The Ontario 2018 election thread

[robkelk]

A bit of background: A couple of weeks ago, the leader of Ontario's relatively-right-wing party, the Progressive Conservatives (yeah, I know - what a name) resigned because of allegations of sexual impropriety. This means the PC party needs a new leader, less than six months before the next general election.

Guess who's tossed his hat into the ring? Doug Ford, brother of deceased Toronto ex-mayor Rob Ford. (Yes, that Rob Ford.) And he's taken more than a few pages from Trump's playbook...

As of this posting, his opponents are Christine Elliott (who's tried to grab the brass ring twice so far and failed both times), and Caroline Mulroney (who's never run for office before this election but has name recognition as the daughter of a former Prime Minister).

The centrist Liberal party was doing poorly in the opinion polls, but with an opponent in disarray (nobody thinks the left-wing New Democratic Party has a chance), they might win another term in Government after all.

Whoever said that politics is a good spectator sport should be happy to be watching this race. I have to live with the result.

[hazard]

Just based on the relation and the tactics you speak of when it comes to Doug Ford I really, really hope you don't get Doug Ford as the party's leader.

Or perhaps, definitely do. But then, everyone thought Trump was going to lose, and that... didn't happen.

[robkelk]

Doug Ford has a large voter base in Toronto, the largest city in Ontario (nearly six million, compared to barely one million in Ottawa, and less than a million in any other city in the province). Whether that voter base is large enough to carry an election is anybody's guess... but sweeping the Toronto vote has been enough to get elected in Ontario in the past.

[robkelk]

The previous leader, who resigned because of allegations of sexual impropriety - he's claiming that his name is cleared and he's running for the party leadership. Note that he has not yet had his day in court.

[hazard]

The previous leader, who resigned because of allegations of sexual impropriety - he's claiming that his name is cleared and he's running for the party leadership. Note that he has not yet had his day in court.

...

Can he be dragged off the podium during a debate because he wasn't present at court? It'd be hilarious. Otherwise, well... Canada doesn't have the same turmoil going on as its southern neighbour, but I think the situation there is likely to affect the general public none the less.

[robkelk]

And he's out again. With no more coming back in - nominations are closed. (Go read the article; no summary I could give could do the events justice.)

I forgot to mention that there's a fourth Conservative leadership candidate. She's a single-issue candidate.

[robkelk]

And the winner of the PC leadership election is ... unknown, over 90 minutes after the result was supposed to have been announced. There's a problem with one of the automated vote counters. There's a report that "lawyers with the Elliott and Ford campaigns are locked in a room with senior party officials."

[hazard]

That? That is a bad sign.

Although if the votes were cast with paper ballots that just means counting by hand. Time consuming, but possible.

[robkelk]

Worse sign: They're looking at voter-eligibility irregularities.

And they ran out of time on the rental of the convention hall. The announcement, when they finally make it, will be in a press conference.

EDIT: Going offline for the night now. If there's anything to report tomorrow, I'l post...

[robkelk]

Let's see what the morning brings...

At roughly 10pm last night, the PC party announced that their new leader is Doug Ford.

As of 8:30am today, Christine Elliott still refuses to concede.

Oh, and hundreds if not thousands of party members never received their credentials to be able to vote online, and there were no mail-in or in-person ballots this time around because the leadership race was so short on time. A request for a court injunction to extend the voting period was rejected.


<sigh> Obviously they're doing everything they possibly can to lose the election in June, but are they doing it on purpose or are they just incompetent?

[hazard]

That question is not necessarily one that cannot be answered with 'yes to both clauses.'

[robkelk]

Ms. Elliott has conceded.

Officially, the election campaign begins eight weeks from now, with the election on June 7 ... but some Eagleland Osmosis means the campaigning has already begun.

[Labster]

I haven't commented here yet, but I just want to let you know that I do appreciate political news about places outside America. We need constant reminders that we are not the center of the universe.

[NifT]

I haven't commented here yet, but I just want to let you know that I do appreciate political news about places outside America.  We need constant reminders that we are not the center of the universe.

... We're not? But Trump! MAGA! /s

[DHBirr]

I haven't commented here yet, but I just want to let you know that I do appreciate political news about places outside America.  We need constant reminders that we are not the center of the universe.

... We're not? But Trump! MAGA! /s

"But-but-but Hillary! E-mails!"

[robkelk]

...  We need constant reminders that we are not the center of the universe.

Happy to help!

[robkelk]

The current government decided to prorogue the government (thus condemning all bills that hadn't yet been signed into law to die on the order paper - the lucky ones go back to first reading, the others simply die) in order to be able to have a Speech from the Throne read.

In normal years, a Speech from the Throne sets out what the government intends to accomplish during the sitting of Parliament that begins with it. This close to an election, it's a presentation of the governing party's election platform that they get to have covered at no cost to the party.

Here's the highlights. This is a statement from the (theoretically) centrist party in the upcoming election.

[hazard]

That's... poor form in my opinion.

[robkelk]

It's raised a few eyebrows here, too.

[robkelk]

I forgot to mention last week: the current party in power has proposed a budget. It's typical in Canada that in an election year, the budget is essentially the governing party's re-election platform.

They want to spend their way out of debt, running deficits over the next six years (which would be longer than the next mandate), cutting taxes for the people who usually vote for them and raising taxes for the people who usually don't. They want to provide universal dental care (at amounts that wouldn't pay for a single cleaning each year, let alone any serious dentistry) and senior care ($750 a year if you still live at home, in a market where $1200/month rents are considered inexpensive), and free daycare for every child over 2.5 years old (even Quebec charges $7.50 a day for daycare, and everybody else in Canada says that's only possible because Quebec gets federal money from other provinces to help balance their books), along with some other promises that actually appear to be well-thought-out if the money was available for them.

Oh, yes - this particular party has a track record of not keeping their big-ticket election promises.

[DHBirr]

Sounds like they're following in the footsteps of a certain president who shall remain nameless....

[hazard]

Not just a certain president. It's a pretty common tactic; promise people the world without highlighting the potential issues and they will believe you and deny anything that might sully their fantasy.

[robkelk]

Exactly. Nobody with any grasp of history expects this entire budget to happen, any more then we expect any other complete set of election promises to happen.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of voters who don't have a grasp of history - they'll actually believe all of the parties' platforms.

[hazard]

It didn't work here in the Netherlands during our last national election cycle, where the PVV's (Party For Freedom) only member Geert Wilders published an election program of one sparsely occupied side of an A4 sheet. He's in our lower chamber by the way and leading a major party.

Just ask them 'How then?' How then will they make it happen. It gets easier to ask this the less thought out the program is, but it's of limited use.

[robkelk]

Doug Ford vows to fire Hydro One CEO, board if elected

Hydro One is the province-wide electricity generator and distributor. ("Hydro" is short for "hydroelectric", which is still a substantial minority of the power generation system.) The current government privatized the company, retaining a minority shareholder interest, so it's anybody's guess how Ford could fire a private company's CEO and board.