Duck Rodgers posted:

Hudak is off to a good start! Awkwardly avoiding direct questions about the Ontario Music Fund while standing in a music studio.

http://globalnews.ca/video/1311719/tim-hudak-kicks-off-campaign-with-awkward-photo-op

The best part is the end when they all walk away and the owner of the music studio isn`t really sure if he should follow the politicians or hang around with the media.

Also `woooow.... He`s going to have to do better than that"

Blade_of_tyshalle posted:

Colour me utterly unsurprised.

tagesschau posted:

With Horwath demanding handouts to car owners and refusing to say who she'll raise taxes on, I'm starting to wonder why the NDP is listed as being further to the economic left than the Liberals.

edit: Right now, not in general.

Pinterest Mom posted:

Of course, local governments and local school boards are under provincial control, so it's really more like 1.1 million under provincial control.

But the 236k who work in health are off limits, as are the 25k police officers.

And the 274k who work in local government boards are probably off limits too.

So you're looking at cuts of 100k out of the remaining ~600k employees.

Rutibex posted:

How do you create jobs by firing people?

Dreylad posted:

When I read the title of the new article on the CBC I thought "Wow the CBC are getting really partisan with their headlines." But no, he actually said he'd cut 100 000 public sector jobs.

I don't get it. Hudak went full Republican (never go full Republican) and had to backtrack before the election on Right-To-Work, but now has gone back to wanting to decimate the public sector.

tagesschau posted:

I think that's what happened at the recording studio, though: he stuck steadfastly to his rehearsed comments, and looked like a fool for doing that.

edit: That news conference was an awful example of what happens when your staff apparently decides not to brief you at all beforehand.

DStecks posted:

I'd like to believe that any voter with kids will realize the degree to which this would gut Ontario's already shaky education system. Air traffic controllers are a vague, rare job, and you never run into them in the course of them doing said job. Teachers work with your kids every day, and some that you know personally will very likely lose their jobs if Hudak follows through.

Leofish posted:

I got a card in the mail saying the Liberals are going to save me $70 a year by eliminating the debt retirement charge on my hydro bill!

MAKE IT RAIN, KATHLEEN WYNNE!

They're actually campaigning on this.

sbaldrick posted:

In a CBC interview this morning, Hudak said he would be OK with classrooms of 60 kids. He must have gone batcrap crazy as you can't even say that in Alabama.

quote:

The plan was for Mr. Hudak to ride the subway from Wellesley station to Davisville with media. But as soon as they boarded, transit police arrived asking to see permits.

No one had them, leading to an awkward exchange between Mr. Hudak's handlers, TV cameramen and the police.

As the train idled in the station, riders grew increasingly irate.

"Come on! We need to get home!" shouted one woman.

"I'm tired," said one man returning from a Mother's Day Run. "Tim Hudak, take some control."

Mr. Hudak, for his part, smiled awkwardly as the scene unfolded.

Finally, his handlers gave up on the photo-op and everyone trooped off. As reporters waited on the sidewalk outside the station, a Toronto police car rolled up.

It was unclear if the police had been called for the fracas. But before anyone could find out, the media bus arrived to whisk everyone away.

Will Stewart, a spokesman for the campaign, apologized to the TTC and riders for the debacle. The party, he said, hadn't bothered to ask for a permit because they thought it wasn't necessary.

Mr. Hudak ultimately made his announcement on a bridge overlooking the Davisville subway yard.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/hudaks-transit-plan-unveiling-nearly-derailed-by-ttc-cops/article18597722/

Pinterest Mom posted:

tagesschau posted:

Trumpeting a tax rebate that saves the typical family less than an hour's wages per month? Thanks, Rob Ford Andrea Horwath!

Ikantski posted:

No, I'm not. How many education jobs did professional economist Don Drummond advise cutting when we paid him to recommend ways for the province to save money? Around 10,000 I think.


You said it yourself, rising interest rates are going to spell disaster for entities holding a lot of debt. That includes the province. Our debt interest is the 3rd largest expense behind health and education and it's growing faster, as a percentage of total spending, than anything else. Even with the aging population, the amount we spend on servicing debt is growing twice as fast as what we spend on health care. As interest rates rise, the percentage we spend on debt interest has to rise as well and takes money away from health, education, infrastructure and social services. Even Dalton McGuinty's finance minister recognized that.

Kafka Esq. posted:

I'm not an expert in bond markets, but is that how it works? I thought the vast majority of it was bought at a fixed rate and servicing the interest happens at that rate only.

Ikantski posted:

I guess this is what makes me a conservative. Smart people tell me I should wear a seatbelt when I'm in a car, 30 years later I've never been in an accident so it's okay to ignore that risk now? The smart people probably didn't say that interest rates were definitely going to go up. They said that we were making ourselves vulnerable and we would be smart to put ourselves in a position where it wouldn't hurt as much if the rates do go up.

Ikantski posted:

I'm not even personally for austerity, it's not my big issue. I don't really want to see major cuts to any social services, health or education. I just think the current Liberal government is horribly incompetent at spending money properly. It bugs me that they've more than doubled the debt in 10 years from 130b to 280b without much to show for it and they're just going to keep borrowing as much as they can to help themselves stay in power. It's insulting.

bunnyofdoom posted:

Completely unscientific, annecdotal preference data follows

In my many walks around my neighbourhood and riding (Ottawa West Nepean) I've seen a 2-1 ratio of OLP to PCO signs. I have not seen a single ONDP that hasn't been on public land. I have actually seen more Green signs on public land than ONDP by a ratio of 5:1.

Is the ONDP really lazy, or in deep poo poo here?

Pinterest Mom posted:

Meanwhile, Andrea Horwath will stop the gravy train.


Efficiencies!

PK loving SUBBAN posted:

Or just stay home. I believe a lot of NDP voters will opt not to vote.

Ikantski posted:

My gut feeling is that while they're trying to respond to the economic crisis, they're doing it as incompetently as they do everything else. That's just a personal feeling and I was curious if there was a way to measure us objectively. I figured I'd calculate how Ontario would rank against the other 3 big provinces in terms of spending vs recovery so I ran some numbers against this handy fiscal excel sheet. I can argue that the Liberals are inept with money and are spending 400% more to make 55% more. You can argue that our growth is 50% faster than any other big province. Everybody's happy.

code:

Province	Average Deficit as %	Provincial revenue growth %
		of total revenue	from 08-09 to 12-13
		from 08-09 to 12-13
		
Ontario		11.92%			 13.3%
Quebec		 3.35%			 8.28%
Alberta		 4.49%			 6.98%
BC		 2.45%			 6.85%

sbaldrick posted:

Let's be honest, the ONDP is in deep poo poo because Horwath thought Wynne would cave on the budget giving her power. She kind of hosed up almost Hudak big.

geese posted:

Personally, I would just love for us to become the government. If we have to go all-in on populism to gain another 15-20 seats to head up a minority government, then that's fine with me. Andrea Horwath has a degree in labour studies and she was a community development coordinator before getting into politics. She's as left-wing as anyone in the base, and we have a lot of great progressive candidates and I trust them to deliver. But we have to find a way to win, even if we have to find ways to get a few more yokels in Sarnia or wherever to vote for us.

quote:

Nearly two-thirds of Ontarians disapprove of Tim Hudak’s plan to cut 100,000 public servants to streamline government, a new poll suggests.

The Forum Research survey also found‎ 63 per cent do not think the Progressive Conservative leader will be able to create his promised 1 million new jobs, while 26 per cent feel he can deliver and 11 per cent don’t know.

Similarly, 26 per cent approve of cutting 100,000 public-sector workers — such as teachers and bureaucrats — while 62 per cent do not and‎ 11 per cent aren’t sure.

...

Indeed, Hudak’s restraint proposal has taken a toll on the party’s popularity as the June 12 election campaign heats up.

Kathleen Wynne’s governing Liberals now lead with 38 per cent support to 35 per cent for the Conservatives, 21 per cent for Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats, and 5 per cent for Mike Schreiner’s Greens.

In the May 2 Forum poll, the Tories were at 38 per cent, the Liberals 33 per cent, the NDP 22 per cent, and the Greens at 6 per cent.

Using interactive voice-response phone calls, Forum surveyed 996 people across Ontario on Monday and results are considered accurate to within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Extrapolating the polling results suggests the Liberals would secure 68 seats in the 107-member legislature, the Conservatives 26, and the NDP 13, said Bozinoff.

“It’s not a huge change in the standings, but it makes a major difference in the seats,” the pollster said of the movement since last week. He noted the Liberals tend to win urban seats by narrow margins while the Tories pile up huge pluralities in rural ridings.

At dissolution, there were 48 Liberal MPPs, including Speaker Dave Levac, 37 Tories, 21 New Democrats, and one vacancy.

In terms of personal approval, Wynne was at 38 per cent (up from 34 per cent on May 2), Horwath was at 35 per cent (36 per cent in the previous poll), and Hudak was 23 per cent (down from 26 per cent).

...

Forum’s poll is statistically weighted by age, region, and other variables to ensure the sample reflects the actual population according to the latest census data. The weighting formula has been shared with the Star and raw polling results are housed at the University of Toronto’s political science department’s data library.

CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK posted:

Guys we totally have an awesome plan coming in a few weeks that will surely bring us all the votes.

I can only imagine what right wing talking point they will spout in a sad attempt to gain more votes.

quote:

If politics doesn’t work out, shipping and receiving may not be an option for Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.

In Guelph on Thursday, Hudak dropped by Royal Distributing to pack some boxes for the benefit of media cameras‎.

“How did I do there?” the Tory chief proudly asked supervisor, Shane Miller.

“I wouldn’t hire you,” deadpanned Miller, who oversees the area where 40 ‎people.

Hudak laughed off the quip.

...

‎First there was the Liberals’ Wynnebago.

Now, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak’s campaign media bus finally has a name.

The big blue Prevost bus has been christened “the Fired Truck” thanks to Sun News Network’s Joshua Skurnik.

The pun on Hudak’s plan to axe 100,000 public servants in order to create 1 million private-sector jobs beat out the Trump Shuttle, Blue Shift, and the Tory-staff-suggested Million Jobs Express.

quote:

There’s an Alfred E. Newman quality about Tim Hudak, and I say that with great affection, speaking as one of Mad magazine’s early devotees. (My collection of vintage Mads perished in a cottage fire years ago.) The resemblance became clear on that subway ride that was cancelled because his aides lacked a permit, leaving Hudak grinning manically in the back of the shot — and even then only after some genius added circus music to the footage and posted it on YouTube. He has to be saying, What, me worry?

What is Alfred/Tim not worrying about? He’s not worrying about explaining the reasoning on which his million jobs plan is based. He simply says: “The biggest thing we can do to actually create jobs in the province of Ontario is to balance the budget.” Uh-one, and uh-two and that’s it. How? Why? What’s the link?

It’s not that he doesn’t know, it’s that he doesn’t know it’s missing and should be there. That’s why he isn’t worried. You just fire teachers or whoever and new jobs appear. He seems not to understand what an explanation is, which in the most basic sense means showing connections: this connects to this, in this way, which is why it leads to it. Balance the budget and it happens — how?

He sounds less like someone with an M.A. in economics than someone who attended a weekend retreat at the Fraser Institute and came away with a certificate for attendance. Everyone who went got one, along with the ability to chant the cheers.

Other more garrulous balanced budget advocates do try to fix a link: it will create business confidence and jobs will flow; or it takes pressure off interest rates (though they’re already very low and holding). But Hudak does us the favour of showing the link isn’t essential and doesn’t exist in any persuasive way because it’s not the basis for the balancing: that basis is emotional.

“It can’t go on this way,” people like him shudder. Kelly McParland in the National Post says the Wynne budget comes down to “how comfortable are you living deep in debt? . . . In the end the balloon usually bursts, the creditors move in and all the neat stuff disappears . . . ” Or Scott Stinson’s intense: “Tick, tick, tick.” None of it is based on anything actually there. It’s a fearful extrapolation of what might occur. The footfalls on the porch that you don’t hear are the scariest. The silence means they might be coming and you start imagining . . .

I used to think balanced budget panic was a pretext whipped up by right wing ideologues who hate big government or equality but I now think it’s more truly felt. Debt was a basis of growth for 5,000 years — as anthropologist and activist David Graeber has written — but only recently became a source of mass fear and shame.

You can’t spend your way out of debt, the panicky say, though that’s the standard model in business: you go to the bank, acquire debt, then invest (i.e. spend) it, etc. For these people, though, it’s all about waiting for the axe to fall or Freddy to come through the door. McParland says “there are people who don’t mind living in debt.” But everyone minds debt, the question is: can you handle it rationally and prudently when the alternative is worse, like putting your family on the street or shattering institutions that make life civil. For McParland all debt is “laced with” danger and evil — he speaks in the language of addiction. Not to mention that we’re discussing public debt here, which “we” largely owe ourselves, and which can transcend generations, as private debt doesn’t. Or the possibility of cutting back on debt by raising taxes judiciously. But I digress.

The economics professoriat has a lot to answer for here. They provided the murky rationales for the discontinuous two-step that Tim Hudak has happily uncloaked for all to see. Why economists receive such cred is another question. They alone get to torture whole countries like Greece, solely on the base of their dubious models. Would you let a historian tell you what alliances to make or give him the keys to the foreign policy car?

Fojar38 posted:

All that Hudak had to do was keep his trap shut for ~one month~ of campaigning and he couldn't do it.

Heavy neutrino posted:

Well, except that there's no reason to believe that Horwath is indeed running a submarine operation.

Also that NDP graph is amazing. I guess people are correctly realizing that they're better off voting for the faction of the Liberal Party that is more likely to win.

Guy DeBorgore posted:

Why yes, I'm a tad bitter that the Liberals have apparently succeeded in convincing otherwise-intelligent D&D posters that they're more leftwing than the NDP, despite having governed from the right for an entire decade.

Heavy neutrino posted:

Are you loving making GBS threads me.

Jimbozig posted:

Well drat. Guess I got taken in. gently caress em all, then! Might as well vote Green - I know the GPO candidate in my riding anyway and have heard only bad about the OLP candidate.

Not that my vote matters - my riding will go Liberal, guaranteed. If the polling station wasn't literally on my block I'd probably not bother.

Leofish posted:

Journos on Twitter are reporting the NDP platform is coming down in the morning.

geese posted:

Platform announcement is imminent but a few choice bits since I'm allowed to talk about it now:

Freeze post-secondary tuition and interest-free student loans.
Investment in safe and affordable childcare spaces.
Attract doctors to underserviced communities by forgiving student debt.