Perspective Ottawa » Blog Archive » Ontario to stay in the red

Ontario to stay in the red

7 October 2011 3 Comments

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 of the new mandate is the story. No, for me, the true story is that the voters of Ontario which accounted for a mere 49% of eligible voters felt that the alternatives being offered by the PCs and the NDP were not appealing. Now to be fair, the popular vote difference between the PCs and the Liberals was only 2.2% (37.6%-Libs to 35.4%-PCs) yet the Liberals were able to account for 53 seats to the 37 for the PCs – but that’s another blog. What this really says about this election is that a minority of Ontario voters now dictate what happens in Ontario. The majority of voters are just turned off of politics and politicians all together and no longer bother voting.

So really, there are no winners in this election. Yes Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals will set the agenda for the next term at Queens Park but Ontarians have tuned out. The opposition leaders, and I think both Tim Hudak and Andrea Horwath should stay on as leaders for their respective parties for another election, need to find a way to reach out to the 51% of detached voters. The path to victory has to be tied to winning over those who feel the government is not there for them because the voting 49% will continue to live off the status quo.

3 Comments »

Todd said:

I said repeatedly through this entire campaign that you can’t run a “vote for us because we aren’t them” campaign. You need to actually put some ideas on the table. You need to actually spell out what you will do differently. I read the Changebook. It was a glossy fluff piece with no real policy in it. The campaign speaking points were all “Dalton is evil,” and “Dalton lies.”

It really got started with the HST debate – PC mouthpieces making outraged statements of “it’s a new tax on everything” which of course was an outright lie, and engaging in petty name calling. Instead of putting out a policy that laid out an alternative to the HST, and fighting for it in the legislature, they went for soundbites and no substance.

I fully admit, I’m a middle of the road guy. I’m a tad right on financial issues, and a tad left on social issues. That tends to place me in the Liberal camp. But I’m not so blind as to think all they touch is gold, and if the PC’s really want another swing at government, let’s hear some good fiscal policy, drop the right-wing social nonsense (let’s be honest, the groups they are speaking to with that will vote for them anyway, so why intentionally offend the general public) and most importantly, be more than the party that “isn’t them.” I certainly didn’t see that from Hudak this time around, and obviously neither did the electorate.

# 7 October 2011 at 11:52 am

Corry Burke said:

Hey Blake

The argument is the same at the federal level. Stephen Harper’s Conservatives only received 39% of the popular vote (heck, even the next 2 parties combined for only 49% of the vote). The total voter turnout was only 61%.

In my opinion it is the polarization of our party structure. The American media has been pushing Right vs Left for so long that it has bled tremendously into Canada. The era of a Red Tory or a Blue Liberal seems to be over. You toe the party line or you’re not a member of the party (just ask Norm Sterling). This type of centralized leadership has led to the disillusionment of many members, non-members, observers, voters…whatever someone wants to call themselves….We don’t identify with “those guys” the way we used to be able to. Or, at least, we are made to believe we are not able to.

There’s another factor, of course (Gosh, there are hundreds, I suppose), and that is the 24 hour news cycle. Our generation of voter is inundated with information in a way that generations prior just have never been. By the time a party leader stumps in your town, you already know the name of the first girl he kissed in grade school – heck, the name of the first girl his father kissed in grade school. Information is important for informed decision making, but in the race to maintain consumer/audience interest, we have lost something along the way and replaced it with an overdose of cynicism.

Corry

# 11 October 2011 at 10:42 am

ian s said:

I like what Winston Churchill described as the worse thing about democracy…was the 5 minute doorstep conversation with voters.

I’m a little like Todd, fiscal right, social a bit left within reason), but I sure as hell don’t vote for people who lie to me.

As Mr. Churchill noticed the electorate is largely ignorant about the comings and goings of politicians and usually vote for the name they recognize or what to believe despite evidence to the contrary.

No party touched the sad state of Ontario fiscally because with a disconnected public that is a certain death blow.

I liked the ideas the Tories had about taking Ontario back from union control as opposed to Dalton buying their support with our money. Which I expect to continue.

People howled about Mike Harris but love him or hate him he campaigned about addressing the fiscal side and he did. Damn how often does a politician do that? Mistakes oh yes, but you had a direction unlike the current flavour of the day without thinking past tomorrow in search for similiar wealth the auto industry brought. The green economy is a very small useful part but the spinning of that sucker is damn shameful. A typical Canadian discussion, highlight the fluffy positive side while ignoring the ugly reality.

I truly hope someone of the ilk of Tommy Douglas (CCF pre NDP)comes along. Great speaker, social conscience, ran 16 balanced budgets in good and bad years. Believed rightly that people who get sick shouldn’t go bankrupt. Sadly they aligned with a labour party and we now have the NDP.

# 11 October 2011 at 3:17 pm