While I realize that the politics of Ontario is likely not a riveting subject for those living in other jurisdictions, I nonetheless offer this brief post on the election that has been called here for June 12. Given that the Wynne government presented a budget that by anyone's standards would be deemed progressive, the decision of NDP leader Andrea Horwath to 'pull the plug' on this minority government seems wrong and entirely self-serving.
A woman who has proven to be a grave disappointment as her party's leader, Horwath, given to pandering for power at the expense of principle, is voting against a budget that I daresay, based on her performance these past few years, she would be too craven to bring in were she heading the government.
As pointed out by The Star's Thomas Walkom, Wynne has promised to invest heavily in public transit. More important, she has proposed the country’s first serious retirement income scheme since the Canada Pension Plan was brought in almost half a century ago.
Should voters look to the Progressive Conservatives, Tim Hudak has made it clear that if his party wins, he will kill Wynne’s proposed Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, pull back on ambitious infrastructure proposals, and make life miserable for unionized workers.
Like Jack Layton, whose NDP helped bring down the Paul Martin Liberals, thereby paving the way for the Harper regime, will Horwath's decision prove just as fateful for the people of Ontario?
If so, the NDP, if it is to have any possibility of future rehabilitation, will need to find new and principled leadership as soon as possible.
Like you, Lorne, I am disappointed with Horvath. On the other hand, perhaps it's time for Wynne to stand on her own.
ReplyDeleteOne hopes that Ontarians can see through Tim Hudak.
This may lead to a clearing of the air, Owen. i just hope it doesn't backfire.
DeleteLorne, I wish good luck to you and other Ontario folks. Looks the nominal increase in taxes is the card which NDP and Cons are playing. Even Harper has jumped in.
ReplyDeleteThanks, LD. I think we will need it, given what we must endure for the next 40+ days.
DeleteHorwath couldn’t muster the wherewithal to stand up to Hudak’s taunting over her “support” for the “McWynnety Liberals” when she could have shut the boy up long ago by pointing out forcefully that, to the citizens of Ontario, there should be very little difference between Liberal transgressions in the gas-plant affairs and the gross misconduct of the “Harris-Eves-Hudak Conservatives” in carrying out the Hydro One semi-privatization swindles the last time the Ontario CRAP Party was in control of the province. The only differences might be that all of the provincial parties were in favour of the gas-plant cancellations whereas one party alone has ownership of the Hydro One fiasco, and that while no one besides the investors and minor stakeholders or players such as Hudak’s wife has benefited from the gas-plant cancellations, there were lots of associates of the Harris-Eves-Hudak gang who profited from the Hydro One swindles. The question of culpability in these schemes to defraud the public was never answered nor discussed sufficiently when it should have been. Essential details were concealed from the public.
ReplyDeleteMy hope is that at least one of the parties opposing Hudak has the courage to open this question during the campaign. The measure would be completely legitimate and politically ethical. The same gang that was calling the shots in the Ontario CRAP Party during the Harris-Eves years may have returned to assist Tim in his latest attempt to regain his party’s former position holding tightly to the rim of the public feeding trough. So far in his career Tim has been little more than an irritating but dangerous mouth. Let’s not enable him to become the dangerous little man that he so longs to be.
I'm with you all the way here, John. As well, perhaps, given that the sale of public assets is once again in the air, Ontario voters should be reminded of how the Harris regime got rid of Highway 407 for $300 million to try to balance the books. That cash cow is now conservatively estimated to be worth over $12 billion. And of all the toll revenue lost to the province, I will not even speak. Just another piece of incompetence that punctures the myth of Conservative fiscal acuity.
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