PHOTOS: Andrea Horwath, leader of the Ontario NDP. Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, sometime Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Patrick Brown, the late Jim Prentice when he was PC premier of Alberta, and former Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak. (All photos except those of Mr. Prentice and Ms. Notley are
Continue readingTag: Tim Hudak
Alberta Politics: Zombie Confidence Fairy finally rears its head as the 2015 Campaign of Fear gets up steam in Alberta
A group of five prominent Edmonton businessmen with ties to the Prentice Progressive Conservative Party tried to talk some sense into us crazy Albertans yesterday about voting NDP during a news conference in the Melcor Developments’ boardroom in downtown Edmonton. From left to right: John Cameron, Paul Verhesen, Doug Goss,
Continue readingTrashy's World: PCPO leadership race
I’m obviously NOT a supporter of Ontario’s PC Party, but rooting for Patrick Brown over Christine Elliott. The wise voters in our province have time and time again rejected the social conservatism that has been the hallmark of leaders like Hudak and Brown. Elliott would be a far greater barrier
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Disingenuous At Best, Hypocritical At Worst
To listen to post-election Ontario Tories and to take them at their word would suggest that the lot of them were simply dupes of Machiavellian forces over which they had no control. Up to and including the day of the election, they all appeared to be solidly behind their leader
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Big by-election in Fort McMurray? Never mind that! As goes Macleod, so goes Alberta…
Fort McMurray, before the Bitumen Boom. Things have changed. Below: Conservative Fort McMurray-Athabasca candidate David Yurdiga, Liberal candidate Kyle Harrietha, NDP candidate Lori McDaniel, former Conservative MP Brian Jean. If the good people of Fort McMurray climb out of bed this morning and decide to elect a Liberal to represent
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Blame Game
The fact that I experienced physical and verbal abuse at the hands of my teachers during my Catholic education probably has a lot to do with my visceral response to arrogance. Having someone presume to sit in judgement on another is both a humiliating and ultimately enraging experience, one that
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Lisa MacLeod’s Ambition
I’ll say right off the top that I am no fan of recently re-elected Ontario Progressive Conservative Lisa MacLeod, and not just because she is a member of what has become an extremist party. Her embrace of the politics of division, her strident hyper-partisanship, and now, post-election, her hypocrisy, rankle.
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: The politics of “ableism” and hard-working babies
If there was a party game that could be applied to the recent provincial election, it would have involved some kind of participant action every time a politician uttered the words “hard-working families.” It’s an odd phrase – does that … Continue reading →
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Wynne Wins
We know Kathleen Wynne likes to run, but this spring she was running against 10 years of baggage, a widespread time for a change sentiment, and more scandals than the opposition could fit in a 30-second TV spot. Luckily, she was also running against Tim Hudak. Given these challenges, the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Red in Central Canada, blue in Ottawa an immutable rule that favours Harper’s Tories? Don’t bet on it!
Is Justin Trudeau finished because Kathleen Wynne just won in Ontario, like the mainstream media’s pundits are telling you? Don’t be too sure! (Say, as one Twitter commenter asked, who is that old man with Mr. Trudeau?) Below: The same guy with NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. Weird! Below them: Lawrence
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Political Funeral of Tim Hudak
Well I wasn't invited to the Con funeral for Tim Hudak. And Stephen Harper hasn't said a word in public about his crushing defeat. But since he sent in half his cabinet to campaign for him, and he hates the Liberals so much, I can only imagine how he must be
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Waitin’ for the end of the world … Hear, O Ontario! Mr. Manning will be with you momentarily
Preston Manning readies himself before the mirror of his Seventh Floor office at the Prophetic Market Institute in Calgary, the Calgary skyline in the background obscured by a June rainstorm, one of those June rainstorms, as he ponders the frightening meaning of last Thursday’s Ontario election. Actual Alberta market fundamentalists
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Was Tim Hudak Ontario’s version of Michael Ignatieff circa 2011?
I was thinking about that comparison as I digest a surprising Liberal majority in Ontario this AM (but the folks at Forum and Ekos with their last polls called it – so kudos to them. I think Nanos also had 1 poll out that pretty well mirrored the results). Thinking
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Amazingly Awesome Destruction of the Con Loser Tim Hudak
Well at the end of this long day, I guess it's safe to say that the people of Ontario weren't too impressed with Tim Hudak's vision of the future.They didn't like his Made in America plan to create jobs by killing them. Or the fact he couldn't count.And they did send him
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Ontario election: OK, that didn’t really work … can we get back to being New Democrats now?
Ontario’s victorious Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne last summer. Below: Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak. Well! That didn’t work out quite as well as we’d hoped, did it? Can we get back to being New Democrats now? I speak, of course, of the results of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links – #VoteOn Edition
This and that for your Thursday (and Ontario election day) reading… – Joseph Heath makes the case against Tim Hudak’s PCs in particular, and the shift from public to private goods in general: (I)t’s fairly clear what the PCs are planning. They are proposing a general shift in Ontario away
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Are the Hudak Cons Trying to Steal the Ontario Election?
I guess it makes sense. Tim Hudak is incapable of coming up with an original idea, for obvious reasons.So he is always borrowing them from others.He borrowed his economic platform from the Koch brothers. Mike Harris' old gang is running his campaign.And now he's clearly taken his voter suppression idea from the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Timely Reminder Of Tim Hudak’s Magical Thinking
While we should be back from our trip tomorrow in time to catch the Ontario election news coverage, this seems an opportune time to remind readers of the kind of magical thinking so favoured by extreme right enthusiasts such as young Tim Hudak. Tim, as you may recall, has made
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: Who’s values will prevail on Thursday?
Whoever shows up to the polls tomorrow may determine Ontario’s next Premier and whether she or he enjoys a majority or minority government. The question is, will that be decided by a majority of Ontarians, or will it reflect a … Continue reading →
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Tim Hudak, the GOP and Voter Suppression
I posted recently about an Ontario conservative scheme to suppress the vote in the upcoming provincial election. A Party calling themselves None of the Above could be traced back to Mike Harris. Recently it was also discovered that several Ontario households received letters from the PC Party with incorrect information,
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