Queen's Park Politics

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by vid

They're all losing.

No doubt!! If that's the case then it's good news for Kathleen Wynne.

I can't wait to see what happens with Wynne's lawsuit against Patrick Brown because he said that she was standing trial or something like that when she was only testifying. And pretty bad considering that Brown is a lawyer! I've read that the by-election bribery trial in Sudbury may be on the verge of being dismissed because the Crown's case is so poor according to the defence lawyers. The judge will decide if that happens or not in 2-3 weeks I think.

[vid]

I'm sure Patrick Brown knows all about that trial, having a front row seat from his Northern Ontario riding of Simcoe North.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by vid

I'm sure Patrick Brown knows all about that trial, having a front row seat from his Northern Ontario riding of Simcoe North.

HAHA!!! Too funny.

[vid]

Looks like Patrick Brown is going to spend more time in courtrooms. On the heels of Kathleen Wynne's corruption trial and just before the next election, the riding of Hamilton-Ancaster-Dundas brings us this treasure:

http://pressprogress.ca/hamilton-pol...f-voter-fraud/

The criminal probe comes as Tory loyalists allege vote rigging in more than a dozen ridings across Ontario

Hamilton police have officially authorized a criminal probe investigating allegations of vote rigging and ballot-stuffing at a contested Progressive Conservative nomination meeting last spring.

Vikram Singh, a Hamilton lawyer and the runner-up for the Ontario PC nomination in the riding, filed a complaint with police after launching a civil lawsuit against the party, alleging party officials rigged the vote through the “wrongful insertion of false ballots.”

But in good news for the PCs:

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-ne...lection-770899

Sarah Campbell opts out of 2018 Ontario election

KENORA, Ont. -- The NDP MPP for Kenora-Rainy River is stepping down from provincial politics after serving two terms in the legislature.

Sarah Campbell announced Monday that she and her partner are expecting their second child in February, so she has decided not to seek re-election when Ontario voters go to the polls in June, 2018.

Greg Rickford is probably now going to win that riding easily, especially with the far north out of the picture.

[Docere]

The police don't seem to want to get involved with the internal workings of parties. But this looks very bad in the court of public opinion.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Docere

The police don't seem to want to get involved with the internal workings of parties. But this looks very bad in the court of public opinion.

I find that Brown can't even be an effective leader of the opposition! And he is definitely Ontario's spinning weather vane! Can't take a position on anything.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by vid

Looks like Patrick Brown is going to spend more time in courtrooms. On the heels of Kathleen Wynne's corruption trial and just before the next election, the riding of Hamilton-Ancaster-Dundas brings us this treasure:



But in good news for the PCs:



Greg Rickford is probably now going to win that riding easily, especially with the far north out of the picture.

Yuck! I didn't like Rickford when he was in Harper's cabinet. He certainly does have a good chance of winning now that Sarah Campbell isn't seeking re-election. That really sucks in my opinion. I guess Rickford isn't a sure thing if Patrick Brown fails as PC leader.

[vid]

The NDP is the opposition. When the PC does act as opposition it's usually from a different MPP, not Patrick Brown. You rarely see him.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by vid

The NDP is the opposition. When the PC does act as opposition it's usually from a different MPP, not Patrick Brown. You rarely see him.

One has to wonder how anonymity's gonna work in his favour...

[Doady]

Patrick Brown has not been premier and yet he is already mired in scandals, which does not help with his "anonymity". He has to give people of Ontario something to associate with his name other than vote rigging and ballot stuffing. He needs more to his image than being a lawyer who cannot tell the difference between someone being on trail and someone testifying for one. Patrick Brown is more corrupt than Wynne, he has even less principles than Horwath, and he is a bigger idiot than both of them.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Doady

Patrick Brown has not been premier and yet he is already mired in scandals, which does not help with his "anonymity". He has to give people of Ontario something to associate with his name other than vote rigging and ballot stuffing. He needs more to his image than being a lawyer who cannot tell the difference between someone being on trail and someone testifying for one. Patrick Brown is more corrupt than Wynne, he has even less principles than Horwath, and he is a bigger idiot than both of them.

I really question how he become leader of the PC Party. But him being leader is the greatest gift the Liberals could ask for. Even though Wynne is not very popular many voters will see that the economy is doing well and not want to rock the boat. Brown is pretending to be a moderate and can't take a position on anything. A lot of Ontarians' first impression on him is "who the f@%k is this guy?"

[Doady]

Originally Posted by Loco101

I really question how he become leader of the PC Party. But him being leader is the greatest gift the Liberals could ask for.

If his leadership is so destructive to his party, just imagine if he was leader of a whole province.

[vid]

The Star has a gushy story about Patrick Brown this weekend. He's a tee-totaling mommy's boy who loves exercise, art and salad. He's also single.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by vid

The Star has a gushy story about Patrick Brown this weekend. He's a tee-totaling mommy's boy who loves exercise, art and salad. He's also single.

Yea I read that article too. It made me wonder whether he would have been better off not getting into politics at all or only being involved at the municipal level. :/

[Loco101]

The PC Party finally has a platform called the "People's Guarantee." You would almost think that you're reading the Liberal platform.

[vid]

Originally Posted by Loco101

The PC Party finally has a platform called the "People's Guarantee." You would almost think that you're reading the Liberal platform.

It's because they want to win. Fuck the so-cons, they're the most useless minority. Grab all the disaffected Liberals instead.

It might work.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by vid

It's because they want to win. Fuck the so-cons, they're the most useless minority. Grab all the disaffected Liberals instead.

It might work.

It will be very funny to see the PC Party standing for many things they had opposed for a very long time. The so-cons have gotten to be so extreme that it's worth the risk to abandon them.

The People's Guarantee could work if there aren't hidden details such as where the PCs may make cuts to make up for spending promises. The Liberals will be doing everything to get Brown, his MPPs or candidates to slip up or fall into a trap.

A Forum Poll just came out that has the Liberals slightly ahead of the PCs in Toronto and the PCs fell by 5 points. I know we're far away from the election but the Liberals will be better off if they start the campaign behind the PCs. They don't want to peak too early.

[Docere]

Tax cuts, Liberal-lite type spending, not cuts to social programs, just cutting "waste" apparently. Sounds like nonsense to me. Their tax cut will cost nearly $8 billion over years according to their own calculations (p. 76). And $6 billion will be "saved" from their "value for money" audit? Sounds like they have some Florida swampland for sale.

[1overcosc]

They've also left out one question. They've confirmed a plan to withdraw from the WCI cap-and-trade program by 2019 and instead institute a plain carbon tax in its place. With the federal government's declared minimum taxation levels, such a carbon tax would likely net the province close to $5 billion by 2022. The combination of that and this questionable $3 billion in "value-for-money audit" money should in theory go a long way to paying for the platform commitments (along with the overall good state of the economy adding up to generous rates of revenue growth).

But... the current WCI program funds a huge number of environmental initiatives. If all that gets scrapped for a tax cut, they're going to face one hell of a political battle as many of those initiatives are highly popular. There will also be anger from businesses... the tax cuts Brown is promising are all to individuals, but most of the cost of a carbon tax is borne by business. The current cap and trade program recognizes that by giving most of the environmental funding to programs targeted at businesses. With this policy switch, business will be left paying the bills for an even bigger carbon tax yet they will no longer get any of the money from it.

[Loco101]

Interesting points from you both.

There are many unanswered questions and it will be interesting to see what happens when Brown has to explain how he plans on implementing his agenda if elected. I find that he will get hammered at some point but it remains to be seen if it happens earlier or during the election campaign which would affect him more negatively.

Some people are saying that the People's Guarantee will attract support just like the Common Sense Revolution did in 1995 with Mike Harris as leader. I don't think it will do the same thing. The Bob Rae NDP government became hugely unpopular and it was obvious they didn't stand a chance of being re-elected so the Harris PCs could make bold policies and promises because the governing NDP would only look more ridiculous if they went after it. The NDP has to deal with a severe recession as well as high unemployment. Today, unemployment is low, the economy is growing strongly and there isn't the same type of anger that there was in 1995. The Liberals started off the campaign in 1995 ahead in the polls but later lost because they didn't have bold policies and promises that caught the attention of those who were angry over things such income tax rates and spending.

The anger today seems to be over hydro bills more than anything even though thee bills have been lowered and now the PCs are planning to lower them a bit further but a lot is just stuff from the Dalton McGuinty era. And maybe because the Liberals have been in power for 14 years, they find that it has been too long. The big question is whether or not many voters will actually vote for change during good economic times and go for the unknown Patrick Brown PCs and buy what they are selling us in the People's Guarantee.