Seismic Activity Reported In Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England

In one of the best examples of doublespeak I have encountered in a long time, Ontario Finance Minister had this to say about wage freezes and bargaining rights yesterday:

“Bargaining in good faith is not only the right choice to make, the Supreme Court of Canada requires it,” the finance minister said, emphasizing the goal is “not about demonizing teachers or nurses.”

“Where agreements cannot be reached that are consistent with the government’s plan to balance the budget . . . we are prepared to propose necessary administrative and legislative measures to protect the public from service disruptions — and also to protect jobs for teachers, education staff, and health-care workers,” he said.

High-placed Liberals insist that seismic disturbances detected in Sutton Courtney, Oxfordshire, the burial site of George Orwell, at the time of Duncan's announcement are mere coincidences.

The Ontario Budget: Andrea Horwath's Dilemma

Being the leader of an opposition party in Ontario just got a lot more difficult for one person yesterday. No, I'm not referring to young Tim (not ready for prime-time politics) Hudak, whose response to the Ontario's austerity budget was both swift and predictable:

“It fails to address the job crisis or runaway spending … and we can’t support it,” Hudak said, but he stopped well short of threatening to dethrone the minority Liberals.

The translation of young Tim's response? The cuts weren't deep enough, and taxes weren't lowered to create jobs, hardly a surprise given the Tory leader's simplistic world view and faith in magical thinking.

No, the real problem is for NDP leader Andrea Horwath who has deferred judgment on the budget in order to poll Ontario residents to see whether they believe Finance Minister Dwight Duncan’s budget is so unpalatable that they would be prepared to see the minority government fall.

“We are going to be having a very serious discussion with Ontarians as to how far short it falls,” she said.

On the one hand, political realities being what they are, Horwath's party cannot afford to seem too cozy with the public sector unions who will bear the main brunt of this budget through wage freezes and pension reductions. On the other hand, of course, the NDP cannot afford to abandon its support of working people, no matter how reviled by other working people certain segments are.

For Horvath to opt to support the budget on the morsel tossed to her by McGuinty, the freezing of further reductions in the corporate tax rate until 2017-18, would seem too small to earn her approval. How can that freeze balance out what essentially is the abrogation of public sector bargaining rights for the next two years?

Will she approve the budget after consultations with the public, the outcome of which is predictable? (Ontarians have told us they are not happy with the budget, but do not want another election over it.) Will she stand on principle and defeat the budget?

But wait, there is a third, though hardly honourable option.

I may be dead wrong here (it wouldn't be the first time) but Horwath, after a suitable period has elapsed, could announce that she will not be supporting the budget but, taking a page out of the playbook of the federal Liberals, ensure that two members are not in the Legislature on the day of the vote, thereby ensuring its passage.

It is a maneuver I neither advocate nor favour. It was that same repeated practice by the Liberal Party in the House of Commons that convinced me that they really stand for nothing except the bald desire for a return to power.

While the outcome will be fascinating to watch, I do not envy Andrea Horwath the choices that await her.

Vic Has A Warning For All of Us

Our alleged Public Safety Minister, Vic Toews, issued the following warning today:

Online hacker group Anonymous a threat to us all

Maybe. Or perhaps it is a threat only to those who seem to have an unhealthy, intrusive, and/or pruient interest in our Internet lives.

The Pleasures of Ford-Spotting

Were I a fully actualized human being, I would no doubt lead an exemplary life, the proud possessor of a heart filled with love for both friends and enemies. Alas, I am not such a person, and so I freely confess to the on-going delight and pleasure I take when things go awry in the fantasy world of the right-wing.

I suspect that is at least part of the explanation for my ongoing fascination with the 'mind' of Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford, about whom I have written several times already. The latest source of my impure pleasure is the Chief Magistrate's total obliviousness to (or absolute indifference to) the caricature of administrative competence that he conveys to the world, at the same time heedlessly dragging down with him any notion of Toronto as a 'world-class city.'

His latest contribution to my merriment came in an article in today's Star, where the big boy threatens to unleash the "Wrath of Kong" against a former MPP under Mike Harris, Councillor John Parker, for falling to support his one-track mind on subways.

As a consequence of this failure of fealty, the ungentle giant is saying he will turn the 2014 election into a de facto referendum on council’s transit votes, ... hinting publicly he will support an effort to defeat Parker.

Nothing I enjoy more than a good cat fight among right-wing extremists.

Ontario's Impending Austerity Budget

Reading my morning Star, I learned that there is wide-spread support among the public for austerity measures to reduce Ontario's deficit. I suspect that there will be a particular appetite for the following:

Hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses and all other public employees face higher pension contributions or reduced payouts to keep their plans sustainable, the Ontario government will announce Tuesday.

Although I am a former teacher receiving one of those 'lavish pensions' that come with no benefits (I pay about $3,000 per year for supplementary health insurance), I shall not use this space to offer a defense of them, except to observe that the money for that pension comes from a hefty percentage deduction of my salary over the years, along with the government's contribution.

No, what I really want to say is that the reaction of the various public sector union leaders to this austerity program with be a telling barometer of the health of the union movement provincially and nationally.
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Conventional wisdom is that unions in North America have been under attack for some time, and the success of that attack is clear in the erosion of union membership over the years; however, unions have to take part of the responsibility for that decline, frequently serving the members with the less-than-sterling leadership they deserve, a topic I have written about on more than one occasion.

For example, after the divisive and hateful reign of Mike Harris and his comrades came to an end in Ontario, the leadership at OSSTF, my former federation, embraced Dalton Mcguinty and his policies uncritically, and I believe it was at that point, to borrow a thought from Chris Hedges and his Death of the Liberal Class that the union, a traditional liberal institution, failed to hold true to its values, instead essentially giving its stamp of approval to everything the government did, thereby selling out to the corporate agenda.

So, in what looks to be a major budgetary attack on the public sector, how the unions respond could give a very good indication of their future health and viability.

Agitation At The Globe and Mail Continues

In the throes of some form of political delirium tremens since Thomas Mulcair's election as leader of the NDP, the Globe and Mail has apparently lost its lexicographical grasp, describing three resignations from the party with the following hyperbole:

Communications director joins NDP exodus under Mulcair

Expect more of the same as panic continues at Canada's self-proclaimed 'newspaper of record.'

Rob Ford Continues to Embarrass Himself

'Mayoral ineptitude' is probably only one of the many terms that could be used to characterize Toronto's Chief magistrate, Rob Ford. Not only has he regularly demonstrated his unfitness for municipal leadership over his inflexible position on public transit (subways, subways, subways), but he continues to embarrass himself and demean his office through the vehicle of his and brother Doug's weekly radio show.

Apparently happy to burn all bridges with councillors who don't share his monomaniacal enthusiasm for underground transit at any cost, Ford used his show to try to recruit candidates for the next election. Declaring a 'fatwa' against those who have a different perspective, one based on reason and cost analysis, Mayor Rob intoned:

“But you know what? We need to run a slate next time,” Ford said. “We have to get rid of these other 24 councillors.”

He was referring to the 24 councillors who backed light rail over Ford’s proposal to extend the subway system.

Continuing in the demagogic and absolutist vein so loved by the right-wing, he continued:

“You’re on our side or against us. You’re on the taxpayer’s side or against them. There’s no mushy middle. It’s left or right down there.”

Thus the campaign for the next municipal election in 2014 has begun. But what becomes of Toronto in the interim?