Perhaps I'm Making A *Bit* Much Of This, But.....

One: This is not an April Fool's Day headline. It's all too real.

And two: This is another example of how Tories underestimate their opponents and lose.

If nothing else, I hope tonight's upset drives that message home. :)

Holy Budget Shortfall, Batman!

Money burns a hole in Dalton's pocket, and I guess it burnt an $18 billion hole in his budget, too! 

I like the part where Mr. Shurman points out that Dalton's spending curve is way, way off from Drummond's projections. Kind of defeats the purpose of hiring the guy, huh?

UPDATE: Scratch that! The hole is $18B plus $300 million for that seat-saving power plant closure out in Mississauga.

Mr. Dithers Slithers Back

Oh, this is too precious. Looks like the media have really jumped on the Dwight Duncan = Paul Martin angle. It's quite fitting!

Like Martin, Duncan has sat and spun while his leadership ambitions got frustrated time after time by Da Boss.

Like Martin, Duncan comes from the "business" wing of the Liberal Party, which is a polite way of labelling the part of the Liberal Party who couldn't find water if they were fishes so far as political organization goes.

We all know how this movie ends, don't we? We saw it with John Turner and, well, Paul Martin.  

Who wants to bet that this image goes through Dwight Duncan's head 100 times a day?

I'm surprised the Liberals- the real Liberals- are allowing this obvious bum-rush to take place. Didn't any of them read "The Way It Works"? Or the 50-odd books on Liberal dynastic warfare that I'm poring over in what passes for my spare time? The Liberals only rule the country when they have cool, cerebral, l'etat-c'est-moi, just-watch-me Liberals running the show, not tempest-in-a-teapot, 99-very-important-priorities, mad-as-hell, I-had-no-option Liberals running the show.



The Waffle

First things first. We're not going to an election. I am told the NDP's feet are cold and they are going to fold. And it is their call now.

If Tim Hudak had his way, though, we would have one. Good on him for not getting rattled. Like I said- either you follow through on wanting to vote against this, or you end up looking like the NDP is about to. Way to stick to your principles, Ms. Horwath! Why don't you just merge with the Liberals already? :P

On the budget itself, there's very little to be said that I haven't said already: Dalton boots the ball down the field on hard economic choices, ignores the advice he paid Don Drummond to give him, insults the intelligence of conservatives by tossing them crumbs, slaps the unions who supported him in the face, and basically goes backwards and forwards at the same time in time honoured Liberal tradition.


Now, because Dalton thought we were going to be the ones who knuckled under here (as evidenced by his clumsy copying of Harper's playbook) and because Andrea Horwath will be the one to support this budget over Hudak's objections, the time for finding excuses to support Dalton is over. If you don't like what Dalton is about to do, then there is only one party that you will support, because the other opposition party will support Dalton. Case closed. What's about to happen to this province, whether it's too many cuts or not enough cuts for your taste, is not Hudak's fault.


And for those who are still not convinced that the devil you don't know is better than the devil you do know by this point, well, we'll just see how long it takes before you stop paying attention to non-issues like the PC Party of Ontario having the letter P in its name, or the fact that some city councillors in Toronto don't want subways and that reflects badly on Hudak.

Have a little not-really austerity and see how it tastes on your morning waffles.

Budget Blitz

Today, on the eve of the budget, I was saying to myself, "Self, what if someone made a video pointing out Dalton's wavering stance on corporate tax cuts?"

And all of a sudden, there it was! Let me share it with you.....

Yikes. It sure ain't nothing like Colin Firth in "The King's Speech", folks.



With any luck, there will be more such videos in the near future!

A Mighty Wind

Tim Hudak's Bill 42, The Affordable Energy and Restoration of Local Decision Making Act, would eliminate the phantom-job subsidizing FIT and microFIT programs, give communities a say on whether they want turbines on not, and make it so the Minister of Energy to consult with local communities before they proceed with energy projects.

Now, we already know what the Liberals are going to say about this. That we don't respect council. But you see, we're trying to respect people. Whether people return the favour is another matter altogether.

I've talked before about how people are looking for excuses not to vote against Dalton. Why are they doing that? I think it's because they have accepted that nobody is listening to them.

Tim Hudak admitted a month ago that not enough people were listened to last time around. That's why, on this issue and on the subway issue, Hudak is trying to do what the people want.

Dalton, by contrast, doesn't listen to horse farmers, doctors, pharmacists, unions, Don Drummond, miners, warnings from people about ORNGE, and dissatisfied MPP's in his own caucus like Kim Craitor. Only the chessmasters running the show get the ear of the king. If you're not one of Dalton's inner circle, you're not getting heard. George Smitherman's sad story- being made into the whipping boy for ORNGE- is a prime example of what happens when you step outside the safe zone of the Premier's office. The fact that he was once Deputy Premier means nothing. You cross the boss and you suffer.

So as far as giving people outside the king's court a chance to speak their minds? The PC Party comes out ahead.

I think people are so used to seeing Liberals ignore their complaints that they half expect to be ignored before they make them. The media plays along because they want to stay in Dalton's good graces and they don't want to be targeted by Dwight Duncan as being part of a conspiracy to depose the monarch.

Ontarians seem to have just accepted at the moment that Dalton is the boss and that he can't be beaten. But we in the PC Party aren't going to accept that. We're going to cause all kinds of trouble for Dalton and make his life as difficult as possible.

So we are going to take positions against wind turbines and in favour of subways. And after that, Tim Hudak needs to find more people who've been screwed over by this government and rally them into a cohesive force that will boot Dalton out in the next election. My guess is, with this budget, he won't have to look too far.  

Protect Your King

I read my good friend Adam Radwanski's latest, about how po' widdle Deb Matthews got ORNGE juice all over her nice clean political image, and I viddied such lovely pictures about how Dalton, prince of the satrap of Ottawa South, scion of the high-born McGuinty Liberal family, saddles his leadership rivals with baggage so that they will never be able to challenge him.

For Chris Bentley, Caledonia and wind turbines. For Deb Matthews, ORNGE. For Dwight Duncan, the economy and the budget. For Kathleen Wynne, forcing her into ministries she doesn't want to be in. To say nothing of George Smitherman and Michael Bryant and Sandra Pupatello and all the other might-have-beens that passed unheralded before the last election.

There are people in Dalton's caucus that have been waiting to challenge him for over a decade. But no. They bide their time, willingly throwing themselves on political land mines for their lordly Leader.

There is no clearer proof that the Liberal Party is a full-on cult.

Drink the red Kool-Aid because your Leader tells you to, you zombies! You'll go to Heaven!

Election Deflection

Don't do what the federal Liberals do, says I. Or, what they did.

What the federal Liberals did was announce, loudly, that they wanted an election. And when they did that, Harper called their bluff. Every. Single. Time.

Now McGuinty thinks he's being all cute trying to use Harper's own strategy against us. Because he's not Harper, however, he called Andrea Horwath to tell her this is all just a big silly game to try make the PC's look dumb.

So we had better not do what the federal Liberals did. Do not announce loudly that you are ready to bring this government down if you are not. If the NDP makes that decision, then they will wear it.

If it were me, I would one-up McGuinty as far as Harper goes: "Ontarians don't want an election."

Just my 2 cents.

LRT = Liberals Railroaded Toronto

Behold! The Sheppard LRT! Not the Sheppard subway, like you thought, and like the Scarborough Liberal MPP's thought in that letter they wrote, but the Sheppard LRT!

What does Brad Duguid have to say about this development? Oh, that's right: "We respect the will of city council." And when this mess starts to get built, who's going to get the blame? City council, of course!

Speaking of this mess getting built: Has anyone checked on the status of that power plant out in Mississauga, the 407 extension, those not-exactly-closed coal plants, those quarries up north, that hospital out in Peel, and all the other stuff Dalton was supposed to build or stop building? 

I wonder if anyone will remember this little episode when, in a little while, the Liberals try to build a casino and have to go through the messy process of a referendum. With subways, it'll be "Dalton listens to council and not the people," and with the casino (which likely won't pass a referendum), it'll be "Dalton listens to the people and not council!" And in both cases Ford will end up looking offside. Huzzah!

ORNGE: Not From Concentrate

Surpriiiiiise! I bet you thought I was going to talk about ORNGE, didn't you? Well, you were sure wrong! Instead I'm going to do what everyone else is doing and find reasons to not talk about ORNGE.

Look at that! Adam Radwanski continues his streak of fabulous reporting by praising Deb Matthews for her performance today. Sure, people were blowing billions of dollars without her knowledge, but at least she didn't sweat all that much today!!

Hey, you know what else isn't ORNGE? Some story about how a couple of unions bought the services of the lobbying group that ran the PC campaign a few months ago. Why is this story getting media attention today, of all days? It's not like there could be anything else the media could be talking about, like perhaps ORNGE, is there? Silly me, there I go again.

People really don't care about ORNGE! Possibly because there are no robocalls involved! Mike Harris also had nothing to do with it, so who cares? And it can't easily be blamed on Stephen Harper or Rob Ford the way the Scarborough Liberal MPP's did in that letter I circulated today, so I guess we're all out of luck!

Ha ha! Thank you for distracting us from ORNGE, Philosoraptor!

I hear the opposition voted down the Liberals and made it so that a select committee of MPP's could study the ORNGE mess. The vote was 53-41, which means a bunch of Liberals don't want the matter studied! If this had been the CPC, there'd be articles aplenty about the Conservatives wanting to be secretive and stuff, but because this is the Ontario Liberals, I guess you're just not going to hear a whole lot about that!

Blah, blah, blah, the Ministry of Health willfully ignored warnings and George Smitherman is complaining about being thrown under the bus. Can't these people find something worthwhile to talk about, like how Dwight Duncan is only going to do half of what Don Drummond wants to do, if that? We have a record deficit and Dwight Duncan wants to half-ass things! Isn't that great?!

Whatever you do, people of Ontario, keep trying as hard as you can to ignore all the reasons to vote against Dalton.

Derailment

We'll get to that whole ORNGE mess a little later. For the moment, though, I'd like to show how simple it should be to prove Dalton's people are talking out of both sides of their mouths.

This letter, signed by 6 Scarborough MPP's, supports underground transit for the Eglinton Crosstown Line. They, however, voted against a PC motion in favour of underground transit.

I'll repeat that, because it bears repeating. They want the line built underground, but they don't want a PC motion to build the line underground. They haven't put forward a Liberal motion to put the line underground, which would no doubt enjoy massive support. After all, that's what the people want, isn't it?

Brad Duguid said, "How does the Leader of the Opposition think the province can build a transit line if the city refuses to support it? You can’t do that. It’s not possible." Then, he put his name to a letter supporting a transit line. An underground transit line.

Is there a name for what's wrong with these people?

Broken Telephone

Usually, when conservatives gripe about the PC Party, they gripe about the leader, the logo, whether we need to remove the P from PC, and other such issues.

Today I'm going to gripe about something a bit more substantial. You see, our party's relationship with the media, quite frankly, sucks.

Now we all know that the media are a bunch of Liberals who hate us just because and all successful Conservatives ignore the media. I get that we're never going to be loved by the media. The difference between us and the CPC/Ford is that Harper and Ford are in government, and when they take a pasting from the media, they can shrug it off. When we take a pasting from the media, it hurts a lot more.

Here is another fine column from Adam Radwanski in which he decides that the PC Party cannot oppose the closing of slots in Fort Erie and the opening of a casino in Toronto.

I don't know if anyone from the PC's bothered to talk to Radwanski and tried to explain that the government's stance is contradictory in that they are trying to prevent gambling in one place and trying to promote gambling in another. Wait, I'm sorry; the government is actually going hold a referendum on gambling in Toronto, because it's Toronto, so even if the government doesn't get to build a casino anywhere and gets no new revenues and doesn't fix the deficit at all, it won't be their fault. Wow, these Liberals sure are master strategists!! Or else they are just confusing the hell out of people and people like Radwanski are deciding that they are more in the right than the PC's because, well, they're the government.

Seriously, I can bash Radwanski all I want, but it isn't going to get me anywhere. His column is already written. Tomorrow there'll be another one about how Hudak wore blue socks on Tuesday and black socks on Wednesday, so he'll never be Premier. We can't do anything about Liberal friendly journalists. The problem is that we aren't getting any love from any journalists. And this is no one's fault but ours.

I don't know what it is, but there seems to be some sort of cognitive block amongst some Conservatives where we seem to feel that nobody's going to notice if what Hudak said before conflicts with what he's saying now. We had a situation a few weeks ago where what Hudak said, or didn't say, on subways back in the 1990's invalidates his position today. Did anyone notice that Dalton once said that he didn't want to start building casinos to generate revenue? Well, Radwanski did, but then he spent the rest of the article bashing Hudak, so never mind.

Either we can make sure our position on every issue is totally consistent, or we can stop acting so shocked when people don't give us the benefit of the doubt and we can also fight back.

Here's a great example: If the Liberals call the revenue sharing agreement with racetracks a subsidy when it isn't, then the party needs to loudly and firmly and repeatedly say that it isn't a subsidy.

Another example: A journalist asks Hudak why his position on subways now is different than what it was in 1995? Hudak says, "I appreciate that things are different now than they were 20 years ago. My position has changed for the following reasons." And then he tells us what they are.

And as far as the base is concerned, we need to get in on the act too. Can anyone explain to me why we are so quick to defend Harper and Ford when they get into trouble but we can't do the same for Hudak? We all hate Dalton and we all want him gone, and we gave Hudak a 78% vote to continue as leader, so where's the disconnect here?

I don't know who's responsible for solving this problem, but unless we solve it, we're going to be stuck in opposition forever.

Quit the FIT

Enough with the subsidization of energy projects and enough with taking decision-making powers away from local communities on which projects go forward, says Tim Hudak. In a decidedly non-talking point fashion, too.

Liberal Culture

As I study Liberals more and more, I am beginning to see the crucial difference between us and them. And it is this: The Liberals are a cult. We are not.

Yesterday, Dwight Duncan announced that he was going to cut a whole bunch of infrastructure cash that had previously been assigned to vague and nebulous causes. We don't know as of yet what these cuts will affect. This marks a continuing pattern of rightward motion for the Liberals, and I am not opposed to it.

What I am opposed to, however, is the notion that if Tim Hudak had told people he wanted to cut a bunch of infrastructure cash without saying what specifically, down to the tiniest detail, he wanted to cut, the Liberals would have lost their minds. We know this because they have done so already. And had Tim Hudak been specific down to the last detail, well, the Liberals would have lost their minds then, too.


Critically, the difference between Duncan's soon to be real cuts and Hudak's desired cuts is that Liberal cuts are done "with compassion." Yes, I know that explanation is shoot-yourself-in-the-head ridiculous, but people like pollster Nik Nanos are buying it.

Do these people (and the people of Ontario.....but we'll get to the voters later) not remember how big of a problem it was for them that Hudak announced a platform last year that didn't give specifics on what he wanted to cut? I'm not buying the explanation that it was a long time ago, because last week they were bothering Hudak for not being specific enough about how much additional money he wanted to commit to subways.

I wrote this week about Liberal MPP Kim Craitor who, for whatever reason, feels like he has to be the one guy who distances himself on a regular basis from whatever Dalton's doing today. He is doing this because what Dalton is doing is not popular and not liked. There are people who are mad about wind turbines and the fact that horse racing slots are closing and that the province is broke. But not even Craitor has gone so far as to criticize Dalton personally for his decisions. And even during the dark days of 2010-2011, at the lowest point the Liberals have been in forever, I could barely find one example of any Liberals being publicly critical of their leader.

Hilariously, the Liberals are the ones who mock us for being a cult. We respect Stephen Harper and Rob Ford for decisively beating Liberals. But we criticize these men and their mistakes frequently. We debate who is a principled conservative and who isn't, while the Liberals will take anyone from former NDP premiers to disaffected Red Tories.


We knew that Dion and Ignatieff were losers. George Smitherman's mayoral campaign was publicly and obviously in trouble from the very beginning. The Liberals knew they were losers. But did the rank and file say so publicly? No way. Bob Rae was supposed to be an interim leader. Is he going to be permanent leader now? Does the Liberal rank and file have anything to say about that? Nope. They're preoccupied with robocalls and a campaign in Toronto-Danforth that has little if any chance of succeeding.

Here's the guy they found to carry the Liberal banner in Toronto Danforth. When asked why he's doing this, he starts throwing out hockey metaphors because he can't answer the question directly. He can't answer the question directly because he's never had to think about why he supports the Liberals. Supporting the Liberals is just what he does. It's as natural as coaching hockey or breathing. His mind is an undisturbed clear lake of The Liberal Party Is Awesome. This is not a candidate. This is a cult member.

So, too, with Dalton and his merry band. Dalton McGuinty is a man whose deep and abiding faith in the Liberal Party comes from being born and raised in a Liberal family. He does not have the critical capacity to understand why his ideas make people angry. And if someone like Craitor finally loses his seat in the next election, that doesn't bother Dalton at all, because he isn't capable of understanding why it happened. There is a lot in common with this approach and Rick Santorum home schooling his children. But only Rick Santorum gets criticized for being willfully ignorant.

I can understand why Dalton and his people are this way. But I don't understand why the people of Ontario will not admit this contradiction. Either it has not been communicated to them, or they are deliberately blocking it out of their minds, and Harris is just a convenient excuse.

If the latter is true, then it is a waste of time to argue with these people and it is a waste of time to consider their viewpoints. You cannot argue with a member of a cult. And that is why Tim Hudak shouldn't bother trying to win them over and be content with a 40% majority. Which, according to some polls, he already has.

The question is whether Tim Hudak and his campaign team will or will not be scared off, as they were back in October, by the actions of a few zealots.

Snake Eyes

It seems local councillors in Niagara Falls are in a bad mood over the OLG's unilateral, don't-listen-to-local-people decision to shutter slots at the historic Fort Erie racetracks. What do you suppose local MPP Kim Craitor is going to do? Maybe he'll pretend he's not a Liberal like he's had to do zillions of times to try and save himself from this government's machinations.

Wait a second....I thought the McGuinty government respected local councillors? That was certainly the explanation they gave for voting against a pro-subway PC Party motion last week! Oh, wait. I forgot. That was last week. This is this week.

Maybe it's because last week it was all about Toronto, and as everybody knows, Toronto is better than everyone else. But what's the McGuinty government going to do about a recent poll that says people don't want casinos? We know he's going to ignore the poll that says the PC's are 12 points ahead, and talk about the poll that puts the Liberals 9 points ahead, but is he really going to ignore the famous Toronto NIMBYISM?

Who was the last person to try building a casino in T.O.? Wow, it was Mike Harris? And now McGuinty wants to do the same?

Not Easy Being Green

Huzzah! Another patented McGuinty Backtrack. Looks like wind and solar producers are going to get a whole heck of a lot less in subsidies to produce energy nobody wants. And as a bonus, it looks like rural Ontario locales that turfed their Liberal MPP's are getting some say in whether the government can plop down turbines willy-nilly, too! Sure your hydro bills are still going to go up, but let's not expect too much from Dalton all at once.

Hey, who was it who petitioned the government to stop running roughshod over rural Ontario in the first place? Oh, that's right. It was the PC Party of Ontario.

Now what does this mean? It means that whether you are a teacher's union, an environmental activist, a business leader, a doctor, a horse farmer, or one of those ubiquitous anti-development people in downtown Toronto who you'll be seeing a lot more of now that Barney the Duncansaur wants to turn a goodly chunk of the waterfront into Vegas North, you cannot ever.....EVER....trust Dalton McGuinty to follow through.

I wonder how come we haven't heard from David Suzuki and reliable McGuinty backers Rick Smith and Dr. Gideon Forman about all this? And another thing....why is it that when Ford wants a Ferris wheel on the Port Lands, city councillors stage a revolt,  but when McGuinty orders a casino to be built, I barely hear a whimper from the same people?

Could it be that calling McGuinty out on his duplicity and giving him a reason to back off on his ridiculous ideas is actually more effective than just repeating talking points? Could it be that if we were to examine McGuinty's strategy closely instead of just assuming he's already won, we would find that he's actually just making it up as he's going along?

Don't Do What The Liberals Do, Part 862

Why is it that people who don't like Conservatives keep doing things that cause Conservatives to circle the wagons?

Take this attempt to declare Ford's mayoralty null and void, which is just about the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

Ok, you geniuses: Let's run with your little thought experiment. Let's say you do get Ford booted out of office. What then? Well, apart from not being able to use the "we don't want Tories running the show at all three levels" meme, you will also have set a very dangerous precedent. There are a lot of Liberal-affiliated mayors and city councillors in this province. Get the picture?

By the way, I couldn't help but notice that the lawyer in this case, the distinguished Mr. Clayton Ruby, works for the law firm Ruby Shiller Chan. And by happy coincidence, the guy who plays drums in this band is also named "Shiller." Isn't that weird??

ANYWAY......it does seem like there are a lot of attempts to do drive-bys on Conservatives lately. Like that thing from last week where that professor out in B.C. had to apologize for implying some people counselled others to break the law. Then there's this whole robo-call mess which has so far ensnared exactly zero Conservatives and one Liberal MP. There were also some attempts to link Tim Hudak to robocalls that I don't think went anywhere.

The PCPO would do well to remember these antics and understand that there are no shortcuts back to the top. It would help considerably, though, if we also had some media contacts that could be sympathetic to what we're putting out.

The people on the opposite side of the political divide don't think Conservatives should be in power, anywhere, anytime. They're going to try all sorts of crazy stunts to try and catch us off guard, and people will believe them, because too many people think Conservative governments are fundamentally illegitimate. So stop assuming these people will go quietly.


EDIT: .....aaaaaand up goes the hit count! I suppose everyone reading this is "with the band"! Heh heh heh.

Stand Clear Of The Doors

The fine folks at the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition have provided you with a list of phone numbers for Dalton's MPP's at savethesubways.com.

If the Scarborough Town Hall hosted by the TTC Thursday night didn't send enough of a message to Dalton, you can make sure he gets that message by calling whomever you are unlucky enough to be represented by and letting them know that you want subways, and ask them why they voted AGAINST subways. If you leave a message with your phone number, you will get a callback.

Rumour has it that Dalton is monitoring the number of calls he gets on this issue very closely and if enough of his MPP's get an earful, he just might issue one of his patented climbdowns on this issue.

Don't be like the people who claimed there were 30,000 plus individuals who were mad about robocalls, but could barely get a few dozen people out to Parliament Hill. Call your MPP and tell them you want subways. It'll make your Sunday.

The Box

Here's a column by Jeffrey Simpson in the Globe and Mail about those wacky Republicans.

I am absolutely mindblown by how much Canadians care about the US Republican primary. This is a nomination they can't vote in, in a country they don't live in, between four men none of them would vote for, who are competing to see which one of them will (as far as most Canadians are concerned) lose the Presidential election in the fall.

What I find amazing about Simpson's lament for the Republican Party and America is that he does not mention Obama's name once. (UPDATE: Goodness, I made a boo-boo. Obama's name is mentioned in Simpson's article, but only as an "imagined threat".) President Obama apparently has nothing to do with the current state America finds itself in. Obama did nothing to create the current situation. He is merely managing it.

I'm fairly certain that, for most Canadians, the current situation is entirely the fault of George W Bush, the Tea Party, an undisclosed group of Wall Street people, Fox News, the "neo-cons", and the 1%. The current President, the guy running the show, is utterly powerless before this Legion Of Doom.

From what I can tell, the spectacle of the Republican primary is not just an entertaining diversion for these gawkers. Instead, it is an assault on the very foundation of what makes Canada Canada. We are Canadians and Canadians are progressive and moderate and want government that does things that are socially acceptable. Watching the Americans say crazy things makes us feel better about ourselves, because we don't do things like that.

Now since we don't do crazy things like the Americans, we are absolved of any impetus to change. Americans are the ones that need to get themselves in order, so that must mean we're doing fantastically. We ignore very large and obvious problems, like a health care system that struggles to meet people's needs. And we give lousy, diffident governments, like Dalton McGuinty's government, the benefit of the doubt because they say and do things that are progressive, moderate, and socially acceptable.

Governments that aren't progressive, moderate and socially acceptable, like Stephen Harper's government, are fundamentally illegitimate. That's why they must have orchestrated an illegal robocall scheme despite the fact that nothing has been proven yet. Here's a guy from Bracebridge who says as much in a letter to the Toronto Star.

The act of apologizing for Dalton McGuinty's government is a reflex Ontarians have developed to keep themselves from having to do anything to improve their current situation. Dalton McGuinty released a Youtube video last week asking teachers not to strike, so I guess our education system is OK because Dalton says it is. And in the letters to the Globe today, someone from the TDSB says the Ontario school system is among the best in the world, so that must be true. It certainly seems to be true for enough Ontarians that our school system doesn't have any problems that are worth mentioning or complaining about. That's why no, repeat, no cuts to the education budget will be tolerated. Not one dollar.

There are people in Ontario who are angry about wind turbines, about subways, about the deficit, and other issues. But because these people are angry, they tend not to be progressive, moderate, and socially acceptable. So nobody pays any attention to them except as objects of derision. They are outside the box. Like the Republicans.

Now as it becomes more and more obvious that this is a massive, province-wide defence mechanism, the area inside the box gets smaller and smaller. The NDP is outside the box too. For while the NDP is certainly progressive, they are a lot less moderate, and a lot less socially acceptable. And while some conservative politicians, like John Tory as PC Party leader, may be progressive and moderate, they are certainly not socially acceptable because they propose ideas like funding faith based schools. Now that John Tory is on the radio talking all day about how much he loves Dalton's ideas, he's a lot more socially acceptable.

Pointing out (as I do) that Dalton's government is an incoherent mess driven by inside-the-Liberal-box thinking tends to go largely unnoticed. (Except when I make fun of the War Room Boss. Then I know people are noticing, because my hit-count spikes way up.) Every aspect of Liberal governance is fundamentally contradictory, right down to the fact that Liberals consider themselves to be socially progressive and fiscally conservative while in reality you must PAY FOR MORE SOCIAL PROGRAMS WITH MORE TAX DOLLARS. But people do not want to notice these contradictions because it would cause their safe little progressive moderate socially acceptable fantasylands to fall apart.

When, as was the case with Mike Harris, the province has finally gotten to the point where the insane situation has overwhelmed the sanity preached by the Liberals, then the government of the day will be justified in being not progressive, not moderate, and not socially acceptable because they will hopefully identify progressive, moderate, and socially acceptable governance as the CAUSE of the current madness. That pushing people "forward" against their will eventually leads to a backlash, not acceptance.

And then we here in Ontario will be in the same situation as poor, lost America. And it'll be Dalton's fault.

Da Proof Is Da Proof

When accusing your opponents of trying to influence a vote....by, oh, I don't know, possibly offering cigarettes to homeless people if they vote for Dalton?.......it's always best to have evidence like a taped recording of the event.

I hear that's a good way to avoid libel suits!

A Clockwork ORNGE

The idea that the robocalls were the work of a single rogue staffer? Ridiculous, say the Liberals.


Deb Matthews' assertion that ORNGE was the work of a single rogue minister? Perfectly acceptable, say the Liberals.

Voting AGAINST

You ever notice that Dalton likes to make a big deal of how the PC Party voted AGAINST something he likes? Because the idea of an opposition party opposing is somehow weird and strange to him?

Well guess what the Liberals did today. They voted AGAINST. Against subways, to be exact.

Now, you may not agree with Hudak or Ford on subways. What is impossible to disagree with, however, is that the Liberals voted AGAINST. And when election time comes around, we will be sure to remind the voters that their MPPs voted AGAINST. And then voters can exercise their judgement as they see fit. I predict that many of them will also vote AGAINST, specifically, AGAINST Dalton's MPP's.

The Liberals can employ all kinds of justifications for voting AGAINST, such as the one many of them employed today, saying that they are for subways, but they are AGAINST a PC motion supporting subways. Presumably if the motion had been a Liberal motion, they would not have voted AGAINST it. Because that justification is silly, all people are going to remember is that the Liberals voted AGAINST.

Debate on whether the Liberals are AGAINST subways is now closed. They can say as much as they want that they are personally for subways, but their voting record shows that they voted AGAINST.

Wow, this is fun! I can see why Dalton does this all the time. It's like the need for debate on the issue has totally been removed! AGAINST! That's the end of the discussion. LOL.  

Not Sure If You Noticed....

....but there is now more evidence linking Dalton to ORNGE than there is evidence linking Harper to the robocalls.

Subway Tuesday

Now hear this, now hear this. Tim Hudak and the PC Party of Ontario are putting the word out that this coming Tuesday, March 6, 2012, will mark a show of support for subways in Toronto.

The PC Party of Ontario wants volunteers to show up at the following TTC stations from 6:30 AM to 8:00 AM: Kennedy, Victoria Park, Yonge-Sheppard, Islington, and Keele. Those would be subway stations outside of the downtown, in subways, not streetcars country.

Those who wish to assist the PCPO in this bold initiative may forward details to Andrew Browett at andrew.browett@ontariopc.net.

Isn't it nice when bloggers assist the party?


UPDATE: Give it up for BigCityLiberal, everyone! Thanks for promoting us.

Hey BCL, I hear your Scarborough, Mississauga, and Etobicoke MPP's are really worried about this issue. Maybe we can expect some of them to show up at the stops tomorrow morning? I hope so, because it would sure look a lot better for them than not showing up for Hudak's motion in the afternoon! :)

Down The Youtubes

I really, really loathe Dalton's smarmy Youtube videos. Especially since he usually shoots them in his office despite a ban on Youtube, instituted by him, for QP computers.

What is going through this man's mind? Does he not realize that the teachers of Ontario feel entitled to say they've been "slapped in the face" by his new contract because he's been leading them to expect better and better every year? Does he think that his credibility with them is so strong that a Youtube video, of all things, will put things right?

You know what? Probably. Probably the teacher's unions can't be bothered to do anything but a token hissy fit. Because after all, they don't want to jeopardize their chances with the government. 

Look, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope, I hope that the teacher's unions won't take this lying down. I hope they will at least go as far as the B.C. teacher's unions and do something about this. Anything, so long as Dalton's team won't be able to say that they splintered the opposition to a wage freeze with a Youtube video. 


What if Tim Hudak was Premier, and, when confronted with this kind of admittedly lame opposition, he released a Youtube video? What do you think would happen? Would the unions roll over the way they're doing for Dalton now? Would there be a Globe article about the video?

Your Move, Creeps

You'll all be forgiven for being captivated by goings-on in Ottawa today, but let's not ignore the fact that the Ontario Liberals had a really bad day.

-Teachers unions are feeling that Dalton hasn't shown the proper respect.

-A committee of MPP's from the opposition wants ORNGE probed.

-McGuinty backed down on his opposition to the tar sands. Redford still wants an apology. She may well get it.

-Toronto Star columnists aren't happy with Dalton's diffidence on tax increases.

-Dalton thinks it's a great idea to arrest and investigate the father of a little girl because she drew a picture of her dad carrying a gun. Guy is a criminal anyway, but still.....

-People in Ottawa think the Senators could go bankrupt if the Liberals cancel a tax break for businesses. (As a Leafs fan, I'm conflicted.)

-Tim Hudak is about to bring forward a motion calling for subways, not streetcars. I'm sure Liberal MPP's in Scarborough, Mississauga, and Etobicoke will be very interested in that one!

What do the Ontario Liberals do in the face of all this? Try to connect the PC Party of Ontario to the robocall scandal.

I know the Ontario Liberals think they're being very clever here, but not only is there zero evidence the PC's had anything to do with the current investigation, the fact that Dalton's MPPs are just now remembering stuff like how their *daughters* came home from school talking about how there were calls saying Daddy is a "baby killer" is actually diluting the case against Harper and the CPC. As is the fact that everyone who wants their picture in the paper can now call up and say "Yeah, now that you mention it, I did get a weird call on E-day! It must have been a robocall!"

Hey, you know what? I was making breakfast this morning and the phone rang and nobody was on the other end and when I got back my toast was burnt! It must have been a robocall! Think the RCMP will investigate???

Why hasn't anyone investigated the possibility that Ford was elected because of robocalls? The left is falling down on the job!

Oooh, oooh! Dalton knew that the Drummond Report was coming out after the election and he told the voters that things were going to be okey-dokey anyway! Robocall!