I have been busy with other stuff for the last little while so haven’t had time to blog, but here is a quick update on what each of the parties have done and my thoughts. I will do another blog hopefully before the weekend on non-Ontario issues such as Trump suspending the Iran deal, as well as many issues in BC politics.
Progressive Conservatives
So far Doug Ford has been running a fairly disciplined campaign although as we would expect has said a few stupid things such as the Greenbelt comment. The platform so far looks a lot like the People’s Guarantee minus the carbon tax so as long as the numbers add up, no real problem with the platform. That being said I absolutely believe the PCs need to release a fully costed platform at some point. I understand they might want to roll out policies one by one so as to capture the media attention rather than all at once, but by the leader’s debate on May 27th, they need to have one ready. My real beef with Doug Ford is not that he supports Trump or is too right wing, but rather he comes across as quite ignorant about how things work. I am a political junkie so know a fair bit about politics, but I expect the people who I vote for to know even more than I do, whereas with Ford that is not the case. My hope is if he wins, he puts good people in his cabinet and lets them play a major role in setting policy.
Liberals
If the polls are accurate (and based on the behavior of the Liberals I think they probably are), it appears the Liberals have fallen to third and risk a total wipe out. That is probably why they are focusing more on the NDP and attacking Ford less as attacks on Ford have softened PC numbers a bit, but it is the NDP not Liberals who are benefitting. This should be a warning to Liberals: You try to act like dippers, you might get away with it once or twice if they run a weak campaign or have a weak leader, but eventually it will bite you as people will just vote for the real thing.
NDP
While still more than 10 points back of the Progressive Conservatives, they have the most momentum so the idea of premier Andrea Horwath, while not likely, is at least plausible and not so far fetched. As such it is important with that in mind, their platform come under more scrutiny. For all the Liberal’s flaws, I believe an NDP government would be even worse. They would just raise already high taxes even higher. They want to buy back Hydro One which will cost billions of dollars yet make little difference in rates which are set independently by the Ontario Energy Board. They plan to run deficits for years despite the fact we are at the peak of the economic cycle when you are supposed to have surpluses, not in the trough when deficits make sense. Likewise they are planning to introduce several cradle to grave programs that will be impossible for any future government to reverse. I am all for helping people on dental care, prescription drugs, and tuition fees, but we simply cannot afford new cradle to grave programs so a smarter approach is to focus on those who cannot afford costs which we should do and is realistic as opposed to creating a universal program which subsidizes everyone including the wealthy.
afiscalconservativepointofview 