Will YOU have to work on Family Day?

Dalton McGuinty's attempt to bribe Ontario voters with a new holiday is having its repercussions. In fact the very groups he was likely trying to woo may be out of luck.

The Star explains who is and who isn't allowed to enjoy the new holiday - Everyone may not get Family Day holiday:

But not everyone is counting down the days to Feb. 18. Especially those who work in unionized environments, where issues like vacation days and statutory holidays are written into the collective agreement.

Members of the Toronto police service were recently told that they would not be entitled to the new holiday in a routine order issued to the police force last week. Staff was told to treat the day as a "regular work day."

The Toronto Police Services Board said that because their collective agreement gives more days off than the minimum required by the Employment Standards Act, they are not under obligation to add Family Day to their list of holidays.

One gets the feeling that not a lot of thought or research was put into this policy:

Family Day became law quickly last fall and as a result has led to both confusion and controversy about who is entitled to the holiday and how much it will cost businesses and the city.

City of Toronto officials voted in December to give city employees the holiday off. But they say that it will cost taxpayers $2.3 million to give city workers the holiday, not counting lost productivity. It's also expected to cost TTC $2.5 million and would have cost the Toronto police service $2.2 million.

Toronto, eh? Isn't that the city where they are constantly whining for more money?

And BTW, isn't Ontario the province constantly whining for more cash too? But of course, we're doing so very, very well here! Especially in manufacturing. Gimme a break.

Nice move, Dalton.


I hope the ROC appreciates the fact that there is no end in sight to Ontario's plan to upload the costs of socialism.

* * * *

Update: From Freedom is my Nationality - The narrow aperture of the right:

I have achieved a new low. I am now going to make a blog post commenting on a comment made on someone else’s blog post. Here it is at Joanne’s Journey and the comment is the sixth one down.

Those on the right tend to be more suspicious and skeptical media consumers, IMHO...

A new low? I could take that the wrong way, but I won't. ;)

We have met the enemy

Good old Pogo. I used to love reading my youngest aunt's stash of Walt Kelly's comic books even though I was too young to really appreciate them at the time.

His wisdom still rings true today. In today's Sun column (Tory would have been sitting prettier under MMP), Christina Blizzard points out a number of trends that threaten democracy - the biggest one of all being voter apathy. First she explores the very different results that MMP would have delivered to Ontario had it been in effect during the last election.

But the way that referendum was thrust on us in a similar manner that FB-funding was announced, left voters with little time to properly sort out the issues in a rational process.

Fear-mongering and paranoia overcame the debates. Personally, I ended up being against MMP and have no regrets on that score, but it was a difficult process trying to sort out the various ramifications of a very complex question. Little information was given to voters before the election. Similarly, John Tory's fatal flaw was to spring FB-funding on us as a campaign platform that allowed the opposing side to run with the fear-ball all the way to the goal line.

Blizzard interviewed Peter MacLeod, of Queen's University's Centre for the Study of Democracy, and received this observation:

"The recent election wasn't a contest of ideas, it was a monologue about one bad idea. Yet Ontarians had no way to tune into a different conversation," he said.

"There was no space for a discussion about any number of issues -- mainly because we've created a political culture where ideas and issues have themselves become dangerous," he said.

"No wonder so many people simply change the channel or pull the plug."

( . . . )

But back to Churchill. He also noted the best argument against democracy is "a five-minute conversation with the average voter." Many potential voters in this province simply sat home Oct. 10. Voter turn-out was a pathetic 52%.

"We may have voted down the referendum, but we're getting perilously close to voting down democracy too. A 52% turnout isn't much of an endorsement and yet I can't believe this is what people want," MacLeod said.

So we can blame the powers-to-be for not educating us enough on the relevant issues and we can blame the fear-mongers for taking advantage of our naiveté.

Or we can start taking responsibility for ourselves and stop letting the nanny-state do our thinking for us.

That means making a real effort to learn about the issues from a variety of sources. It means objectively assessing the pros and cons. It means caring.

And it means getting out to vote.

School controversy not over yet

During the Ontario election the faith-based finding issue was front and centre.

My Sept. 17 post (You're being duped, Ontario) has drawn the attention of Leonard Baak, who is the president of Education Equality in Ontario, which advocates for a one school system.

Mr. Baak seems to feel that one of my anonymous readers has slandered him (at Tue Sep 18, 06:43:00 PM EDT), so it's only fair to highlight his response here so that he can explain his position:

(Thu Nov 08, 08:37:00 PM EST)

Ya gotta love anonymous slander.

For the record, I am neither a disgruntled father nor did I ever want my kids in the Catholic system. Nor is my passion for one school system a reflection of personal anger. If Mr./Ms. anonymous has any evidence to support this, please do tell.

An extreme overcrowding situation in my local public school led me to try -- unsuccessfully -- to enrol my kids in our local Catholic elementary school. It was my second choice. I do not think sectarian religion has any place in publicly funded education -- never have. The duplication also costs hundreds of millions of dollars a year that could be better spent in classrooms and on vital programs and educational supports (special ed, ESL, specialist teachers (gym, librarians), etc). The separate Catholic school system is a shameful and inexcusable waste of valuable education resources. The lost opportunities stemming from that waste result in real pain that is evidenced every year in endless rounds of school board cutbacks.

My local public school was too overcrowded to accommodate all of the students in its attendance zone and could not legally add any more portables. The school board's solution was to bus junior kindergarten kids 90 minutes a day (45 minutes each way) to a less crowded school for a two and a half hour school day. I would not subject a four year old to that. For that reason, I applied to and was turned away by my local Catholic elementary school. I ended up enrolling the kids in a private school for two years at a cost of over $1700 per month to escape an overcrowding situation that my (non-Church-going) Catholic neighbours could escape for free by virtue of the "colour" of their faith.

I was shocked to discover, upon appeal to the Ministry of Education, that these publicly funded schools had an absolute and unfettered right to reject non-Catholic children until grade 9 and to reject non-Catholic teachers at all grade levels. This in a society that professes to value the fundamental equality of its citizens? I grew up in Nova Scotia, where such blatant discrimination has never been tolerated (it only continues to exist in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta -- Ontario most blatantly).

As a practicing Christian, I was equally shocked that this discriminatory status quo is not opposed by and is even defended by other Christians -- or people who profess to be of that faith. If they really loved their neighbours as themselves (remember the Great Commandment?), they would insist that all religious schools be funded equally or not at all. Everyone, including Catholics, should be equal before and under the law. Catholic and Christian teaching demands no less.

And don't give me any garbage about Catholics supporting the right of other faiths to their own funding. Polls during the recent election showed that only 15% of Ontarians supported extended religious school funding. Even if they were all Catholics (which they were not), Catholics make up 34% of the Ontario population. That would suggest that most Catholics support one school system as well or are unabashed and unapologetic bigots who favour educational choice and religious school options only for their own kind. I'll charitably assume the former.

Catholic school/Church vested interests in Ontario only offer quiet and ineffectual platitudes to other faiths with regard to extended religious school funding and only because if they didn't, they'd look like bigots. They typically only do this when the heat (and scrutiny) is on their own system. During the election, many Catholic teachers openly supported the Liberals with their unconscionable, bigoted, Catholics-first-and-only status quo position on religious school funding. The Catholic trustees, teachers union, and principals' council all applauded Liberal announcements in news releases and public comments while ignoring the fact that the Tories offered ever more money. While saying they support equal rights for other faiths, they were quietly working against those who proposed to make it a reality. They knew damned well that dividing a limited pie even further would be detrimental to all children in the existing publicly funded systems. You can see it already in current education funding.

English Catholic school boards generally receive hundreds of dollars more per pupil per year than their coterminous English public boards. French public boards similarly receive substantially more per pupil per year than their coterminous French Catholic boards, which are always the larger of the French boards. French boards universally receive thousands of dollars more per pupil per year than their coterminous English boards, whether public or Catholic. This is not favouritism of Catholic over public or of French over English, but a clear recognition in the education funding formula of the inefficiencies of smaller boards serving more dispersed student populations. The smaller boards receive higher funding to allow them to offer an educational experience of comparable quality to their larger counterparts.

My motivation is opposing the continuation of the separate Catholic system is that I agree with most Ontarians that it is wrong to segregate children by faith and it is a gross injustice to provide publicly funded school choice to the members of a single privileged faith alone. I am also interested in seeing better stewardship of the funding committed to public education and religious neutrality in government. I think a single public school system is the best way to accomplish that. Religious schools, if they are to be funded at all, should be funded at arm's length through modest tax credits that are not significant enough to promote an exodus from truly inclusive and multicultural public schools.

Attempting to ascribe my actions to hateful motives is dishonest in the extreme.

Regards,
Leonard Baak.

Thank you, Mr. Baak. I have several readers who totally agree with your point of view.

I personally feel that the status quo is unacceptable because it discriminates according to religious faith. But what about Eden High Christian School in Niagara, and other such anomalies?

And already there is a Toronto school for gays and lesbians (Oasis).

How do we explain the Toronto District School Board talking about a school for blacks-only?

Just where does the Minister of Education stand on all this NOW?

* * * *

Friday Update: Black-focused school gains ground -

...But one thing was clear: A healthy majority supported the concept...

...However, one member of the Somali-Canadian National Congress called such schools "a hare-brained idea – we just voted against segregating children into faith-based schools," said Abdurahman Hosh Jibril...

Yeah, well. Don't let logic stop the TDSB.

This June, at the urging of a group of concerned black parents, the school board agreed to study the feasibility of such a school as an alternative for students who can feel alienated in mainstream schools.

Couldn't that reasoning be applied to just about anyone who feels 'alienated' in mainstream schools?

Can a Chinese or Muslim-only school be far behind?


Post - The TDSB's Bad Idea.

(Thursday) Sun - Here's why black schools are failing.

Saturday - Not black and white - Michael Coren.

Final thoughts on the Oct. 10 massacre

I am not a member of the Ontario PC party. During the Harris years I supported it, because I felt Mike Harris prescribed the medicine that Ontario needed to get well again after Bob Rae's effect on the economy.

We all choked it down. The medicine worked, but it left a bad taste in the mouths of many Ontarioans.

John Tory is the anti-Harris, if you will. Liberal-lite. That's why I never took out a party membership.

John Tory is by all accounts a wonderful, kind, generous and enthusiastic man. But he is not what the PC party needs right now.

John, for the sake of the party, please step down. Allow Elizabeth Witmer or Bob Runciman take over as interim leader until the party can recover, and rediscover its mission and focus.

Tough medicine, John. But necessary.


Because after four more years of Dalton McGuinty, we're going to need another Mike Harris.

* * * *

As a sidenote to what kind of fallout this might have on a fall federal election, I can only suggest that Stephen Harper has nothing to worry about.

Ontario just woke up and found itself in bed with a four-year McGuinty hangover.

We won't be wanting any more of the hair of the dog that bit us, thank you very much.

* * * *

Saturday Update: Enlightening column by Ian Urquhart -- From Owen Sound, a bombshell:

...One source says John Laschinger, the Conservative campaign director, raised a red flag about the policy. But by then Tory was deeply committed to the idea and it was included in the party platform, which was released in early June.

The initial media reaction was muted, but the Liberals knew right away that Tory was vulnerable on the issue.

For months, the Liberals had been searching for some way to make education the focal point of the campaign, but they couldn't get the media interested. Then along came Tory with his proposal to provide public funding for faith-based schools.

"It was like throwing a belt-high fastball to a fastball hitter," says one key Liberal strategist. The Liberals hit it out of the park, with a series of ads and speeches that focused on the issue...

Did you bother to vote Wednesday?

Very disturbing story on the front page of the Record - Election Aftermath: Voter turnout was at record low.

Across the region, nearly as many people stayed home as took to the polls Wednesday in an election that saw the lowest voter turnout in Ontario history.

About 51 per cent of the region's 334,000 eligible voters bothered to cast ballots.

In most local ridings fewer than half the number of eligible voters cast ballots. Turnout was lowest in Cambridge, which registered just 49.3 per cent of the vote, a 4.5-point drop from the 2003 election.

"I have never seen such apathy since I've been involved in politics," said Cambridge MPP Gerry Martiniuk, who was elected to a fourth term in a tight race against Liberal Kathryn McGarry....

I find this so puzzling. Not only was there a lot of emotion fanned by the Liberal war room against FB-funding, but there was also a rare referendum on the very way we determine democracy in Ontario. How is it possible that so few people care or 'are too busy' to vote? Would you have time to stand in a long line for a free case of beer if it were offered?

Voting ahead is the way to go. It's easy, convenient and not crowded.

You're not just a bunch of lemmings, fellow Ontarioans - You're apathetic lemmings. Especially those who live in Waterloo Region.

Anyone who didn't vote has no right to complain about anything for the next four years.


I am disgusted.

* * * *

I wonder if these people actually voted:

Obviously this one didn't (Post):

...I am a conservative who did not vote in Wednesday's Ontario election. There are tens of thousands of others like me, who stayed away because we had no one for to vote for. We want leaders who stand for lower taxes and smaller government. John Tory was not that man.

A liberal who pretends to be a conservative is worse than a liberal who admits it. This is why Mr. Tory lost. Let's find a Mike Harris conservative, and get ready for next time.

Ron Tillotson, Toronto.

From the Record:

I am absolutely appalled with the provincial election results.

What could the smart citizens of Ontario possibly be thinking about by giving Dalton McGuinty another four year free reign. It sure beats me.

I guess the people don't care if they are misled, or that reminders about all the broken promises fell on deaf ears.

What has McGuinty done about the Caledonia fiasco except give the natives more ammunition to go after more control over the six miles on either side of the Grand River, and to require permission from the Six Nations council before anything can happen? McGuinty did nothing except blame others, such as the federal government.

The Liberals gave $1 million to the Ontario Cricket Association. That money surely could have been better spent.

I can go on and on, but what's the use. The people of Ontario have spoken, so fasten your seatbelts. for the next four years because Dalton is driving the legislative bus.

You wanted him again and you've got him.

David J. Burnside, Kitchener

(I bet he voted!)

The strategy revealed

Check out MDL - Click on Strategists debate faith-based school funding with Bernard Lord, Joy MacPhail and Martha Hall Findlay.

Now that the dust has settled, anyone who was taken in by the FB-funding issue is going to feel somewhat manipulated when they watch this video.

Duff talks about fears of Muslims and immigration as an undercurrent in Ontario.

Joy MacPhail - All Canadians were poorly served by Ontarioans and their malaise.

What is Martha trying to say? That the discussion was positive? That they might consider it?
Joy calls her up on it.

Duff brings up the push for elimination of funding for Catholic Schools.

Bernard Lord calls it an 'inconsistency' in Ontario.

In the previous clip ("A discussion of the future of the Ontario PC Party"), Peter Shurman says he never liked the term 'Faith-Based funding'. He prefers 'Inclusive Public Education'.


More at Daimnation! - Warren the K reveals his secrets.

What a bunch of lemmings.


It was a hollow victory, Dalton. Very hollow.

In politics, being candid is a death sentence

John Tory must not have read Warren Kinsella's "Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics".

Tip #1 in the book by the Prince of Darkness is - The Press is the enemy. He quotes U.S. television host and former political staffer Chris Matthews from his best-selling book Hardball:

"...Failure, misery, disaster - that's what makes the bells go off in a journalist's nervous system: the kind of story where somebody gets hurt".

Kinsella's advice: "Don't be the one who gets hurt."

I think part of the reason for last night's massacre lies in character of John Tory - open, honest, forthright, accessible, compassionate, principled, reliable, responsible and candid.

He also loves to talk, which is great if you're the executive of a large corporation.

Not so good if you're a politician on the wrong end of a media feeding-frenzy.

Admittedly, Tory threw out the chum himself when he proposed his faith-based funding policy and didn't take an immediate cue that this was not going to be popular. He stood by his principles right to the end; wavering only to admit that a free vote was a more democratic way of handling it.

But McGuinty's handlers knew what to do - Keep your guy on message, and away from any potential disaster in terms of a media "Gotcha" moment; either with reporters or the public. So all we saw of Dalton McGuinty was carefully crafted scripts and tightly controlled media sessions where he kept hammering away on the importance of safeguarding 'public education' and 'public health'.

Oh, his goons did accidentally allow one little gaffe, but somehow it got overlooked in the Tory carnage. For the most part, they were in control - no matter what it took to accomplish that goal.

For the most part McGuinty was safely tucked away in classroom settings, challenged only by the tough questions of fourth-graders. No one was permitted to embarrass him with his record of broken promises.

There are other little subtle tricks like suggesting lines of questioning to reporters just before your opponent's media scrum. Getting unions onside isn't a bad idea either.

Global's Sean Mallen provides some insight on the former:

But back to the McGuinty bus. His media team is full of former TV reporters, one of whom is regularly calling me and other Global reporters on the tour to gently inquire into the subjects of our stories and suggest an alternative, more Liberal-friendly interpretation. Another former reporter, now part of the Liberal spin machine, has been sending me emails advising of a potential “gotcha” question for NDP Leader Howard Hampton.

It is all part of the game in the campaigning of the 21st Century and all parties are doing it. Our blackberries hum all day with party news releases parsing and critiquing every word uttered by the other guy. But the Liberals seem to have the largest and most aggressive media management strategy. It is a rare John Tory event that is not prefaced by an email to our blackberries from the Liberal War Room, suggesting a line of questioning.

Brilliant strategy - And straight from Kinsella's book.


By contrast, John Tory seems to be too open and honest for politics.

Or perhaps just too naive.

* * * *

Update - Various noteworthy MSM editorials and blog reactions:

From the Prince of Darkness himself - How we won.

Andrew Coyne - Eek! An inept Tory leader! (Post)

Ivison - This McGuinty victory not like the last one. (Post)

Mary Vallis - Tour of Duty. (Post)

Lorrie Goldstein - Multiculturalism has a down side. (Sun)

Greg Weston - One for the books. (Sun)

Luisa D'Amato - Witmer should be the next Tory MP (Record)

Stephen Taylor - Thoughts about the Ontario Election.

Blue Sky - Ah, Back to Normal Life. This one is really worth the time to read, but I find it difficult with the small font and dark background. Anyway, this is very perceptive:

You don’t win elections by doing the right thing, you win them by doing the popular thing (or by not doing the unpopular thing).

Wudrick Blog: The Crucifixion of John Tory.

Re: MMP - PomoChristian - The Silver Lining.

Daimnation! - Warren the K reveals his secrets.

The Pesticide Ban - Coming soon to Ontario

Dalton promised a province-wide pesticide ban.

Get ready for it, and check out how Halifax is doing.

It's on the store shelves, but people are 'not supposed to use it'. However, they still do.

Why? It seems that Halifax doesn't have the resources to follow up.

Get ready for a whole new regime of unionized bureaucracy, Ontario! Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll all go on strike.

If you haven't voted yet...

Please read Joe Warmington's column - McGuinty not only skipped a last chance to debate the issues with his rivals, he also missed getting an earful from this voter. (H/T ASTTR)

I was disappointed because I had a number of questions for him -- including why doesn't he have a Support Our Troops ribbon on his campaign bus as the other leaders do?

...I find it a strange statement coming from a guy who put through the Highway of Heroes designation for the 401...

I don't find it strange at all. Dalton is allergic to controversy, and will do anything at all to avoid it.

Four more years of slippery McGuinty.

Teachers working on McGuinty campaign

I think this is an issue we should investigate before the next election - Teachers took time off to work for Liberals.

Supply teachers have to be hired. Where does that money come from?

Meanwhile in Kitchener, the public board is throwing around the idea of making the kids pay for substitute teachers if they want to go on a field trip.

Isn't public education wonderful?

The Legacy of Caledonia - Appeasement doesn't work

Today's headline in the Record - Land Titles Under Review.

...A team of native researchers has begun reviewing all Crown land titles issued along the Grand River in the last 200 years to determine which parcels were illegally transferred to non-natives, according to a lawyer representing the Six Nations.

It's the latest escalation in the long-standing dispute over who owns a huge swath of land extending 10 kilometres wide on either side of the entire Grand River, an area which encompasses much of Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge.

This week, councillors near the mouth of the river in Haldimand were warned for the second time in less than a month they could face dire consequences and legal action for ignoring the Six Nations reserve in their development approval process.

( . . . . )

(Aaron) Detlor said the Haudenosaunee Six Nations (HSN) has asked the province to put a notation on the title of any property within the Haldimand Tract that was improperly transferred to non-natives. He suggested this approach would help protect homeowners, developers and other parties from unwittingly buying a disputed property.

But the province has refused the request and stood by its current land titles system.

In the meantime, he added, natives have warned an area bank about the risk of approving mortgages on disputed properties. They've also talked to agencies that set bond ratings for municipalities such as Haldimand County, whose tax base and ability to pay back loans could be affected by native land claims.

( . . . )

Detlor said Ottawa has implicitly acknowledged responsibility for past abuses by offering a $125-million compensation package to the HSN during the ongoing land claims negotiations.

But Detlor believes it will take "billions" rather than millions to properly compensate the HSN.

Last month, Haldimand councillors got a similar letter from the Six Nations Elected Band council urging them to stop all new developments.

"We would strongly recommend that Haldimand county cease all development permits until the land claim negotiations are complete and a settlement has reached," that letter stated.

"This would help avoid any future protests/occupations within our mutual territories..."

I would recommend that the Six Nations plan occupations at the homes of every Ontario politician with any influence and responsibility in this fiasco, starting with Dalton McGuinty.


Oh yeah... Remember to vote today.

Moving Forward Together, with the Premier in the Bubble.

Four more years of this?

And this?

And this?

How about this?




Well, if you run into any problems, just remember this:

"Don't call again. We can't help you".

* * * *

Post - The Caledonias Keep Coming. On the print copy the subtitle is, "This is what happens when police refuse to enforce the rule of law".

It's called anarchy, folks.

Spectator - Six Nations warns of legal actions over permits.

ASTTR: Caledonia - Coming to a subdivision near you.

O.K. Dalton, you won me over!

Yes indeed. I see the light!

Dalton warned that "Tory's plan will destroy our social fabric, cause division and the "sequestration and segregation" of children by religion".

But kids living here go to a public school and there's clearly no segregation at all, right?

The Ahmadiyya say they don't mean to isolate themselves, and they send their children to public school. Still, the nation's "cultural mosaic" is fairly monochrome in this spot: Teston Road Public School, which opened last month next to the mosque, is about 80% Muslim, and the school provides its gym on Fridays at lunchtime so the kids can kick off their running shoes, bow low toward Mecca and pray.

There now. No worries, little Lemmings.

As you were.

* * * *

Sidenote: Judging from the polls and Dalton himself, no need to watch the results tomorrow night on CTV, etc. (Come to think of it, why even bother with the election?)

This will not be a knuckle-biter.

Parenting the Nanny State

One of my regular readers passed along her thoughts on tomorrow's election:

Give the Liberals a Time-Out

A parent who loves a child has to step in when the child does something obviously wrong. If the parent doesn't let the child know that he or she did something wrong, they are essentially condoning the behaviour.

It is the same with politicians. There are voters out there who like the Liberals and who like McGuinty for some reason. They are certainly entitled to that opinion. However, in this election, if they choose to vote the Liberals and McGuinty in again, they are giving them a pat on the back for the countless broken promises and lies. This will signal to them that Ontarians condone the behaviour of lying and going back on promises and they will therefore feel free to do so again.

To send a message that we notice when politicians break promises and we are not okay with it, it is necessary to give the Liberals a time-out. They need to spend a term sitting in the corner and contemplating what they did wrong to the population of Ontario. Then next election, if they have truly repented, they can be lovingly welcomed back into power by the liberal voters.

But right now they need some discipline, and it is the job of Ontario voters to dispense it.

She makes some good points.

The Faith-Based funding issue has been brilliantly used by the Liberal war-room strategists to deflect attention from Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty's long list of broken promises.

So what if voters just decided to teach him a lesson? For his own good. Just this once.

It would be good for him; humbling even. It would make him a better man. More accountable.

So if you love Dalton, don't vote for him this election.

* * * *

Related - From a CFRB interview with John Tory:

"It's as if the people are saying it's Okay to have a low standard of behaviour for politicians," Tory said on CFRB this morning as he tried to explain how his campaign got derailed and how the Liberals "dishonesty' trumped his effort to change to tone of politics in Ontario.

Personal Note: I've just finished reading Warren Kinsella's "Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics". It's a real eye-opener. He claims that people don't have the time to really delve into issues during elections and are trying to gleam it from evening news clips, etc. as they rush off to the next soccer practice.

So those 'gotcha' moments and ten-second sound bites are crucial. All that matters is getting your guy elected.

More on that over the next few days. I believe the book should be required reading for anyone who wants to vote.

At least then they'd understand how they're being manipulated.


ASTTR - Looking inside Dalton McGuinty's Liberal Election Campaign.

Check out that Campaign Literature!

If you're anything like me, when you get campaign brochures from a candidate on the 'other' team, you throw it out after drawing on the mustache and horns.

However, reader Paul recently alerted me to the importance of examining this literature during an election campaign. In his own riding he found several half-truths and falsified information (dare I say lies?) on a Liberal pamphlet:

1.In four short years, we have reduced Ontario's greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels.

2. And hiring 8000 nurses so far for better patient care and 9000 more in the works.(A quick search of the Ontario Nurse's Association website shows this as being untrue.They have hired but nowhere near 9,000.

Paul said he was going to take the brochure to his local PC candidate. I haven't heard the outcome yet.

However, the incident made me decide to check out the brochure from our local Liberal incumbent, John Milloy. One item in the pamphlet really stuck out - "Smarter Ontario - Test scores are up".

Now that is just not true, according to the Society for Quality Education. Test scores have flat-lined. Now if John really wanted to stretch the truth, perhaps he could say he was referring to a few years ago. But I feel this is a misleading statement.

There is another line in the pamphlet which says "No days lost to teacher strikes". Now that is not completely true either because there was an Ontario College teachers strike during the McGuinty reign. Our family was personally affected. It caused a lot of stress and worry for students and families alike.

Those are just two examples. Check out the campaign literature sitting around at your house.

Perhaps being 'Liberal' means being liberal with the truth.

* * * *

ASTTR - Will McGuinty fool us twice?

Post - Premier makes no tax increase pledge - again.

Sun - Dalton II: No New Taxes. Yeah, right.

Dr. Roy - Dalton McLiar Show.

Chasing the elephant out of the room - Updated

(Update at end of this post)

If recent polling results are accurate, John Tory's Faith-Based funding proposal is still obviously bothering a lot of Ontario voters, (in spite of the fact that he apparently took my advice about the 'free vote'.)

As I mentioned before the elephant in the room may very well be Islamophobia.

So here is my proposal: Let's just add a few more select faiths which meet the prescribed criteria - Perhaps Jewish day schools and some more Christian schools.

What's that you say? You can't discriminate?

Oh, but we already are.

And according to this letter in the Star by Gila Gladstone-Martow, there are lots more than just the Catholic system that Dalton McGuinty attended:

Your editorial touting one homogeneous school system for everyone fails to mention the myriad of school choices already available ranging from arts-based and sports-based to French immersion programs. In fact, Premier Dalton McGuinty recently announced doubling the number of these "specialty" schools from 100 to 200.

You readily accept full guaranteed funding for Roman Catholic schools while denying my tax dollars to be directed to my choice of "specialty" school – Jewish day school education.

If Roman Catholics are the only religious groups guaranteed funding for their schools, how then do you explain the five Ukrainian Eastern Rite schools, Burkevale Protestant School in Penetanguishene, Eden High Christian School in Niagara, a Christian school co-operative in Rainy River, and a new native school in Toronto, to name a few? How is it these religious "specialty" schools receive funding while Associated Hebrew Schools, which turns 100 this year, does not?

McGuinty and Education Minister Kathleen Wynne are both on record supporting funding for what many in the Jewish community consider to be a lifeline for survival – our school systems. Yet another broken promise.

Sandy has written extensively about Eden.


So Ontario. What do you say? Could you handle the Jewish day schools being added to the mix? How about a few more Christian schools?

The point is, Dalton McGuinty has already allowed some faith-based funding to occur in Ontario. Therefore, he already discriminates.

* * * *

Update: Here is an excerpt from a great letter in this morning's Record by a Kitchener resident, Rose Berwick:

...My son was born with severe deformities of his back, chest, legs, arms, hands and feet. His eyes, lungs and heart are also affected. He was given no hope to live.

I have taken the care of my son very seriously. When it came time for schooling him I had two choices with my tax dollars. I enrolled him in a separate school, but he was not cared for. I found out young children were looking after him, not staff, and my ability to have input over the education of my son was not wanted. I was not even allowed to come to the school.

I contacted a public school and they said, "We'd take him but we really don't want him."

I found a faith-based school that took him in and valued him. Even a mother in the school with a master's degree in special education offered to help my son without pay for six months. He learned to read through her, and the staff went beyond the call of duty to meet his needs. I was left with the financial stress to pay for his education...

In my opinion, a school like this deserves public funding.


On the other hand, maybe our tax dollars are going to worthier projects...

Mark Bonokoski - There could be darker, xenophobic reasons why Ontarians have rejected John Tory's call for funding of faith-based schools.

Interesting that in this Post article about a riding where all four major candidates are Muslim (for the first time in Ontario), there's barely a mention of FB-Funding.

Spectator - Watch Thornhill in faith-based funding war.

'Don't give Dalton McGuinty a Blank Cheque'

NDP leader Howard Hampton is begging the people of Ontario to think twice before rewarding Dalton McGuinty's broken promises with another majority government, which would be a blank cheque with little opposition oversight and control.

Hampton points out that McGuinty is acting as if he already won the election:

"I've got news for Dalton McGuinty: That kind of arrogance, that kind of taking the people for granted in Ontario doesn't wash," said Hampton.

Howard has been blaming John Tory's Faith-Based school policy for taking the focus off more important issues, but as I explained earlier, John Tory was not running after reporters and begging to be interviewed on this issue. His mistake might have been that he underestimated the degree to which voters could be distracted with fearmongering and exaggerated rhetoric emanating from the Liberal spinmeisters as they cranked out their daily news releases.

I still believe that of the three leaders, John Tory is the best option. The Sun seems to agree with me - John Tory for Ontario.

However, if you're mad as hell at Dalton McGuinty's broken promises but you can't bring yourself to vote PC, then as Howard says don't Get Mad - Get Orange.

* * * *

Related:

Dalton to give $80 million to Reisman and Indigo Books - Just between us girls.



Don't Mess with Tradition:

A BATTLE IS COMING

The Charter of Rights and Freedom, rightly or wrongly, has successfully been used to challenge the Canadian constitution and the BNA Act Some could even argue that the Charter has made the BNA act and the Constitution irrelevant. I'm betting another battle will happen again in Ontario pretty soon, and McGuinty will have to choose between funding everybody or nobody. I think I know what he will decide.

Catholics, consider yourselves warned.

ASTTR - Looking inside Dalton McGuinty's Liberal Election Campaign.

Tuesday Update - Colby File - Reflections: The Ontario Election.

Please vote with your heart

I'm begging Ontario voters to use compassion and conscience to guide them on October 10th.

When you go to the polls, please keep this names in mind:

Etta Young

Sam Gualtieri

Mike Brady

Lindsay McCreith, Shona Holmes

Parents of autistic son, Neil and Elana Meirovich

Mike Quattrociocchi

Trish and Jim McAuliffe

Bob Edmonds

Dave Brown and Dana Chatwell



These are just a few of the real people in Ontario, who have been hurt by Dalton McGuinty in one way or another. They don't live inside a bubble. They are your neighbours, your co-workers, your friends, your family.

If you choose four more years of Dalton McGuinty, please be prepared to explain your actions to those people. If you help give him a majority, you are condoning his arrogance, stubborn tunnel vision, broken promises, and blatant disregard for accountability.

Please vote with compassion and conscience. Thank you.

* * * *

A note to my readers - If you have personal stories to share or have links to people in Ontario who have suffered during the McGuinty years, please leave a comment. Thanks.


Monday Update - How did we come to this?

Where Tory's wheels came off - Lorrie Goldstein.

John Tory for Ontario - Sun.

Weighing Tory and McGuinty - Globe.

Don't Mess with Tradition - Sun:

A BATTLE IS COMING

The Charter of Rights and Freedom, rightly or wrongly, has successfully been used to challenge the Canadian constitution and the BNA Act Some could even argue that the Charter has made the BNA act and the Constitution irrelevant. I'm betting another battle will happen again in Ontario pretty soon, and McGuinty will have to choose between funding everybody or nobody. I think I know what he will decide.

Catholics, consider yourselves warned.

Dalton McGuinty - Missing in Action

As far as I know, Dalton McGuinty has not visited Caledonia - not even once.

I had expected that he would at least hear their frustrations in person, but our aloof, elusive Premier-in-the-Bubble was MIA in Caledonia.

Perhaps the reason is that he doesn't feel it's worth his time in terms of a riding that he could hope to win.

When looking for some recent information on Caledonia and how the folks there are feeling, I came upon this Globe piece from Sept. 24 following the debate - John Tory's sleepover.

Karen Howlett wrote an open letter to Dalton:

Remember Etta Young, the elderly woman in Cobourg that Opposition Leader John Tory told us about during last week's all-candidates' debate? She's the one who doesn't have a family doctor and has placed an ad in her local newspaper looking for one. Or the woman in Mississauga who'se been waiting more than a year for an operation on her knee and is walking with two canes?

Well, the reason Mr. Tory has all these anecdotes at the ready when he criticizes the way your Liberal Party governed over the past four years is because he never stops travelling around the province, talking to ordinary folks.

He says you just trotted out statistics when you defended your record during the debate because you don't spend enough time doing the same. In fact, he just said a few minutes ago at a rally in Sarnia that you "shuffled your feet and recited a few numbers" during the debate...

Howlett goes on to tell the story about when John Tory actually slept over.

The point here is that you can either vote for the Bubble-Premier or you can vote for a person who really cares.

Things don't look very promising right now, but I'm still hoping for a Thanksgiving miracle.

* * * *

Inside look at some of the campaign problems here.

Global TV - A newscaster said a Liberal insider told him that not only will Dalton be in a 'bubble' for the next few days, he'll be 'encased in saran wrap'.

The Saran Wrap Premier will be crowned soon, Lemming-land. All bow before him.

And is it just me, or does Dalton McGuinty look smug these days?


And here is another glimpse into the Liberal war room strategy (read through to the end).

The Ontario Ombudsman hasn't been MIA! - Remember Lottogate? 'Puffery'? (Sounds like 'Puffins'), out-of country health reimbursement, and countless others? Thank you Andre Marin for trying to keep this Fiberal Government accountable.

Nothing left to chance.

For the Prince of Darkness, it all means GOTV.

Bubble Boy

National Post endorses John Tory for Ontario Premier

Update: John Tory's week in review.

"Tory may have stolen the week from Dalton McGuinty."

* * * *

I love the National Post!

The lead editorial today (John Tory for Ontario Premier) explains that "on health, crime, education and taxes, he has the better approach":

Most notably, Mr. Tory has said that, as premier, he would be open to contracting with private companies that serve patients within the single-payer public health system. Since Ontario already follows this practice in a number of areas, we do not see Mr. Tory's position as controversial. Indeed, champions of the government health care monopoly should be welcoming every effort to wring more efficiency from the current system. But you would not know this from the hysterical attacks Mr. Tory's sensible views on this subject have attracted from Mr. McGuinty and his media cheerleaders.

Yes, the fear-mongers have been very good at their job.

The Post continues to explain why they support John Tory's policy in the areas of taxation, health care, crime, the economy and education.


Then they shine a spotlight on the duplicity and hypocrisy of the McGuinty campaign:

We should also note that, for all the furor surrounding Mr. Tory's allegedly radical plan, the over-the-top response from Mr. McGuinty's camp should be seen as more off-putting than the proposal itself. Beginning last month, the Premier, posturing earnestly as a champion of diversity, has suggested that Mr. Tory's plan would somehow lead to the sociological balkanization of the province -- all the while hypocritically ignoring the fact that he himself attended a publicly funded Catholic school as a child.

I totally agree. If overblown rhetoric and apocalyptic scenarios win this election, then I think then Ontario voters have only themselves to blame for the kind of leader we end up with.


The Post suggests that John Tory has the kind of personality that could make us proud:

Indeed, it is arguable that the entire country, not just Ontario, has a stake in the Oct. 10 election. As one Canadian writer put it in a very fine column about Mr. Tory this week, Mr. Tory's archetype is former Ontario premier Bill Davis, "the ultimate consensus politician, who presided at a time when Ontario had more stature in Confederation than it does now." Given the manner in which premiers' meetings have descended into unsightly orgies of interprovincial money-grubbing in recent years, it would be nice to see Canada's largest province put forward a leader who could draw these squabbling men into something like common purpose. It is hard to imagine anyone in this country better able to do that than John Tory.

If Ontario voters get sucked in to the vicious, demonizing lies of the McGuinty campaign and choose four more years of this arrogant, unaccountable regime, I will at least derive a small amount of comfort from rereading this editorial - and the knowledge that just as Torontonians are beginning to realize the cost of electing David Miller over John Tory in 2003, Ontario too will likely wake up from this Neverland Nanny State dream and see that it was just that - a dream.

Or more likely a nightmare.

Ontario senior's family turns to ad in desperate search for doctor

In McGuinty-land, everything is fine and everyone is well looked after. Oh, there is 'still some work to do', but all in all things are running smoothly, right?

Not according to 92-year-old Etta Young. She has had no family doctor for over a year now, and the family finally resorted to placing an ad in the local newspaper -

"Wanted! In desperate search to find physician for my 91-year-old mother."

The retired nurse says that sometimes she feels so bad, "There's times I've actually cried".

"I have angina, I have asthma, I have arthritis in my hip, and I can't even go see a doctor," said Ms. Young, who makes do with walk-in clinics. "When I'm having pain, I feel completely hopeless. I think, 'Is this really happening to me?' I've always had a doctor."

Mr. Tory said Ms. Young shows what's wrong with Ontario's health system. "The thing that motivates me to have the degree of determination I do," Mr. Tory told a crowd of mostly seniors, "to say I am going myself to the United States to bring doctors home, is meeting people like Mrs. Young."

Mr. Tory used the woman to illustrate his two-pronged, stepped-up approach against Dalton McGuinty: charging that the Premier does not talk to average folk and that he hasn't done anything to ease the doctor shortage.

But wait! That's not totally true, John.

Dalton has emerged from his bubble once in a while to talk to the common man. Let me see. It was just the other day, wasn't it?

Oh yes. Dalton McGuinty had an extensive conversation that day. In fact he referred to it again and again:

Yesterday, Mr. McGuinty cited his meeting with Mr. Brady as proof that he is interacting with voters.

"Maybe you weren't there when I met Mr. Brady in Ottawa and mainstreeted in a hospital corridor," he told reporters after a speech to a business audience at the Empire and Canadian clubs in Toronto. "I've had a great opportunity to meet with Ontarians to get a better sense of where they are at and where they want us to go."

Yesterday was the second time Mr. McGuinty has mentioned Mr. Brady by name, even though he did not stop to interact with him. The first time was at a Liberal barbecue rally in Ottawa last week.

When reminded yesterday that he actually brushed aside Mr. Brady's comments about cancer treatment, Mr. McGuinty replied: "Let me tell you about what we are doing on the cancer front." He then cited a list of actions he said the Liberals have taken to invest in cancer.

(i.e. Lib-Spin - ed.)


Dalton McGuinty even bends enough to talk to his own supporters! - (Globe):

Mr. McGuinty denied that he is avoiding direct contact with voters, saying he has met with many Ontarians.

"I think I just spoke to 500 people in that room alone," Mr. McGuinty said after his speech.

*Gasp!*



But back to the doctor shortage - John Tory has a plan:

Mr. Tory promised that he would provide financial incentives to lure some of the estimated 9,000 Canadian-trained doctors working in the United States back to Ontario. He also said he would encourage young doctors to stay here by letting them defer paying back loans for medical school, and provide more flexible retirement arrangements for older doctors to allow them to continue practising part-time.

Etta Young seems convinced:

Ms. Young told reporters that she thinks the health-care system is "absolutely dreadful. Maybe I've just lost faith, I don't know," she said. "I'm sure if Mr. Tory can do what he says he can do, boy, he deserves to get in."

I agree, Ms. Young.

And I hope Ontario voters give John Tory the opportunity to help you.

* * * *

Update: Photo of Etta Young here.

Dalton's week in review.

Clogged ER's Rampant, Tory says.

Hospital Costs Hidden - NDP:

NDP Leader Howard Hampton stepped up his campaign attack on the Liberal government today, accusing it of deliberately hiding from the public the huge cost overruns for privatized hospitals until after the election.

...Hampton said Di Cocco’s excuse for not coming forward is because “she says she doesn’t read her mail. That was her position from Aug. 14 to just a couple of days ago.”

More work to be done for autistic kids: McGuinty - CTV:

"They thought they had a champion; what they received was a champion promise-breaker," Tory said.

The Prince of Darkness must be celebrating tonight:

October 5, 2007 – CanWest just posted these results, so I guess I can now, too. What does it mean? It means we keep working, and we GOTV.