Whither John Tory

The first debate was tonight. Lyn did marginally better, but wasn't a great public speaker. She has improved on the issues somewhat. 

Schreiner (Green) was actually the most impressive candidate.

John Tory a Lame DUCK

Quote:

Bringing doctors to area, creating jobs top list of priorities for independent hope- JASON TAYLOR: Tory a 'lame duck' Posted By JASON BAIN, SUN MEDIA, LINDSAY POST Posted 8 hours ago  

So what launched the Cannington resident into his first attempt in politics?

For Taylor, the biggest issue to address in the riding is getting more family doctors. He said he, his wife and two children, aged 11 and 7, have been without a doctor for a couple of years. He said as MPP, he would talk directly to graduating doctors to encourage them to come to the region, and would help mayors to get grants to pay the student loans of doctors willing to move to underserviced areas.

He said the Liberal government has had time to put doctors here, but hasn't done it.

The next major issue is local jobs, said Taylor. "I know John Tory has been out there, speaking with people -- his friends aren't the ones getting laid off. His friends aren't the ones that sit up at night, wondering how they're going to pay the rent. I know these people. These are my friends."

What is funny, is this guy sounds more like a New Democrat then a Conservative. But like many working people, likes to support the policies of a government that puts them in the position they are complaining about.

At least he has put his $200 down, but he would do better to have run with a Party.  I like a person who recognises what is happening to his friends. 

Thanks Jenn.

150 People is a very good turnout under any kind of conditions. What you point out about the jobs makes sense.  People become descensitized to the reality if it has been around long enough. 

Obviously some people are ticked about the by election. 

Do most people share this opinion on the Uranium mining???

Quote:

The City of Lindsay, of the Kawartha Lakes district, has become the 23rd Ontario municipality to call for a moratorium on uranium mining

I appreciate you answering my questions.  Was the FCP candidate and the Independent at the debate?

That has got to be one of the Largest Rural/small community ridings I have seen. How can a candidate cover such a large area??? 

The candidates were split on uranium mining. Liberal said that the mining act was under consultation right now and nothing should happen until that was resolved. 

Tory said that there should be a moratorium on mining while issues of safety and rights of landowners are resolved.

NDP said that we should be moving to renewable energy and was against the mine.

Green said the same.

The Family Coalition candidate ... I can't remember what he said, actually. Freedom party said he was against the mine.

The independent was the only one who said he was for the mine.

Many people asked questions about mining, storing waste and nuclear energy. Although all but one candidate said "no" to the mine, only the NDP and Green parties said that nuclear energy wasn't the way to go.

 Every municipal council in our county has supported a moratorium on uranium mining, although there is only a threat of mining in Highlands East, which is the east side municipality with only about 2,000 people.

The riding is huge and this creates some problems for candidates. One example of that is that everyone who is running, except the Family Coalition member is from the south end, which is very different from the north end.

To someone in our county, a candidate from Lindsay is just as foreign as one from Toronto. For example, both the Freedom Party candidate and the Independent talked about manufacturing job loss and farming. We don't really have much arable land here and only very small and few farm operations. We're a tourist area with massive unemployment (30% in the winter) and very little in the way of manufacturing.

For candidates to come talking to us about keeping the family farm is almost irrelevant, but it is VERY relevant to those in Lindsay, Cannington, etc. because they are farmers.

Understandably, because of his immense ability to allocate research resources, Tory has been very good at capturing the sentiment of this riding, while "local" candidates from the south don't know what to say because they don't know our experience.

This puts the NDP candidate at a disadvantage - I think this has been part of the reason why she talks so much about health care, but so little about tourism, logging, attracting industry, seniors, etc.  

And, when it comes to votes, we have very few in comparison to the southern area, so perhaps it's not worth the energy to find those answers.

I mean in raw numbers. Cardiff has a population of ... I'd guess maybe 300 people. That might be too high. So it's a pretty small number of votes. 

I see your point about resource-dependent areas, but there has been no mining in Cardiff for 50 years. Money is made by those who work outside of the community in Bancroft, Peterborough or Haliburton. 

"would love to see tory and bisson in a debate"

So would McGuinty - he would probably come across as the rose between two thorns.

"As for being more of a NDP, I am not. My basis for this is, when a community does not have a family Doctor; the expense is transferred to ER’s, medical clinics, and longer term care as symptoms go untreated. Spend the money now or pay a lot more later."

You know this makes absolutely no sense.  Can you expand on this, as I am sure you are trying to make a point, but I am not what it is.  If it is that the NDP is against family doctors that's just dumb-ass stupid.  So I am sure it is something more.  I find independents ideas interesting and worth considering so when you have time I would enjoy reading your expansion on this point.

That is not what I am mean. I was stating that because this is a priority of mine, it was said "What is funny, is this guy sounds more like a New Democrat then a Conservative."

No matter what party affilation, Doctors are an issue.

If you have a question, post and I will respond.

Wow no takers on my offer?

How often does a candidate appear here and actually solict feedback?

"If that were true BA, then why did McGuinty break tradition and field a candidate???"

There's certainly a tradition in Canadian politics of not running a candidate against another party's new leader right after a leadership convention. But there's hardly any sort of tradition of giving a longtime leader who was a sitting member, but then got his butt handed to him in the last general election, a free ride back into the Legislature.

Does that show desperation?

This is going to be fun to watch, even better to be a part of.  We have two politicians that are fighting for their political lives.

OPPS Liberals and Torys CAUGHT CHEATING on POLL

Poll results appear skewed Posted By Peggy Armstrong, Lindsay Post ReporterUpdated 1 hour ago  

KAWARTHA LAKES - The online poll that The Lindsay Post has been running since the byelection was called indicates that someone feels strongly enough to take the time to skew the results.

 On Sunday, the vote count had climbed to over 29,000 for Johnson and over 32,000 for Tory.

On Monday morning, the number of votes for Tory had skyrocketed to 89,463, giving him 66 per cent of the total and dropping Johnson to 22 per cent. In the provincial election of 2007, the total number of votes for all the candidates was 48,599. The total number of eligible voters in the riding as of 2007 was 81,953.

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Opps I did it again :)

aka Mycroft.... gets feather in cap for calling this one before it got out of hand.

It was hilarious to watch that poll.

As they say even the dead vote twice.

My prediction ... Tory is out.

www.JASONTAYLOR.ca

With 1 poll reporting, the Liberal is beating Tory by a 2-1 margin...I wonder how representative this poll is.

From this site, http://www.elections.on.ca/en-CA/ElectionNightResults2009.htm, he's behind at 9:50 PM

Now Tory is behind by 400 votes. I'm not sure what to think. On the one hand it might be good to see the PCs in disarray on the eve of the ONDP picking a new leader etc...on the other hand, I'm scared that if Tory goes, the Ontario PCs will swing to the right and pick and Common Sense Revolution type lunatic - and that person could get elected 2.5 years from now if people are pissed off enough.

Stockholm wrote:

...on the other hand, I'm scared that if Tory goes, the Ontario PCs will swing to the right and pick and Common Sense Revolution type lunatic - and that person could get elected 2.5 years from now if people are pissed off enough.

Then again, they could go that extra step too far and pick Randy Hillier.

 Now 168 polls and a 600 vote gap for the Liberals.

Tory is now behind by 900 votes - with 229/258 polls reporting.

I guess if you call any discussions of voting patterns and demographics "generalizations" we might as well shut down virtually all political discussion on babble!

Stockholm wrote:

The NDP has no base of support here. If the best the Greens can do is tie the NDP in what is just about the worst riding in the province for the NDP - it doesn't say much.

 Considering Dennis Drainville's 45% or so in 1990, or that the NDP was over 15% here provincially in 2003 (yeah, with Earl Manners, so what) and federally (*without* Earl Manners) in 2004 and 2006, to call it "no base of support" is a little blithe, let alone "worst riding in the province".  Even provincially in 2007, they were 12% to the Greens' 7%; and, far from being "worst in the province", that was only barely below midpack among Ontario ridings, sharewise.

All in all, we're talking about a seat where the NDP's lately tended to do better on average than in virtually *all* 905-belt seats save Oshawa.

adma wrote:

  Even provincially in 2007, they were 12% to the Greens' 7%; and, far from being "worst in the province", that was only barely below midpack among Ontario ridings, sharewise.

 Honestly I heard a lot of people say that they usually vote NDP, but don't like Lyn Edwards and wouldn't vote for her. Some are upset about the big strike in Lindsay last winter, others just don't like her robot performance.

I expect the Green candidate to top her here. 

It also goes without saying that with the NDP leadership race happening this weekend - the level of NDP effort in this byelection was essentially NIL.

But the real story is what happens to the PCs now since this will almost certainly mean the end of John Tory.

No one ever said Tory was a "nice" guy. In fact most people I've met who know him say that he's actually not particularly "nice" at all and that on the contrary - he is a bit of a jerk.

But, by Conservative standards, he is socially moderate. He marches in the gay pride parade every year, he is a patron of the arts and he seems to want to appeal to urban voters. Its not saying much - but it sure beats Harris.

Its hard to say "good riddance" when the happiest people about his demise are the rightwingers in the PC party who want to replace him with someone far worse - and my fear is that after a couple more years of recession - that person culd be the next premier of Ontario.

I think its overstating things to say that opposing the blockade in Caledonia makes anyone a "racist". I believe every single political figure in Quebec opposed the Oka blockade - I don't say that they were all racists (possibly some were - but there are planty of non-racist reasons to oppose illegal blockades).

I don't see the results of this byelection sending any message at all about religious school funding. The big winners were the Liberals - who support the status quo.In fact, 94% of voters voted for candidates who support the status quo on separate school funding - and I gather that the Green candidate said nothing about the issue either.

From what I can tell the byelection revolved around a backlash against Tory being parachuted in.