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 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 …

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 …

According to David Reevely of the Ottawa Citizen and a couple of friends who called me yesterday, my previous post (2nd worst premier leads in polls), was over top.  Okay, I’ll agree begrudgingly.
I should not have said that Premier Dalton McGuinty is purposefully trying to make Ontario the worst economic performer in Canada.  I’m sure that he is not trying to do this.  But for all his programs and promises and taxes, the province is trending that way.
The tendency in politics lately has been to not fight politics on a …

The issue in this provincial election cannot be more clear.  Does the economy and taxes matter to you, the voter?
Yesterday, two stories were published that make the answer to that question seem unclear.  First, a new Ipsos-Reid shows McGuinty ahead in the polls.  Juxtapose that to yesterday’s Fraser Institute report that shows that Dalton McGuinty has the second worst economic record of all premiers.  Does that mean that Ontario voters like being second last?  I don’t think so.
The point is that the Liberal strategy is to promise spending programs to …

OMG.  Sorry I’m so late posting my blog today but I really couldn’t stop laughing long enough to type.
Yesterday, the CBC posted a news story where the Liberal finance minister, Dwight Duncan made a promise that if re-elected in October, the Liberals will guarantee that they will not raise taxes or implement new fees.
I’ll wait for you to stop laughing and to regain your composure…
This is the same government that said in 2007 that they would hold the line on taxes then introduced the HST and tried to introduce the …

Mayor Jim Watson is right to prod the PC Leader Tim Hudak about honouring the commitment that the current premier has made to Ottawa and other cities.  Ottawa is banking on the costs of certain services being uploaded to the province.  If some future costs are not offset by provincial dollars, it would mean having to make cuts somewhere in the city budget or raising property taxes. An Ottawa Sun article (City, Grits to Hudak: Will Tories upload costs?) puts the facts out on the table from the city’s point …

Today is writ day.
On October 6th, Ontarians will get to decide who they want to govern Ontario over the next four years.
The fact is, however, many Ontario voters are not even aware that an election is in the air (Ottawans barely aware of election).  Even though a number of candidates have been campaigning for months, many people are just not tuned in.  At least they don’t realize that they are.
Every time I fill up with gas, I am reminded that the Dalton McGuinty government is responsible for around ten cents …

It hasn’t happened yet but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Dalton McGuinty changed the date October 6th, 2011 election given the latest poll numbers (Forum Research, released June 26, 2011).  His party’s poll numbers, his personality poll numbers and his credibility poll numbers are all in the tank so I wouldn’t put in past Dalton McGuinty to change the election date to avoid losing in a provincial election.
It was Dalton McGuinty that passed the law that fixed the date of elections four years out.  But changing a law …