these people? A secret unelected cabal running the government? Can we say that? And can we work a joke about "Bocce Balls" in there somewhere?
So now Dalton is trying to blame Tim Hudak for the actions of Conservative governments that governed before Hudak was even born. Basically Dalton wants to know why previous PC governments used the cancer causing chemical Agent Orange to clear forests in the 1950's, 60's, and 70's. None of the previous PC governments from that time are around, but that doesn't seem to figure in Dalton's logic.
Is this the logical extension of the "Tim Is Him" strategy? Is every scandal in the province's history going to be tied to Hudak? I can see the attack ads now:
The Ontario Bond Scandal. Sure it happened almost a century ago, but what did Tim Hudak know, and when did he know it? The government at the time was the United Farmers of Ontario. Farmers live mostly in rural areas. Randy Hillier has the support of farmers, and Randy Hillier is an MPP in Tim Hudak's caucus. Can YOU see the connection? Let's not go back.
Rare kudos to the NDP for proving that the Liberal Ministry of the Environment during the Peterson years used Agent Orange too. So, uh, nice try there, Dalton!
Now I'm sure there was something else I forgot to mention in this post.....what was it....oh yeah, that's right....*deep breath*
SHAME ON YOU, DALTON!!!! Is there anything you won't say to hold on to power?
-After saying he will give Ontarians a rebate on their hydro bills which is barely a rebate at all, hydro rates get hiked again so we can all pay for other people's overdue hydro bills, which won't be as high because of the rebate, but which will be higher because of the hike to pay for other people's overdue hydro bills.....
-One of Dalton's MPP's tweeted that the Liberals.......no, I can't bring myself to to type it. You'll just have to look at a picture:
No, the above tweet is not a horrible joke. I specialize in horrible jokes but this isn't one of them. It's all too real.
These Liberals are powered by sheer, unadulterated, balls to the wall delusion, and I need a shower.
"Police are not releasing the names of the stores which were charged under the provincial Retail Business Holidays Act for being larger than 7,500 square feet in size and selling items other than pharmacy-related products and sundries."
Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. But even though Dalton is clearly incompetent and relies on the mercy of Ontarians to keep him in power, we know very well when he's being malicious.
On Twitter this past few days- I kid you not- the Liberals have actually been trying to spin the fact that the PC Party didn't support Family Day into.....well I don't know what exactly, but the Liberals seem to feel that attacks on FamilyDayareoutrageworthy. To the barricades! The line must be drawn here!
For my part, I thought Family Day was a big pain in the ass. My employer didn't close his place of business so I had to work, and the fact that other stores and suppliers we deal with were closed caused a lot of difficulties. In the real world, my reaction to this state of affairs would be totally understandable, but to the Liberals, you either support Family Day, no reservations, or....well, shame on you.
Of course, I'm a conservative hack, so I'm fair game. But let's say you're a regular Ontarian who's opposed to wind turbines. Or you're concerned about your hydro costs going up. Or you disagree with the government's drug plans. Or maybe you think, well, just maybe human rights commissions are overstepping their bounds. Or maybe too much money is being wasted in health care. In that case....well, you're fair game in all those cases too. If you're an Ombudsman and you can actually hurt the Liberals, then they pull out all the stops against you. It is their way, or you better get out of the way before you get hurt.
Nothing annoys Liberals more than the suggestion that criticisms of their government are worth consideration. Dalton's Press Secretary actually took the time to admonish me for talking about the province's level of debt as if I or anyone could compare it to something piddling like credit card debt. Dalton himself says, “I’d argue on the really big things, the things that are very important to families, we’ve gotten overwhelmingly those big things right.” That statement is a direct challenge to us, us little people with our little ideas who are concerned about little things that aren't important to families.
Our concerns about how money is spent are small potatoes to Dalton. He's off doing important stuff and we keep getting in the way. So we rightly call him out of touch with Ontario families.
But it's worse than that. Dalton doesn't respect his critics, and those critics are the people of Ontario. I only need one example to demonstrate this:
A guy with cancer says he isn't being helped. Dalton says, "That's not true." Disrespectful is the kindest word that can be used to describe that....the implication that the man must be lying.
This is why it is important to restore respect for Ontarians, and a very good thing that Tim Hudak has made restoring respect for Ontarians a priority.
A new Liberal meme in the Twitterverse this past week is an attempt to sum up platforms in six words. I thought I'd play along and try to do the same for the McPremier's probably-never-to-be-announced plan.
Those consultants won't pay for themselves!
We don't need no stinking surpluses!
Lies, damn lies, and some statistics
War = Peace, Freedom = Slavery, Ignorance = Strength
Over the past three weeks, Dalton's pusillanimous pawns have been uncharacteristically vigorous. Be it out of a sincere desire to protect their king, or to protect their position with whatever's left of the Liberal establishment after October, the Ontario Liberals are providing us with a preview of what's to come in the runup to and during the election. One thing's for certain: Any hope of Dalton just drying up and blowing away has been summarily expunged. These Liberals aren't going down without a fight, and they're going to say and do whatever it takes to hold on to the reigns of government. Twas ever thus.
For now, until we get our platform rolled out, the going is going to be tough. I'll be providing periodic updates on Liberal spin and exposing it for the fraud it is. Keep a smile on your faces and don't let them rattle your cages.
Those of you from out of province take note: A Dalton McGuinty Liberal is an especially devious breed, specializing in framing their arguments just so, and even the most ardent and prepared Conservative might be given pause. These Liberal strategies might turn up in your neighbourhood. Watch out! Beware! Things aren't always what they seem. And I'll show you what I mean.
A house divided against itself cannot stand, and the Liberals are itching for a rift in our party to open up. Tim is a fresh face and wisely hasn't unveiled everything he's going to do, so the Liberals are trying to take advantage of this by saying "he has no plan". They're not doing this because they expect people to forget that we will announce a platform in a few months, but because they want us to get annoyed with the Leader's office. I've discussed the implications of this here. What you might not know is that the Liberals are trying to do the same with the NDP. Expect lots of focus by the Liberals on the breakaway group The Ginger Project if the NDP becomes a threat over the next couple of months. If we know the Liberals are deliberately trying to fuel the fires and create dissatisfaction in our ranks with Tim, why should we let them? And why should they play us the same way they play the NDP?
You know how the federal Liberals are always being handicapped by "anonymous sources"? It's great fun to point and laugh when one of them pitches a fit about the problem. It's less funny when it happens to us:
"The best thing about Conservatives is that if you take them out for a drink they’ll tell you what they’re going to do, which is not that far-fetched,” said one top Liberal. “A lot of us find that in our own intelligence gathering.”
Emulating the federal Liberals is a dumb idea. Being used by Liberals is even dumber.
The Liberals know their leader is a weakness for them. So they focus on their so called team, their so called plan....anything but their leader. When's the last time you saw or heard a Liberal say, "I really love the job Dalton's doing as leader"? They say "You Conservatives are afraid to talk about the Harris record"? You say, "You Liberals are afraid to talk about your leader." Or: "You talk too much about the Harris record. Is that because you're mad that you never beat him?" Or: "Actually, the Harris record shows that we balanced the budget. Let's hear your party's record on that file."
They wouldn't be Liberals without some good old fashioned contempt for the voter's intelligence. You can find no shortage of Liberal comments to the effect that the other parties have no plan. But you can also find no shortage of Liberal comments to the effect that health care, education, and everything else will be "gutted" unless they win in 2011. So which is it? You can't have no plan and an evil plan at the same time. Only a Liberal would be so dishonest that they'd even lie to themselves!
To that end, what is the Liberal plan for health care and education? We don't know because they haven't released their platform yet. They say they will "continue to invest"? We make it a discussion about the Liberal spending record. They say we won't invest? Well, yes we will! We might not invest as much, but we will invest! ;)
Keep watching this space for more installments of Liberal Libels. Share your stories and tactics if you feel so inclined!
Life isn't easy when you're Dalton McGuinty's health minister. Seems every other day there's a group of concerned citizens worrying that health care in Ontario is going down the tubes under Dalton's leadership.
Lucky for them Debbie Doubletalk is on the job, telling everyone that everything is running smoothly even when it absolutely isn't. Incompetence? Waste? Outright rebellion? Debbie Doubletalk never lets the crushing reality of the Ontario health care system's systematic troubles interfere with her good cheer.
1) the Mayor of Niagara Falls
2) the majority of that city's regonal councillors
3) Liberal MPP Kim Craitor (!!!!)
4) "many south Niagara residents" who were "enraged"
5) the Ontario Health Coalition
6) the Mayor of Port Colborne
7) the Lord Mayor of Niagara-On-The-Lake
8) a city councillor in Grimsby
9) an NDP MPP, but he doesn't count
all saying that a local health authority's hospital restructuring plan is a financial mess.
Poppycock, says Debbie Doubletalk! She has full confidence in the system. She wants to work with the LHIN and the hospital system!
In my mind, I picture Debbie Doubletalk singing songs from "Mary Poppins" to herself as she glides around the province smoothing over these concerns. Just a spooonful of sugar makes the medicine go dowwwwnnn......
-A new survey shows Dalton's lost the love of many an Ontarian to the extent that people are less willing to vote for the local Liberal with him as leader.
-In the North, one of Dalton's lieutenants, David Orazietti, got into a lover's quarrel with the Steelworkers.
-Dalton's still feeling the fallout from his wind turbine kiss-off.
-The voters are still sweet on the PC Party according to the latest poll despite last week's onslaught of Liberal propaganda.
There must be an awful lot of blue Liberals in the province today with all this bad news! Instead of flowers and candy, Dalton's given them more heartbreaking mistakes and backtracks to apologize for. When's the last time Dalton really showed his party that he cares about their feelings? :*(
It's just like it was with Chretien, Martin, Gordon Campbell, and how it is now with Jean Charest: the Liberals keep apologizing for their man's mistakes and hoping he'll change when he never will. The Liberals need to find a leader that knows how to show them love and will treat them right. My money's on Chris "Smoove B" Bentley, who knows how to treat a woman....oops, maybe not!
Can you dig it? Word on the street is that Attorney General Chris "Smoove B" Bentley, one of the coolest cats in Dalton's crew, is looking to move on up from the West side (of London) to a deluxe apartment in the sky. They say Smoove B is looking to stick it to D-man and become the next Liberal leader! Righteous!
Awwww yeah. Some brothers call themselves O.G.'s, but I'm the A.G., beeyotch!
Y'all better recognize that Smoove B has got his leadership ambitions going on. Attorney General and Indian Affairs? This guy's the Bentley to Dalton McGuinty's beat-up Oldsmobile, or the Ignatieff to Dalton's Stephane Dion. Yeah, the legal system is fraught with delays and Caledonia isn't getting any better last time I checked, but that don't faze Smoove B none.
Chris Bentley is so smooth he makes silk feel like sandpaper. Chris Bentley is so cool he's colder than a polar bear's toenails. Most importantly, Chris Bentley isn't Dalton McGuinty! Dammit Chris, what's stopping you?! This isn't a marathon, we need a leadership change NOW.
Veteran Liberal MPP Jean-Marc Lalonde could become the 10th member of Dalton's conniving crew to say "Au revoir."
En francais, the above article says that Monsieur Lalonde will decide whether to wave the white flag after the budget in March. Lalonde actually survived the Liberal decimations in 1995 and 1999, but the prospect of facing Tim Hudak in 2011 has him hedging his bets.
How do you say, "Dalton is completely boned" in French?
Liberal Health Minister Debbie Doubletalk rides again! This time she's annoyed CEO Tom Closson of the Ontario Hospital Association. When health care bureaucrats are mad at the Liberals, you know things have gotten bad.
Anyway, let's give Mr. Closson the benefit of the doubt. He does have a reason to be annoyed. It seems that Debbie Doubletalk froze wages for hospital employees, but somehow only the non-union employees were prevented from getting wage increases! I guess now we all know what Trudeau meant when he said you couldn't just say "Zap! You're frozen!" to the economy.
If I didn't know better, I'd say that the Liberals are trying to-gasp- buy peace with unions! In advance of an election, no less!
As for the hospital employees who got screwed because they aren't part of a union? I'd say that sounds suspiciously like cutting money from frontline healthcare....
....and blow their own house down with their too-clever-by-half fake platform.
Can anyone else see the problem with the Liberals writing an imaginary platform for their opponents that diverges almost completely from the fear narrative they were going to attack those same opponents with?
Liberal: "OMG! Tim Hudak is going to abolish human rights protection! Boogedy boogedy boogedy!"
Me: "Um, so why didn't you include that in your fake Tory platform? It is supposed to be our platform, right? So, where is it?"
We know Liberals don't believe the nonsense they tell the voters, but it's seldom that they provide us with proof of that fact.
Since we're writing fake platforms, let me write what I consider to be the perfect Liberal platform for 2011.
-All Ontarians will be forced to power their homes by running in gigantic hamster wheels
-A tax on the number 3 (because countries around the world are taxing numbers)
-Renaming the greenbelt "The Frank Stronach Forest"
-Banning handguns and replacing them with squeaky toy hammers
-All children will undergo standardized testing to demonstrate competency in sexual techniques before being allowed to graduate Grade 3
-Issue miniature hammers and chisels so that Ontarians can inscribe their medical records on their health cards
-Privatize the Beer Store instead of the LCBO and when people point out that the Beer Store is already private, accuse them of "taking Ontario backward"
-Ensure that only international students are allowed access to Ontario universities, while students born in Ontario must complete "re-education" courses in China
-Improve access to timely justice by granting all Liberal MPP's and their friends immunity from prosecution. (Doing this will reduce the trial load in Ontario by 60%.)
-Replace the Ombudsman with a Magic 8-Ball
-Appoint George Smitherman to oversee Ontario's drug programs, and ensure that he personally approves each drug
-Designate every dirt road in the province as a highway, and then announce the creation of thousands of new highways
-Announce the creation of an Ontario Foreign Ministry representing Ontario to the world and contradicting everything the federal government does on the world stage
-Move us up to second-to-dead last in Confederation economically
How close do you think I am to the actual Liberal platform?
Liberal would be comedians are trying today to make fun of Jim Wilson feeling broke at the end of the month, but he's just broke at the end of the month. Globe columnist Neil Reynolds makes the case today that Dalton has permanently screwed the province's financial pooch.
The topic of Mr. Reynolds' column is "McGuinty Should Just Be Honest With Voters And Declare Bankruptcy." The province is kaputsville, and it ain't getting better in Reynolds' opinion, so Dalton should admit what everyone else knows. There's lots of number-y goodness in the column for you economical types to crunch on, but I prefer knee-slappers like this line Reynolds leads off with:
"Suppose the Ontario government were obliged to obey the same laws that ordinary people are obliged to obey. In this improbable scenario, among other things, the Ontario government would be compelled to pay down its debt or to declare bankruptcy."
Just consider that request for a moment. Admitting you can't pay the bills is a tough thing to ask any man to admit publicly, but in Dalton's case being honest with the voters and declaring bankruptcy would be harder than most. I mean, when has anyone known Dalton to be honest with the voters?
The above post title is not about a new X-rated movie, so get your minds out of the gutter.
Unless you like cupcakes in the bedroom, that is. Mmm-mmm.
Health minister Deb Matthews, a.k.a. Debbie Doubletalk, is the poster girl for Dalton's devious dealings with the public on health care.
You know the drill: Dalton promises to defend health care against those mean ol' Tories and "U.S. style health care", even though on Dalton's watch wait times have not gone down, emergency rooms have closed, LHINs did spend ridiculous amounts of money on trips to Never-Never Land, optometrists were labelled as terrorists by failed mayoral candidate and Liberal left-hand man George Smitherman, and garages were converted into operating rooms.
And, e-health. (That's not a sentence fragment.)
Dalton's not bothered by all this, though. He figures all he has to do is make scary noises about "gutting healthcare" and Ontarians will suck it up. But Dalton also specializes in hiding behind other people when the snack cakes hit the fan, and that's where Debbie Doubletalk comes in. Anytime someone gets mad about health care, Dalton just fobs the question off on his health minister and it's up to them to deal with the fallout. That's why he's had to go through so many.
Just watch Debbie Doubletalk fumble her way through a question asked by Thornhill MPP Peter Shurman about unethical bonuses doled out at a Richmond Hill hospital. That's Debbie Doubletalk, folks! Always remaining plucky in the face of overwhelming evidence of Liberal corruption.
Debbie Doubletalk is going to have a major role in the next campaign. She's been tasked with playing up Dalton's meagre accomplishments in the health care field. But a short while ago, Debbie Doubletalk had a major downer of a day when an Ontario court took a dump all over Dalton's new drug plan.
This drug plan sparked a war between the government and pharmacists as well as drug companies a few months back. It led to pharmacies cutting hours and jobs and may have caused the CEO of Shoppers Drug Mart to resign. The plan may have put people out of work, said Dalton. but at least we saved people money by forcing the industry to dance to our tune.
Well, it looks like the drug companies found a loophole in Dalton's plan and the so-called "savings" are on hold for now, at least until Debbie Doubletalk and her lawyers appeal. That's one less accomplishment Dalton and Debbie can mislead Ontarians about in October, and one more headache for his government.
How is Debbie Doubletalk going to get out of this one? We'll be watching, and making sure she doesn't get away with misleading Ontarians about what's really going on in Ontario's Health Care system.
Ladies and Gentlemen of Blogging Tories and conservative partisans across the globe....I take to my keyboard this Saturday afternoon with grave news. News that will SHOCK and terrify you.
Yesterday, at the Liberals annual policy convention, Dalton McGuinty implied that Tim Hudak had a....*gulp*...a "hidden agenda".
Up until now, we had thought that Tim Hudak was prepared for anything that Dalton could throw at him. Four years spent cogitating on the mistakes of the past, revitalizing the party, and preparing in the most rigorous fashion imaginable for the campaign trail of 2011 was meant to strengthen our electoral machine into an unstoppable dreadnought that could withstand any Liberal assault.
We thought wrong.
O, o, we are slain. Danny boy, the pipes are calling. It's the eeeend of the wooorld as we knooow it....and I feel fiiiiiine....
What's so diabolical about this "hidden agenda" is that it is unlike anything we as Conservatives have faced before. "Yes We Can" is a mere schoolyard singsong compared to this. "I Feel Your Pain?" Mere penny-arcade theatrics. Never in the history of political warfare has anything so devastating been approached, much less tried.
Dalton, if you're reading this blog (and I know you do, each and every day) I beseech you not to deploy this terrible weapon. Surely an electoral victory is not worth putting Ontarians through unthinkable suffering and torment at the prospect of Tim Hudak's nefarious hidden agenda. On your humanity, sir....well, OK....on your reptilian kitteneater-hood, sir, I implore you to find another way, somehow. For the children.
Welcome once again to Heard Around Liblogs, the portion of our show where take a look at things the Liberals are saying that helps our PC cause.
Now, there's no statute of limitations on dredging up old stuff that makes Liberals look like a bunch of goofs. Still you can imagine my surprise when a simple Google search revealed this interesting post dating back to the slush fund scandal of '07, in which the new Liberal golden boy Mike Colle was implicated and tossed from cabinet.
Who's the author? Why, no less than Lib muckraker M.J. Murphy, a.k.a BigCityLib. The post's title? "Mike Colle: Not Crooked, Not Competent." Ouch! Somebody didn't learn the lesson they teach in Liberal War Room School about deleting old blog posts! Ahem.
The "Not Crooked" portion of the post title refers to how no evidence was found that the bribed groups got money specifically because they had Liberal ties. However, you can read this Star article, entitled "Colle aide's group tied to slush funds", and decide for yourself. The article casts aspersions on Liberal Richmond Hill MPP Reza Moridi as well:
"The opposition parties have questioned a $200,000 grant a year ago to the Iranian-Canadian Community Centre, a group that is yet to build a community centre and has raised just $15,000 in other funds.
The president of the Richmond Hill provincial Liberal riding association was a director until recently, as was nuclear safety expert Reza Moridi, who is seeking the Liberal nomination for the riding in the October election."
Hey wait a minute, I'm a young Conservative operative! Well, if any profane comments show up under this post, I'll know who to point the finger at first.
Anybody else find it funny that the Liberal line on Colle is, "Never mind the guy's ethics, at least he never switched parties!"
Q: How many Leader's Dinners, hosted by Tim Hudak, has Rocco Rossi attended?
A: He attended Tim Hudak's Leader's Dinner in May of 2010.
Q: Were Liberals, such as the ones "working" on his mayoral campaign at the time, aware of Rossi's attendance at said dinner?
A: As aware as any Liberal can be about anything, I guess.
Q: Was there any pants-pooping outrage from Liberals when they discovered that Rocco had attended that dinner?
A: Nope.
Q: Who said the following about Rocco's "Bocce Balls" mayoralty ads back when they came out?
"The new ads, meanwhile, were developed by the same team that created the 2003 “Great Hair” ads for Toronto Mayor David Miller. “And that ended not badly,” (insert name here) gloated."
And:
“Rocco can’t let Rob sleep walk through this thing,” explains (You-Know-Who) of the ads, which enlisted the help of the people who created Mayor David Miller’s “great hair” and “looks like a mayor” campaign.
A: Hmmm, no idea. It must have been some Smitherman supporter.
Q: How many conservative city councillors do we have in Eglinton Lawrence?
A: One. Karen Stintz, who was re-elected in 2010. The other councillor, Josh Colle, is the son of the current MPP Mike Colle.
Q: Was Mike Colle booted from McGuinty's cabinet in 2007 over the slush fund scandal in which minority organizations were bribed to stay in the Liberal fold?
Q: Is it true that you have to be a special type of slimeball to be booted from McGuinty's cabinet over a scandal, given what we've come to expect from this government?
A: Why yes, yes it is.
Q: Would Rocco Rossi be an improvement over Mike Colle?
A: It'd be pretty hard not to be.
Q: How many votes did Conservative candidates get in the 2010 election in the part of Eglinton Lawrence where Josh Colle is now a councillor?
A: Rob Davis got 5399 votes. Ron Singer got 2275. Together, they would have had 7674, while Colle got 6668.
Q: Which conservative candidate did Rob Ford endorse in Eglinton Lawrence?
A: He endorsed Singer. For those of you keeping score at home, the guy who got the Mayor's endorsement got less votes than the guy who didn't.
Q: Come to think of it, how many Rob Ford-endorsed candidates won in Toronto proper?
Q: What is the chance that the Liberals will pull every available volunteer and person with a pulse that they can find back into Fortress Toronto to try and hold onto Eglinton Lawrence?
