Donald Trump is Jesus

Twist yourselves into knots over this.

I for one agree with most of what Jesus is supposed to have said about looking after the poor, hospitality for the stranger.

It's always a dilemma, are we doing enough to look out for the poor, for our veterans, for our grandparents? The answer is no for many of us.  So when catastrophe happens in places like Syria and people are in far more desperate state than most of us, we shouldn't help because we're not doing enough for our own people.

No one can say with a straight face,1 we should not reach out to help refugees. Are bombs dropping on your children?

The answer is to start looking after our neighbour. Sometimes it's uncomfortable, they're different than us. These are real people. We walk by the homeless veteran, we vote for tax cuts, we demand the drug abuser stop drugs before we offer help. We demand conversion.

Trump offers us a vision that will change none of this. Tax cuts for the 1%. We've been doing that since the 80's. The results have meant the government has no money. Education and health care are cut because we have no money.

We no longer care as a society for the fortunes of others. Workers incomes are slashed to keep companies more profitable. Employers feel no obligation to look out for the people that make them rich. Trump is that employer.

Trump is fanning the flames of hate. Fear the Muslims, the Mexicans. It's the last desperate hope of fools and con-men.

He has shown us the real him. His misogyny, his rascim, he denies things he's said and done even when it's recorded.

Trump is about only him. He is Jesus. If you don't like it, he'll sue.

Why Donald Trump scares me

Hate does a lot of harm. It kills. This could have been me, it could have been you.

A new election ad is out and it takes aim at the hate being generated by Donald Trump and his campaign. It's below.'

Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew was murdered in the horrific 1998 Laramie, Wyoming hate crime which brought anti-LGBT violence to the attention of the nation, speaks out against Donald Trump and the hateful rhetoric he uses to rally his supporters in a new video for Priorities USA.

Says Shepard,

“When I see the hate that Donald Trump brings to his campaign for president, it terrifies me. Words have an influence. Violence causes pain. Hate can rip us apart. I know what can happen as the result of hate, and Donald Trump should never be our president.”

You can see the ad here: https://youtu.be/_OBQe83zj7

We have to be afraid again...

You have to be afraid again. That's how it's become. Politicians and Conservative preachers are spreading the hate.

In elections, especially in this US election cycle the politics of division are being used to drive voters to the polls.

How does that work? In the US if you're a Republican you have a subset of supporters that make up a minority of the population. You want them to vote because if they do, your chances of winning go up.

In North Carolina, the plan to bring out these folks was the so called bathroom bill.  HB2 was passed which prevented transgender folks from using the bathroom that matched their identity. 

The bill was not required except to give conservative Christians a good reason to vote and ensure a Republican victory. 

When opposition  to the bill started to rise across the state and country, the Republicans made-up the threat of men pretending to be women going into the womens' washrooms to assault little girls.

It is ludicrous yet repeating it often enough their supporters start to vilify the LGBTQ communities. 

Things like this happen...

https://www.facebook.com/events/1200582556667902/?ti=cl

All of this happens because a political party will stop at nothing to win.  They don't care if it means they are providing open season on LGBTQ citizens. 

Federally the Trump campaign is doing the same. Blaming all the problems in the USA on Mexicans, using blatant misogyny, and attacking Muslims. 

Supporters of Trump show up at rallies wearing t-shirts saying 'stop the cunt', a pastor stating it's better to have a President who grabs pussy instead a President that has a pussy.

Hate, hate hate.

It's seems to have backfired federally in that many Christiansare speaking out, students at Liberty University have called out the school's president for supporting Trump. 

Conservative women are now speaking out against voting for Trump. 

Wedge issues can be very nasty. The Republicans have been using them with great success for years now. 

It may be they have gone too far this time. Let's hope so.

None is too Many

I tuned into Justin Trudeau's speech last night, like many to hear what he had to say about Liberty and the Politics of Fear.  I expected he would largely ignore the NDP in the speech and target Harper and the Conservatives and that was what we got.

All day the Liberal party has been pumping up the speech, Liberty and the Politics of Fear. Trudeau provided a little bit of history, praised the Charter of Rights, spoke of multiculturalism, and then got into the politics of fear.  To this point he didn't say much with which I could disagree. He wasn't doing a bad job up to this point.

We all know Trudeau is prone to gaffes in unscripted moments. It's part of his charm. A gaffe in a prepared speech is no longer a gaffe, is it. That's what happened.

Trudeau in an effort to describe the perils of Muslims in Canada under the Conservatives, actually compared their plight to that of the Jews fleeing the Nazis, in the lead up to World War II and subsequently refused entry into Canada.



“So we should all shudder to hear the same rhetoric that led to a ‘none is too many’ immigration policy toward Jews in the ’30s and ’40s being used today, to raise fears against Muslims today,” Trudeau said.

So who was talking the Politics of Fear...

Trudeau in 'implying' that under the Harper government Conservative immigration policies and rhetoric was creating an atmosphere similar to the Liberal government of Mackenzie King's "none is too many" policy against European Jews in World War II. 

If you are unfamiliar with the 'None is too Many' see this National Post article from 2011
‘None is too many': Memorial for Jews turned away from Canada in 1939.

Canada's government was refusing to take in European Jews fleeing Germany. In one example 900 German Jews sailed for Cuba in 1939 and were refused landing, the same happened in Miami, the ship came to Canada and was refused. The ship then had no choice but to sail back to Europe. 254 of the people turned away by Canada died at the hands of the Nazis.

Instead of talking about what Trudeau wanted us to focus on, were all about a gaffe, this one it seems, was written into his prepared speech. 

That's a gaffe one has a much harder time defending. This will need more than #HopeAndHardWork. 

One lucky thing though eh, Trudeau had no media availability and didn't have to explain his support for C51

Michael Geist Giving a talk on standing up for liberty & then saying you don’t want to get into political fight over C-51 makes no sense to me

Trudeau slams Tories for terror rhetoric

UofT prevents me from attending 'The Laramie Project'

Teaching Assistants are on strike at the University of Toronto.  They are underpaid, under appreciated, and under estimated by the administration of #UofT.  I was astounded to learn how little these people made and how much the University actually depends on them. 

You can learn more about the TA'S fight for a fair deal here

No bargaining dates set 

University of Toronto Education Workers

Toronto teaching assistants on strike 

Check out twitter hashtag #WeAreUofT 

 ●●●●●●●●●●●●●

Dear Friends,

I was really looking forward to attending your production of 'The Laramie Project' this week. As a gay man who grew up in a small town in western Canada, this play speaks to my own history.

Unfortunately I can not attend. Teaching Assistants are on strike and it would mean crossing their picket line. I could not cross a picket line in which workers and students are forced to stand against an institution which won't negotiate a fair agreement.

This means I will miss your production which you and many students have put so much effort. I am so very sad. Please convey my regrets to the crew of this production and most certainly onto the President of the University.

I look forward to seeing further productions after the students and workers have received a fair deal.

Sincerely yours

Rick Barnes
Toronto 

Save the CBC TV ad rejected by CBC

This ad was rejected for broadcast on CBC.  The non-profit group, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, have created an ad highly critical of Stephen Harper's government.

Will we ever see it on television?  

Please share it widely. 

The Man Behind The Desk EN - 60 sec from Friends of Canadian Broadcasting on Vimeo.
http://www.friends.ca/freethecbc/ -- Take action now to free the CBC from political interference!

"It Gets Better", and some don't make it out of the dungeon.

Me at 8 years. I made it.
Many don't.

I am pleased the Ontario government is going to implement the new health and physical education curriculum. As I stated in this post, it's long overdue and very much needed.  Dammit Janet does a good piece here.

I have been passionate about this since I was a kid in high school, trying to figure my way forward. I knew I was different from grade three or four. I didn't know why or how I was different, or if there was something wrong with me. Teachers never said anything in school about differences. You learned from your friends and peers. We were taught how babies were made and how to avoid Venereal Disease and you didn't want to be called Fag or Homo.

That was it. So in grade ten, I found myself in the library of my high school practically alone. It needed to be that way, you couldn't be caught looking up something like homosexuality. I've told the story of the beating and taunting I was subject too in high school, you can see that here. I mention it as it was after the beating when I was sure I must be a homo.

In the library I checked the shelves. Nothing said "Want to find out if you're a fag?" I was scared. I finally pulled out a huge dictionary. I looked up homosexuality. It confirmed my friends and peers taunts. I was a pervert. It was freaky to read that. It was a low point. Yet somehow I came around to thinking it couldn't be true. I wasn't a bad person. I still never talked to anyone about it. You couldn't.




And this all came flooding back to me when I heard Graham Moore who won Best Adapted Screenplay for "The Imitation Game". His words could have saved me a lot of grief. And a lot of lost lives.

I am very excited the Ontario Government has brought in such an important and life saving curriculum.

So many like me didn't make it, so many struggled much more, some still live with the scars. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, from high school, no less. 

The carnage of the system can be explained no better than through Canuck Attitude blogger, Bruce. Bruce was a victim,  This is what he had to say about the "It Gets Better" project. 

Bruce said ...  "As much as I'm impressed and heartened by Dan

Bruce making bread on a visit to my farm

Savage's It Gets Better Project and the incredible response it has generated, I can't shake the feeling that all we are doing is patting kids on the head and sending them back to the dungeons while telling them to be patient. I'm sorry, but that's still a kind of tacit approval of bullying." 

Bruce was a victim of our school system, three decades after leaving it. His life experience, an experience not unlike many other gay men.  Some make it too see, "It Gets Better", and some don't make it out of the dungeon.

The new curriculum the Ontario government is bringing in this September will go a long way to eliminating the dungeon and cases of culturally induced PTSD. 

It's Education, Not Dirty Talk

Ontario will get it's long awaited revamp to the "health and physical education curriculum for grades 1 - 12. The changes are long overdue and expected to be well received by most in Ontario. I am very pleased to see these changes. Kudos Premier Wynne.

The Minister of Education, Liz Sandals vowed this morning that this will be the curriculum ...

The minister promising not to back down is a good one and you might think it weird for a minister to make such a comment. Well, she had too. The last time the Liberals introduced changes to this curriculum, they backed down when a small group of evangelical and conservative politicians made a big noise.

The media will be telling us of the groundswell of opposition to these changes. They will be wrong. I suspect an overwhelming majority of folks in Ontario still support these changes, even if its five years after first proposed.

Martin Regg Cohn of the Toronto Star gets it ...

"It's not dirty talk," Regg Cohn

No, it’s not dirty talk — just straight talk on sex, sexting, body parts, consent, mental health, and other life (or life-saving) skills for girls and boys. The idea is for teachers to inoculate students against the ways of the world before they surf the world wild web on their own.

and this

Opponents claim they don’t oppose sex education, just that parents should teach it at home — which sounds suspiciously like a home-schooling recipe for unravelling any class-based curriculum. And assumes that kids would cheerfully absorb parental lectures on the perils of oral sex (or that teenagers heed their parents about anything).

Some of the more opportunistic politicians from the Official Opposition say they support sex-ed, they just want more parental involvement — or as leadership candidate Monte McNaughton argues, while boasting of his credentials as the father of an 18-month-old — parents should “be at the table.”

Apparently it’s not enough that the government consulted hundreds of experts, educators, and religious bodies, reached out to parents from the more than 4,000 elementary schools across Ontario, have massive support from teachers and their unions in all school boards, and that public opinion polls show more than 9 in 10 parents are broadly supportive. 

There will be many complaints from the few about a lack of consultation, They will be wrong again. Just remember the noise is only deafening because it is amplified.

PressProgress does a good job of taking apart the case made by Campaign Pro Life in this link

Pro-life group fears “gay agenda” will plant ideas in the minds of Ontario's school kids

The New Curriculum can be found here 

Regg Cohn's article here

And the noise makers (Lifesite, Campaign Life Coalition )

If you pass this bill, I'm going to make you forget about Mike Duffy

Terri-Jean Bedford

"If you pass this bill, I'm going to make you forget about Mike Duffy," 
- dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford

Bedford made the statement as she was sent from today's senate committee hearings into Bill C-36. It seems the one person successful in getting the court to overturn Canada's prostitution law wasn't going to be given a second more than her allotted time to address the legislation.

There's too much going on right now so I'm sending you over to Dammit Janet blog for much more on Bill C36 than you will find in the mainstream media or anywhere else for that matter.

Wacking the Piñata.

C36 — the Harper government, with its usual doublespeak flair, titles it the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act — is justone MASSIVE piñata of a Bill.  And when it is whacked, all sorts of goodies come tumbling out. Like Don the Plumber's John School™ - but more on that, later.

No no no.  This piñata  is NOT what you think it is.  Get your mind OUT of the gutter.

BCED strike a result of Christy Clark's Vendetta against the BCTF

BC workers are sticking together. Today the BC Federation of Labour and it's affiliates came up

BC Fed give $8 million to BCTF

with eight million dollars to support the BC Teachers who are on strike in BC.  The BC Nurses Union separately donated $500,000. The BC Government has been especially nasty in this dispute, having lost in the courts twice now and waiting for an appeal which they will likely lose, they are trying to starve out the teachers before that appeal can be heard.

So far teachers seem willing to stand up to the government. Today the teachers are holding a vote of its members to see if they will accept binding arbitration. The union has made that offer to the Liberal government, as a means to ending the strike and getting kids back to school. The government has flatly rejected the offer.

The Liberal government seems to know they will lose their appeal in court in October, they can't simply order teachers back to work and impose a contract as that too would likely see them lose in an even larger court case.  This is a last ditch attempt to keep teachers off the job, hopefully starve them into accepting an agreement which is significantly lower than what the courts have already decided.

Liberal Premier of BC Christy Clark 

It's a vendetta, Liberal Premier Christy Clark is adamant she won't give anything to teachers, unless they are in the private sector, where her own son attends a posh private school.

John Tory will implement Ford, Hudak and Harper's agendas

The ballot issue in Toronto has been defined as anyone but Rob Ford. Ford has embarrassed us all. He was unfit for the job and no one wants it too happen again. It's not just Ford's antics, drugs and friends that were bad for Toronto however. He is a right wingers dream. Recall he was part of the Conservative trifecta, Harper, Hudak, and Ford.  A group that current mayoral candidate John Tory supported both by publicly endorsing all three and with his wallet. 

It seems progressives in some numbers are willingly wearing blinders as they they pretend this election for Mayor is really only about getting rid of Rob Ford.  Their blinders allow them to ignore that John Tory is Rob Ford with a huge dollop of sophistication.

I have to admit, Tory has run a good campaign. He hired one of the best in the business, a guy who pretty much only works for very conservative folks. He was very successful in BC electing Christy Clark Premier against all odds.  He's managed to this point to do the same for Tory. 

On the other side of this is Olivia Chow. She attempted to broaden her appeal early on and that seems to have pissed off some lefty progressives. The Chow campaign, the only one of the top three to put out extensive policy positions, suffers from a progressive campaigner's biggest risk. You aren't proposing enough for my one issue.  

I know quite a few progressives who detest Rob Ford and John Tory, yet spend all their time condemning Olivia Chow because her campaign isn't 100% behind their one issue.  They are willing to go to the matt on that one thing. In some cases that means beating the crap out of Chow publically and then quietly voting for her (damage done), not voting for her as your principles won't let you, better to not help elect the most progressive person even if someone far worse benefits.  

Well, the reason the right wing wins in this country is because they generally understand it's better to have some of the loaf than none of it. An example would be the choice/abortion issue. I know many conservative folks that are pro-choice, yet they vote for a MP or MPP who is strongly anti-choice. 

The last time progressives worked together in Toronto was the re-election of David Miller. Rob Ford was elected, again in large part because we progressives were split and John Tory's current campaign manager was Rob Ford's manager. He's good. 

John Tory will be a disaster as Mayor. Do any of you recall his positions as leader of the provincial conservatives? What about his current views and his support of the Harper government? And today, two GTA Harper MPs have endorsed John Tory.  

John Tory will implement Ford, Hudak and Harper's agendas. 

Olivia Chow will be a progressive Mayor. 

#topoli 

Liberals Assault on Public Education

BC's public education system is facing a major assault from BC's own government.  The Liberal government has decided to create a catastrophe in order that they may take more draconian steps to put teachers in their place.  It's play right out of the playbook of the republicans in North Carolina, where once they had a great system, until the government there decided to turn as much education as they could over to the private sector, whilst starving those still in the public system.

Today Virginia of all places is running ads in North Carolina recruiting teachers, can Alberta be far behind Virginia?

One of the better pieces on the mess in BC's education system was written by a teacher. This teacher identifies as someone who usually votes conservative, who has never been so much as a shop steward and past Rotary president, now finds she has to speak out.

Here's an excerpt...  

I am not a political person.I voted conservative most of my life.  I have never canvassed for a political party.  I

Shawn Bird, BC Teacher

have never held any union position, even  something as innocuous as shop steward. I write a daily blog of POETRY, not political commentary.

I believe in a ‘live and let live’ attitude about most things, but I have voted every election since I was old enough.  I take my responsibility as a citizen very seriously.  I try to be educated about my opinions.  I seek information from those who know what’s going on.  I don’t trust the news to tell me the whole truth.  I am living in an Orwellian world these days where politicians and some news stories are making declarations completely opposite to what I know is true.  Because I am a BC teacher, I live in an alternate reality to the one the government describes. 

Calling a black cat white does not change the fact that it is a black cat!
Here’s what I know. 

After then Minister of Education Christy Clark ripped up contracts with BC teachers in 2002, I watched money leak out of our schools.  We haven’t been able to replace text books. Our rooms don’t get cleaned thoroughly because custodial time is the bare minimum.  I’ve seen libraries closed, until to be  full time a librarian must work at 3+ schools. I’ve seen arts education cut.  I’ve seen learning disabled kids unable to be diagnosed because there isn’t funding for it.  I’ve seen needy kids partnered with kids who have a designation so that a Education assistant can help several of them together when they each need one on one help.  I’ve seen buildings and equipment falling into disrepair.  I’ve seen copying budgets run out months before the end of the year.  I’ve seen teachers feed kids.  I’ve seen parents and local corporations donate food to kids who would otherwise not have breakfast or lunch.  I’ve spent a fortune on supplies for my class room- supplies that I can not deduct from my taxes like other professionals can. 

The BC Liberal government announces that they’ve ‘increased funding to school districts’ and on paper that’s true, except they’ve also required districts to pay millions of dollars from their budgets, for things that the government previously funded separately.  Money that used to go to students now pays for earthquake proofing and the like.  Hydro has gone up.  Gas has gone up.  But the allowance to pay for them hasn’t. 

During the strike the government announced that teachers are demanding triple the benefits of any other group.  Such doublespeak!  They don’t tell the public that what they call ‘benefits’ in that statement refers to ‘everything that isn’t wages’.  In other words, things like class size and composition funding, support staff like teacher assistants, and non-enrolling teachers like librarians and counsellors. These are not benefits!   Those are properly staffed and funded schools!  Does a doctor call his nurse, receptionist, and stethoscope ‘benefits’?   The public, of course, imagines ‘benefits’ are simply extended health and dental and so believes the government lie that teachers are greedy.

Shawn goes on to make an even stronger case for teachers, you can read her whole blog post here..

Commentary- BC Government Extortion & Orwellian Life

Thanks to Raffi for the link

The NDP - Big step reaching out to new voters

Andrea Horwath has abandoned NDP principles for self serving reasons, like getting elected.  I hear this, see it online and its the main stream media primary talking point.  Is it true? 

Some background...

The NDP in Ontario after Bob Rae was a basket case. They lost the support of major union leaders and all but the most dedicated lefties stuck with them. The Conservatives won in a landslide in 1995 and remained in govt till 2003 when an energized Liberal party took power, largely on the basis of theWalkerton scandal, teacher and union support.

The Liberals won and the Harris years ended. Early on, a better arrangement between the Government and unions took hold. When the Liberals would stray too far, the unions would call on the NDP members at Queen's Park to stand up to the government, particularly close to elections. It generally worked.

The NDP under Howard Hampton ran 'traditional' NDP campaigns. Always front and centre were the issues of the poor, people on welfare and tax increases on the rest of us ( I simplify). They never came close to winning, albeit they were congratulated by the Lefty Purity committee.

After losing again in dismal fashion in 2007, the NDP took another course. Andrea Horwath became leader. The NDP again ran on a platform largely conforming with the purity committee in 2011. They made some gains, in my view due to the new face of the NDP, it's new leader.

This election is different. The NDP knew going into this, the Liberals would be the biggest benefactors of big union support with the exception of a few unions, that has been the case. Unions are supporting the NDP where they have an MPP and in areas where they think the NDP is better placed to beat the Hudak candidate. And this time some of those union leaders are being very public about their lack of enthusiasm for the NDP.

Let's get back to the NDP's vote base. While union membership in Ontario is around 30+%, the NDP can only claim a small base of about 15 to 20% of voters. This despite their leader being the most popular and trusted politician in the province, year after year.  That vote base has to expand. If it doesn't they need to reconcile their role with the results.

To win an election in Ontario, a party needs to be in the high end of things, 37 to 40%. That's almost double the NDP traditional support base. 

Okay that's where we are in battle, the NDP platform next post...

Ontario Liberal Maid scandal

You may have heard about the Ontario Liberal Maid scandal. It seems three Liberal Cabinet Ministers and a lot of Officials in the Liberal govt received free maid service from a company that then over billed the government for other services to make up for the free service. 

Rick Bartolucci

Harinder Takhar

The Ontario NDP asked Premier Wynne to tell us who the three Cabinet Ministers were that received the free services. 


The Premier refused to answer.  Well, the NDP has found out who two of the three are. Allegedly receiving free service were Ministers  Harinder Takhar and Rick Bartolucci.  You can read all about here.

Sign this petition to put pressure on Wynne to release the names of the Liberal MPPs who had their homes cleaned for free, or call 1-844-LIB-MAID to find out more.
updated with petition site.

Fake protestors, Fake Twitter; what's next from Ontario Liberals

From faking NDP members at an Andrea Horwath campaign event to faking grassroots support via astroturfing on twitter, the Liberals are proving they haven't changed under Kathleen Wynne. The astroturfing was uncovered by the Ontario NDP. The campaign was designed to show grassroots support for new taxes, in all it cost us $999,99.00.

New documents show the Liberals directed high-priced consultants to create fake twitter accounts as part of an astro-turf campaign designed to suppress public criticism and manufacture the appearance of grassroots support for their plan to hit families with new tolls and fees. More here.

The Liberals started the week with fake protestors at an event organized by the Andrea Horwath's

campaign. They were caught out by the media, because, they still were wearing Liberal branded election buttons etc.

When pointed out by the media, the quasi official from the Liberal campaign that follows and records all that Horwath says and does, told the protestors to take buttons off. He did not say, "hey guys, go home, this is embarrassing, this is not working so well."

5 Cheques in all, the fifth being a Govt of Canada cheque in the amount of $1,700.

Fontana, former Liberal MP and a big player within the Ontario Liberal Party is in the middle of his fraud trial in London. This little bit of information is interesting; 

The total owing for the wedding was $18,900, DiPietro testified – the amount minus the $1,700 deposit. He received $8,630 from the bride’s parents, $5,000 from Fontana, $3,570 from Fontana’s mother.

Records seized from the Marconi Club show five cheques were used to make payment on the wedding, Zuber said, the fifth being a Government of Canada cheque in the amount of $1,700.

You can find more on Fontana's fraud trial here and here and here and here

"In your 18 years as an MP, how many documents did you falsify?"

London Ontario Mayor, Joe Fontana, a prominent Ontario Liberal, is in court today, facing fraud charges for allegedly submitting an invoice, which was doctored, for payment to the House of Commons.  The Crown suggests Fontana billed the House of Commons for his Son's wedding. 

Last week as you see here, Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne is seen here shaking Mayor Fontana's hand during an election stop in London.

Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne accepting Fontana's support.

In today's prosecution the Crown asked this in the cross examination: 

"In your 18 years as an MP, how many documents did you falsify?"

Replied an indignant Fontana, "Pardon me?"

"You heard me," said Zuber.

"None," replied Fontana.

"Then why wouldn't you remember this?" the Crown asked.​

Photo from Warren Kinsella here.

Right wing populist? Andrea Horwath?

Andrea Horwath is running to the right of the Liberals? Well if you believe the Liberals, the Toronto Star and some of my bestest lefty friends, this happened. Say it isn't so...

It isn't so...

First there was the minimum wage spat. The labour movement and poverty activists had been running a campaign to raise the wage to $14 per hour. A lofty and worthwhile goal. Wynne couldn't decide how to raise the minimum wage so she appointed a panel (She does this a lot). The panel suggested raising the wage and then indexing it to inflation. 

Yet it seems some people were none too happy that Horwath didn't lead the fight to raise the wage. It was after all a classic NDP position. Horwath knows most Ontarians thought the $11 wage was all that could be afforded. She also knows that $11 is too low. So being the right wing populist she is, she said make it $12 and index it. And then Horwath added a small tax cut for small business. That's a buck an hour more than Wynne yet Horwath has forgotten her roots. 

Before all that happened, there was Bill 115. The 'Take All the Teachers Rights Away' bill introduced by the Liberals and supported by Tim Hudak. The bill was a desperate attempt to appeal to voters in a secretly planned by-election for Kitchener Waterloo, a long time conservative strong hold. The stakes were high, the Liberals would gain a seat, thus hold a razor thin majority. To win however they figured they had to out 'Hudak', Hudak, and they did!

Again, that right wing populist Andrea Horwath and the NDP stood up and surprised everyone by voting against Bill 115.

The NDP demanded that the Liberals tax high income earners and not cut corporate taxes two budgets ago. This was to help fund a job creation program for youth. That kind of populism is so not of the left. 

More coming...

Arthur Potts is the Liberals Progressive alternative to Michael Prue

This is the Liberals Progressive alternative to Michael Prue. It's kinda sad...


                                                                                             From: Youth And Work blog


"I was listening to a very interesting segment on Ontario Today about restoring sanity into our discourse. One the callers referenced how Arthur Potts, the provincial Liberal candidate in the riding of Beaches-East York, was selling himself as a progressive alternative to NDP MPP Michael Prue. 

The caller in question described how after further research he found that Mr. Potts advocates for Wisconsin-style GOP "right-to-work" policies in his professional life. The whole deception Mr. Potts was perpetrating intrigued me, so I looked into his past history.  See more here: http://www.youthandwork.ca/2014/05/meet-arthur-potts.html

Ontario Election: Why now?

We're well into the Ontario Election. The minority Liberal government lasted two and a half years, a long time by any standard. The discourse among non Tim Hudak supporters has been to stop him. The oft named progressives are being sought after by both the Liberals and the NDP. That's where I begin...

 In the quest for the elusive progressive voter the Liberals are championing their budget. Some are even calling the budget more NDP than the NDP. That's the Liberal narrative to date and one that has been proffered by Toronto Star columnists and not a few union brothers and sisters. For some the thought is that the budget was progressive and defeating it would lead to a Tim Hudak win. In fact this is the Liberals entire campaign in a nutshell.

Andrea Horwath has been the Liberals biggest concern. Her questions during Question Period hurt the most. Her demands for accountability grind on Liberal nerves. Horwath's statements on making life more affordable hurt because they're true. In fact, Andrea Horwath has pretty much been the most popular politician in the province the last eighteen months.

In February the Liberals number one concern was the NDP according to leaked election planning documents. Liberal support was vulnerable if Horwath could translate personal popularity to the NDP. You may be surprised to know that the Liberals have these past 18 months avoided referring to Andrea Horwath by name, while attacking the Conservatives by their leaders name. That was a strategy, to prevent alienating voters who liked Horwath. It seems however with one Liberal attack ad naming Horwath and another leaflet being dropped by Liberals, they have abandoned that strategy. It's a risk, but hey, the Liberals are running scared now.

So far the fear of Hudak winning an election has been the reason behind demands that the NDP and Andrea Horwath support the Liberals budget. It's an NDP budget after all, at least that is what we are supposed to accept, the Liberals put in lots of 'NDP' stuff to garner support for the budget. Now we need to have a look at a few things. First Kathleen Wynne did not bring the NDP in to assist in drafting the budget. In fact she at many times said she wasn't going to suffer any direction from the leader of the third party. The budget is vague on details, there was no debate on those details because Wynne ended that, choosing to leave the details hidden and called the election before one word of debate. To be fair there was much to like about the budget, that is however not the budget the Liberals will have if they win.

The Liberals were sinking fast. They should have called an election soon after Wynne became Premier. They have suffered from a thousand cuts, lost a sitting Premier and were mired in a never ending gas-plant scandal, not to mention multiple others. They were so bereft of ideas, they started rewriting NDP private members bills and passing them, having in some cases only months before refused the NDP bills. The election had to be now as far as Liberals were concerned. As a minority, they couldn't control the agenda. More cuts would be had. Go now, hope to hell they can win at least another minority, then another election in a year for all the marbles.

Andrea Horwath tried to work with the Liberals. People in Ontario did not want an election after the last one so soon. Horwath did what she could to get improvements in the budget. Things like a tax on those earning over $500,000, childcare expansion, a youth jobs plan. Last year Horwath asked for a Financial Accountability Officer, Lower Auto Insurance rates and a 5 day guarantee for homecare for seniors. None of it happened. We're still waiting.

The Liberals had three promises to keep. They didn't keep any of them. And now people want Andrea Horwath to believe 70 promises?

 Next blog post: Andrea Horwath: What's going on?