Apolitical Staples

I’ve seen other polls suggesting more of a minority situation. I agree that Tory blew the chance to define himself, but if McGuinty keeps breaking promises, one would hope that Ontario taxpayers might wake up some day.

On the other hand, we have to expose the propaganda for what it is first.

I think this is not a reflection on John Tory, but Stephen Harper, with a sideswipe at the devil, Mike Harris. ;)

That scary Mike Harris, and his two majority government victories… :-)

I have three words for you: campaign changes everything.

Though my own prediction is for a slim McGuinty majority. Tory’s turn comes in 2011.

Yeah in Ontario it’s the other way around. The Tories are the Liberals and the Liberals are Liberal-lite. It’s just distorted because of Mike Harris. I wouldn’t call him evil, just utterly misguided on how to run a government. Not with the lower taxes, but with how that was achieved. Destroying Toronto and the TTC for no particular reason was especially nonsensical but the reborn Tory party couldn’t carry the 416 (unlike, say, Bill Davis) so it got screwed.

We went from Bill Davis, one of the finest Premiers in Canada, to Peterson, Rae, Harris, and Eves—a string of some of the worst Premiers in Canada whether by their own making (Rae) and irrationality (Harris), circumstance (Rae and Eves), or just waffled out on the right choices (Peterson).

Sigh. I miss Bill Davis. Bland works. Plus he understood the importance of infrastructure and mass transit in keeping cities—the drivers of economic growth—healthy.

As for John Tory? I think he would have made a great mayor (not least given the way Miller has been utterly useless and wussing out on the right choices—London style downtown tolls, bike path expansion, waterfront development, development in general) but he’s not going to be Premier this time around.

Although I do like John Tory I think he needs a few more years to rebuild the PC party in Ontario and—even though I tend to disagree with the guy—I can live with the inoffensive McGuinty.

Electorate and poll wise I agree with Greg (Sinister one). Purely a reflection of Harris as the chain of Tory governments before him was arguably the most successful in the country.

I’m not as convinced of McGuinty’s invincibility as others are. If he’s going to win the next election, it’ll probably be in part because Harper will save his rear with fiscal imbalance payments. Otherwise, he’s provided mediocre governance while literally being the biggest lying politician in recent memory.

“We went from Bill Davis, one of the finest Premiers in Canada, to Peterson, Rae, Harris, and Eves—a string of some of the worst Premiers in Canada whether by their own making (Rae) and irrationality (Harris), circumstance (Rae and Eves), or just waffled out on the right choices (Peterson).”

I keep seeing references to Harris being so bad… yet he’s the only one of the above to be successful in winning two consecutive majorities. How do you explain that?

Greg S., this Toronto Star - Angus Reid poll from yesterday’s article has the Ontario PCs and Liberals virtually tied (Tories 34%, Liberals 33%). Some other interesting numbers in the article also

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/177779

Bill Davis was a stool pidgeon for Trudeau. Out of all of the conservative premiers of the time, Davis should have been the one to press for property rights protections in the Charter, but he did not.

I keep seeing references to Harris being so bad… yet he’s the only one of the above to be successful in winning two consecutive majorities. How do you explain that?

Bob Rae’s destruction of the NDP, of course - they typically won between 20-30% of the vote, and got as high as 34% in 1975 - Ontario had a solid three-party system until the mid-90s and, like Nova Scotia today, that routinely denied any party a majority.

James Bow, if the PC’s lose this election, there is no way they’d keep Tory as leader for anther election… right?