Christmas Break Comes Early?

Oh goody gumdrops. A possible teacher's strike on the horizon. Good thing Dalton and his government prorogued the Legislature, though. That won't come back to bite them at all. What's that? Recall the Legislature, you say? But.....Sandra Pupatello said we'd all have to wait for her to win her byelection first. Don't worry, though. I'm sure it'll all work itself out.

Robbed Ford

The law is the law. That's for sure.

But what's also for sure is that a group of people who don't like Ford politically got together and said, "We're going to get this guy, and we're going to get him at the first possible opportunity." They could have said, "Yeah, the guy screwed up, so we'll let the voters punish him." But they weren't going to take any chances with the electorate. No, those people had proved they couldn't be trusted.

It couldn't be like it was in Ottawa a few years ago where they took Larry O'Brien down in an election and installed Jim Watson. Ford's mayoralty had to be erased, aborted from history. It was a mistake, and the voters weren't going to be given an opportunity to correct that mistake.

The difference between this campaign to erase Ford and the ongoing campaign to get Harper out of office by any means necessary is that Harper and his people know and understand that the left are shooting to kill, and they shoot back. The rest of us are stuck thinking that all we have to do is win the election. We think that a contempt motion, or a petition, or Sun News, or a private member's bill is going to do the trick. We waste time trying to explain conservative principles to each other and to an electorate that has been programmed not to listen.

We are not winning, and we can't rely on the people to help us win, and when the people do finally say, "Enough!", then they take it out of the people's hands.  

For years- years, now- I've watched the Canadian electorate get oh-so-close to that point where they just lose it and turn against their government. And every time, they dip a toe in the water, and then pull it back. And for years now, I've watched the conservative movement in this country fail to grasp this elementary point; that if we aren't prepared to go to the lengths that the left will to win every single day, then we're not going to win. We're waiting for them to give us power.

But as we saw yesterday with Ford, power is not given.

It is taken.

Dog-Pile On David McGuinty!!! (And Trudeau!!)

How do we know that Dalton's mumblings from months past about Flaherty sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, insofar as the Finance Minister pointing out that Ontario is a financial basket case, are a load of crap? Well, just ask Dalton's brother David, who just recently told the entire province of Alberta to go crawl back into their holes.

The McGuinty Bros., and their good friend Justin Trudeau, who also thinks we need to redistribute power back East (but, in his case, to Quebec of course) no doubt spend a lot of time in private chuckling about the ignorance of those who aren't privileged enough to be them. That's why nobody buys their phony apologies.

Say it, you bastards. Say it loud and say it often. Don't apologize. Do what the War Room Boss says in his new book (and in his recent talk at U of T, which I'm listening to right now :P) and get back to your values. The chief value among them being the subjugation of all those who disagree with you.

If only we Conservatives could stop being so troubled about what people think, and do what is necessary.   

All Against All

So Adam Radwanski informs us that Harinder Takhar may be running for Liberal leader at the insistence of Sikh organizers who have been "leaning heavily" on Takhar to "publicly give voice to policy issues they want to put on the radar."

Nobody, least of all Takhar himself (who doesn't appear to have any opinion on the matter), thinks he will win, but clearly that's not the point. These organizers want to be heard, and Takhar is their go-to-guy. It's not enough for him to already be a cabinet minister- that's not enough influence. If there is the tiniest sliver of hope that he could win, that justifies the whole exercise, and even if he doesn't, he will deliver enough delegates to whoever does win so that that person will owe these organizers a debt of gratitude. Or not.

I have to wonder, what does this say about the political culture of our province? When groups are reduced to running obvious stalking horses for leader of the marquee Canadian Liberal provincial power on the off chance that they might get a few inches ahead of everyone else?

Why not just have everyone run their own candidate for leader? Where are the Chinese Canadians badgering Soo Wong or Michael Chan to run? Why aren't Hindu Canadians getting on Bas Balkissoon's case? I mean, it's not like the Liberals view these people as having any function other than being ethnic powerbrokers, right?

Luckily, there's one thing that binds Liberals of every gender, nationality, religion, and orientation together, and that is the shared belief that all power is derived from the state.

Ask Not What You Can Do For Your Party.....

Something about Gerard Kennedy's "game-changing" call for a spending limit on the OLP leadership race didn't sit well with me. And after pondering it for a few days, I finally figured out what that was. You see, the federal Liberals have been down a similar road before....and it didn't end well for them.....

As he prepared to step down as prime minister in 2003, Jean Chrétien was preoccupied with polishing his place in history. However, figures released yesterday suggest one of his legacy initiatives -- political financing reform -- haunts his party.

The Liberal government had drafted one bill that set tighter limits on political donations and another that included donation limits and a ban on corporate and union contributions.

There was heated debate on the merits of both, but, at the end of the day, Mr. Himmelfarb's position prevailed, largely because the bolder course was seen as a way to bolster Mr. Chrétien's flagging reputation, tainted at the time by the sponsorship scandal.

The ban on corporate donations has been "very, very difficult for the Liberal party to digest," says Leslie Seidle, a senior research associate at the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Montreal.

Not only had the Liberals relied heavily on corporate donations, but the party's decentralized structure has also made it difficult to compete with the Conservatives in the new world order, where money must be raised from individuals limited to giving $1,100 a year.

And what happened a few years later? The beginning of the federal Liberal decade of darkness, that's what.

Now, Gerard.....I get that you're a micromanaging, no-seat-having, Stephane-Dion-kingmaking opportunist who flips back and forth between the federal and provincial Liberal parties like a broken windshield wiper......and I know you think you're the smartest guy in the room.....but do you actually think your own party is dumb enough to even consider finance reform of any sort when it contributed to their humiliating defeats in 2006, 2008, and 2011?

Oh wait....you got elected in '08, so I guess it doesn't bother you too much, huh?

This is the biggest ego orgy (egorgy????) ever! EVER!!! Even for Liberals, this is insane!

Pass Interference

So Robert Benzie, Queen's Park person for the reliably Liberal Toronto Star, is annoyed by NFL refs who ignore the infractions committed by one of the teams on the field.

You know what, I'm just going to leave this one here. You guys have fun with it.

Ha Ha Hoskins

"Ontario’s legislature was getting so ill-tempered before Premier Dalton McGuinty prorogued it, it was beginning to remind Dr. Eric Hoskins of his charity work in war-torn countries.

“I can tell you as someone who has worked in war zones around the world it was getting to be a very uncomfortable place, the legislature,” Hoskins said Tuesday, defending McGuinty’s decision to prorogue as he launched his campaign to replace the outgoing premier."

No, really. The Ontario Legislature was, in some way, comparable to a war zone.

A war zone, just to remind you all, is a place where people kill each other on a regular basis. There are war zones, and then, way the hell over in the other direction about as far as you can go, right in the middle of (thankfully) nice safe Canada, is the Ontario Legislature.

Remembrance Day was how long ago? Two days? OK then.

This is what happens when you represent a riding where, no matter what you do, people will still vote for you.

It wouldn't happen even if I did, but if there was the faintest chance that it could happen, I'd give two of my teeth to make this man leader of the OLP.

Early Projections

Now, if there's one group of people I understand, it's Toronto Liberals. And let me tell you; if you weren't born there and you think your local species of Liberal are a group of arrogant, spiteful human beings who think the world begins and ends with them, you may be right, but as bad as they are, they cannot hold a candle to Toronto Liberals.

The reason why there are four- count 'em, four-  Toronto Liberals in this leadership race is not only because each of them, individually, thinks that Toronto should control the affairs of the rest of the province. No.

The reason why all four of them- Kennedy, Hoskins, Wynne, and Murray (who isn't even really a Toronto Liberal himself, but never mind)- are in this race, despite their ridings and bases of support being mere kilometres from one another, is because they each, individually, think their own little section of Toronto should control the affairs of the rest of the province. Rosedale has a claim. Forest Hill has a claim. The Bridle Path has a claim. Whatever the hell section of Parkdale-High Park it is that claims to be Liberal, given that the NDP rule it at all 3 levels, has a claim. One wonders why people like Mario Sergio and Mike Colle and Laura Albanese didn't throw their hats into the ring.

Let's say Yasir Naqvi had decided to run. He didn't because he's a complete lapdog, but let's say he or another Ottawa Liberal had decided to run. Because I know the other Ottawa Liberals are notorious for climbing over one another to demonstrate how eager they are to please, it's safe to assume no other Ottawa Liberal would have declared. Out in Windsor, Dwight Duncan (so we're being told, anyway), stepped aside so Pupatello could run in his old riding. It makes sense for there to be only one person from one city running to represent the local interests so they don't get divided up amongst each other.

But now we have all of Toronto's Liberal resources being divided up amongst four people. And it's because the concept of taking one for the team- for any reason- is unheard of amongst Toronto Liberals. Their egos will not allow it.

In 2011, just before they got plowed under, lots of Toronto Liberals assumed that their ridings would hold during the federal election. The reason they lost seats in 2008 was because they had some maladroit Frenchman as leader and now that Ignatieff, someone with halfway credible Toronto roots, was in charge, victory was assured. When it was clear that wasn't going to happen they assumed that they had such a tight hold on their own ridings that their local brand would carry them through. As it was, only the toughest survived. But even that hasn't convinced them, because they are sure- absolutely sure- that they will peel off enough ridings the next time around just because they are that awesome.

Toronto municipal elections are a joy to watch because every time, the Liberals carve themselves up into little factions and throw their weight behind centrist Tories or Liberals with a right of centre message. And it never works, because either the left or right is better organized and more united than they are. Smitherman was the closest I've seen to a full-on Liberal candidate for mayor. But he didn't win because there were too many downtowners stepping on each other's tremendous egos running his shop.  

Why is a guy like Eric Hoskins in this race? Because his riding of St. Paul's is one of the wealthiest and most educated in the entire country. Those people deserve the kind of (local) leadership that only he can provide. They deserve the prestige associated with having the leader of the party be their elected representative. Anyone else just can't be trusted.

So it's Sandra Pupatello from Windsor running against a bunch of Toronto aristocrats and some guy from Mississauga who thinks he's a Toronto aristocrat. (The real Toronto Liberals don't think much of him, by the way, because the government had to throw him a lifeline in the last election. If you can't be re-elected to your riding effortlessly like they can, you must be some kind of complete loser.) And even more funny is the fact that Pupatello is running as a right of centre candidate, and is widely considered to be the front runner!

Well! The nerve of her. How dare this outsider from some little town in SW Ontario presume to tell proper Toronto Liberals how to do anything! So you can bet that they will pull out all the stops to keep her from winning, and, more likely than not, fail. Because Pupatello actually knows how to win a fight, whereas these upper-class twits think they deserve medals for showing up. And will they fall in line behind Pupatello if she does win? Don't bet on it.

So Premier-designate Pupatello inherits a caucus of restive Toronto Liberals and has to face down the deficit and an NDP who will be motivated to beat her, and a PC Party of Ontario who won't take kindly to being shoved aside on the jobs and the economy front.

I don't care how tough Pupatello is. Her predecessor tried to fight the deficit and was driven from office as a result. Her party nurtured this beast until it could not be fed, and it will eat her alive.

A continuation of the OLP program as it has been running for the past year is not good enough. Unless she is willing to go to all-out war with the unions and drive them into the ground, forget it.

And at that point in time, it will be up to the PCPO to prove that they can do what the Liberals cannot do.

They must, or else we'll be back to 1990, and we'll stay there until someone decides to clean this mess up.

OMG, It's Sandra P.

Someone pronounces it "Poop-a-tello" in this video. Tee-hee.

We've got two Toronto Liberals already declared for this thing and another Toronto Liberal (Kennedy) thinking about it. If Sandra here beats all three of them, that'll be hilarious. (Sousa is from Mississauga and out there, they need to cancel power plants to hold onto seats, so he doesn't count.)

And if Sandra thinks that just because she beat the NDP in Windsor a bunch of times, that prepares her to face the Toronto unions, she's got another thing coming.

UPDATE: Wow, and she's the change candidate too! She wants the OLP to change. Well, by all means, Sandra.....tell us, in as much detail as possible, everything about the OLP that needs to change.

Oh Bummer

Thank God it's over. Thank God that for at least the next few days, I don't have to listen to Canadian politicos derping on about an election taking place in the next country over, as opposed to what's going on up here.

Oh, and, uh, great job, Republicans! You were so, so close. You really gave it your everythings.

It would be foolish, absolutely stupid, to change anything. When Obama finishes wrecking stuff in 2016, you guys can just coast to victory doing the same old crap. Don't do one single thing differently!

Spare Change

I haven't been posting lately because my real job is very busy, and the U.S. election coverage has gotten so overwhelming, so completely in-your-face, that it hardly seems worth talking about Ontario politics. (We will get to the OLP race, and soon.)

However, I will comment on one aspect of the race that has become increasingly clear, and that is the fact that the entirety of Obama's appeal rests on the fact that he promises people a bright future that he has no intention of delivering, and that people know he is not capable of delivering. Both parties in this mutual delusion prefer this fantasy world to the real one, and believe in it so completely that the real world has ceased to exist.

And, critically, crucially important to sustaining this fantasy world is the collection of monsters under the bed that Obama would protect people from. Things like unfettered capitalism and deepening social inequality and narrow self interest.

The trouble is that Obama, and by extension, the Ontario Liberals, and all liberals, need these problems to sustain their delusions and as a result they cannot do anything about them, and they don't WANT to do anything about them.

Here is an article that talks about how anti-black racism has risen during the first four years of Obama's presidency. In the article we read that "When Obama won in 2008, pundits proclaimed a new “post-racist” America." Silly pundits. If we had a post-racist America, then journalists wouldn't be able to write articles where they wring their hands about racism in America, and Canadians wouldn't be able to read those articles and feel shocked about how America is torn by hatred and feel smug about how there is no racism in their own country and how everyone gets along perfectly up here, and how our elections aren't bought with big money, and all the rest of it.

Except, if you read the Saturday edition of the Star, you will find Martin Regg Cohn's article about how the Ontario Liberal leadership race is at this moment being bought by big money. But pay this no heed, for everyone knows that it is conservatives that further the interests of big money. The Liberals, like their hero Obama from whom they take direction, fancy themselves grand redistributors of wealth and enforcers of equality, fighters of racism and devotees of Justin Trudeau, who will end cynicism in politics by himself without any help from his daddy.

They are brave soldiers fighting the demons on the right and on the slightly-to-the-left, and they are always victorious because their cause is just and noble, and if they have a few corporations give a billion or two to their leadership race, well, it all balances out in the end.

If you ask a Liberal to answer for the shortcomings of their regime in Ontario, or for their ideological allies in Washington, they have a ready-made answer for you: "There is still more to do." Yes, of course there is. There always is. We can't, for example, really do anything about racism in America. And not because hatred is an emotion that people feel. That's the honest answer. What we can do, however, is "donate" $5 million of Ontario dollars towards a human rights museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, that, not entirely coincidentally, may also never get built. And the principle is the same. There can be no questions asked about the money spent or whether things are getting a little excessive even though nobody doubts the intentions were good. $5 million is a small price to pay to sustain a delusion.

Because I just now wrote, "$5 million is a small price to pay to sustain a delusion," some Liberal somewhere will melt that down and make it into a quote that says I think human rights are "a delusion" should I ever choose to run for office, which I won't. They know that's not what I was saying. Doesn't matter. Obama attacks Romney for being out of touch with the common American, even though you would forgiven for thinking the common American had less of a problem with Romney being rich than with Obama being black if you believe the article I quoted at the top of this blogpost about racism in America. Obama is more out of touch with racist, racist Americans than Romney is! Uh uh. Nope. There I go thinking again. This doesn't require thought.

What if one day Obama got really pissed off about racism in America and decided to ban racism? No, really! Just straight up ban racism. Anyone who expresses racist sentiments should be forced to turn their property over to the government. That'll show 'em! That'll show those Tea Partiers who's boss! Ehhhh....nope. That's going too far. But why is it going too far? Why, if racism is such a problem that social scientists and journalists and Ontario Liberals and other useless people can make a living trying and failing to stop it, shouldn't we just ban it? We ban lots of stuff we don't like, like plastic bags for example. Why not racism? Why not jail terms and the death penalty for racism? Because if hate was banned then we couldn't fool people into thinking we're making progress in stopping people from feeling an emotion anymore, silly. It would be banned, and after you ban something and it continues to be a problem, what do you have left????

To truly understand how progressives really, really don't want to make any substantive progress fighting corporations and racism and all the stuff they complain about, you have to do what I do and talk to them and read what they write. You have to see the glee in their eyes when some ultramoron of a Republican goes and says that being raped is no excuse for having an abortion. Jackpot! Forget the wacko religious beliefs of Republicans who believe life is a miracle. A Republican, or Conservative, blowing it in public is a real miracle for a progressive! Hallelujah! And yea, at the second debate, verily, Mitt Romney said "Bring me binders full of women," and there was much rejoicing.

But aren't these Liberals supposed to be horrified by racism and sexism and the mixing of God and politics? Why is it so funny when these people say these awful things? Why the jokes? Is a woman wearing a giant binder for a Halloween costume supposed to be fighting sexism? Or is it supposed to be an ironic nod, a nod that says, "Yeah, we don't really care about this equality nonsense any more than you do, and this is just for lulz"?  Without Mitt Romney, what the hell would these people have worn for Halloween? Definitely not a sexy witch costume! We're fighting sexism here, not encouraging it!

I'm sure that those on the left would be shocked to learn that those on the right actually try to not say ridiculous stuff during campaigns, but it never seems to work! If they didn't say something crazy today, they said something crazy 20+ years ago, and that's just as bad and works just as well. And when they don't say anything ridiculous, there's always that old standby of the hidden agenda. If people on the right aren't saying something stupid, that's only because they're trying really hard not to, whereas people on the left don't have to try. And you can rest assured that the right-wing base really, really, wants them to say something stupid and lose the election. The more hardcore of a conservative you are, the bigger your death wish is. The choice is between "you lose", and "you lose".

Campaigns are not campaigns. They are rituals. Ritual smacking of the right for saying, doing, and thinking stuff that is not socially acceptable. The ritual is a substitute for actual social action. It's all most people are comfortable with, and that's the way it is and we like it. Don't try to change it. You'll spoil the lovely fantasy of a better world that the left keeps pushing towards and never arrives at.

The real world can never match the fantasy. And now you know why.