[SunriseChampion]

That you think this is good news saddens me. To support this self-absorbed, intellectually bereft homophobe isn't really justifiable, not intellectually, not morally, not ideologically. Sigh.

This is dependent on one's intelligence, morals, and ideology.

 

[steveintoronto]

Schreiner shines at first all-candidates forum
Green Party leader uses home-field advantage in forum focusing on social and environmental issues

Guelph Today, a day ago by: Tony Saxon

Perhaps neophyte fringe candidate Paul Taylor, representing the None Of The Above Party, summed up Thursday’s night’s all-candidates forum best.

Seating arrangements on stage at the Italian Canadian Club had the affable Taylor sitting to the right of Green Party candidate Mike Schreiner’s, meaning Taylor had to repeatedly address a question after Schreiner’s energetic, precise and crowd-pleasing responses.

“Oh shit. I should have sat down there,” said Taylor motioning further down the table.

As he probably should, given the circumstances, Schreiner led the pack at the first local public all-candidates forum.

He has been campaigning for months, he is by far the most experienced of the bunch and he is well versed on the issues and his party’s stances on them, aided by the fact that as the provincial leader of the Green Party he also helped shape those policies.

It also didn’t hurt that the event was on his home turf, hosted by the Guelph Wellington Coalition for Social Justice, with most of the questions presented to the candidates (in written form) revolving around social justice issues.

Seven of the eight local candidates attended the meeting with Libertarian candidate Mike Riehl the only no show.

The Green Party’s credo of “people and planet first” hit home with the roughly 350 people who crammed the room. Lots of cheers. Lots of applause.

“Climate change is real and it’s costing us dearly,” Schreiner said, hitting one off the tee. “Let’s end this myth” that a clean economy hurts the economy.”

At the end of the night, Schreiner asked the crowd if it wanted change that will take the province forward, or backward.

Liberal candidate Sly Castaldi seemed to struggle on some policy questions, admitting there had been quite a “learning curve” on certain issues since she took the Liberal candidacy.

“What I can say is that I make no promises to you I cannot keep. That’s not how I roll,” Castaldi said.

Where Castaldi did shine was on subjects she needed no education: social policy and housing issues.

As the longtime head of Guelph-Wellington Women In Crisis, Castaldi didn’t need to check the notes in front of her on that one.

“We can build all sorts of buildings, but if supports aren’t in place to keep people housed, it’s not going to work,” she said.

The province needs different approaches: affordable, low income, geared-to-income housing with support and all three levels of government need to work together, Castaldi said.

The Liberal candidate said “this is not an election about change, it’s about values and where your values lie.”

“Search your souls,” Castaldi said.

Progressive Conservative candidate Ray Ferraro was Ray Ferraro. He knew he was in enemy territory but stayed true to the party colours and didn't get flustered by the occasional heckle from the crowd.


On the question on climate change he said “we need more industry for jobs and to keep taxes down.”

Ferraro said the Carbon Tax will force companies to leave Ontario.

On the province’s pollution levels, he said “China and India do that before we wake up.”

On education and health care, Ferraro shot down the “notion” that a Tory government would cut staff.

“It’s not going to happen,” he said, at which point someone from the audience yelled “liar.”

NDP candidate Aggie Mlynarz seemed a little nervous out of the gate, but warmed up as the two-and-a-half hour evening wore on. She stuck to the party line and read many of her answers off cards in front of her, but delivered the points well.

The NDP party is “not focused on the values of yesterday,” Mlynarz said at one point.

Alliance Party’s Thomas Mooney, speaking largely off the cuff, hit several solid points.

Both he and Taylor, who spoke completely without prepared notes, drove home the importance of local representation from the person elected MPP of Guelph.

“I can represent you, each and every one of you, instead of someone in Toronto running the show,” Mooney said.

“Quite frankly, that’s what’s wrong in politics today. We’re supposed to be representing you, not telling you how to be running your lives.”

Taylor said his “number one priority as a candidate is to the riding and the riding first and foremost.

“My first priority is Guelph,” Taylor said.

Communist Party candidate Juanita Burnett also stuck to prepared literature in most of her responses, including the endorsing of a $20 minimum wage, a 32-hour work week, banning compulsory overtime and four weeks of paid vacation for employees.

At least one other all-candidates meeting is in the works, with the Guelph Chamber of Commerce expected to host one later this month.

Some questions and responses from the evening included:

On water-taking:

Mlynarz: “water is a public trust and should be kept in the public’s control over any private interests.”

Schreiner: “government has a sacred responsibility to manage water asa public trust” and said the Greens would phase out single-use water bottling operations in 10 years.

Ferraro: “how is it that the existing government for 15 years has renewed these permits?”

Burnett: the Communist party “would halt and cancel contracts for water bottling.”

Castaldi: Ontario has some of the strongest water bottling protection in Canada and “public first” is already in the agreements.

On workplace safety issues:

Taylor: “I’m disgusted and angered” at the way government handles companies when people are killed and injured.

Ferraro: “I have no idea what needs to be done.”

Mooney: “the attitude has to change with employers. Employees need a voice.”

Mlynarz: “we give (workers) a ticket to a union” and more unionized workers in the food industry.

Schreiner: “we can’t cut back on safety inspectors. We already have too few.”

On education and health care:

Ferraro: “I can’t believe there’s a shortage of funding for education.”

Burnett: “eliminate tuition for post-secondary education,” financed through progressive tax reforms” and a 23 percent corporate tax rate.

Castaldi: Liberals have increased funding every year they’ve been in power. “I realize that’s still not enough.”

Schreiner: “we need to start funding schools on need” and school boards need to start working together more to save money.

Lower hydro bills and how to pay for it:

Castaldi: “the single most issue i’ve been hearing at the door” that’s complicated and “i’m trying to get my head around it.”

Mooney: “we need to get rid of smart metres.”

Mlynarz: “our plan is to buy back Hydro One.”

Schreiner: “it was a huge mistake for government to privatize Hydro One” but the province can’t “get into a bidding war” to buy it back” or use it for “short-term electioneering.”

Ferraro: “we are going to buy Hydro One back.”

On climate change:

Castaldi: “polluters pay the money.”

Mooney: “the Carbon Tax has got to go. It sends money out of the province.”

Mlynarz: “we live in one of the most wasteful countries in the world” and need to look at secondary ways of recycling plastics.

https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-n...at-first-all-candidates-forum-9-photos-921606

 

[TransitBart]

FPTP?

 

[WislaHD]

Being Green means being a proponent of sustainability. This obviously includes financial sustainability. As a classical liberal I would never have supported them otherwise.

It would be interesting to see how a Green party would evolve ideologically if it became a larger party. Would it drift to the liberal center as the Australian Greens do on occasion? Or become an alternative to the NDP.

Too bad not enough people in our electoral system are willing to organize around an alternative to the three main parties which, let's face it, are all cut from the same cloth.

 

[adma]

CBC has updated the poll tracker. The NDP has indeed gone ahead of the Liberals. But at least the good news is that it appears that the PC's have stopped the losses (which was really just one bad poll) and they are pointing upwards while the NDP and Liberals are staying below 30% and 25% respectively.

https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/onvotes/poll-tracker/

Remember that the Poll Tracker is nothing more than a reflection of the polls which report to it. And as of the update you offer, the "new" polls are those of Nanos (where the numbers were compiled pre-debate) and Mainstreet (which has always upticked the Tories; and they still went down 2.6 from the previous Mainstreet numbers, while the NDP went up 7.1 and flipped places with the Libs). *That* explains the "pointing upwards".
https://www.mainstreetresearch.ca/ndp-surge-to-second-as-pcs-slip/

I'd wait for more post-debate/post-writ polls before gauging where this is all going. For now, blame the reporting pollsters.

 

[steveintoronto]

More Greens for your diet.

t would be interesting to see how a Green party would evolve ideologically if it became a larger party.

This is from a Post Media source, which makes it all that more surprising in how fresh, frank and informative this is. Note:

“People on the left wing say we’re on the right wing and people on the right wing say we’re on the left wing,” Schreiner said.

I normally wouldn't have taken them seriously as an electable entity, but with the horrendous performance of the Three Stooges, *anyone being sensible* garners attention, and for once, a vote for the Greens isn't wasted, especially since I think a Coalition is in the offing. How abstract is that?

Does BC's ring a bell?

By DIRK MEISSNERThe Canadian Press
Mon., May 29, 2017

VICTORIA—British Columbia’s New Democrat and Green party leaders shook hands Monday in the legislature on a deal to pave the way for the formation of a new minority government, but Premier Christy Clark signalled she wasn’t ready to immediately release her grip on power.

NDP Leader John Horgan and Andrew Weaver of the Greens said the deal between the parties would allow for a stable minority government for the next four years.

A Green party team has been negotiating with the NDP and the Clark’s Liberals since the May 9 election didn’t produce a clear winner.

At a news conference outside the gates of the legislative chamber Monday, Weaver said the two parties are committed to showing they can work together and provide certainty for the province. [...]

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada...-strike-deal-to-form-minority-government.html

If Ontario’s Greens break through to elect their first legislator this spring, it’ll be in a riding like Ottawa Centre, their leader Mike Schreiner said on a pre-election swing through Eastern Ontario Monday.

“The ridings where we feel the strongest are ones held by a Liberal, or one of the new ones where there’s no incumbent,” he said. “And then if it has a university community … where there’s a strong sense of community and where there’s a strong local business presence. They really like the Green party’s approach to re-localizing the economy, supporting local businesses, supporting family businesses and entrepreneurship.”

We talked in a stairwell in the University of Ottawa’s student centre, after a mid-afternoon “town hall” with four local candidates attracted a crowd that maxed out at 23. People filtered in and out of the campus pub nearby and a procession of sexual-health educators in red T-shirts slipped in and out, too, trying not to disrupt anything but also not paying much attention.

So there’s a long way to go. But Schreiner, on a whistlestop tour of the province, brought hope.

The Prince Edward Island Greens elected their first member in 2015, and added a second in a byelection last November. The British Columbia Greens elected their first in 2013, then won twice the votes, three seats and the balance of power in Victoria in 2017.

“Vote for what you believe in. Vote for the future that you want,” he said.

The Greens have been about to break through for as long as I’ve been paying attention, without ever having actually done it, and they still are.

Schreiner said the party’s at all-time highs in members (about 3,500), contacts lists, volunteers and diversity among its candidates. At U of O, Ottawa Centre’s Cherie Wong (a restaurant manager, fresh university graduate and queer young woman of colour) sat with Ottawa South’s Les Schram (a grandfather, entrepreneur and non-profit board member), Ottawa-Vanier’s Sheilagh McLean (a retired federal government human-resources officer and yoga teacher) and Kanata-Carleton’s Andrew West (an environmental lawyer with experience in both television and construction).

“People on the left wing say we’re on the right wing and people on the right wing say we’re on the left wing,” Schreiner said.

Like the three big parties, the Greens promise better-funded services for kids with autism. They want more primary health care provided by nurse-practitioners, and better medicine in rural Ontario. They want a regulatory college for personal support workers. They want dentistry and prescription drugs covered by public health insurance. They want more money for mental health and addictions treatment, more freedom for “pop-up” supervised drug-use sites, and jail reforms.

It’s a long and expensive list but much of it could come out of Kathleen Wynne’s mouth, or Andrea Horwath’s, or Patrick Brown’s. Maybe less of it from Doug Ford’s, but still some.

The Green platform also talks about providing incentives to businesses to invest in energy-efficient equipment and buildings, and about redirecting subsidy programs toward clean-technology companies, to “build a prosperous middle class with good green jobs.” It’s pretty familiar. Though the Greens would do it right, Schreiner said.

“The Liberals have a tendency to take good ideas — many of them from the Green party — and totally screw up the implementation. It’s because they always put corporate insiders ahead of people and the community,” Schreiner said.

Take the Liberals’ multibillion-dollar deal with Samsung to manufacture renewable-energy gear here. Take the wind farms built by foreign corporations and reviled by their neighbours.

“I’m not trying to be anti-corporate here,” he said. “I’m just saying if you don’t do this in a way that puts people and communities first, it’s not going to be done right and it’s not going to have the community support it needs.”

The party has long wanted to combine English and French, secular and Catholic school boards and that hasn’t changed. It wants to phase out nuclear power. It wants aggressive electrification programs for transit systems. It wants tougher fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles sold in Ontario, with an eye to banning new internal-combustion engines by 2050.

“It’s going to be done, it has to be done, and we might as well be a leader and not a follower,” Schreiner said. “This is the thing that really scares me about Doug Ford as conservative leader. It’s almost like he’s the defender of buggy-whips back in 1900. Meanwhile forward-thinking people are saying we really ought to be investing in horseless carriages.”

And the party wants a carbon tax. The Greens call their version a “fee and dividend” system: a levy on fossil fuels, with all the proceeds going into a special fund that gets divvied up among all Ontarians.

Ontario’s current cap-and-trade system prices carbon-dioxide emissions at about $18 a tonne. The Greens would charge about $30 a tonne, stepping up — over a few decades — to $150. Poorer people would typically pay less in tax but get the same dividend cheques as people buying fuel for their boats and natural gas to heat their bigger houses. Many would come out ahead.

Much as Schreiner would like to get multiple MPPs at Queen’s Park, the Greens’ main mission this election is straightforward: Get Mike Schreiner elected in Guelph, where longtime Liberal minister Liz Sandals is retiring.

“I’m very happy to be open and honest about this,” he said. “We think if things go right there’s a possibility of maybe even winning two or three seats, but we’re really focused on one. “We want to get that first seat and we want to grow our vote so we’re well positioned in future elections to get three seats, five seats, and beyond.”

dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...ty-is-on-the-verge-of-a-breakthrough-as-usual

 

[steveintoronto]

FPTP?

First Past The Post.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting

It's a bit of a red herring for many Anglo nations. It has pros and cons, and unfortunately, although a controversial point, depending on a number of factors, including societal weakness, produces unstable and directionless government. It works best in a society like Switzerland, where political engagement is direct and accountable. Canada is already a patchwork of diverse and sometimes competing governments. As idealistic as it seems, it would only promote further weakness of leadership here in my opinion. It might have worked in the past. Right now this nation (as are quite a few others) is desperate for effective leadership.

Example A: Ontario.

 

[SunriseChampion]

FPTP?

Frigging Punishing Tally Programme

or more commonly known as First Past The Post

"The post", of course, being an ambiguous an arbitrary one that is different in every single riding and is based on the plurality of votes. Should probably be called Minority Tyranny Over The Majority, but that would probably be seen as hyperbolic.

 

[SunriseChampion]

It would be interesting to see how a Green party would evolve ideologically if it became a larger party. Would it drift to the liberal center as the Australian Greens do on occasion?

This is already the case. The Greens haven't been a fringe of solely environmentalist nutters for well over a decade and a half now.

Exhibit A: Me. I was a member of the party 2003-2016.
Exhibit B: At the last EDA I was involved with our members included businesspeople, lawyers, teachers, factory workers, students, construction workers, administration assistants, housekeepers, and exactly one single hippy.


It's a falsehood perpetrated by the lack of serious media attention to the party that it is a party of radicals with a singular environmental purpose. This is simply untrue.

In fact, the overarching belief of Greens is sustainability in all aspects of life. Socialists aren't exactly known for knowing much about sustainability.

Too bad not enough people in our electoral system are willing to organize around an alternative to the three main parties which, let's face it, are all cut from the same cloth.

AMEN!

 

[WislaHD]

“The ridings where we feel the strongest are ones held by a Liberal, or one of the new ones where there’s no incumbent,” he said. “And then if it has a university community … where there’s a strong sense of community and where there’s a strong local business presence. They really like the Green party’s approach to re-localizing the economy, supporting local businesses, supporting family businesses and entrepreneurship.”

This is the kind of thing I want to see. Sustainability includes the (*cough* local *cough*) economy.

In fact, the overarching belief of Greens is sustainability in all aspects of life. Socialists aren't exactly known for knowing much about sustainability.

Indeed. The present social climate within the left in North America (one that is in my humble opinion less sustainable and progressive and increasingly authoritarian and based in subverting power-relations for self-serving purposes, as what has happened in both my parent's countries...) is also the reason why I am not going to vote for the NDP under its current form despite their admittedly rather decent platform this this election. I just don't trust them. As a liberal centrist, I am naturally weary when the left does it just as much as when the right does.

AMEN!

I'm glad I raised this discussion. In lieu of actual options this June, I think I am seriously leaning towards Greens.

I also think this election would have been an interesting opportunity to push for a "Greater Golden Horseshoe"-centred party. There are enough seats in the GGH to ensure that whichever party wins, would be forced into a coalition with a GGH-centric party. That is more of a fantastical notion at the moment though.

 

[syn]

Doug Ford's campaign defends 'take care of our own' comment on immigration

 

[PinkLucy]

I know a lot of people who will support his position

 

[JWBF]

Join me on election day by burning your ballot.

Just my two-cents worth. (Fine, that might be hardly a half-pence-worth).

I would love to burn my ballot but wouldn't that be a violation of the fire code?

 

[steveintoronto]

I know a lot of people who will support his position

But what is his position? He won't explain it. And that spells big trouble. I feel so badly for him....

 

[PinkLucy]

I think his position is that immigrants will steal jobs from Canadians. He doesn't have to explain it -- it's like "gravy train". "Take care of our own" is one of those slogans that appeal to a certain block of voters but doesn't need to be backed up with anything specific.