Go Fetch!

Well, I can't say I'm surprised that Dalton's lemmings gave him an overwhelming show of support.

Since they're so eager to take a bullet for the boss man, the PC's have obligingly put together http://www.liberalscandals.com/

Closed-Door Campaigning

When Daddy Dalton's away, the kids will play, it would seem:

As Premier Dalton McGuinty was in Oakville on Tuesday apologizing for “clearly not getting it right,” members of his Liberal caucus were in an impassioned argument over the handling of the political crisis.

Senior ministers used terms like “shameful” to describe a debacle that has derailed all legislative business, including a planned wage freeze for tens of thousands of public servants that Finance Minister Dwight Duncan will discuss Wednesday in a bid to change the channel.

Some MPPs insisted they would have been just as candid if McGuinty had been in the room while others said his absence made it easier to rage against decisions made by the premier and his senior advisers.

Pffft. Suuuuure you would have. What a bunch of losers. Good thing it wasn't a day when the topic of conversation is how CPC MP's are afraid to speak out against Harper, right? Oh.....

Anyway, what happens when the Tories try to speak to this issue in QP?

Government house leader John Milloy insisted all documents requested had been released and accused the opposition parties of turning the legislature into a “kangaroo court.”

Milloy said work in the house would be sidetracked for weeks or even months due to the contempt debate.

Quite right, John. Only Liberals are allowed to beat up on the leader.

Mid-Term Review

If it were me, I would have changed the headline of this article to "Dalton McGuinty pleads with his party not to boot him as leader before his leadership review." It's not as if he's begging in public for the teachers' sakes.

What does "potential successor" Kathleen Wynne have to say about all this? Let's take a look:

“Believe me, there will be internal discussion about that,” Wynne told CBC. “We’ve got to take some lessons.”

“I’m very supportive of Kathleen’s comments,” McGuinty said, referring to Wynne’s decrying of the Liberals’ heavyhanded strategy with the teachers’ unions, which contributed to last Thursday’s by-election loss in Kitchener-Waterloo.

The minister, widely seen as a potential successor to McGuinty, made her statements as Liberals gear up for a leadership review vote in Ottawa on Sept. 29.

“I have no magic number in mind and I’ll leave it up to the good people of my party,” the premier said, joking that support of “50.0001 per cent would be fine with me.”

Yeah, it would be nice if 50% of the good people of Dalton's party even showed up to vote in this review, especially since the OLP exec tried as hard as they could to make sure nobody notices it's happening.

You might notice that McGuinty is asking for a way lower bar than Hudak had back in February. Remember: I said you might notice.   

The Right Fights Back

Ohhhhh Mr. War Room Boss.......look what I've got......

Purchased cash money at the local Chapters. See that receipt?

Wait a second.....wasn't this title due to be released on October 2, 2012? Why yes. Yes it was.

Hmmmm. There's going to be a lot of angry pre-order customers. Oh well.

Bummed Out On Drummond

OK, I stand corrected. The media doesn't always fail to notice when Dalton screws something up. It just takes them a very, very long time to do so.

Seven months after the release of the former bank economist’s much-hyped report on how to fix Ontario’s finances, Premier Dalton McGuinty – who commissioned the report and once acted as though it would provide all the answers to the province’s woes – has clearly lost the faith.



A Teacher-Preacher-Creature Feature

So from listening to people over the past few weeks, here's what I've been able to determine:

1) Teachers are the salt of the earth

2) There are no bad or lazy teachers

3) Teachers make way less than they should for the amount of work that they do

4) Teachers offered the government a wage freeze (even though, as per #3 above, they make way less than they should for the amount of work that they do) and they really, honestly, truly would have gone through with it, but the big bad mean government said no

5) We have far better working conditions today thanks to teachers unions and we are on the verge of losing 100 years of progress because Dalton decided to say no to the teachers unions

6) Teachers are highly skilled and are responsible for our kids' development, so don't go comparing them to auto workers, or horse breeders, or doctors, or other people who've had trouble with the government in the past

Now, for extra fun, reverse the above arguments.

Example: "Teachers are the salt of the earth" becomes "Dalton is the salt of the earth (who doesn't age, who married his high school sweetheart, etc)"

"We have far better working conditions thanks to teachers unions" becomes "The Ontario Liberals are Moving Ontario Forward"

"There are no bad or lazy teachers" becomes "Dwight Duncan, Deb Matthews, Chris Bentley, Laurel Broten, and the rest of Dalton's cabinet still deserve their jobs"

Oooooh boy. This isn't going to end well.

Being Right Early

In light of recent developments with the election down south, I suggest we find out how many members of the "make the rich pay" contingent here in Ontario pay no taxes themselves.

Who's with me?

It's All In How You Say It!

I wanted to put together a post that will make the Liberals feel a little sheepish over the bad news that's been coming their way this week, but that's close to impossible.

We've got the Liberals, and Chris Bentley, being found in contempt of the Legislature. Maybe that will do something? No, no it won't because Liberals only get mad when Conservatives have trouble with contempt motions.

Maybe the news that eHealth continues to show little to no results for all the time and effort that's been put into it will get the Liberals to blink. What am I saying? Everyone knows the Liberals expect you to wait forever for health records, and for green energy to become a worthwhile investment, and for tuition fees to go down, because they think the sketchy promise of a better future justifies lots of wasted time and money.

Aha! I've got it! The one thing that will bother the Liberals about these scandals! They will both make Chris Bentley and Deb Matthews less likely to become the next Leader of the OLP!

Worst Bait-And-Switch Ever

OK everybody, I'm going to click this link to a Toronto Star editorial that goes after a politician for "hiding behind the children" and really really really hope that it's going to be about McGuinty. It's definitely attacking McGuinty, isn't it? Gotta be McGuinty. He did tell the teachers' unions not to take it out on the kids, so who else could it be but McGuinty?

Surprise!!! It wasn't about McGuinty. :(

Statism Vs. More Statism

Given that the battle lines have clearly been drawn between Dalton and the teachers' unions recently, and we're on the sidelines watching, I figured it is time to shift gears a bit here at TCAM and discuss the implications of such a battle.

We have seen a similar fight play itself out in Quebec, as Charest took on the Red Squares. That little skirmish ended badly for M. Charest. Quebec being Quebec, however, there are differences. There, the students themselves rose up in revolt instead of a bunch of old fogey teachers unions claiming to speak in the students' best interest. The students had youthful energy and passion, misplaced as it was. And they focused their energy on taking Charest himself out, rather than a cross province all-out action like the one these union throwbacks are threatening.

So while it doesn't bode well for Dalton, keep in mind that teachers' unions can't fight a pitched battle with the government without seriously impacting the functioning of schools. Dalton's people don't have day jobs other than carrying forward his agenda. That's how he was able to squish the doctors, pharmacists, horse farmers, and everyone else. If Dalton's bill passes, they won't be able to strike. And if teachers pull extracurriculars, then it becomes up to them to defend their actions. Can they do it? It's up to them.

For now, the bigger implication is that whoever wins this fight, we lose. This is Statism vs. More Statism. Dalton wants to impose his Obama Lite womb to tomb statist project on everyone, and the unions' main problem with that is that they are tired of being foot soldiers in that project. The unions don't necessarily oppose the government ruling and subjugating everything. Their problem is that they want to drive the government's agenda and prevent the kind of flights into quasi-Conservatism that Dalton is currently engaging in.

The people who are being caught in the middle of this fight are either nowhere to be found because they don't have time for it, or don't care. Given what we've all seen over the past little while, I favour the second explanation. When your future, and your children's future, depends on who wins in a battle between unions and an unpopular Liberal government- which is fast becoming an endangered species in this country- you should take issue with both parties. But the people continue to be distracted by Liberal distractions and the media just keep on writing columns dumping all over whatever it is we put out there.

Lately I have begun to wonder; if the people do not act or vote against this union-government pas de deux, even though they may very well feel inclined to, is it really worth holding out hope that they will?

Is that the reason why we can't connect with the voters? Because we're expecting Ontarians to turn against their government when they aren't capable of doing so?

Are we asking them to make a choice that they cannot make?

Must we therefore make the choice for them?

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

McGuinty's union-battling bill.

Harper's union-battling bill.

What's the difference? Liberals only support one of these.

Shouting In The Dark

So the people of Ontario have chosen Dalton McGuinty on the leash, as opposed to off the leash. That much is clear.

What is less clear is whether the NDP win in K-W means that the teachers unions have Dalton's number, or if this was merely a local protest vote that won't translate into bigger wins against the Liberal machine in a general election. We'll resolve that controversy soon enough.

For us, the PCPO, there is a bigger problem. As yesterday's results showed, either Dalton is the real power in Ontario, or the teachers unions are the real power. We don't seem to figure in that equation.

Right now, if you want to register your displeasure with Dalton, you vote NDP. Not PC. The NDP are quite simply doing a better job of tapping into the anger people feel towards Dalton.

Now as a party, we don't want to tap into that anger. We want to stay on message. We want to talk a lot about overspending and job creation. And the results are clear.

As always, the preferred avenue for people who are unhappy with the party's performance is to complain about the leader. But we've been changing leaders, logos, and slogans since 2003. It hasn't helped. And I will not be bashing Hudak, because it's pointless. We don't need another post bashing the leader when he isn't the problem.

A week or so ago, a few thousand teachers descended on Queen's Park and basically declared war on Dalton. It was a disgustingly partisan gongshow. It was loud and disorganized. They weren't too concerned about message discipline, and it showed. But, on Sept 6th, in KW, it worked.

We don't have anything like a few thousand teachers ready to march around on the Queen's Park lawn with flags. They don't have a reason to. Talking about overspending and job creation is not making that happen.

The difference between us and the NDP is one of attitude. They don't care if they look a little ridiculous along the way. And we are a little too concerned.

When we lose this hesitation, we will be back on the road to forming government. Not before.

For now, it is time to change the way we do things, starting from the ground up. With each of us.

No Cigar

No majority for you, Mr. McGuinty. Bill Davis you ain't.

More commentary to follow.

Bon Voyage, Jean

Well, that's all she wrote for another Liberal government. Ontario's looking increasingly out of step with the national trend, don't you think?

The PQ's minority status won't be putting La Belle Province back on the road to la souverainete anytime soon, but I can't help but notice that those Red Squares that we were all making fun of months ago just stomped a three-term Premier.

Amazing what you can accomplish when you stop protesting and start getting things done, huh?

Let's keep that in mind for this Thursday.

Eliminating The Competition

You know, it just dawned on me: Liberal partisans think the government- not doctors and teachers- deliver education or health care.

Doctors and teachers are just the middlemen/women to the Liberals. And this past few weeks in Ontario have just been them cutting out the middlemen/women.

And when they go after the police in a few weeks, that's just because Liberals believe the government is responsible for justice- not law enforcement.

Explains a lot, doesn't it?