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Perhaps NDP leader Andrea Horwath will be, for forcing an unnecessary Ontario election, if the results of a new Forum Research Poll hold throughout the campaign.
The survey of 1,845 people across Ontario, conducted on Friday and Saturday, yielded the following reuslts:
- 48 per cent of respondents approved of the budget. Thirty-two per cent disapproved, and 20 per cent didn’t know.
- 68 per cent approved of the income tax hike for wealthier Ontarians, with just 24 per cent disapproving and 8 per cent with no opinion.
- 39 per cent think Sousa’s spending plan will be bad for the economy while 21 per cent think it will be good, another 21 per cent feel it will have no effect and 19 per cent were unsure.
President Lorne Bozinoff says extrapolating the polling results would see the Liberals winning 49 seats in the 107-member legislature, the Conservatives taking 45, and the NDP holding 13.
Currently, the distribution is 48 Grit MPPs, including Speaker Dave Levac, 37 Tories, 21 New Democrats, and one vacancy.
In other words, the projection gives us another minority government, less seats for the NDP, and an election tab north of $80 million.
Thanks, Andrea, for nothing. Your vanity project does not seem very popular.
Sorry Lorne but all three parties wanted this election, laying all the blame on the NDP is wrong. Argue that Horwath has made an error in judgement as she likely has but the blame if there is any is shared.
ReplyDeleteWhile there is no doubt that the budget was engineered in anticipation of an election, Kev, and that Hudak has been spoiling for a fight for a long time, I can't help but think that if Horwath really believes in the traditionally progressive values of the NDP, she would have supported the budget. The fact that she didn't suggests to me that for her, like most politicians, the chance at power trumps principle.
DeleteI agree with you on Horwath, Lorne, there is no doubt her decision is based in self interest but so too for the other leaders. In fact it has likely been so for every leader in history.
DeleteI may not vote NDP for a the first time in years because of Horwath but the decision to defeat the budget doesn't even register.
I can't help but wonder, as I have for a long. long time, Kev, what it is about politics that leads people to abandon their principles so readily. The most obvious examples, of course, are the Harper seals who almost unanimously partake of the politics of hatred and dissension that their leader so readily metes out.
DeleteIs it just the nature of organizations that its members abandon their their self-respect to the mores of the organization? To suggest that none of them had any integrity to begin with seems too pat an explanation. Do they think they are serving a greater good somehow?
No matter how old I may live to be, human nature will likely still remain an enigma to me.
"traditional progressive values" have bugger all to do with today's NDP, Lorne, as you well know and we're seeing that increasingly at provincial levels just as we've seen the capitulation of values in the federal NDP. The Dippers are responsible for transforming my own province into a one-party state.
ReplyDeleteIt is a sad reality that rot permeates the body politic, Mound. I wish there were a cure for its diseased nature.
DeleteIt's hilarious how Liberals think Andrea Horwath made the decision all by herself. That's not how these things work. It's even more funny how provincial and federal Liberals always think that their party deserves support from the NDP and progressives. The Liberals keep on failing to provide reasons why they deserve support from anyone.
ReplyDeleteYour points are good ones, Anon, that point to the reality that there are no good choices for voters today.
DeleteHeadline should read, "Who's Sorry Now". Who is, the contraction rather than "whose", as in "Whose problem is it?" Thanks. Auto correct is not always a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThank you, 131220. I shall correct that immediately. I feel quite sheepish over that fundamental error.
DeleteLorne, sounds like Wynne win situation. :)
ReplyDeleteHa, Ha. Good one, LD!
Delete131220, my grammar sucks. As long as reader understands I am contented.
ReplyDeleteRegrettably, when working on the computer, I do not always practise what I preached to my students about proofreading all those years. :(
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