One aspect of politics I find fascinating is how Left and Right party policy evolves and how there is little congruency between the stated values of supporters and their stand on any given issue at any given time in history.
While I am fully opposed to Right-wing populism as articulated by the Ford family or Donald Trump I’ve got to admit their movement has an underlying point. You can disagree but I haven’t heard it well articulated in media. The point is that economic liberalization and progressive policy is often inflationary and ironically marginalizes people. In other words, using government policy to help people, helps people at the expense of hurting people.
This is actually in my opinion at the heart of why so many people dislike Wynne. She is trying so hard to use government policy to help people and to advance progressive values that the cost of everything is skyrocketing and the lives of average Ontario households is impacted.
I very much disagree with this last part.
If one considers the cost of most goods and services, inflation is very low.
This forum spends much time bemoaning (rightly, I think) that property taxes in Toronto have been raised, on average, well below the rate of inflation, post-amalgamation.
Groceries, clothes, cars, etc have all seen inflation below 2% (annualized) over the last decade.
However, there are notable exceptions, by far, housing is the biggest, followed by electricity, and in Toronto, water; all have risen by rates of 9-20% annually when measured over a decade.
Only one of those, on paper, is directly the responsibility of Wynne.
I would also add that pharmacare and minimum wage are both polling very well with voters.
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It would be my suggestion that what Wynne suffers from is 'just another politician' syndrome, where post-gas-plant scandal many voters were deeply frustrated both by the overt waste of money (the cancellations of plants that were never politically acceptable in their locations to any party, followed by unduly and unjustifiably lucrative settlements w/the plants proponents).
In the wake of that, some voters had hopes Wynne had turned a new leaf for the Liberals........... but the Hydro One sell-off has the gas plant ring of scandal. The long-standing Liberal position was that privatization was off-the-table and a bad idea, and yet suddenly they were its champions.
Fair or not, it immediately had people wondering if any politician had principles, and whether someone was making untowards profit off the move. It also resonated at a time when electricity rates were still spiraling up.
Finally, I think if one reviews the last 4 years, one would be hard-pressed to notice any of the progressive policy were now talking about in years one or two.
That had many folks asking 'what was the deficit for if not to finance important improvements etc?'
Most folks like what they've seen the last year or so, not everyone, but a good 2/3 of the population.
What people are struggling with is a messenger who has left the impression of good ideas when necessary for re-election......but not unless or until.
People are also skeptical of another shoe to drop, fiscally.
I also think Real Estate pricing remains a worry. If it stays high, people remain concerned that the market has been irrational, whose fault was that????, while if it drops quickly, that will cause every bit as much harm.
Then there's that 1/3 that would never have voted for her and/or the Libs in the first place for whom any question decision is a reason to deepen their irrational distaste.
