Horwath. Hudak. Wynne. Horwath. Hudak. Wynne. Horwath. Hudak. Wynne. Horwath. Hudak. Wynne. Horwath. Hudak. Wynne.
No.
Tonight the leaders of the three major parties debated. We saw Premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne, leader of the Liberal Party. Her major contender Tim Hudak, leader of the opposition and leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Also on the stage was Andrea Horwath leader of the New Democrats.
Party Leaders
The debate was horrible. My lord. Okay, let’s look at this.
Mike Harris 2: Electric Boogaloo
Tim Hudak is promising insane things he cannot deliver. Hudak is saying that he can deliver a million jobs to the province, but it doesn’t add up. Not only is stretching each job over eight years and counting them eight times, he’s also doing this through tax cuts, because that has never proven to generate jobs. Hudak wants us to believe that magically jobs will appear because corporations don’t hoard money unless there’s strings attached.
He also wants us to slash 100,000 jobs. Those public service jobs are of course going to be magically unnecessary it will be through retirements, not anyone who wants to stay. It won’t cut our services and of course it won’t affect healthcare or education. BULLSHIT! We saw Mike Harris destroy Ontario’s education system and the only reason it’s mildly effective now is that Dalton McGuinty took charge to fix the mess that Harris made. Hudak sat in Harris’ cabinet.1
Hudak also promised that if his million job plan doesn’t work, he’ll resign… it’s an eight year plan.2
n All that said, Hudak won the debate. He stayed on message, he hammered his points in, and he did while appearing friendly, well informed, and calm, cool and collected.
Andrea Horwath
The NDP leader has been drifting right for a while. She came across in the debate as unprepared and unsure of herself. She has to fight to get anywhere in this election, but is failing miserably at it. The debate did not help her at all. She was a backdrop to the conversation.
Kathleen Wynne
She’s the Premier, and the only one of the three who should be. That doesn’t mean I want her to win. She doesn’t deserve to win. Wynne is intelligent, and weighs her options before making a decision… usually. Except sometimes she does things that are more for her party than for the good of Ontario.
The cancellation of the gas plant cost us a billion dollars, but there was something much more heinous than that, staff in the Premier’s office deleted data relevant to an police investigation into the scandal. That is just completely unacceptable.
Spacing recently did an amazing exposé on the Scarborough subway fiasco. Transportation Minister Glenn Murray had all the information telling him that should Toronto build a subway, the costs to the city would be much greater than we currently know, the need for the subway (rather than LRT) will never actually be there, and the line services fewer people. And yet he and his Premier (Wynne) ran a byelection in Scarborough on a subway platform3.
Conclusion
If these people are my choices, I choose not to vote for any of them. They don’t deserve my choice. I could spoil my ballot by writing in “Kodos,” but then it would be counted as a spoiled ballot which I think most people would figure to mean that I’m too dumb to know how to draw an X beside the candidate’s name.
Instead I could decline my ballot. When I get my ballot, I can return it immediately and say that I decline it. This is counted separately and basically means to all who look that I refuse to vote based on the choices. I took the energy to show up at my polling station, but declined to vote.
I was shocked when debate host Steve Paikin ended the broadcast to remind us to vote “even if we decline our ballot.” Seriously. What the fuck. I’ve never heard that in a debate. I guess we all felt the same way.
Local Candidates
What many people forget is we don’t vote for government. That’s just not how our system of government works. We vote for those who represent us in the legislature. From those people, the party leader who can gain the confidence of the house forms government.
I decided to walk to my friend’s place. She live in the same riding as I live. I watched the debate. She lives at Greenwood and Danforth. I live at Broadview and Danforth. It’s a bit of a walk, about four subway stops. En route, I got to The Pape, and saw the Liberal candidate’s office was open. I stopped in. I also saw the incumbent-NDP candidate’s office was open. I stopped in.
The first thing I asked each campaign worker was “Why should I vote for…”
Rob Newman, the Liberal candidate’s worker said, “He’s a Liberal.” Worst possible answer. I know he’s a Liberal, tell me what he will do for Toronto-Danforth, for Toronto, and for Ontario as a whole.
Peter Tabuns’ staff grabbed me a flyer filled with quotes from community members talking about all the things Tabuns has done in his eight years as an MPP. He talked about the legislation he’s helped put through, he talked about the legislation he’s fought against.
While the Liberals were more concerned about talking about the party as a whole rather than about Newman. Tabuns’ volunteer wanted to talk about Tabuns and his record.
I asked why Newman left the Green Party to join the Liberals, and the office staff didn’t know. Odd.
As much as I hate the idea that this vote would be going towards validating Horwath, I feel Tabuns is the best bet of the choices. I’m still debating declining my ballot, but if not, Tabuns.
You might notice I didn’t mention the PC candidate in the riding. The PCs have no chance of winning the riding and I don’t even know who’s running or care.