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The McGuinty Liberals are not the neoliberals that Mike Harris and Jimmy Flaherty were from 95-2003. These Liberals may have ceased with continuing the Harris-Flaherty program for deregulation in a few sectors, but they haven't reversed any of it, either. It's true, and I would never vote for them or advocate that anyone else vote for them.
The NDP is between a rock and a hard place with propping-up the Liberals. But I really do think these Hudak Tories would make things even worse if we can imagine. I can imagine things being worse. I don't think the poor and unemployed in Ontario can, though.
some might say an excellent case can be made for the prospects of an ndp win in an election. I would have thought that this is precisely the RIGHT confluence of circumstances on which to run and win. Any other social democratic party in the western world would love to have such prospects. Hudak is becalmed and his poll prospects pessimistic. He has in any case all the electibility of dogshit. McGuinty and his bankster budget in tandem with the hated Harper's will cruelly screw the poor - ROYALLY. Mulcair and the ndp's political honeymoon is still in the ascendancy - OF COURSE it's time to GO! - and a building momentum with the offer of union money too!l GO WIN AN ELECTION! Goodness, isn't that supposed to be what politicians do best? What the hell's their problem really? It's high time - the issues couldn't be bigger or better. And everybody on my side of the class war knows it too - even if you haven't been watching what the hackers and choppers have been doing in Iceland, Greece or Spain.
In such circumstances - I'd say there's a very serious problem when your horse won't race...
Again, this wasn't a case of your strawperson snap election. McGuinty was trying to avoid an election. Horwath made sure he didn't have to try very hard.
What you refer to as "immediate gratification" many of this province's most vulnerable would call "survival".
I couldn't agree more. If they're so timorous about their electoral prospects now I can only feel pity for how difficult life must be as a Dipper, especially under less favourable circumstances. If they really don't want to take a chance at forming government one wonders why they even exist as a party. But then, maybe it's hard to risk losing a $116,000/year salary. I wouldn't know... that's more than nine years of income for a person on ODSP (and more than 16 for a person on OW).
Snap elections are typically for short-term political gain. And with 4 million plus Ontarians of voting age staying home seven months ago, it's obvious to everyone and their dog that our dysfunctional electoral system will not work any better this time around. It's broken similar to the way Ontario is broken. Another WorstPastThePost election costing $100 million with taxpayers footing the bill will not fix that which remains hopelessly broken.
I think it would be a tough matter for the NDP to finance another campaign so close to the last one. The ONDP still has bills to pay from not one but two previous campaigns. Meanwhile the two old line parties are able to tap deep pockets on Bay Street whenever they want and especially if they, Bay Street, think they can win a phony majority with either of their goto parties. According to McGuinty labour unions fund the ONDP. Meanwhile have labour groups said they would kick-in for round two seven months later? I don't know that they have. Does anyone?
In any event, this is good PR for the NDP. It is working to garner public attention to real issues. And it's a form of free alternative electioneering favouring the NDP. Shrewd of the NDP I think. But Horwath knows that the very next budget will require the NDP's support as well. Even more pressure on Horwath's NDP to strike when the iron should not be just hot but red hot. But right now Ontarians are suffering election fatigue and aren't all paying attention. I think we could be too broke to pay attention. Hopefully more Ontarians will be paying full and undivided attention next time when the NDP is in the spotlight again. And there will be a next time no doubt about it. A good stew takes some simmering.
Agreed. Neither party had anything to gain by forcing an election. Horwath's ONDP come out of it looking both flexible (caving on the HST issue) and like champions of working people (read middle class), while McGuilty looks like an ass -- his default position.
Horwath herself has said it is a bad budget. If the improvements are enough that Ontario can avoid an election, then she can show her leadership in casting the deciding vote for the budget.
Horwath is in a position where if she wants to show leadership and vote for the budget deal herself, she also has the luxury of allowing the caucus to vote in solidarity with its interests. I would like it too if the caucus showed a united front, but they do not have to vote in favour of the budget to do so. Horwath can vote in favour and the caucus could all either vote against or abstain.
Anyways, there have been some very minor gains, some very minor gains I am proud of/grateful for. I would have liked to see the freeze on social assistance lifted. I don't know what Horwath will decide but I am pleased with her for trying to make this budget better. Ontarians (78%) seem to be happy with her approach. That is leadership. Leadership is not always doing/getting what you want but doing/getting what the people want, while maintaining some fidelity to your principles. Did/do I want more from Horwath? Yes. Am I grateful for what she has achieved so far? Yes as well.
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Right. And of course party considerations trump the interests of the people of the province every time.
Flexible is another word for spineless. Champions of the middle class? What did the middle class gain from the "negotiation" over the budget? A million middle class public servants, nurses, and teachers got a nice little wage freeze, which wasn't even on the table in the phony "negotiations" - the NDP conceded it at the outset.
McGuilty was 100% successful in the negotiations:
• He came out not having to spend a single penny more on social programs.
• He gets to accelerate the reduction of the deficit thanks to the tax on the rich.
• He gets to stay in power thanks to his pals in the NDP supporting his austerity program.
Horwath was 100% unsuccessful:
• She failed to wring a single penny more in program spending out of the government.
• She left the workers to bear the brunt of the austerity program.
• Her plan to tax the super rich to pay for social programs was turned into a plan to pay off the Bay Street creditors, while leaving the absurdly low corporate income tax rates untouched.
• Every bit of the additional benefit to day cares and the disabled will come from robbing the education budget.
• Her party is now committed to supporting the biggest austerity assault on Ontario workers since Mike Harris.
http://rabble.ca/babble/ontario/ondp-convention-next-weekend-hamilton
That's a sad comment. Who cares about either party? The budget hurts workers and the poor.
An optimistic comment: certainly one about which many of us, even if we are not optimistic, are at least hopeful.
I wonder about those of us who are of another opinion: do you have hopes, too? are you optimistic about something else? or do you despair of anything good ever happening until . . . when?
At least get your facts straight.
There is nothing in the actual budget about wage freezes. That was in the budget SPEECH. Big difference. That battle is coming and I expect the NDP to take the lead on that fight by supporting the demands of the labour movement.
Also the NDP has managed to turn back the freeze of disability and welfare rates. One obviously was the public face, the other a negotiating table demand. While I would love to see a large increase in these rates, in today's reality that wasn't possible. Fighting a campaign on that issue, while so many others are hurting, would have been a godsend to the Conservatives. For an object lesson in this see the Mike Harris campaign of 1995.