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What happened to poll re NDP status & Globe editorials?
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Re: What happened to poll re NDP status & Globe editoria
This is what keeps getting cut..
This is the 4th time I’m posting this. Freak o Frack
Editorial: Ontario has chosen, now Mr. McGuinty must
Globe and Mail Update
POSTED AT 4:14 AM EDT         Friday, Oct. 3, 2003
Advertisement
''Choose change,'' Ontario's Liberal party urged voters, and they did, sweeping out Ernie Eves's bumbling, cynical Conservatives and sweeping in Dalton McGuinty's Liberals.Mr. McGuinty now has a powerful mandate to deliver the change he promised during the election campaign. But what kind of change? What sort of government, what vision for the province, did Ontarians choose when they elected him? Despite yesterday's decisive vote, that is far from clear.
Mr. McGuinty ran a solid, honourable campaign, taking on the Tories while still getting out the positive Liberal message. But that message was all over the map. During a televised election debate last month, Mr. McGuinty accused Mr. Eves of wanting to be all things to all people -- something that could as easily be said about him.
At one time or another he promised stable electricity rates, a balanced budget and a freeze on tax increases for individuals; lower car insurance rates and better environmental protection; more money for schools, hospitals and public transit – in short, more and better everything. [/ b ]
Many of his promises are probably unaffordable. It is hard to see how he can close down all of Ontario's unclean coal-fired power plants without raising power rates or taxes, just as it is hard to know where he will get the money to lower the class size in the early school grades to 20 or fewer.
Other promises are wrong in principle. Reintroducing rent control is bound to hurt renters in the long term by discouraging builders from constructing rental housing. Freezing post-secondary tuition fees will hurt universities at a time when they are badly short of funds. Rejecting private solutions in health care will force an even tighter straitjacket on the medicare syste
In his favour, Mr. McGuinty has also promised to cancel a tax credit for parents who send their children to private schools and a credit for seniors who pay property tax -- both gimmicks dreamed up by the Tories to win over interest groups. Another bad Tory idea, mortgage-interest deductibility for homeowners, will go in the trash as well. He would leave teachers with their right to strike, where Mr. Eves would take it away.
And his promise to live within Ontario's means -- no tax increases, no budget deficit -- is welcome.
But the man who urged Ontario to choose change must now make choices of his own. He must look at his grocery list of promises and decide which the province can afford and which it cannot; which truly make sense, and which were inserted for political advantage.
Ontario has chosen change, and that is good, but the really tough choices lie ahead.
© 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
REASON WHY “the election of a party that doesn't support neo-con dogma of continually lower taxes isn't a tectonic shift in the political landscape†Number 2
What counter-revolution?
UPDATED AT 1:53 PM EDT         Saturday, Oct. 4, 2003
Advertisement
Even before the vote counting was finished on Thursday, the pundits were declaring that a counterrevolution had taken place in Ontario. Out were the mean old Tories with their slash-and-burn assault on government. In were the Liberals with their positive message, inclusive style and affection for government.
Clearly, the Conservatives and their Common-Sense Revolution had been repudiated. "Across Ontario," trumpeted the Toronto Star, "voters cast their ballots yesterday for change -- a dramatic change from the politics of divisiveness and of slashing budgets for education, health care, public transit and the environment as practised since 1995 by the Conservative governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves."
Hold on now: Is that what voters really did? Ontarians didn't elect Che Guevara to replace Ernie Eves as premier. They elected Dalton McGuinty, a moderate from the political centre who promised there would be no budget deficits and no household tax increases.
Yes, Mr. McGuinty said he would reinvest in health care, education and other public services. But, then, so did the Tories. ugh the Harris and Eves governments certainly reined in public spending to try to balance the books, spending actually rose from about $54-billion to about $70-billion during their eight years in office -- hardly slash and burn. Health-care spending alone rose $11-billion. If Thursday's vote in Ontario was a repudiation of anything, it was of the inept and wavering administration run by Mr. Eves.
The pundits notwithstanding, a majority of Ontarians backed the Conservatives when they tried to clean up the budget after the drunken-sailor overspending of the Bob Rae NDP government, which ran consecutive deficits of $10-billion a year and more. Most people liked the Conservatives' decision to trim taxes, too.
If they hadn't liked all of this, they would have thrown out Mr. Harris when he first came up for re-election in 1999. Instead, they re-elected him with a healthy majority.
But times change. When Mr. McGuinty promised to improve public services, he struck a chord. There is a broad feeling in the province that, as necessary as the tax and spending cuts of the 1990s may have been, it is time to improve hospitals, schools and other basics that are showing signs of decay. There is also a feeling that, welcome as the Tory tax cuts may have been, further deep cuts should probably be delayed until those services can be brought up to scratch.
But none of that is a rebuke to the Common-Sense Revolution. Most thinking Ontarians understand that the provincial government badly needed the sharp shot of realism that was administered by the Tories, as painful as it might have been. It is just that, now, in different times, they want a different approach.
But not too different. They may not want revolution, but they still want common sense. Those who would misinterpret the Liberal victory should remember that.
© 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
So, there you have it, that’s why GB that’s why “the election of a party that doesn't support neo-con dogma of continually lower taxes isn't a tectonic shift in the political landscape€
This is what keeps getting cut..
This is the 4th time I’m posting this. Freak o Frack
REASON WHY “the election of a party that doesn't support neo-con dogma of continually lower taxes isn't a tectonic shift in the political landscape†Number 1Tell me how the election of a party that doesn't support neo-con dogma of continually lower taxes isn't a tectonic shift in the political landscape - in the sense that people finally realized that Quality of Life issues doesn't come free? No amount of rationalization can redress this fundamental rejection of right-wing dogma in Ontario.
GB
Editorial: Ontario has chosen, now Mr. McGuinty must
Globe and Mail Update
POSTED AT 4:14 AM EDT         Friday, Oct. 3, 2003
Advertisement
''Choose change,'' Ontario's Liberal party urged voters, and they did, sweeping out Ernie Eves's bumbling, cynical Conservatives and sweeping in Dalton McGuinty's Liberals.Mr. McGuinty now has a powerful mandate to deliver the change he promised during the election campaign. But what kind of change? What sort of government, what vision for the province, did Ontarians choose when they elected him? Despite yesterday's decisive vote, that is far from clear.
Mr. McGuinty ran a solid, honourable campaign, taking on the Tories while still getting out the positive Liberal message. But that message was all over the map. During a televised election debate last month, Mr. McGuinty accused Mr. Eves of wanting to be all things to all people -- something that could as easily be said about him.
At one time or another he promised stable electricity rates, a balanced budget and a freeze on tax increases for individuals; lower car insurance rates and better environmental protection; more money for schools, hospitals and public transit – in short, more and better everything. [/ b ]
Many of his promises are probably unaffordable. It is hard to see how he can close down all of Ontario's unclean coal-fired power plants without raising power rates or taxes, just as it is hard to know where he will get the money to lower the class size in the early school grades to 20 or fewer.
Other promises are wrong in principle. Reintroducing rent control is bound to hurt renters in the long term by discouraging builders from constructing rental housing. Freezing post-secondary tuition fees will hurt universities at a time when they are badly short of funds. Rejecting private solutions in health care will force an even tighter straitjacket on the medicare syste
In his favour, Mr. McGuinty has also promised to cancel a tax credit for parents who send their children to private schools and a credit for seniors who pay property tax -- both gimmicks dreamed up by the Tories to win over interest groups. Another bad Tory idea, mortgage-interest deductibility for homeowners, will go in the trash as well. He would leave teachers with their right to strike, where Mr. Eves would take it away.
And his promise to live within Ontario's means -- no tax increases, no budget deficit -- is welcome.
But the man who urged Ontario to choose change must now make choices of his own. He must look at his grocery list of promises and decide which the province can afford and which it cannot; which truly make sense, and which were inserted for political advantage.
Ontario has chosen change, and that is good, but the really tough choices lie ahead.
© 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
REASON WHY “the election of a party that doesn't support neo-con dogma of continually lower taxes isn't a tectonic shift in the political landscape†Number 2
What counter-revolution?
UPDATED AT 1:53 PM EDT         Saturday, Oct. 4, 2003
Advertisement
Even before the vote counting was finished on Thursday, the pundits were declaring that a counterrevolution had taken place in Ontario. Out were the mean old Tories with their slash-and-burn assault on government. In were the Liberals with their positive message, inclusive style and affection for government.
Clearly, the Conservatives and their Common-Sense Revolution had been repudiated. "Across Ontario," trumpeted the Toronto Star, "voters cast their ballots yesterday for change -- a dramatic change from the politics of divisiveness and of slashing budgets for education, health care, public transit and the environment as practised since 1995 by the Conservative governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves."
Hold on now: Is that what voters really did? Ontarians didn't elect Che Guevara to replace Ernie Eves as premier. They elected Dalton McGuinty, a moderate from the political centre who promised there would be no budget deficits and no household tax increases.
Yes, Mr. McGuinty said he would reinvest in health care, education and other public services. But, then, so did the Tories. ugh the Harris and Eves governments certainly reined in public spending to try to balance the books, spending actually rose from about $54-billion to about $70-billion during their eight years in office -- hardly slash and burn. Health-care spending alone rose $11-billion. If Thursday's vote in Ontario was a repudiation of anything, it was of the inept and wavering administration run by Mr. Eves.
The pundits notwithstanding, a majority of Ontarians backed the Conservatives when they tried to clean up the budget after the drunken-sailor overspending of the Bob Rae NDP government, which ran consecutive deficits of $10-billion a year and more. Most people liked the Conservatives' decision to trim taxes, too.
If they hadn't liked all of this, they would have thrown out Mr. Harris when he first came up for re-election in 1999. Instead, they re-elected him with a healthy majority.
But times change. When Mr. McGuinty promised to improve public services, he struck a chord. There is a broad feeling in the province that, as necessary as the tax and spending cuts of the 1990s may have been, it is time to improve hospitals, schools and other basics that are showing signs of decay. There is also a feeling that, welcome as the Tory tax cuts may have been, further deep cuts should probably be delayed until those services can be brought up to scratch.
But none of that is a rebuke to the Common-Sense Revolution. Most thinking Ontarians understand that the provincial government badly needed the sharp shot of realism that was administered by the Tories, as painful as it might have been. It is just that, now, in different times, they want a different approach.
But not too different. They may not want revolution, but they still want common sense. Those who would misinterpret the Liberal victory should remember that.
© 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
So, there you have it, that’s why GB that’s why “the election of a party that doesn't support neo-con dogma of continually lower taxes isn't a tectonic shift in the political landscape€
C
Canuck 36
Guest
Re: What happened to poll re NDP status & Globe editoria
I didn't touch it, I enjoy leaving your bitter posts up for the entire community to see.
PC Majority!
I didn't touch it, I enjoy leaving your bitter posts up for the entire community to see.
PC Majority!