The election is on in Ontario.

[. ._]

http://www.elections.on.ca/en-CA/

Discuss.

[Sheila]

Anyway, I saw some guys debating on tv the other night. All they were talking about was how big of a debt problem there is in Ontario that i had the feeling they were trying to bring that point home. I think that focus is not a good campaign to use except maybe to promise to NOT create more debt. It sounded like they were trying to shock everyone about the debt. Why would they do that for an election debate? So the government could steer the campaigns of the candidates and there would be less information about the platforms because they want less platform and more uniform parties. I'm just trying to say, listen carefully to these debates. Thank you.

[Canuck223]

The provincial Liberals have in general terms done a fair job, but I'm scared at the nature of some of thier cock-ups.

The E-Health spending BS and the relative lack of humility afterwords?
The FIT contracts for wind and solar power operators?

Hudak carries the baggage left over from the broadsword approach Harris took. I don't think it's deserved, but we'll see in a month if he gets in.

[Inverted2]

I'd vote for Satan himself if it meant Dalton doesn't get re-elected!

[winds_in_flight_wtf]

I believe a PC Government would work well with Ottawa - and further improve Ontario. I am sick of the lefto-fascist idiots running this country.

[Icebound]

I believe a PC Government would work well with Ottawa - and further improve Ontario. I am sick of the lefto-fascist idiots running this country.

I would be interested in the definition of "improve".

Also, "improve" for whom?

And is there anything more fascist that imposing ideological edicts.... for example, the Wheat Board shutdown.... in spite of the fact that the people most affected (the farmers) still want it, and that professional opinion continues to believe that loss of the Wheat board will affect most farmers negatively, and especially so in difficult economic times.

Now... shutdown of the wheat board will definitely "improve" life for someone. And if that someone happens to be your friend, I guess it can be argued that this is a "good" thing.

But I don't think that is what "democracy" is supposed to be about.

...

[straightpilot]

The provincial Liberals have in general terms done a fair job

Wow. Do you pay taxes (and any bills) in Ontario?

The cost of electricity has doubled since Dalton took office. Is that a "fair job"?!

He has blown money left, right and center on all sorts of stupid "green" initiatives that everyone is now admitting are a complete waste.

The manufacturing sector has all but disappeared in Ontario, leaving behind tens of thousands of unemployed workers - is that a "fair job"?!

Ontario is now a "have-not" province, like the permanent-welfare provinces in the east - is that a "fair job"?!

Mind boggling that you people are going to vote for more of the same.

[Canuck223]

The provincial Liberals have in general terms done a fair job

Wow. Do you pay taxes (and any bills) in Ontario?

The cost of electricity has doubled since Dalton took office. Is that a "fair job"?!

He has blown money left, right and center on all sorts of stupid "green" initiatives that everyone is now admitting are a complete waste.

The manufacturing sector has all but disappeared in Ontario, leaving behind tens of thousands of unemployed workers - is that a "fair job"?!

Ontario is now a "have-not" province, like the permanent-welfare provinces in the east - is that a "fair job"?!

Mind boggling that you people are going to vote for more of the same.

I agree that the the green BS was dumb. The Libs cancelled the planned construction of two new nukes because the tender required absolute fixed price terms. SNC Lavalin had to pad the quote just to ensure no possibilities of penalties, and the cost was higher than the Libs were prepared to pay. I get it. In most cases I'd probably approve.

However, when I find out that they essentially pissed the same money away with the FIT program, paying $.80/kwh when market price is between .02 and .19, it makes you scratch your head.

I can't blame the Libs for having the consumer paying the real cost of power generation, but not when they are giving away cash.

[Guido]

An explanation why many poor people seem to have a tendency to vote Conservative when it's obviously against their best interests:
http://www.economist.com/node/21525851?frsc=dg

Some of the important bit:

Instead of opposing redistribution because people expect to make it to the top of the economic ladder, the authors of the new paper argue that people don’t like to be at the bottom. One paradoxical consequence of this “last-place aversion” is that some poor people may be vociferously opposed to the kinds of policies that would actually raise their own income a bit but that might also push those who are poorer than them into comparable or higher positions. The authors ran a series of experiments where students were randomly allotted sums of money, separated by $1, and informed about the “income distribution” that resulted. They were then given another $2, which they could give either to the person directly above or below them in the distribution.

In keeping with the notion of “last-place aversion”, the people who were a spot away from the bottom were the most likely to give the money to the person above them: rewarding the “rich” but ensuring that someone remained poorer than themselves. Those not at risk of becoming the poorest did not seem to mind falling a notch in the distribution of income nearly as much. This idea is backed up by survey data from America collected by Pew, a polling company: those who earned just a bit more than the minimum wage were the most resistant to increasing it.

Poverty may be miserable. But being able to feel a bit better-off than someone else makes it a bit more bearable.

Suddenly I understand why there are so many pilots on here who happily vote in favour of corporate tax cuts instead of voting for parties who will actually act in their favour, albeit maybe not as much as those who have lower incomes (though those are few between when you look at the average aviator's income).

[JakeYYZ]

Hudak is a pandering cretin. However, he is not -McGuinty-. So I'm voting for him.
At this point I'd vote for a goldfish with a PC sticker on its bowl. One word why: Caledonia.

[niss]

Hudak's a dink.

His lies about the liberal tax credit for hiring new canadians has really pissed me off.

I'll take a serious look at my MPPs but I don't think I can give my vote to the liberals for how they handled certain things, and I sure as shit cant hand it to the PCs, not with Hudak as leader.

He learned how to lie his ass off about his opposition well from Harper.

[. ._]

But Dalton WILL NOT RAISE TAXES!!!

http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/en/tax/healthpremium/

Hey, it ain't a tax, it's only a PREMIUM, baby!!



Personally, I like Andrea Horwath- if for no other reason other than she's from the Hammer and probably could drink the other leaders under the table.

[JakeYYZ]

One of the most frustrating candidates since John Tory.
mosqueterias, & sex ed for six-year-olds, & Green Energy boondoggles, & unchallenged native uprisings, & preferential hiring for newly arrived immigrants, &....hardly mentioned. I think congratulations are due to Mr. Hudak, who has managed to snatched DEFEAT from the very jaws of victory. Weakest, worst showing by a political party in my memory. What a sorry bunch of bastards the PCs are. We suck.

[2R]

Record snowfalls kept most voters in Ontario in their igloos and unable to vote
Who won the opening hockey game ?and is that the real reason fo the low turn out ???

[Siddley Hawker]

Who won the opening hockey game?

Yeah, but they have yet to begin their November slide to oblivion. By Festivus they'll be outta the playoffs.

[System Message]

Icebound, the war measures act including the Canadian Wheat Board should have expired with the expiration of the second world war. It was setup to prevent farmers from profiting from the British during war time by allowing only a single buyer of grain which set the price.

[Icebound]

Icebound, the war measures act including the Canadian Wheat Board should have expired with the expiration of the second world war. It was setup to prevent farmers from profiting from the British during war time by allowing only a single buyer of grain which set the price.

That is a very weird read of history..??..??

The wheat board was born out of the same farmer frustrations which resulted in the development of farmer co-operatives, pools, and credit unions, in order to balance the power of the big corporate supply-retailers, the big grain buyers, and the banks.

It is interesting that these "socialist" entities are still thriving in the "conservative" west, today. Except maybe for the wheat-pools which morphed into corporations, which have spent their recent years fighting about mergers and concentrating on share prices, all of which must be benefitting the producer tremendously.


...

[Siddley Hawker]

The thing that perplexes me is, why does the wheat board apply only to Western farmers? Why does it not apply to say peaches from Ontario? Or corn from Quebec? Or spuds from the island.

[System Message]

To allow the deep South to maintain power and control over a large area from a relatively small area. By controlling the wealth of other provinces Ontario could marginalize them for it's own gain.

[Siddley Hawker]

Apart from not necessarily Ontario, that's about how I see it also. In the cases I mentioned, can anyone imagine the shitstorm of protest if the government were to say to the peach, corn and spud farmers "You are going to sell to us and us only, whether you like it or not."

[Spokes]

I believe a PC Government would work well with Ottawa - and further improve Ontario. I am sick of the lefto-fascist idiots running this country.

I would be interested in the definition of "improve".

Also, "improve" for whom?

And is there anything more fascist that imposing ideological edicts.... for example, the Wheat Board shutdown.... in spite of the fact that the people most affected (the farmers) still want it, and that professional opinion continues to believe that loss of the Wheat board will affect most farmers negatively, and especially so in difficult economic times.

Now... shutdown of the wheat board will definitely "improve" life for someone. And if that someone happens to be your friend, I guess it can be argued that this is a "good" thing.

But I don't think that is what "democracy" is supposed to be about.

...

I thought the wheat board was not being shut down, but just not mandatory any more. Farmers will be able to sell their wheat to what ever customer they choose. Or has that changed?