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John Tory: Four Time Loser

I think Dalton's bigger worry going forward is likely the resurgence of the federal Liberals and the chance they may unseat Harper before the next provincial election.
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and how on earth would that be a negative??? Sure Harper and Dalton have started to work with each other, however I doubt any liberal is ditching Dalton because of that. I think Dalton and Igantieff would work well together.

It could be similar to Chretien's Reform opposition having no criticism but "More, faster" to his budget cutting.
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Use to be Hilarious how Preston Manning use to think of a way to cut something and 24 hrs latter Paul Martin was standing beside Jean Chretien announcing the cut back in the mid 90's.
 
Mandeep,

Ontarians tend to vote for one party federally and the other provincially. A new Liberal government in Ottawa might be a death knell for the McGuinty regime.
 
^^ But not neccessarily... That would be completely random. If McGuinty has done a good job as Ontario Premier, people will vote for him again in the next election, regardless of who is the Prime Minister. Ontarians shunned the federal liberal party because Dion was really a weak leader. If it was Ignatieff from the beggining, the Liberals might have won.
 
Dion lost a ton of centrist Liberal support out in the suburbs.
 
lol I could have bet my life it would have been 1010 :D:D:D
 
A couple of Citizen articles saying Hillier could be a kingmaker

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Randy+Hillier+Rural+rebel+Conservative+kingmaker/1683304/story.html

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Watere...+fail+Hillier+tells+Tories/1683313/story.html


He just announced his plan to 'get Toronto moving'
http://www.hillierforleader.com/torontomoving/

I guess it must be based on http://www.gettorontomoving.ca/ ???


Get Toronto Moving

The Problem
  • Toronto continues to grow and yet we stopped building roads years ago.
  • Suburban families drive cars. City planners need to deal with that fact.
  • Gridlock costs the city of Toronto an estimated $2 Billion a year.
  • Public transit is not efficient or working for all Torontonians.

Randy's Solution

  • Build more highways along existing vacant corridor space.
  • Extend the 400 & build the 448.
  • Eliminate street cars and build more buses and dedicated light rail

Background

Use existing vacant corridor space

  • Highways to be built in existing rail and hydro corridors to avoid neighbourhood destruction
  • Public transit to be expanded in existing corridors in such a way as to minimize construction costs in order to maximize return on investment

New highways – Hwy 400 Extension & Hwy 448

  • Toronto’s core has grown significantly but highway infrastructure to the core of the city hasn’t changed in almost 40 years
  • A balanced approach is the right approach. Expanding public transit is important but so is expanding highway capacity
  • Not everyone can or should travel by public transit
  • Highway 400 Extension should incorporate an upgraded Black Creek Drive and continue south along the CN/CP rail corridor to the Gardiner Expressway. Some sections near neighbourhoods can be placed in a cut-and-cover tunnel with linear park above. This route would provide new access to Pearson Airport and the north. It could be combined with a Union Station to Pearson Airport LRT.
  • New Highway 448 should be built along the existing wide Gatineau Hydro Corridor across Scarborough from the Don Valley Parkway near Eglinton Avenue to connect to Highways 401 (at Morningside Ave.) and 407 (in northern Whitby), linking into the proposed Highway 407 extension across Durham Region, thus creating a new Toronto to Peterborough route.

Real LRT not Transit City streetcars

  • Toronto’s Transit City approach of building slightly raised streetcar routes with curbs (referred to as LRT by the TTC) along roads, blocks other traffic from crossing the road, except at major intersections, and reduces lane space available to other traffic. The Transit City approach is costly, still delays streetcars at major intersections, and will do little to improve the overall movement of people
  • Roads are for mixed traffic. Rail transit works best on a dedicated right of way. Transit City streetcars are a lose-lose. They slow down vehicle traffic and they don’t get people any faster to where they need to go
  • TTC’s own studies on the Spadina streetcar have shown that streetcars in mixed traffic are actually slower than buses, the same can be expected of new Transit City routes
  • New high-capacity transit routes should be built along Sheppard, Eglinton, Bloor extension to the west, Bloor-Danforth extension replacing the Scarborough RT to the east, a Downtown Relief line and a Union Station to Pearson Airport light rail transit link with potential future branches to Vaughan Mills and Humber College.

International competitiveness

  • The world is becoming increasing competitive and Toronto is falling far behind in highway infrastructure when compared to most other major world cities
  • Tokyo, often cited as the best city for public transit, has an incomparably better highway network connecting its suburbs to its core

Supporting Economic Growth

  • Toronto’s core is the financial heart of Canada and its viability is being put at risk through failure to invest in balanced transportation infrastructure
  • Toronto’s core is being choked by failure to expand highways in line with development
  • Time critical movement of goods and services have no alternative but DVP and Gardiner
  • Toronto Board of Trade estimates $2 billion in lost economic activity annually as a result

Growth in 905 is leading to total gridlock

  • Most business growth in the GTA is in the 905 region, in part due to Toronto’s failure to address transportation infrastructure
  • 90% of commuters in 905 use private cars, and will continue to do so as significant expansion of public rapid transit throughout 905 is not economical
  • With continuing business growth in 905 and no expansion of our highway network we’re heading towards region wide gridlock
 
here's the type of planning policy we can expect if Hillier is premier....

"Increase the value of farm land by amending the restrictions on farm severances, and allow for up to ten severances per original lot before requiring a plan of subdivision."
 
The Transport Policy seems to be formed by James Alcock and a simplistic misinterpretation of the TC critics (like in a way those LRT fans who don't understand Steve Munro's entire arguments). He does get marks though for distinguishing LRT and TC and for mentioning the DRL. But I wouldn't touch a man whose poltical slogan is "There's More to Ontario than Toronto"
 
Sigh. The nutjob actually might have some better transit ideas than our mayor...for starters extend the BD line to Scarborough Town Centre.
 
Highway 400 Extension should incorporate an upgraded Black Creek Drive and continue south along the CN/CP rail corridor to the Gardiner Expressway. Some sections near neighbourhoods can be placed in a cut-and-cover tunnel with linear park above. This route would provide new access to Pearson Airport and the north. It could be combined with a Union Station to Pearson Airport LRT.
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absolutely impossible. it would cost billions and billions to do such a thing and all it would do is dump more cars on the gardiner expressway.

as for the rest of his plan, i wouldn't eliminate streetcars and i wouldn't build any new highways or extensions within toronto. you wanna eliminate traffic in toronto, building subway lines would go a long way for that. getting people out of their cars and into subways frees up existing road capacity for those who have no choice but to drive. there are also a few areas in the city where the road network can benefit from some new connections which would eliminate bottlenecks for minimal cost. existing highways could be made more efficient and safer by tweaking signage, poorly designed or poorly working lane merging scenarios.
 
Hearing there is a big split in the Tory party over the Human Rights Tribunal issue.

Frank Klees has warned that if Tories oppose the Tribunals, the Liberals will exploit the issue and deem the Tories anti-human rights. Which means they can kiss any seats near Toronto goodbye. Mix in the fact the party is more right wing it could mean trouble.

Hudak says screw being centrist, lets go back to being like Mike Harris and hope that old grumpy white guys will vote en masse for use again. :D:D


Interesting, I think Hudak would get more votes then Tory did but that is because he would energize the conservative core. However He would have difficulty winning the centrist vote from Dalton.


Its not like Dalton barley won he has almost 70% of the seats!!
 
Although support would certainly be higher outside the GTA I believe there are also a lot of GTA'ers who are getting sick and tired of the tribunals and their wide-reaching powers, but I can see this being a touchy issue for conservative politicians. The Tories do have to frame the issue properly when considering how to do away with them altogether and instead put real cases of discrimination before judges rather than these tribunals.

While I would be loath to see Mike Harris style policies go down I'd definitely be more supportive of an otherwise reasonable candidate who will stand up and speak their mind on this issue rather than worrying about how the Liberals will spin it.
 
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The Tories would really have to suck at publicity if they couldn't sell getting rid of the HRCs. Or, more specifically, if they couldn't get out that by getting rid of HRCs they are not by extension against human rights. As long as they could make it clear that they are just replacing the HRC with a normal court system, they should be able to avoid being demonized.
 
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