• Ontario Provincial Election - Liberal Minority, 3rd Consecutive Win
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[url]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ontario-election/mcguintys-liberals-held-to-minority-in-third-straight-ontario-win/article2193875/[/url] [quote=The Globe and Mail]Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals will return to Queen’s Park with a minority government, falling just short of winning a third consecutive majority. This will be the first minority government in Ontario since Liberal David Peterson led one from 1985 to 1989. Although the Liberal leader held on to power, he ended up with 53 seats, just one seat short of the magic number, 54, required to form a majority in the 107-seat legislature. Mr. McGuinty lost 19 seats from the 72 he had won in the 2007 election campaign. “We succeeded in our goal of electing an experienced Liberal government,” Mr. McGuinty told the crowd gathered at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa early Friday morning. He added that all of the results were still not final. “A few weeks ago, we were counted out, but we didn’t listen to the naysayers.” He made no mention of how he will govern with his minority. Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, meanwhile, gained 12 seats, increasing his party’s presence in the legislature from the 25 seats the Tories had when the writ was dropped last month, but not doing enough to win. “Although, the result is not the one we hoped for we do accept it,” he said after he spoke to Mr. McGuinty and congratulated him on his victory. “The people of Ontario have put Dalton McGuinty on a much shorter leash,” he said. This campaign, however, was Mr. Hudak’s to lose – and he faltered right out of the gate in his reaction to the Liberal’s campaign pledge to reward small businesses that hired new Canadians. Mr. Hudak referred to them as “foreign workers” and was pilloried by the Liberals, who accused of divisive “us-and-them” politics. New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath won her riding and increased her party’s seat count from 10 to 17 but was not able to emulate the so-called “orange crush” that saw Jack Layton, the late federal NDP leader, nearly sweep Quebec and become the official opposition in the May 2 federal campaign. “New Democrats have the strongest mandate than we have had in 20 years,” she told the crowd assembled at Hamilton headquarters. There had been intense speculation after the debate, in which she was seen to win, that she could play the role of kingmaker in a minority government. Ms. Horwath told reporters, in a scrum following her election night speech, that she had not talked with the other leaders about the minority situation. “No decisions have been made in that regard,” she said. News of a Liberal victory Thursday night did nothing to dampen spirits at Ms. Horwath’s campaign headquarters. Instead, supporters were fired up by the gains the NDP appeared set to make across the province. As every seat gain was announced – including a possible sweep of the city of Hamilton – the room burst into cheers. “Andrea really makes me proud to be a woman,” said Kimberly Crawley, 27, a Hamilton IT specialist. Joe DiFrancesco, 20, who lives in Ms. Horwath’s riding, said the party’s federal breakthrough helped voters see that the party could win. “They’re being more recognized for the change that they want,” he said. “Becoming the official opposition federally, that’s really impressive for the NDP.” In the end, Ontarians decided to stay with what they know, overcoming doubts that an eight-year-old Liberal government was stale and complacent. They also rejected Mr. Hudak’s attempts to make the campaign a referendum on Mr. McGuinty’s record. The Progressive Conservative leader repeatedly suggested that Mr. McGuinty had a hidden agenda to raise taxes. This, after the Liberal leader broke his promise during the 2003 campaign that he would not raise taxes by introducing a health premium after taking office. In this contest, Mr. McGuinty campaigned hard on the fact that he was an experienced, sound steward of the economy. He successfully positioned himself as the only leader who could go toe-to-toe on the national stage with Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In fact, he even suggested that with a Harper Conservative majority government – mainly from Western Canada – his Liberals in Ontario could provide a much-needed balance. So far this political season the incumbents have the edge – this week saw the Liberals returned in Prince Edward Island and the NDP win its fourth government in Manitoba. Next week, voters go to the polls in Newfoundland and Labrador where the incumbent Conservatives are expected to be re-elected. [/quote] So the Liberals fuck Ontario up for 8 years and we give them government again, 1 seat off of majority. The Tories fucked this up royally, they were set to win at the beginning of the campaigning. The NDP, of course, still have no hope in hell of winning, even after Jack's death and the expectation of the sympathy vote, because of Bob Rae and how miserable a premier he was. I thought this would be a Tory minority, but I guess Toronto isn't getting that Tory triple-threat everyone expected. Hopefully this means Dalton won't keep running us farther into debt and raising tuition to try and cover it, but then again... I don't think this government is going to last until the end of the electoral term, we could be back to the polls as early as 2012, but I think it'll be around 2013 when Ontario goes back to the booths. Proud to say I voted for my first time in this election.
Why does Ontario not like the NDP? Just because of Bob Rae? They take Manitoba by a landslide each time, and Manitoba is a lot more conservative.
Bob Rae, the new Liberal Leader, was the NDP premier of Ontario at one point. He promised all these great things, and then when he got elected couldn't do any of it, so he cut a bunch of funding and forced public workers, some of which still have to, to take a mandatory 10 days unpaid vacation. He basically went against everything he said he'd do, to my understanding, and ever since then the NDP has had no hope in hell of winning. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Rae#Rae.27s_Government_policies[/url] Read this, it's mostly his stance on labour that fucked him, if I'm not mistaken. He was actually the candidate in my riding that election... I wasn't even born yet. This also doesn't shed a good light on the federal Liberals for the next federal election, as Rae is running, and Ontario has traditionally been where the Grits can count on the vote. If it's Bob Rae, ALL the attack ads will be focusing, especially here, on how badly he fucked up here, and it'll demolish Liberal support in Ontario. He apparently gets offended if people ask him about his time as Premier, I think it's because he realized how bad a job he did and wants both himself and other people to forget it, which is not going to happen.
I let out a mediocre sigh of relief.
My Automerge...
[QUOTE=DaCommie1;32663170]Bob Rae, the new Liberal Leader, was the NDP premier of Ontario at one point. He promised all these great things, and then when he got elected couldn't do any of it, so he cut a bunch of funding and forced public workers, some of which still have to, to take a mandatory 10 days unpaid vacation. He basically went against everything he said he'd do, to my understanding, and ever since then the NDP has had no hope in hell of winning. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Rae#Rae.27s_Government_policies[/url] Read this, it's mostly his stance on labour that fucked him, if I'm not mistaken. He was actually the candidate in my riding that election... I wasn't even born yet. This also doesn't shed a good light on the federal Liberals for the next federal election, as Rae is running, and Ontario has traditionally been where the Grits can count on the vote. If it's Bob Rae, ALL the attack ads will be focusing, especially here, on how badly he fucked up here, and it'll demolish Liberal support in Ontario. He apparently gets offended if people ask him about his time as Premier, I think it's because he realized how bad a job he did and wants both himself and other people to forget it, which is not going to happen.[/QUOTE] So basically Ontario has absolutely no left wing candidates running, just a bunch of neo-libs and conservatives?
[QUOTE=Zeke129;32663120]Why does Ontario not like the NDP? Just because of Bob Rae? They take Manitoba by a landslide each time, and Manitoba is a lot more conservative.[/QUOTE] Rae ran the province into the ground. We've been in debt ever since. Not surprised to see McGuinty win another term. Hudak ran on a terrible platform that failed to provide an alternative to McGuinty's policies and in many cases backed up unpopular McGuinty policies. His campaign couldn't have gone any worse. The NDP are really the only party who benefitted from this election TBQH.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;32663202]So basically Ontario has absolutely no left wing candidates running, just a bunch of neo-libs and conservatives?[/QUOTE] The new NDP lady is, I think, an actual leftie and the NDP try desperately to try to dissociate from Bob, but it won't work, the damage is done, it'll take decades, basically until all the people from that time die off, before the NDP get elected again. I think the Tories didn't win because of Mike Harris, I think he came around just before Dalton, 8 years ago, and can you believe that 8 years later the Grits still blame Harris for our problems? After 8 years' time, it's not the last guy's fault, it's your own. They keep blaming him for government cuts they've done nothing to correct which Harris campaigned on to reduce the deficit Rae caused. [editline]7th October 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Kinversulath;32663204]Rae ran the province into the ground. We've been in debt ever since. Not surprised to see McGuinty win another term. Hudak ran on a terrible platform that failed to provide an alternative to McGuinty's policies and in many cases backed up unpopular McGuinty policies. His campaign couldn't have gone any worse. The NDP are really the only party who benefitted from this election TBQH.[/QUOTE] Tories made some gains, NDP only gained 7 seats to 17 total, Tories are at, what, 35? I think both made some gains, and the real loser here is Dalton.
[QUOTE=DaCommie1;32663251]Tories made some gains, NDP only gained 7 seats to 17 total, Tories are at, what, 35? I think both made some gains, and the real loser here is Dalton.[/QUOTE] Hudak should've been the next Premier after tonight. Despite those gains, it's a definite loss for them. They just barely managed to hold McGuinty to a minority. I think Dalton is pretty happy with what went down tonight.
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