Doug Ford may be the next premier of Ontario

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Doug Ford may be the next premier of Ontario

Postby blehblah » Sat Apr 21, 2018 4:42 pm

Hey, who here remembers that, now deceased, lovable crack-smoking mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford? High Good times!

Well, Rob's brother Doug ran for the Progressive Conservative leadership in Ontario, and won after the last leader had a #metoo meltdown. Meanwhile, the ruling Liberals decided to run one of the most hated provincial incumbents, because hey, why not? As we are entering campaign season, it's Doug's race to lose.

https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark ... rowed.html

The Progressive Conservatives would form a minority government if the provincial election were held now, after the Liberals narrowed the gap in the days following their pre-election budget, a new public opinion poll suggests.

The PCs, who have led in polls for the better part of a year, would win 57 seats, a Forum Research survey found. The Liberals would serve as opposition with 36 seats and the NDP would win 31 seats.


Sound familiar? In one corner, you have a female, mid-political-spectrum current leader who is deeply, deeply hated. Further to the left, you have another female provincial leader who is not hated, but neither is she loved. On the right, you have the son of a self-made millionaire who is of questionable intelligence, certifiably crude, but definitely conservative.

As an example, here's what he has to say about safe injection sites:

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/04/2 ... _23416518/

"If your son, daughter, loved one ever had an addiction, would you want them to go in a little area and do more drugs? I am dead against that," Ford said Friday. "We have to help these people. We can't just keep feeding them and feeding them."


Now, I'm not an expert in either the broader field of harm reduction, or safe injection sites specifically, but I'm pretty sure Doug has kind-of the wrong idea about how safe injection sites work.

Anyhow, he's promised to lower corporate taxes (Ontario has the lowest in Canada, but whatever), seems to be anti-abortion/pro-life (though the family isn't exactly what I'd think of as bible-thumping), and generally plays to the conservative crowd. Unlike a certain POTUS, he at least has some political experience. He was a Toronto city councillor for, erm, one term.

In Ontario, it really comes down to three parties; PC on the right, Liberals in the middle, and NDP on the left. The Liberals have run things for a long time, which tends to make the baggage pile-up. They could win again (they would have a fighting chance with a new leader), but it is more likely that center-left votes will either not happen, or swing to NDP, leaving a mile-wide split for Doug Ford to walk through, and into power.

At least he doesn't smoke crack (though he may have been a hash dealer back in the day), and after-all, he's being completely selfless in running because he's going to lose money, etc.
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Re: Doug Ford may be the next premier of Ontario

Postby blehblah » Sat Jun 09, 2018 6:28 pm

I'm sure everyone on TCS has been waiting to see what happens in the Ontario provincial election. Well, TCS'ers, your wait is over!

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/ ... e-results/

Doug Ford's party won a majority. The Liberals utterly collapsed and are below the numbers of seats required for official party status.

The NDP increased their seat count substantially, and are now at 40. The Conservatives won 76. The Liberals won 7. Green won a single seat, their first provincial win.

During the campaign, the Liberals went from being the primary opponent of the Conservatives to an also-ran. In the days before the election, the Liberal leader basically threw-in the towel, acknowledging she wasn't going to win, but hoping to convince voters that votes for the NDP were handing the Conservatives a majority.

The NDP, at one point, was slightly ahead of the Conservatives, but they faded in the last stretch.

Interestingly, while Ford made plenty of promises, he didn't release a fully costed platform. On the one hand, voters know campaign numbers tend to be pipe dreams, but on the other hand, the sum of his promises (cut taxes, including a carbon tax, lower electricity, gas, and beer - I kid you not - prices, yet maintain or improve services) was obviously quite negative, but without a fully costed platform, there was nothing to argue against.

The greatest drama was Rob Ford's widow launching a law suite against Doug Ford days before the election.

https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark ... osted.html

Obviously, it didn't have much of an effect.

Ford did a good job, frankly. He stuck to his messaging and didn't have any wild moments. He's obviously more controlled than Rob Ford was. After fifteen years of Liberal rule, under two different premiers, something like eight in ten Ontario voters wanted a change. The NDP still suffered from tax and spend fears; the last Ontario NDP premier was in charge during extremely difficult financial times, and he got a lot of the blame (to the point where he penned an editorial).

It will be interesting to see what Ford does. As a premier with a majority, his party has a lot of power (far more than a governor or US president). Yet, it's difficult to predict. For example, Ford acknowledges that anthropogenic climate change is real, but has promised to eliminate the carbon cap and trade system. Time will tell...
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Re: Doug Ford may be the next premier of Ontario

Postby NathanLoiselle » Sat Jun 09, 2018 11:45 pm

We're doomed! DOOOMED!
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Re: Doug Ford may be the next premier of Ontario

Postby Cobra-D » Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:24 am

Wait so does this mean you guys have your own version of trump? Does this mean you g est to suffer like us?
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Re: Doug Ford may be the next premier of Ontario

Postby cmsellers » Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:59 am

Cobra-D wrote:Wait so does this mean you guys have your own version of trump? Does this mean you g est to suffer like us?

He seems much more competent and self-controlled than Trump.
Which, admittedly, is a bit like saying he's a better businessman with better hair than Trump.
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