Ontario Elects Liberal Majority

[OffsideSpecialist]

I was just going to mention Mach, I can't remember a time that so many unions have attacked one leader as much as they did with Hudak. I also remember hearing they were passed about Horwath shifting to the right too much (haha)

[The Goon]

From a leadership standpoint, Ontarians seemed to have nothing but bad choices.

Some of my Conservative friends there (and my Mom, jeez) are ranting about the Liberals on Facebook.

On the plus side, it's kind of cool to see an openly gay woman get elected Premier of Canada's most populous province.

[Matty81]

Originally Posted by calculoso

Results speak volumes... seats again does not match popular vote.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ontar...n-2014/results

Vote:
LIB 38%
PC 31%
NDP 24%
GRN 5%

Seats:
LIB 58 (48.8%)
PC 27 (25%)
NDP 22 (20%)
GRN 0

Happens at every GD level in Canada - to me this is the major reason we have such low voter turnout in Canada. If you support any other than the big 3 parties you almost have no reason to vote and we end up with majority governments with borderline dictatorial power for 4 years everywhere for parties getting 30 odd percent of the vote. The other 6X% of the electorate get no say at all.

There was a vote in BC for proportional representation a few years back... opponents managed to make it one of the most confusing ballot questions I`ve ever seen... I wish there would just be a clear vote on it. Which electoral system, first past the post or proportional representation.

[starseed]

I dont spend a lot of time listening to the radio or watching TV, but even I felt bombarded by the endless union ads. They won the election for Wynne. That and Hudak is fairly stupid.

First Lezzer Premier!

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by The Goon

From a leadership standpoint, Ontarians seemed to have nothing but bad choices.

Some of my Conservative friends there (and my Mom, jeez) are ranting about the Liberals on Facebook.

On the plus side, it's kind of cool to see an openly gay woman get elected Premier of Canada's most populous province.

Who cares about the openly gay, it would be nice if they could find an openly gay woman with some integrity.

Instead they gave a bumbling, incompetent, dishonest politician the keys to the vault.

I hope Ontario voters like it when that 150 to 200 bucks a paycheck comes off their bottom line to fund a pension that the public servants don't have to pay into but get money from.

I hope they enjoy it when Moody down grades their provincial credit rating and they instantly add 400 million onto their annual deficit.

Or when the energy prices completely sky rocket and businesses start leaving the province because its to expensive to set up shop there.

Or they can muse magically as Wynne shuts down the investigations into Orange, Mars, and the Powerplant scandals.

All Ontario did tonight was rise up as a group and say we don't pay attention to elections, its the party that lies the best, attacks the best and mobilizes the unions in exchange for pay increases that's going to win the day.

Hudak wasn't going to fire 100,000 public sector workers, that was going to be taken care of through attrition, as it stands the civil servant is a bloated spoiled gravy train mess in that province.

One thing is right though, in two years when Wynne has to take the hatchet to everything, something that she effectively hid during her campaign the people of Ontario are going to cry blood.

Te province of Ontario is broke thanks to Wynne and Dalton before her, and its going to get far worse under that corrupt government.

And there's nothing that can be done now, when Ontario starts asking for federal bailouts.

Way to go.

But at least she's a lesbian woman in power, I guess that trumps everything else.

[Flames89]

Hudak was just clueless with his campaign. As mentioned above, advertising you will lay off 100,000 people and talking about the need to reduce the number of teachers was assinine. People don't take well to threats to their little Jimmy's future.
If he went out with a "reduce the size of government", "trim the fat", and "Ontario's debt levels are crippling" points, he could have performed much better. The PCs needed to be more moderate, instead of shifting further to the right.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Free Ben Hur!

Awesome, another tax and spend majority government in Canada's largest province. This'll work out well.

I don't think it matters who is in government for that to happen though. I have seen a lot of Conservative governments across this country waste money as well.

[calculoso]

In this case, the generic "shifting to the right" rhetoric didn't apply. Spending is so incredibly out of control that any shift right is actually shifting more to the center

[Tinordi]

Spending is not that out of control. Prove otherwise. They have a deficit. They're borrowing at record low interest rates. If/when things pick up they trim it. Basic public finance cycle.

[calculoso]

That's why the taxes, already higher than needed, keep going up and up and up, with promises of even more spending to come, right? It's not that bad? Ha!

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by calculoso

Results speak volumes... seats again does not match popular vote.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ontar...n-2014/results

Vote:
LIB 38%
PC 31%
NDP 24%
GRN 5%

Seats:
LIB 58 (48.8%)
PC 27 (25%)
NDP 22 (20%)
GRN 0

Shouldn't that be 55% (not 48.8)

The Canadian system really needs a run-off system for each seat. You'd think they could figure out a computerized system that let you pick a first, second, and third choice, and then proceeded to drop the lowest ranked candidate one by one until a majority is reached.

[Ark2]

Originally Posted by The Goon

On the plus side, it's kind of cool to see an openly gay woman get elected Premier of Canada's most populous province.

Who cares that she is openly gay? There are far less dangerous ways to pat yourself on the back for being progressive than to vote for someone this incompetent and corrupt.

Consider this: during the election, the OPPA (Ontario Provincial Police Association) ran attack ads against the PC's, urging voters not to support Time Hudak. Meanwhile, the OPP is currently investigating the provincial Liberal party for deleting emails in an attempt to cover-up the gas plant scandal. Not only that, but the OPP has documents that they will be releasing to the public that pertains to the investigation that will be released NEXT week. The hold up in releasing these documents, evidently, is due to "administrative" delays.

That sounds like something that happens in a third world country, not Canada. And yet, the voters not only re-elect this government, but reward them with a stronger mandate. I have never been more ashamed of Ontario than I am now. Disgusting.

[PeteMoss]

Hudek blew it with his message. You can't say you are going to cut 100,000 jobs and then expect people to look into the details to understand it. Its obviously going to get spun in a way that makes it look like you are going to fire teachers and medical staff.

This election does continue the GTA vs the rest of the province divide:

GTA results: Liberal 39, NDP 4, PC 1
Non-GTA: PC 26, Liberal 20, NDP 17

Liberals dominate Toronto and until someone can make a dent there they will keep winning in Ontario.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by calculoso

Unbelievable. Billions of dollars wasted, and they get promoted from Minority to Majority.

Electricity rates up anywhere from 30-50% over the last 5 years. Daytime electricity rates currently 13.5c...

Taxes waaayyyy up all the time.

Can't wait for the next 4 years.

when did you move, calc?

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Spending is not that out of control. Prove otherwise. They have a deficit. They're borrowing at record low interest rates. If/when things pick up they trim it. Basic public finance cycle.

Ronald Reagan would be proud.

[Cheese]

Its amazing how Albertan's who have voted the PCs into majority for most of the last 40+ years can talk crap about the fact that Ontario re-elected a Liberal government.
Lets face it Hudak, and I know the guy, blew it, just like his predecessor blew it with his religious stance/remarks. Ontario is a centrist voting block and Hudak took a right wing stance that just didn't sit well with the population.
The fact that the Liberal's got reelected is no more surprising then the PCs continually getting majority's in Alberta when most of those governments have been as corrupt, or more, and reckless with spending as any other government.
At least Ontario does vote out governments when called for and elect a different party.

I'm betting Wynne does an excellent job.

/edit
Although another record low voter turnout was expected, the number of people who exercised their democratic right was actually up. Unofficial results suggest 51.7 per cent of us cast ballots in the province, up 3.5 per cent from 2011′s record low of 48.2 per cent.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Cheese

Its amazing how Albertan's who have voted the PCs into majority for most of the last 40+ years can talk crap about the fact that Ontario re-elected a Liberal government.

Your ad hominem attack would have worked out better if several of the people attacking the election of the Ontario Liberals didn't happen to be in Ontario.

[calculoso]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Shouldn't that be 55% (not 48.8)

Stupid math and typos... thanks!

[calculoso]

Originally Posted by habernac

when did you move, calc?

Summer 2010. Business merged with another and they decided not to compete with Oil&Gas salaries, choosing higher cost of living (etc) at lower pay instead

[calculoso]

Originally Posted by Cheese

At least Ontario does vote out governments when called for and elect a different party.

I'm betting Wynne does an excellent job.

... an excellent job at wasting money?

I think that an article I read yesterday said it best..
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2.../21735636.html

"The number of people who say they can't vote for PC Leader Tim Hudak because he was part of Mike Harris's cabinet is directly proportional to the number of people who say they aren't blaming Kathleen Wynne for the scandals involving her predecessor Dalton McGuinty, because she's a different person."

"In any other country, spending $1 billion to scrap power plants to save a couple of seats would have voters rioting in the streets. Here, we just yawn."

"...our debt is approaching $300 billion."

Yes I know it is from the Toronto Sun or the Canoe chain... but content wise it made some good points and some other typically bad exaggerated points. As with anything that is read, take the good with the bad.