Did Hudak just shoot himself in the foot?

[nfitz]

If we're talking trends, the Conservatives increased their support by about 2% in the last election, where the NDP surged by 12.5%. There's not much of an argument to be made claiming that the country swung to the right in the last election.

The Conservatives seem to be slowly swinging further left, back to where the Progressive-Conservatives used to be. Surely the 2% gain is more of a reflection of this, than anything else.

In Ontario, for Hudak to get a majority, it would require that the NDP have a reasonable showing. To date, the NDP are flying so far below the radar provincially, that I doubt many people could even identify the gender or hair colour of the current NDP leader, let alone their name. It would only take a small shift from the currently high NDP support back to the Liberals, for it to be a minority, and perhaps even Liberal, government.

Hard to see how Hudak really is going to offer a unique alternative to McGuinty, given except for some very minor issues, much of his policy is the same. To the point of saying he will continue the HST and Health tax, which the Tories harshly attacked as being unnecessary at the time.

At the same time, some of Hudak's suggestions seem bizarre - such as getting rid of the Family Day long-weekend.

 

[thepatrickblack]

Everyone expects him to take it but aren't sure why. People assume there is enough anti-Dalton sentiment for him to win. But without a good reason to vote FOR him, I feel like he might meet an embarrasing, although slim, defeat. Afterall, I'm still mostly hearing about his idea to cancel the Samsung deal would be economicly unsound.

 

[Eug]

At the same time, some of Hudak's suggestions seem bizarre - such as getting rid of the Family Day long-weekend.

Not sure why that's bizarre. I wouldn't necessarily agree with getting rid of it (since I do get these statutory holidays off), but I wouldn't necessarily argue against it either.

 

[old boy]

Hudak is banking on residual anger in the populace after the Harper and Ford sweeps to see him through, regardless of the dubious platform points he throws up. Hudak creates uncertainty in Ontario's future, both at home and for international investors, and he does this willfully, believing it wins him the spotlight he needs to win 4 years in office. For a lot of people it's just the third act of the tragic comedy of Ontario politics in 2011.

 

[thepatrickblack]

Hudak is banking on residual anger in the populace after the Harper and Ford sweeps to see him through, regardless of the dubious platform points he throws up. Hudak creates uncertainty in Ontario's future, both at home and for international investors, and he does this willfully, believing it wins him the spotlight he needs to win 4 years in office. For a lot of people it's just the third act of the tragic comedy of Ontario politics in 2011.

Yeah, he's hoping the conservative wave will keep pushing. However, I AM trying to wrap my head around this energy debate. I came across this site which talks about Ontario's energy grid. Do they have the right idea?
http://abetterenergyplan.ca/#

 

[afransen]

^ That is union propaganda, so take it with a grain of salt. Their site can be boiled down to: things are just great the way they are, just back up the money truck and everything will be fine.

 

[thepatrickblack]

^ That is union propaganda, so take it with a grain of salt. Their site can be boiled down to: things are just great the way they are, just back up the money truck and everything will be fine.

Yeah, the PWU logo is on it but there's a good idea in there. I liked the idea of a comprehensive system, one that included a bit of everything. There's a lot of talk about adding more wind or cutting coal. These industries come with pros and cons but I feel the overlooked topic is whether or not the province will have enough power to maintain our current way of life.

 

[EXgeMMy]

I work in the media and all internal polls we have heard (from the Conservatives) show they have a clear majority.

We don't understand why but to us we feel whoever says something stupid first will probably lose.

 

[Urban Shocker]

When I saw the partial title of this thread ( Did Hudak just shoot himself ... ) on the Forum front page I got my hopes up.

 

[PCC]

Hudak and the Conservatives will win for the same reason McGuinty and the Liberals did... disenchantment directed at the incumbent. Hudak doesn't really need to do anything other than focus on McG's taxation policies to win.

John Tory could have done the same, but decided he'd like to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by opening his mouth on a subject other than McG's penchant for taxing. Fail.