Ontario Election Drinking Game
October 6, 2011 | No Comments
I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but let’s create a bit of a drinking game for tonight’s election. Here are my proposed rules: Take a drink every time you are struck with deep crippling despair. That’s it. We’ll all be dead by midnight. Consider this an open thread. Feel free to talk about anything [...]
Dalton McGuinty Deserves to Lose
October 5, 2011 | 2 Comments
The Ontario election is almost – mercifully – over, and most of the polling data I’ve seen shows that the Liberals should hold on for a third majority government. Not all polls are in agreement, but the trend seems to be looking good for the Grits. This is a sad (read: pathetic) occurrence. The race [...]
Typical Disappointment of the Tory Platform
September 29, 2011 | No Comments
I had intended to do a bit of a breakdown of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party election platform [pdf], like I did for the NDP, but after reading through it, I just don’t have it in me. So, instead, I’ll give you some vague reflections. First off, I’ll give them this, it is well done. [...]
Dalton McGuinty has failed the Ontario education system
September 29, 2011 | No Comments
I was scrolling through the Liberal Party’s election platform, the defensive piece of fluff it is, and I noticed this quotation, attributed to Sir Michael Barber, former education advisor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair: Ontario has led the world in education reform in recent years. The Premier is a model of the kind of [...]
Ontario Liberal government reneges on funding kindergarten
September 28, 2011 | 2 Comments
In the grand tradition of expensive government programs being expensive, the Ottawa Carleton District School Board was greeted with a $1.3M shortfall trying to live up to the promises of full-time kindergarten made by the provincial government. It seems that by offering what is, in effect, a few free hours of daycare a day, a [...]
Twitter Chat today at noon
September 22, 2011 | No Comments
Speak Your Mind, the Toronto Star’s Ontario election project, will be hosting a twitter chat today at 12:00 pm. If you’re interested in participating, use the hashtag #chatSYM. This chat will be focused on education. I might pop in to see what people are saying. And, as always, you can follow me, @jonathanmcleod.
Liberals and NDP share some good ideas
September 22, 2011 | No Comments
A report has surfaced linking the Ontario Liberals and Ontario NDP to some common sense initiatives within the health care system. Specifically, they are both promising to clean up, in part, the mess that Ontario has made of pregnancy and birth: Two of Ontario’s three major political parties have promised to deliver the province’s first [...]
Tim Hudak thinks we’re dumber than electricity meters
September 22, 2011 | 17 Comments
Okay, not quite. But c’mon: Smart meters are too smart for the average consumer and they’re taking advantage of ratepayers, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said Monday. “There’s the only thing that’s smart about these smart meters — no matter how you change your behaviour, they outsmart you and you end up with just another [...]
Meet the New Democratic Party, same as the old New Democratic Party
September 13, 2011 | No Comments
So I’ve ragged on the Ontario Progressive Conservatives a bit, recently. I was about to examine their election platform, but I thought that would just be piling on. So, instead, I decided to check out the NDP (for me, it’s more important to investigate an opposition party’s platform than the governing parties platform; if you’ve [...]
Everyone agrees with me
September 9, 2011 | 2 Comments
Well, maybe not everyone, but a few people. The Tories and the NDP are tripping over themselves trying to make energy cheaper, thus hurting us economically and environmentally. I’ve already touched on this a couple of times, but it’s worth getting some other voices in on the fun. First, in The Ottawa Citizen, Kate Heartfield [...]