Big news on the front page of the Charlottetown Guardian today, which reported the following: Continue reading Liberal MP, er, clarifies his contradiction with Trudeau's abortion stand
Month: June 2014
The next Liberal to win a majority? Safe bet, it'll be Brian Gallant
They may have had a disastrous decade federally, sinking to the third party in the House of Commons, in the province’s, Liberals are on a roll.
Starting with Stephen McNeil in Nova Scotia last fall, and Philippe Couillard in Quebec and Kathleen Wynne in Ontario this spring (below), it’s been one Liberal majority after another. (If you believe Christy Clark is a Liberal in the same vein as McNeil, Couillard, and Wynne — and I, for one, do not believe she belongs in that same political category and, in fact, belongs in a category that likely includes Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall — you could extend this Liberal win streak back to the spring of 2013.) Continue reading The next Liberal to win a majority? Safe bet, it'll be Brian Gallant
Former MPs top list of latest Liberal nominees for 2015
I wish all federal parties would put something so handy together every week. [Copied and pasted as received from the Liberal Party of Canada] I’m trying to keep up and while I knew Anthony Rota wanted take his riding back from Conservative Jay Aspin (judicial recount was required in 2011 over that one), I had not heard that former MP Pablo Rodriguez wanted to win back the seat New Democrat Paulina Ayala took from him in 2011 : Continue reading Former MPs top list of latest Liberal nominees for 2015
The final campaign day in Ontario: Liberals go hard after Toronto New Democrats
The final day of the campaign in the 41st Ontario general election gets going early for all three major party leaders. Continue reading The final campaign day in Ontario: Liberals go hard after Toronto New Democrats
Press review: The Sun versus The Star on the final Sunday before Ontario votes
In Toronto on Sundays, only two newspapers publish an edition, The Toronto Sun and The Toronto Star. They’re usually among the most widely read of any editions either paper publishes during the week. And, as this is the last Sunday edition before Ontario chooses a premier and government on Thursday, both papers are using their Sunday soapboxes to push their favoured candidate.
Here’s how they look. Continue reading Press review: The Sun versus The Star on the final Sunday before Ontario votes
Ahead of Ontario election, The final tale of the tape on job numbers
Here, then, are some aggregate numbers on the Liberal record in office so far as jobs go. Choose which one you like to make your preferred political point: Continue reading Ahead of Ontario election, The final tale of the tape on job numbers
Down on the Farm: GOP, Dems duel in Iowa over cutting the pork
Watch that ad (above). It’s from Joni Ernst as she was campaigning in the Republican primary in Iowa for the right to be on the ticket in November in Iowa’s senate election. Turns out, Ernst’s experience with castrating hogs was good enough for Iowa voters who gave her a runaway victory earlier this week.
But she’s not in the U.S. Senate yet (and in fact, Iowa has never sent a woman to the U.S. Senate). First, she’s got to beat the Democrat, Bruce Braley. Braley is not a hog farmer. He’s a “populist” trial lawyer. Within hours of Ernst’s primary win, Braley’s team had an attack ad out aimed at Ernst’s claim that she knows how to cut the “Washington pork”. Here it is … Continue reading Down on the Farm: GOP, Dems duel in Iowa over cutting the pork
Ontario's police union and its largely Liberal donations
A few days ago, the Ontario Provincial Police Association released a couple of controversial ads in which it urged Ontarians to vote for anybody but Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak and, at the same time, tried to claim it was not endorsing either party.
Today, OPPA head Jim Christie was asked about these ads and the fact that the OPPA has donated thousands of dollars to the Ontario Liberal Party over the years, an apparently controversial move within the police union.. He said: “We’ve made it clear we have no issue with PC party just an issue with Hudak and where he plans to take future of membership. We donate to all political parties. I think over time we’ve actually donated more money to [Progressive] Conservatives. it’s normal and part of our political activity.”
I’m not so sure about that last part. Going to Elections Ontario political contributions table and looking up the contributions to each of the three main parties for the last five years, one finds that not a penny of OPPA made it into supposedly union-friendly NDP coffers and that while the PCs got some OPPA cash a few years ago, they got nothing in 2012 and 2013 and none so far in 2013. In fact, since 2011, the only political party that has received OPPA cash is the Ontario Liberals. Here’s the tale of the tape derived from Elections Ontario:
| OLP | PCPO | NDP | |
| 2014 | $- | $- | $- |
| 2013 | $7,400 | $- | $- |
| 2012 | $7,650 | $- | $- |
| 2011 | $13,600 | $13,640 | $- |
| 2010 | $5,200 | $4,455 | $- |
| Total | $33,850 | $18,095 | $- |
If the OPPA did, as Christie claim, give more the PCs or even give one penny to the NDP it must have been 2009 or earlier …
The whoppers in Tim Hudak's "Truth" ad
This is the latest ad from the Ontario Progressive Conservatives. They call it “Truth”. But in fact, it features their leader saying at least one thing that is demonstrably and unequivocally untrue and one other statement that is unlikely to be true. Let’s break it down by looking at two key claims Hudak makes early in this ad. (I’m assuming by now, you’ve watched the ad)
“The truth is that a million people in our province woke up this morning in our province without a job.”
Nope. Sorry. That’s not the truth. Continue reading The whoppers in Tim Hudak's "Truth" ad
New Ontario election ads: Hudak's math and Andrea's switchers
Two new ads out this afternoon for consideration by those eligible to cast a ballot in the June 12 Ontario election. One is from the Liberals and a week after economists first raised questions about the math in Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak’s “Million Jobs Plan” hits Hudak about his math. The other ad (below) is from the Ontario NDP. The NDP takes shots at both the Liberals and the PCs and encourages voters to “switch” to Andrea: Continue reading New Ontario election ads: Hudak's math and Andrea's switchers