At Home in Hespeler

Well, not really, but John Tory ties himself into knots trying to explain why he supports the CBC, or at least did. His argument for supporting the CBC is basically, they are a National Broadcaster with a difficult mandate, therefore they will cost more. Fair enough, but the point many of us make is they are unnecessary and we shouldn’t be forced to financially support them (just as Margaret Atwood shouldn’t be forced to support Sun TV – or fake moon landing).

Yesterday, Tory met the final straw when it comes to the CBC, and swears he will never support them again.

Jeeze, a few more of these conversions, and we might just make a conservative of John Tory yet.

John 'Red Green' Tory Brian Lilly, CBC, CFRB, John Tory

John Tory has apparently decided not to run for mayor of Toronto in the upcoming municipal election. Reading the story, what struck me was the people who managed his previous campaigns:

Jeff Bangs, who managed Tory’s 2004 campaign for the Conservative leadership, decided to run former Liberal provincial minister George Smitherman’s campaign for mayor.

As well, Rocco Rossi, who managed Tory’s failed bid for the mayor’s chair in 2003, announced his own candidacy.

Jeff Bangs is now off to run former Provincial Liberal cabinet minister George Smitherman’s campaign. Rocco Rossi is the former executive director for the Liberal Party of Canada. You might remember him for his Kayaking to save the Liberals last summer.

Russ Campbell comments today on the fate of the Provincial PC brand here in Ontario:

The lost years under John Tory may be too hard to overcome.

The reason for that Russ, is that he was never a Conservative, just a Liberal in PC clothing.

John 'Red Green' Tory, John Tory 2010 election, George Smitherman, Jeff Bangs, John Tory, Mayor of Toronto, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Rocco Rossi, Russ Campbell

As the following image shows, John Tory did not get beaten last night in Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, he flat out lost. A full third of his voters stayed home (thanks to Right From Alberta for the graphic).

It is long past time for John Tory to resign as leader of the Ontario PC party, but he must now do so immediately.

by-election fever, John 'Red Green' Tory, John Tory Brock, Haliburton, John Tory, Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, PC, Progressive Conservatives

Today in Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock a by-election is being held to keep John Tory as Progressive Conservative leader or finally dump him like the guy who makes Joe Clark look astute that he is.

If you are a conservative voter in that riding, consider voting for Freedom Party candidate Bill Denby. For that matter vote for the NDP candidate or the Liberal candidate: vote for anybody but John Tory.

If you are a Liberal Party supporter, I would recommend you vote for Tory. He’s your best shot at never losing another election. If, however, your leanings are small government freedom loving conservative, even if Tory wins, you lose.

In Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock today, vote for change. Vote for anybody but John Tory.

by-election fever, John 'Red Green' Tory, John Tory, Ontario Election Bill Denby, Brock, Dalton McGuinty, Freedom Party, Haliburton, John Tory, Kawartha Lakes, Liberal Party, Ontario, Progressive Conservative, Red Tory

It’s a sad state of affairs when the local newspaper starts reading like The Onion, but that’s the case today. These guys are nuts, and they’re running this province.

Health care in Ontario is a +$30B dollar ministry in Ontario, and the guy running the show doesn’t have the native intelligence to figure out how unpleasant it might be to wear a soiled diaper:

Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman says he’s considering personally road-testing a new absorbent adult diaper to see if it’s appropriate for the province’s nursing home residents.

“As a matter of conscience, it’s something that I have been seriously considering,” Smitherman told reporters yesterday.

The super diapers have become a flash point in the debate around adequate staffing in long-term care facilities.

It’s a mighty cold day in hell, and Hespeler when Sid Ryan and Peter Kormos are the guys making sense in a debate, but in Dalton’s Ontario, that’s how effective banning pit bulls has been against global warming:

Ryan:

“So if the minister wants to play silly games, let him put on a diaper and sleep in it all night long and come into the legislature and wear it until 12 o’clock, and let him soil that diaper and lay around in it for the length of time our seniors have to do in this province.”

Kormos:

“Smitherman’s a damned embarrassment. One doesn’t have to use or exhaust one’s imagination to understand the humiliation, the indignity, of sitting in one’s own waste for what could be hours at a time.”

Really, wet socks are annoying, how much brains and imagination does it take to know spending hours in wet diapers is not good enough.

Then there’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister Duncan Bryant, who is telling developers not to pay extortion to the Six Nations Development Institute, a group who is demanding $7,000 fees to develop along the Grand River, land which the institute has no legal claim on:

Ontario will not stop Six Nations from charging developers fees on disputed land near the Grand River, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant said.

He spoke yesterday as calls mounted for the government to halt what some are calling extortion.

A Six Nations development institute is demanding developers pay fees to build around the site, while protesters continue to occupy a former Caledonia housing project.

Developers who got letters seeking fees say the province is hanging them out to dry by not intervening or guaranteeing their safety.

But Bryant said it’s up to police to intervene and press charges.

“Developers … didn’t just fall off the turnip truck,” he said. “They know very well what the rules are and the laws are.”

But Bryant won’t step in and nobody can reasonable expect the OPP to do anything about it. Not after Caledonia. So the developers pay the bribes necessary to do business in Ontario (how about a new slogan? “not your average third world country.” That ought to rake in the tourists). So the developers pay, the Liberals pretend the issue has gone away, businesses moves on to the next province, and Ontario sinks in to have-not status.

Speaking of which, Dalton is doing a fair bit of whining this week:

Federal politicians have to stop “talking down” the Ontario economy, Premier Dalton McGuinty says.

The premier said he wasn’t prepared to follow their advice to cut taxes because he would have to close hospitals, cut social services and stop buying textbooks for students.

Instead, the Stephen Harper government should be partnering with his government on strategic investments in training, jobs and infrastructure to help grow the provincial economy, he said.

“It’d be nice to have the federal government in our corner,” McGuinty said. “It’d be nice to have a federal government which doesn’t seem to take so much delight in talking down the Ontario economy.” Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s comment that the McGuinty government is letting Ontario slide into “have not” status and should cut taxes to improve the business climate did not go over well at Queen’s Park.

It would be nice to have the federal government in our corner. Instead, the feds are reduced to acting like stern parents, warning the province of the consequences of it’s actions. Dalton’s response? Right on cue, here comes the petulance. Answer one question Dalton, are we or are we not heading for have-not status according to the federal equalization formula? If not, answer the argument with facts. If so, why? And don’t say it’s Mike Harris’s fault.

Better yet, someone give this guy a diaper.

Finally, we go back to article two, Bryant Skips Home Fight, for one last item:

Meanwhile, Tory party leader John Tory wrote Gary McHale yesterday opposing the Richmond Hill activist’s “inappropriate” planned Caledonia demonstration Sunday at OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino’s home in Woodbridge. Public figures accept protests with their jobs, but “have a reasonable expectation that our families and our private homes will be left out.”

While I agree in principle, don’t the people of Caledonia have a reasonable expectation that there families and private homes will be left out of protests, whether by native bands, angry unionists or local nutjobs? And if they do end up in the middle of “inappropriate” protests, that their leadership, both politically and in the police, will aid them? And if that doesn’t happen…?

Ladies and Gentlemen, your Government of Ontario: a rash on all their asses

Dalton, John 'Red Green' Tory, Politicians acting badly, Silly Politicians

As has been noted elsewhere, John Tory’s 66.9% of the delegates votes on Saturday was the same as Joe Clarke’s 1983 showing, which Clarke accepted as not enough and called for a leadership convention. Some have been suggesting Tory should follow Clarke’s lead, that, because of Clarke, 70% is the drop dead point on these reviews.

As Wudrick points out, however, “Mr. Clark… is considered the gold standard of poor political decision-making in Canadian politics.” His decision to hold a leadership convention after receiving 66.9% would be one of those judgements.

But Clarke had a reason (two, actually: from the comments of the same post linked to above: “People tend to forget that Joe Clark got 66.5% of delegates voting against a leadership review in 1981… In 1983… He received 66.9% supporting his leadership. Clark called a leadership convention because his support was not increasing.”) . Joe Clarke had lost his caucus back in 1983. He had virtually no support from the members he was supposed to be leading. He wanted a very strong majority in the review so he could reinforce his leadership in caucus. When he didn’t get it, he went with a convention.

John Tory, on the other hand, seems to have caucus support. He didn’t need super majority status to reinforce his leadership. He needed 50% + 1, and he got it. I don’t support John Tory, and won’t, but I have no complaints about Tory staying on with almost 70% of the delegates votes.

John 'Red Green' Tory

Joanne over at Blue Like You suggests that she’s going to get behind John Tory now that the issue has been decided:

I made a promise to stop slagging Tory once a decision was made and I intend to keep it. At this point the party must attempt to come together or we will end up in the same position as the Federal Liberals.

Sorry Joanne but myself, I made a different kind of promise:

I pass a message on to Freedom Party leader Paul McKeever: if the PC’s can’t put up a better leader, somebody who is not a red Tory, then count me in for 2011 – assuming of course you want me.

So Joanne, no, I will not get on board. I understand that choosing politicians is always a bit of a compromise, but why must I make all the compromises. And I’ll tell you something else Joanne, John Tory has more in common with Joe Clark than just leadership review numbers: policy – check; electability – check; long term decimation of the party he leads – lets just hope not.

Frankly, I’m not really planning on running for anybody and I hope a Freedom Party candidate can be found for my riding. However, four years is a long way away and anything can happen: Hey! I work in the auto industry. Four years from now I might have nothing better to do.

But Joanne, I don’t see me getting on board with John Tory, and I sure don’t see that I will “stop slagging Tory.” When Conservatives refuse to act conservative, I am slagging them.

John 'Red Green' Tory, John Tory

Am I the only one wishing Tory would have fought like hell to win the past election?

I say to them (his detractors) that I’m going to fight like hell to keep my job because I believe I can do that job best and that I can be a better premier than Dalton McGuinty in 2011.

Or maybe that was all the fight Tory has, in which case unseating him should be a breeze. I liked this bit best:

I have acknowledged and taken responsibility for mistakes that I made and mistakes that others made because I’m the leader…

If a leader acknowledges and takes responsibility for mistakes that lost an election, is he still the leader? Of course not, that’s what taking responsibility means in this case – resigning.

All through the election, I heard how once the electorate got to know John Tory, they would like John Tory. So why do I find I like him less and less as time goes on?

John 'Red Green' Tory

For those who think that Ontario Conservatives need a new leader if they are ever to win an election, there is a web page set up to further the end of getting rid of John Tory as the leader of the Ontario PC party.

Nick Kouvalis has set up a web page Draft a Leader to push Tories to lose the present leader, hereto known as ‘Red’. As I have stated before, if Red is in, then I am out. So I believe it behoves me to give Nick his props. Nick, along with Paul from Blue Blogging Soapbox, have also set up a facebook page, for those who are members/addicts.

Good luck guys, and if there’s anything I can do…

John 'Red Green' Tory

A year or two ago I read up on The Freedom Party, and noted they were looking for qualified people to step up as candidates in the next Provincial election. I considered contacting them and submitting myself. However, I confess I wondered if autoworker/periodic blogger meant qualified, even if I have a degree in economics. I figured, to be honest, a better candidate would put their name forward.

Yesterday as I sat in front of my pathetic choices, mumbling I can’t do it, I can’t vote for any of them, I wondered why I never put my name forward: at least there would have been somebody on the ballot I could have put my X beside, instead of pissing away my democratic prerogative. And so today I think, maybe I should have sent that e mail, just to see what they would say.

With that in mind I pass a message on to Freedom Party leader Paul McKeever: if the PC’s can’t put up a better leader, somebody who is not a red Tory, then count me in for 2011 – assuming of course you want me.

Freedom Party, John 'Red Green' Tory, Vote no to Red Toryism

I’m puttering around work with a hangover, swearing up and down that I’m off booze for good – never again – this time I mean it – when I hear John Tory is talking about a trial of selling beer and wine in corner stores. Normally, that would cause me to sit and write a nice, John Tory friendly article with a title like…

But no, today I don’t care as I’m “off booze for good – never again – this time I mean it” and it occurs to me if John Tory is having as much trouble connecting with the rest of the electorate as he is me, then he’s in real trouble.

Hangovers and a bad case of the zactly’s aside, here’s how that article cited above might have went:

Finally a Policy Idea I Can Raise a Glass Too.

Back in mid-august we were entertaining our young nephew, who lives in Ottawa. His parents were on their way down to pick him up after a few day stay at our house, and I had no beer in the house. So we were puttering around Friday night, not expecting his parents until after 11:00, and I decided to pick up some beer, in case they were thirsty after their long drive. It was 9:15 on a Friday night, and I was out of luck. Both the Hespeler beer and liquor stores were closed. 9:15 on a Friday night in the middle of the summer.

Thus was born a beer and liquor store abolitionist.

So when John Tory announced yesterday that he would look at selling beer and wine in corner stores he made me sit up and take notice.

Now granted, nothing drastic from our man Tory. Just a few trial locations, study the question: as if Quebec, Alberta and B.C., the U.S.A. and Europe are not test location enough. Really, the data exists, the idea works. But from baby steps like this comes full fledged working policy, so I’ll take what I can get.

And don’t give me any of that “minors will have an easier time getting alcohol,” argument. When I was growing up the beer and liquor stores were the one place you could get alcohol, but try and get into a privately operated bar, and no dice. The same still holds true, and it holds true for a reason. There is no repercussions, either to the unionized employee or the store itself, if somebody sells to a minor in a government run store. But a private operation has much to lose, including their licence, their employees face dismissal for transgressions. There is no reason to believe the same will not hold true at convenience stores.

And please John, tell me you also mean grocery stores: for the environments sake if no other reason. I’m forever making an extra trip instead of grabbing a bottle/few cans of Guinness at the grocery store.

All that said, John Tory is looking for a trial location for his project, I have a little village in mind that needs a place were beer can be had after 9:00 on a Friday night.

Food, freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy, John 'Red Green' Tory, John Tory, Ontario Election, pimply minions of bureaucracy

I was working, and didn’t watch the Ontario leaders debate. Never one to let a little thing like that stop me from commentating, here’s what I believe will be a fairly accurate transcript of the debate:

Dalton McGuinty. Friends, I am here tonight not to win an election, but to save public education for our children. Because this man [points to John Tory] will kill off public education as sure as only legal handguns will kill off our children. I am here to regulate his plans into bureaucratic oblivion [giggles].

John Tory: That’s false, you are a liar.

DM: I don’t lie. After being elected last time I was forced, through your parties mismanagement, to cede an inconvenient untruth.

JT: Liar. That’s not leadership. We need leadership.

Howard Hampton. Gentlemen.. This is unbecoming. Surely we can all agree to throw gobs of money at public education, university and teachers, and to make kindergarten an all day affair.

DM: That sounds reasonable.

JT: You have had four years to implement all that, what have you been doing. Where has the leadership been on this issue. Why haven’t you told people of your plans. Liar.

HH: So you disagree with those suggestions Mr. Tory.

JT: Oh dear god no! A little right wing for my liking perhaps, but your in the ball park.

DM: I am not a liar, Mr. Tory. I am disingenuous in my honesty, and I wish you would stop calling me a liar.

HH: We need to raise the minimum wage to 10.00 immediately.

DM: $10.25, Mr. Hampton. Poor people need $10.25 to survive, but they don’t need it just yet. Soon as we get these pesky years with a zero in them out of the way.

HH: You have had four years already, now you want another two? Why would you need two years Mr McGuinty?

DD: To give people time to forget I promised it. Last mandate I raised taxes a mere six months after promising not to, and look at the trouble that got me into.

JT: Liar! That’s not leadership!! Speaking of leadership, when I ran a government regulated monopoly, we made tons of cash, and we did it with some of the worst customer service ever seen. It takes real leadership to be profitable in a government regulated monopoly. No sitting on the sidelines watching the first nations peoples burning down your buildings in that game.

DM: And what would you do in Caledonia, Mr. Tory?

JT: I’d accuse the first nations protesters of stealing American satellite signals, and sent the CRTC after them. Nobody can resist a bureaucracy that entrenched.

DM: How would that work?

JT: Are you kidding, they’ll be filling out forms, in triplicate, for years. Liar! Look folks, a common liar [points to DM].

DM: Stop calling me that.

JT: Oh look, your pants are on fire.

DM [looks]

JT: Made you look; only a real liar would look.
Vote for me for honest leadership.

DM: Public education is a right, and it is good. It is good because it’s public, and because it’s an education. Stop this dangerous lunatic from giving that education to 5,000 more kids; stop him in the name of inclusiveness. Vote for me, Dalton McGuinty, all save public education for all kids, except the 5,000 noted earlier.

HH: I’m Howard Hampton. Vote for me and you won’t have to vote for these two.

Dalton Dalton Dalton, Debating with Fools, John 'Red Green' Tory