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After a humiliation mayoral loss in the 2006 municipal election which led to the cancelation of then Mayor Bob Chiarelli’s legacy North-South light rail transit (LRT) plan, Bob Chiarelli is now back as Ontario Minister of Transportation. That’s right. He’s minister of the very department that will be one of the super funders of the revised replacement LRT plan.
Expect to see some little changes in the current LRT plans as the project moves forward and expect to see some of the old LRT ideas work their way back …

Well, there you have it folks.  The Liberals elected to a third term as the government in Ontario (congratulations Dalton McGuinty for another well run campaign).  The Liberals lost 19 seats in the process and now have a technical majority with 53 seats out of 107.  It’s a technical majority because they will elect a speaker from the opposition to make it 53-53 on the floor and in cases of tie votes, the speaker will vote for the government.  I think everybody lost.
But neither the seat loss nor the size …

I don’t know how today’s provincial election will turn out.  The polls seem contrary to my intuition, not that my intuition is very reliable.  I read the numbers of the different polls then I drive through the neighbourhoods and talk to people and what I see and hear don’t reconcile.  In Ottawa ridings, except for Ottawa Centre, there are more PC personal lawn signs than other party signs (maybe Liberals are embarrassed to display signs).  And this is true in some surprising ridings.
In Ottawa South, there are plenty of Jason …

There were two polls released over the weekend that showed an interesting side of Ontario voters.  The first was a Sun Media/Leger Marketing poll that showed 2/3 of Ontarians don’t trust Dalton McGuinty to hold the line on taxes.  They believe that under a McGuinty government, taxes will probably go up.  The second is a Nanos Research poll that shows the Liberal party and the PC party are tied for the October 6th election.  The only conclusion I can come up with to explain the two polls is that Ontario …

There is no wiggle room to break a promise made in the last municipal election.  Mayor Jim Watson made a promise to Ottawa taxpayers that if he was elected mayor, he would not raise property taxes more than 2.5% in any year of his tenure.  In fact, after winning the election, in his first speech to City Council as mayor, he reminded us “In my campaign I pledged that I would hold the line on property tax increases to no more than 2.5% a year.”  Then, one of council’s first …

The truth is that a very large portion of the electorate does not follow politics on a daily basis. I would haphazard a guess that more than 90% of the population don’t fully engage in an election until the last week or so and that is why this week’s Ontario leaders’ debate was so important. It really would be the first time that many voters would be able to see and hear their choices for the October 6th election.
It’s always fun to hang out with “normal” Ontarians who …

There was no knockout punch by any leader in last night’s Ontario leaders’ debate but PC leader, Tim Hudak, did not have to land one in order to come out on top. He just had to look sane and to look like a capable, credible alternative to Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty and by that standard, Hudak won the debate.
Hudak answered questions using by using facts already laid out in Changebook and had antidotes as examples in many cases. By sticking to his party script, he articulated that a …

“Ontario’s Green Energy Act will create 50,000 new jobs” says the Ontario Liberal government. And if you believe that, I know some land in Florida you can buy very cheaply.
I don’t know why they stopped at promising only 50,000. They should have said 75,000 or 100,000. These predictions and promises are worth as much as Liberal promises not to raise taxes. You know a carbon tax or ECO type tax is coming if they win again in October.
Listen, the only tactic the Liberal government has against …

I have a very active Facebook group page for Perspective Ottawa where many comments are posted (http://www.facebook.com/groups/perspectiveottawa/).
You can also now directly post the group wall by sending at email to this address: perspectiveottawa@groups.facebook.com.
If you are not yet a member of the group, please join.  And if you are, please share this note with your friends so they too can participate in the discussions.
Thanks.
Blake

With the election a mere 17 days away, the provincial Progressive Conservative party has not yet plainly defined the ballot question: Are you happy with the programs and policies of Dalton McGuinty and the governing Liberals with the full understanding that if re-elected you will pay more in taxes and fees to support these policies or do you want to stop the growth in the tax burden on you and make government prioritize and spend more smartly?
Simply put, do you want to vote to pay more taxes to keep growing …