Progressive Conservatives beat the Wildrose easy in Alberta

Alberta votes to keep the right progressive. With the Federal Conservatives looking more like the Wildrose party and working to help the party, and not the Progressive Conservatives, has the relationship been strained?

Related articles

• Congratulations, Alberta! Uh, I think…. (behavecology.wordpress.com)
• Election Day (waddellz.wordpress.com)
• Alberta election poll shows Wildrose Party ahead (cbc.ca)

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Do the Ontario Liberals want an election?

An interesting game of poker is taking place in Ontario and it seems that the Liberals may have the best hand. Who has the most to lose? At the moment it’s the NDP. No one wants an election and I suspect that if one is called you can kiss all of those NDP seats goodbye. Both the NDP and the Tories cannot afford an election at the moment. In a funny sense if the NDP votes against the budget I am sure the Tories will end up having to support it. The Liberals be in the best position if an election is called. So who will blink first?

Related articles

• McGuinty listening to NDP budget proposals (theglobeandmail.com)
• Why Ontario’s NDP isn’t drawing a line in the budgetary sand (theglobeandmail.com)
• NDP to propose Ontario budget changes, terms to support government (theglobeandmail.com)

Toronto Mayoral candidate Rossi plans on stopping all TTC Light-Rail (Transit City) Expansion

New Light-Rail for Toronto

Have we learned nothing from history and the reasons why there is a lack of good public transit options in the city of Toronto? What about jobs for the people of Thunder Bay? Again, with another knee-jerk reaction we may loose all we wanted in the city of Toronto and public transit by electing Rossi. Remember, if this is the attitude we took in the past, we would never have had the full Bloor-Danforth line, Spadina extension or top-end of the Yonge line (even our network of Streetcars that make the city). In other words, if you think transportation is bad now, what do you think it would be like in the future?

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Toronto mayoral candidate pledges to make waves at city hall by banning bike lanes on major arteries and possibly quashing light-rail plan.

When Rocco Rossi vowed to banish bike lanes from major streets, the suit-and-tie crowd at the Empire Club event erupted into its most enthusiastic applause yet for the first real speech of the 2010 mayor’s race.

The line demonstrated that Mr. Rossi knows whom he’s after: right-leaning suburban voters fed up with David Miller’s city hall.

Mr. Rossi is promising to halt all but one of the city’s planned light-rail lines until he can review the project’s finances; to replace the Toronto Transit Commission’s board of councillors with private-sector experts; to create a region-wide economic development corporation; to sell assets, including Toronto Hydro; and to outsource city work in a bid to decrease the power of unions.

“Make no mistake, last summer’s city workers strike showed just how weak the city has become in the face of its major unions and how utterly without a plan we are to correct this imbalance,” the former Liberal fundraiser and businessman told a packed room at the Royal York hotel. “As mayor I will bring us back into balance by pursuing outsourcing and managed competition for certain city services.”

Mr. Rossi’s speech was unusual for making concrete commitments early in the marathon campaign, leaving his competitors 10 months to savage his proposals. They didn’t waste time.

“I’m glad to see he’s throwing out 1,000 ideas and seeing what sticks,” scoffed Joe Pantalone, the deputy mayor who is running to replace his boss. “But this is not a carnival we’re talking about here. This is a city that’s complicated.”

Mr. Rossi drew the most fire for suggesting he might halt the Transit City plan, even temporarily.

In his speech, Mr. Rossi lamented the delays and cost overruns that plagued the construction of a streetcar right-of-way on St. Clair West, but it wasn’t until afterward that he expressed his concerns about Toronto’s plan to lay 120 kilometres of light rail on dedicated lanes.

“I think there’s some real problems that have been shown by what’s happened at St. Clair and I think we’d be foolish not to have a deep and long look at that,” he told reporters.

Asked whether that constituted a moratorium, he replied: “On anything that we can stop right now, yes.” Only one Transit City line, Sheppard East, has broken ground so far.

“Mr. Rossi’s suggestion that he would freeze all new transit projects until he has reviewed the city budget would not only put countless constructions jobs at risk, it reflects a troubling lack of understanding of the city’s finances,” a senior member of George Smitherman’s campaign said. “These projects are funded almost entirely by the province, sometimes with federal help.” Mr. Smitherman, the former deputy premier, is the race’s early front-runner.

The centre-right voters Mr. Rossi is hoping to attract likely would have voted for former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory.

But Mr. Rossi will have to run a campaign vastly different from Mr. Smitherman’s if he hopes to make the leap from virtual unknown to mayor. For now, he’s casting his lack of elected experience as an advantage.

“It’s been over a hundred years since we elected a mayor who wasn’t already in elected politics,” he told the crowd. “Maybe, just maybe, that’s part of the problem.”

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Others

Rossi vows to put Transit City on hold

Rocco Rossi targets TTC, unions

Carbon tax: a conservative concept, not the Liberals

By: Werner Patels

Jonathan Kay raises interesting points about the carbon tax and posits that it’s actually quite a “conservative” tax. I’d like to refer readers to Kay’s article, in which he makes a number of very valid observations – apart from the fact that Stéphane Dion should be sacked, he also reminds people that conservatism is not the mean-spirited ideology that the less-than-intellectual always make it out to be:

Many people casually associate the word “conservative” with unfettered capitalism and mindless consumerism. That is a fallacy. A true conservative in the Edmund Burke mold is suspicious of any revolutionary creed that challenges the established qualities of a humane society, especially a creed — such as unbridled materialism — that corrodes family life and human spirituality.

Absolutely true. This is why a real conservative won’t be the typical frenetic Bible-thumper, because he or she has realized that a fundamentalist Christian is often no better or worse than a fundamentalist Islamist, for example.

I fully agree that Dion deserves to be sacked — not only over his Green Shift, but quite generally. He’s not cut out for politics and should be sent back to his Ivory Tower at university where he belongs (or some Marxist summer camp in Paris) – back to your real roots, Monsieur Dion!

Having said that, it was a high-profile conservative who made a very strong case for shifting taxation away from income and on to consumption: David Frum, in his excellent book Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again.

So, a carbon tax is actually quite a good concept in theory, one that fits right in with the green-blue environmental conservatism championed by none other than one of Canada’s greatest politicians ever, if not the greatest, Preston Manning.

Manning formed the Reform Party in 1987. His chief policy adviser was Stephen Harper, a student at the University of Calgary and now the Prime Minister of Canada. Harper designed the Reform Party’s 1988 campaign platform. The Reform Party was a combination of fiscal conservatism and populism, though aspects of social-conservatism grew, branding the party as “very right-wing.”

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Statscan Censorship?

An interesting post on The Progressive Economics Forum

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Censorship in Canada

Once again, there seems to be a heavier hand in editing Statistics Canada’s releases.  This morning The Daily reported that:

“Spending on research and development in the higher education sector amounted to $9.6 billion (current dollars) in the fiscal year 2006/2007.”

but there was no word on whether this was an increase or decrease from the previous period, which Statscan releases almost always have.

The year 2006/7 was the first year that the Harper government was in office.  Investment in research and development is essential to increase our economy’s productivity, which hasn’t increased since the start of 2006 (and has grown at a dismal rate since 2000).

Canada has some of the most generous tax incentives for private R&D in the world, yet Canada has one of the lowest rates of investment in R&D among OECD countries thanks to both low rates of government and business investment in R&D, accoridng to Industry Canada’s Science and Technology Data tables.  Canada’s investment in higher education R&D had recently been relatively good, but it looks like the current federal government may soon rectify that.

The Harper government is laying off federal scientists and forcing departments to slash their R&D budgets .  It is deregulating food safety inspection and transferring or selling off federal labs to the private sector, intent on further commercialization and privatization. They eliminated the national science advisor and have instead appointed Preston Manning among others to help advise on science issues.  This approach to science recently earned the Harper government scathing criticism in an editorial in Nature, one of the most respected science publications in the world.

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Tories widen their lead. Is Canada becoming more conservative or do we just like Harper?

A new poll suggests the Conservatives have solidified a substantial lead over their closest rivals, thanks at least in part to a lack of confidence in Liberal helmsman Stéphane Dion. The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll, conducted Sept. 10-13, gave the Conservatives 40 per cent support across Canada, followed by the Liberals at 26 per cent.

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Why the Conservatives and the PM need an election now to save themselves.

Elections for Canada - October 2008

Some high profile Conservatives are not seeking re-election. Do they see the title wave coming? Are they afraid? The real reason the federal Conservatives are calling for an election now is that they really do not have a choice. What do I mean by that? Let’s make just a few points.

1. The longer they wait, the better chance they will loose even more seats next year, pending the coming downturn in the economy. In case your head is stuck in the sand somewhere, the economy is not doing well.

2. The numbers for the Conservatives are still strong in Quebec and they have a chance to grab some seats in Ontario. The election may affect the Liberals more than the Conservatives.

3. The Honourable Stéphane Dion polling numbers are not strong. However, that is slowly changing and they need to go to the polls now, rather than later. The longer they wait, the more “sympathy” for Dion. I believe that the Conservatives will stay away from poking fun at Dion, because this stragedy does not help. They will will HAVE TO focus on making the PM more personal to win.

4. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is betting that their low-profile governance will help them at the polls. To be honest, there is not much news and “substance” to go on. People tend to figure, if it is not broken why fix it, to be frank.

5. The overall view is, when the economy is in a downturn, you need a “fiscally conservative” approach. That is a perception that has not changed much. This is probably what did in the government of Bob Rae in Ontario, leading to the extreme right in the Harris “common sense revolution. Again, I have already said it, but the PM does not want to have the stain of being the government that caused a ressession. Even though it would not be true, it does not really matter. Its all about perception.

6. The western provinces are doing well, so “milk it while we have a chance to”, because the Greens are coming!

7. The George Bush factor! Need I say more, as November approaches? If people believe that they have become a bit too “neo-conservative”, than the Conservatives are in trouble, especially in Ontario and Quebec. So go now while we are “a sleep at the wheel”.

8. The PM needs an election fast, before the historic election in the U.S. It is a fact the a huge amount of Canadian’s are watching the American election. No matter what you think the Conservatives “DO NOT” want to be caught in the “change title wave” that is approaching. If they do, they will basically drown in the possible Obama factor, no matter what side of the fence you are on.

The fact is the only point the Conservatives are riding is the fact that they can say “the Green Shift is not a prudent policy for the coming economic downturn”. While, offering no option of their own, they are “fear mongering” people into thinking that this is all about raising taxes. This is a dangerous gamble, seeing that people list the environment as an important factor, despite economics. Now make no assumption, I am not a Liberal member. To be honest, if there was a viable Libertarian Party I would go down that route (albeit I do like the Greens a bit). But that is besides the fact! There is a burning ship in parliament, and the Conservatives are doing what ANY party would attempt to do. Get a few more years and hope, you can ride the possible recession out. Maybe even a possible Liberal, NDP leadership review and like magic call another election. We will probably see another Conservative minority. Who really knows? This election may end up hurting the Liberals, more than the Conservatives and the NDP or Green Party may make substantial strides in politics this time around. The question is, at who’s expense? What will happen if Canadian’s want change? Can any leader capitalize on this? Or is this a bit of Russian roulette? I welcome your comments!

By Andy MJ
a.k.a the G.T.A Patriot

Harper calls election for Oct. 14, ignores own fixed-election date law

Bruce Cheadle, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Harper and the Conservatives call an election

The move sends Canadians to the polls for the third time in four years.

Against the backdrop of a weakening economy, Harper asked Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to dissolve Canada’s 39th Parliament so that a national vote can be held Oct. 14 – the day after Thanksgiving.

Harper said this election will be a choice between certainty and risk at a time when the world economy has entered a period of instability – a statement aimed at scaring voters away from Liberal Leader Stephane Dion’s proposed overhaul of Canada’s tax system,

“Between now and Oct. 14, Canadians will choose a government to look out for their interests at a time of global economic trouble,” Harper said after meeting with Jean.

….

In calling the election, Harper ignored his own fixed-election-date law – legislation he’d explicitly pitched as a means of stopping prime ministers from calling snap votes whenever the political tide felt favourable.

Read more from the Canadian Press

also, read Election Call Hypocrisy

Snap election all but certain: Harper

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper portrayed a snap election as a virtual certainty Tuesday morning and hinted it will likely be triggered next week.

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Fledgling party targets John Tory detractors – Reform Party?

The fledgling Reform Party of Ontario is appealing to Progressive Conservatives disillusioned with party leader John Tory to join their right-wing ranks. In an email appeal apparently sent to thousands of Tories in recent days, the new party claims Reform is “the new home” for people who support the policies of former premier Mike Harris.

“Mike Harris brought sanity to Ontario with two majority governments. Sadly, since Iron Mike retired, we’ve seen Ontario slide badly,” says the missive, which invites people to a June 21 meeting in London.

“The Liberals, bolstered by the ineffectual opposition of John Tory and (NDP Leader) Howard Hampton, will continue to bring Ontario more of the same,” it continues.

“There is an alternative. The Common Sense Revolution didn’t die. It just has a new home … the Reform Party of Ontario.”

A source close to Harris emphasized the former premier has nothing to do with the group and did not give permission for his name to be used.

“During the early 1990s, when Reform was growing federally, Mike Harris was successful in keeping Reform out of provincial politics,” noted the Harris confidant.

Reform takes its name from the defunct Western-based party that splintered from the federal Progressive Conservatives and enabled the Liberals to govern for 13 years until Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s reunited Conservatives took power in 2006.

Andrew Long, the party’s chief financial officer, said he is not worried about the same thing happening in Ontario. Long said the party is home to former federal Reformers as well as provincial Tories and Liberals, and members of the radical rural group, the Ontario Landowners Association.

“I am not happy with John Tory whatsoever,” he said, noting Tory “single-handedly lost the election” last Oct. 10 with the controversial pledge to expand funding of faith-based schools.

While Reform ran two candidates in that election, the party hopes to field a larger slate in the 2011 vote.

Party leader Brad Harness, a former federal Reform member, said yesterday word of the burgeoning movement has spread through the Internet.

“We’re really pleased by the response,” said Harness.

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Dalton McGuinty’s increasing centralization of power

Premier Dalton McGuinty insists he is not rattled by apparent dissension in his Liberal ranks. In a move that even loyalists now concede was ill-advised, McGuinty ordered all staff members to leave the Liberal caucus room on May 13 then criticized MPPs for speaking out of school.

The MPP said the ensuing one-hour discussion, sparked by a May 10 Star article headlined “Premier McGuinty’s tight ship,” exposed a growing resentment from elected officials over the increasing centralization of power.

“There’s a bit of arrogance coming out of the premier’s office,” said another senior Liberal.

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Is replacing John Tory and going neo-consertive a bad move in Ontario? Yes!

As I have mentioned before if the PC’s decide to go the “neo-conservative” route, and it plays out in the public eye as an “internal turf” of their leader, it maybe many years before they ever hold the seat of power in Ontario again. Insiders have also said that the people who want John Tory removed are former Harris conservatives. Maybe they are living in another world, but those days are long and gone. Ontario will not tolerate another Harris styled government, love him or hate him. What I find interesting is that Dalton McGuinty, Mike Harris and a other past leaders got a few “kicks at the can”. However, with John Tory it seems that many conservatives are unwilling to do so. It seems that he did the unforgivable sin? It maybe because of the school funding issue and the move to run in Don Valley, a not so “safe seat”. Unfortunately, this is something that John Tory may wear for years. Ironically, if he waited he probably would have easily defeated David Miller in Toronto for mayor. If the Tories want to ever win again in Ontario they must go to the “grass-root” level and focus on the next generation of voters. Dalton McGuinty, at the moment, is playing towards the middle of the pack (pulling soft-c conservatives). Going backwards to the old Harris era will just not work in Ontario. At the moment, times are good in Ontario and if they go further to the right they just might find themselves even further back than they are now after the next election.

By Andy MJ
a.k.a “The G.T.A Patriot”
Toronto, Ontario

Read more information about the move to remove John Tory from the CTV article below.

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