The National Post’s endorsement of PC Party leader Tim Hudak in a weird way shows exactly what is wrong with his campaign. And make no mistake, win or lose on Thursday, something has gone terribly wrong with the PC Party campaign.
The endorsement begins with a long description of exactly how and why Dalton McGuinty has been a bad premier for Ontario. It seems obvious that such a bad government, for it has been a bad government, needs to be replaced. The National Post says that the NDP leader may be a swell person but socialism isn’t the thing and so there can only be one choice: Tim Hudak.
It has been pretty obvious throughout the election that this has been exactly the attitude of the PC Party. Ontarians don’t really have an option. Voters don’t like McGuinty and so Tim Hudak is the default choice. The campaign as a result has been pretty lackluster. They repeatedly say they are about change but they offer little of substance and most of their attacks have been extremely lazy and vague. Basically they didn’t think they would have to fight for it, and so they aren’t fighting for it.
The National Post tries to jazz up Tim Hudak by pointing out that he is proposing to change the government’s relationship with the public sector unions. Taking on the unions is something that is needed but that alone won’t fix the problems that Mr. McGuinty has caused. None of the other proposals that have come out of the PC platform would fix the fiscal mess either.
I am going to say that again because it’s important:
Nothing that Tim Hudak is promising to do will fix Ontario’s fiscal crisis any faster or any better than anything that Dalton McGuinty is promising to do.
Even the National Post in the midst of endorsing Tim Hudak expresses frustration that he has pledged to protect 2/3 of the budget while somehow ending the deficit at the same time. The National Post tries to get around this by saying that politicians are probably all liars anyway, but that is part of Mr. Hudak’s problem. He can’t credibly say that Dalton McGuinty lacks credibility on fiscal issues because he too lacks credibility of fiscal issues.
Ultimately the National Post is supporting Tim Hudak because he isn’t Dalton McGuinty and a lot of people will vote PC for the same reason.
But the PC party has yet to give anyone a good reason to vote FOR them. And if they lose that is why they will lose.
Showing posts with label Tim Hudak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim Hudak. Show all posts
Ontario Leaders Debate 2011: fiddling while Ontario burns
To the credit of the three leaders of Ontario’s largest political parties, there was a great deal of talk about policy in last night’s leaders debate. That is always nice to see both from the perspective of a policy wonk and a voter. I found, however, that most of the policies that were being hotly debated were pretty irrelevant.
Ontario is in economic and financial trouble. This is the issue that should be dominating the election but by tacit agreement none of the major parties are really talking about it. There are two questions that were asked that should have brought this issue to the forefront but all three leaders allowed each other off the hook and gave incredibly weak answers.
The first question was how the budget is going to be balanced.
Dalton McGuinty responded by talking about how much spending he introduced and plans to introduce.
Tim Hudak responded by talking about how he will make sure that ¾ of the budget is defended from cuts (health and education).
Andrea Horwath responded by saying something about blank cheques to corporations which I think was referring to corporate tax cuts, but that doesn’t make any sense on a couple of levels.
The second question is closely related to the first question, although perhaps not many people realize it. The last question of the night asked if the party leaders would be open to more private participation in the health care system. With health care spending growing faster than government revenue and taking up about half of the budget this is an important question for deciding how to get Ontario out of deficits.
Dalton McGuinty responded by saying he will beg for more money from the federal government (forgetting it seams that there is only one taxpayer).
Tim Hudak responded with an anecdote about how it sucks to have a child that is sick (I have absolutely no doubt that it sucks a lot).
Andrea Horwath responded with a rant against the capitalist system (which to be fair is at least on message).
There was another question that asked why politicians aren’t bolder. Each tried to respond by saying that they are bold, but the answers described above makes a lie of these claims. Yet the solutions to Ontario’s problems will require boldness and none of the leaders last night showed that they have an ounce of it.
Ontario is in economic and financial trouble. This is the issue that should be dominating the election but by tacit agreement none of the major parties are really talking about it. There are two questions that were asked that should have brought this issue to the forefront but all three leaders allowed each other off the hook and gave incredibly weak answers.
The first question was how the budget is going to be balanced.
Dalton McGuinty responded by talking about how much spending he introduced and plans to introduce.
Tim Hudak responded by talking about how he will make sure that ¾ of the budget is defended from cuts (health and education).
Andrea Horwath responded by saying something about blank cheques to corporations which I think was referring to corporate tax cuts, but that doesn’t make any sense on a couple of levels.
The second question is closely related to the first question, although perhaps not many people realize it. The last question of the night asked if the party leaders would be open to more private participation in the health care system. With health care spending growing faster than government revenue and taking up about half of the budget this is an important question for deciding how to get Ontario out of deficits.
Dalton McGuinty responded by saying he will beg for more money from the federal government (forgetting it seams that there is only one taxpayer).
Tim Hudak responded with an anecdote about how it sucks to have a child that is sick (I have absolutely no doubt that it sucks a lot).
Andrea Horwath responded with a rant against the capitalist system (which to be fair is at least on message).
There was another question that asked why politicians aren’t bolder. Each tried to respond by saying that they are bold, but the answers described above makes a lie of these claims. Yet the solutions to Ontario’s problems will require boldness and none of the leaders last night showed that they have an ounce of it.
Tim Hudak is bad because drugs are bad (mmkay)
PC Party leader Tim Hudak hits the nail on the head. When asked today if he had ever used marijuana he responded:
He lived a normal life and so of course he smoked up as a young man. It is normal…IT IS NORMAL…for people to consume this illicit drug.
This drug has been banned since 1923 and yet almost 80 years later it is still considered normal to consume it. Hell I will wager that it is far more normal than it was in the 1920s. Talk about a failure of government policy.
It also begs the question of what is the point of trying to stop people from smoking cannabis in the first place.
Watch out kids! If you smoke up that weed stick you might end up being some loser, like the leader of a major political party in Canada’s largest province (or like the President of the United States for that matter).
The pointlessness of marijuana prohibition is mind boggling.
"I lived a pretty normal life as a kid growing up so yes, I have. It's been some time."
He lived a normal life and so of course he smoked up as a young man. It is normal…IT IS NORMAL…for people to consume this illicit drug.
This drug has been banned since 1923 and yet almost 80 years later it is still considered normal to consume it. Hell I will wager that it is far more normal than it was in the 1920s. Talk about a failure of government policy.
It also begs the question of what is the point of trying to stop people from smoking cannabis in the first place.
Watch out kids! If you smoke up that weed stick you might end up being some loser, like the leader of a major political party in Canada’s largest province (or like the President of the United States for that matter).
The pointlessness of marijuana prohibition is mind boggling.
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