2014 Ontario General Election

[Crispy Bacon]

There you go: Tim Hudak is done July 2.

 

[Remius]

I'll be curious to see how the markets react to the Liberal budget set to be tabled and if by running this deficit budget, Ontario's credit rating will drop yet again.  I read somewhere that a credit drop will cost us an additional 500 million a year in interest on top of the 10 Billion in interest we pay now.  I wonder if that has been factored in.

 

[acen]

I heard Kathleen Wynne yesterday on the radio and she said that ontarians had nothing to worry about if the credit rating dropped. That wasn't her concern, that was for the credit agencies to deal with. That means we're going to be fine...right?  :

Wake me in 2018 or when the province defaults, whichever comes first.

 

[George Wallace]

I think this should be a good indicator that the GTA IS NOT the "Center of the Universe"; but the "Center of the Triangle of Stupid".  Like the Bermuda Triangle, all hope that goes into the "Triangle of Stupid" disappears without a trace.

 

[Remius]

I heard Kathleen Wynne yesterday on the radio and she said that ontarians had nothing to worry about if the credit rating dropped. That wasn't her concern, that was for the credit agencies to deal with. That means we're going to be fine...right?  :

Wake me in 2018 or when the province defaults, whichever comes first.

That's likely the line she'll be using but I'm sure she'll need to factor it whether she likes it or not.  My gut tells me that the budget after next, we'll be in for some real austerity...

 

[jpjohnsn]

I think this should be a good indicator that the GTA IS NOT the "Center of the Universe"; but the "Center of the Triangle of Stupid".  Like the Bermuda Triangle, all hope that goes into the "Triangle of Stupid" disappears without a trace.

Yep, pretty much all the major cities in Ontario went Grit and those that didn't went most NDP; all of Northern Ontario, save TBay went NDP but it's all Toronto's fault.

Barrie, a riding so conservative it elected the only Reform MP ever in the eastern half of Canada ousted a long-time, PC MPP in favour of a Liberal candidate who didn't enter the race until almost 2 weeks in; and another safe PC seat, Newmarket-Aurora also went from blue to red.

But yep, it's all the fault of the T dot.  :

Seems to me that it's that thin belt of blue across the middle of the province that believes it's the centre of the universe...

 

[Remius]

Yep, pretty much all the major cities in Ontario went Grit and those that didn't went most NDP; all of Northern Ontario, save TBay went NDP but it's all Toronto's fault.

Barrie, a riding so conservative it elected the only Reform MP ever in the eastern half of Canada ousted a long-time, PC MPP in favour of a Liberal candidate who didn't enter the race until almost 2 weeks in; and another safe PC seat, Newmarket-Aurora also went from blue to red.

But yep, it's all the fault of the T dot.  :

Seems to me that it's that thin belt of blue across the middle of the province that believes it's the centre of the universe...

Sorry, but the road to power is the GTA.  GTA has 47 of the 107 seats.  The Liberals won 39 of those.  With Toronto alone and the NDP and PCs splitting the rest of the province they could still have a minority government.  Eastern Ontario (the next largest district) only has 12 seats and they were split 6 Liberal and 6 PC. 

The Greater Toronto Area overwhelmingly voted Liberal.  So yes, in large part it was T-dot's doing.

 

[PuckChaser]

But yep, it's all the fault of the T dot.  :

Not all of T Dot. Just the ignorant ones that voted Lieberal. I also include the 20 or so thousand in Kingston that voted for the Liberals again, after our old MPP had done absolutely nothing for the riding in years.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Sorry, but the road to power is the GTA.  GTA has 47 of the 107 seats.  The Liberals won 39 of those.  With Toronto alone and the NDP and PCs splitting the rest of the province they could still have a minority government.  Eastern Ontario (the next largest district) only has 12 seats and they were split 6 Liberal and 6 PC. 

The Greater Toronto Area overwhelmingly voted Liberal.  So yes, in large part it was T-dot's doing.

Good synopsis.

 

[Journeyman]

Sorry, but the road to power is the GTA. 

  The facts will just confuse him....

 

[jpjohnsn]

  The facts will just confuse him....

No, no, no.  I understand the facts.  Who wins Toronto wins Ontario, that's pretty much a given.  My dispute is the notion Toronto deserves to be singled out for scorn when what happened in Toronto is reflected in pretty much every urban centre throughout the province - even in ridings that should have been a no-brainer for the PCs to hold.  In more than a few ridings, the PC candidate only won by the skins of their collective teeth. 

Tim Hudak blew the election - pure and simple.  He snatched defeat from the jaws of victory so completely that if he was a boxer, he'd be under investigation for the possibility of taking a dive.  Blaming the voters or calling the stupid doesn't change that fact.

 

[The_Falcon]

Tim Hudak blew the election - pure and simple. 

So the fact that nearly every union in the province were actively engaged in a fear mongering campaig AGAINST him, with no limit to how much they could spend, that had nothing to do with the PC defeat at all.  He was screwed no matter what, against that sort of attack.  Tell the truth and get lynched, by people who only want to hear fairy tales and have sunshine blown up their @$$.  Run a campaign like wynne, and refuse to give concrete answers on anything, and the narrative would have been he has a hidden agenda.

 

[OldSolduer]

I've been following this and in about a year or so Manitoba will have a general election. I can foresee the unions siding with the current ruling party (NDP) against the PC party. The claims will be "they fire thousands of nurses" and other tripe. The accusations will stick.
The unions will trot out the fact that the leader of the PC party lives in a very sumptuous home....and in Manitoba nothing brings out the knives like success, especially within the perimeter highway (Winnipeg). He who wins Winnipeg will form the government.
The NDP will bribe Manitobans with their own money, tell outrageous stories about the Conservatives, and get away with it.

 

[jpjohnsn]

So the fact that nearly every union in the province were actively engaged in a fear mongering campaig AGAINST him, with no limit to how much they could spend, that had nothing to do with the PC defeat at all.  He was screwed no matter what, against that sort of attack.  Tell the truth and get lynched, by people who only want to hear fairy tales and have sunshine blown up their @$$.  Run a campaign like wynne, and refuse to give concrete answers on anything, and the narrative would have been he has a hidden agenda.

If Hudak had explained the twin pillars of his platform properly (i.e. the million jobs and the plan to draw down the public sector by 100,000) PROPERLY, they wouldn't have had the ammunition they so successfully used against him.  He decided to go with quick and easy soundbites and then made no effort to follow up.  He left that to his opponents. 

Don't blame the tigers for eating you if go out of your way to carefully craft a three-piece suit out of strip sirloin and then do a jig in front of them.

 

[The_Falcon]

If Hudak had explained the twin pillars of his platform properly (i.e. the million jobs and the plan to draw down the public sector by 100,000) PROPERLY, they wouldn't have had the ammunition they so successfully used against him.  He decided to go with quick and easy soundbites and then made no effort to follow up.  He left that to his opponents. 

Don't blame the tigers for eating you if go out of your way to carefully craft a three-piece suit out of strip sirloin and then do a jig in front of them.

1) Define properly.
2) You honestly believe and expect that the unions and by extension the lazy ill informed voters, would have honestly listened to any lengthy explanation of those points?  His explanation could have been in a tome the size of "War and Peace", and the only thing people would hammer on is 1 Million Jobs, 100,000 cuts.
3) The unions don't require ammuniton.  They will attack any party (governing or not), that isn't completely compliant with thier demands and wishes.

 

[jpjohnsn]

1) Define properly.
2) You honestly believe and expect that the unions and by extension the lazy ill informed voters, would have honestly listened to any lengthy explanation of those points?  His explanation could have been in a tome the size of "War and Peace", and the only thing people would hammer on is 1 Million Jobs, 100,000 cuts.
3) The unions don't require ammuniton.  They will attack any party (governing or not), that isn't completely compliant with thier demands and wishes.

Sorry, my mistake.  Hudak ran the perfect campaign but the electorate was just too stupid to realize it.  Sounds just a touch too much like Parizeau blaming money and the ethnic vote. 

 

[Remius]

If Hudak had explained the twin pillars of his platform properly (i.e. the million jobs and the plan to draw down the public sector by 100,000) PROPERLY, they wouldn't have had the ammunition they so successfully used against him.  He decided to go with quick and easy soundbites and then made no effort to follow up.  He left that to his opponents. 

Don't blame the tigers for eating you if go out of your way to carefully craft a three-piece suit out of strip sirloin and then do a jig in front of them.

Aside from a few hiccups he ran a good campaign.  Stayed on message, took the iniative and won the debate.  But he never connected with the electorate.  Putting numbers to his plan may have contributed yes as opposed to saying things like 10% reduction or reduce public sector to 1.2 million jobs or whatever.  Third party funding was a major issue though and one that the provincial electoral officer has agreed needs to be addressed.

Money wins campaigns.  Or at least it can really help.  When a party fights against a lot of third party money that essentially is free advertising for the opponents its hard to effectively and fairly compete.  This became a fear mongering campaign from the Liberals and any organisation that was against Hudak.  Unions in particular or coalitions of unions.  Remember that political parties raise their money from donors whereas unions raise it through mandatory levies.  As a union member I have very luittle say as to how my money is spent (especially on non union activities). 

So while it is easy to critiicise him after the fact (I don't even like the guy myself), I can't see what more he could have done short of playing dirty and not being honest.  We all say we hate that sort of stuff but when politicians ARE honest we don't like what we hear and vote for the liars and dirty players.

It is a career choice I'm glad I never made nor will I likely ever entertain. 

 

[Remius]

Sorry, my mistake.  Hudak ran the perfect campaign but the electorate was just too stupid to realize it.  Sounds just a touch too much like Papineau blaming money and the ethnic vote.

I think you meant to say Parizeau.

I'm not saying he ran a brilliant campaign, just that the other side and opponents of any type of austerity platform played a much dirtier game with more smoke and more mirrors.

 

[The_Falcon]

Sorry, my mistake.  Hudak ran the perfect campaign but the electorate was just too stupid to realize it.  Sounds just a touch too much like Papineau blaming money and the ethnic vote.

You can be sarcastic, or you can answer my questions and explain your reasoning and thought process.  YOU are the one who said he didn't run his campaign "properly".  I want to know what your "proper" campaign would have been.  I also want to know if you honestly think having lengthly detail messages would have been in any way effective given the 24/7-instant/twitter media word western politics inhabits. 

 

[Rocky Mountains]

Not from Ontario but:

The 1,000,000 jobs was pie in the sky and unjustifiable, as was proven.
A freeze on civil servants would have been as good a talking point as the perceived 100,000 layoffs.
Hudak's personality seems a bit odd, don't know what, but odd.