Politics: Tim Hudak's Plan for Ontario if he becomes Premier

[nfitz]

Have Wynne and Horwath addressed the Ford situation thst much differently? Seems like Wynne left it all up to City Council.

Not at all.

Wynne: "...the things that we are seeing and hearing about Mayor Rob Ford are truly disturbing." She then proceeded to refuse to recognize him, and would only meet with Mayor Kelly. Recently, she commented that Rob Ford has problems.

Horwath has been a little softer, but welcomed Ford's decision to take a leave of absence and earlier said that councillors should deal with him.. Personally, I'm not impressed that Horwath hasn't taken a harder line.

Hudak however has been an embarrassment. Even the Sun attacked Hudak for not criticizing Ford. He recently deflected questions about Rob Ford. He refused to condemn Ford. He dodged questions about Rob Ford.. And this was recently, as he entered rehab! He's never said much about Ford, and refused to condemn any of Ford's bizarre racist comments or drug use.

I don't get it, what do people want them to do? There is no remedy to remove the mayor (there should be) Leaving it to city council is the right call.

You condemn his behaviour and words. You show that your a leader.

 

[nfitz]

fair enough. We'll see on thursday.

Unless someone wins a majority government - which appears unlikely, I doubt this will be over Thursday. It may end a few weeks later if the NDP forms a coalition with the PC, or less likely with the Liberals. But I think the most likely scenario is a minority government by the Wynne or Hudak where we'll be on the edge of an election until the government falls in 2-3 years, and policy being all over the place.

 

[GenerationW]

Wynne: "...the things that we are seeing and hearing about Mayor Rob Ford are truly disturbing." She then proceeded to refuse to recognize him, and would only meet with Mayor Kelly. Recently, she commented that Rob Ford has problems.

She refused to recognize him only after Council took action. But more egregious, she chose not to remove him at any time, even though it was within her power. Does she have no basic decency, morals, or ethics allowing a sexist, homophobic bigot to remain in office? What more would Ford have to have done for Wynne to act responsibly?

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Not at all.


You condemn his behaviour and words. You show that your a leader.

There is not much Wynne, Horvath or Hudak can do

Unless someone wins a majority government - which appears unlikely, I doubt this will be over Thursday. It may end a few weeks later if the NDP forms a coalition with the PC, or less likely with the Liberals. But I think the most likely scenario is a minority government by the Wynne or Hudak where we'll be on the edge of an election until the government falls in 2-3 years, and policy being all over the place.

I think the PCs can govern with a minority. It will be a strong one too. Same for the Liberals.

She refused to recognize him only after Council took action. But more egregious, she chose not to remove him at any time, even though it was within her power. Does she have no basic decency, morals, or ethics allowing a sexist, homophobic bigot to remain in office? What more would Ford have to have done for Wynne to act responsibly?

Can she remove him?

 

[GenerationW]

Can she remove him?

Municipalities are creatures of the province. In theory she can replace the elected officials of a city, and she can amalgamate, de-amalgamate, create, or even erase cities.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Tim back pedals, says no to Phase 2 of Ottawa LRT

Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak said the province "can't afford" to commit $1 billion for the next phase of Ottawa's light rail transit during a campaign stop in the capital on Thursday.

"No. We can't afford it. Look, we'll continue with the funding that's been discussed and is budgeted for the first phase," he said.

Hours later, Hudak clarified his position on Twitter.

"Some have tried to misrepresent my consistent position on Phase 2 of the Ottawa LRT. First priority is balancing the budget," he tweeted. "Only after the budget is balanced can we afford infrastructure investment like the Ottawa LRT. I look forward to a detailed proposal."

...

Mayor Jim Watson said he was "disappointed" in Hudak's position on the LRT project.

"I don't know what the outcome of the election will be but I'm obviously disappointed that Mr. Hudak has shut the door on funding for LRT," he said.

Ahh... but there's a twist

Shortly after Hudak said the province "can't afford" to fund Ottawa's LRT project, PC candidate for Nepean-Carleton ​Lisa MacLeod posted her own message about transit on Twitter.

"We know LRT in Ottawa is a priority, which is why balancing our budget is so important. Phase 2 funding is possible with a balanced budget," she tweeted. Hours later, Hudak tweeted a similar message.

​PC candidate for Ottawa West-Nepean Randall Denley also affirmed his support for transit Thursday, on the same day as an all-candidates debate in his hotly-contested riding.

"I've been very clear, our party has been very clear: we support transit. I support our LRT extension. And nothing Tim Hudak said today [Thursday] is changing that," he said.

Don't fall for it. They're not giving you your LRT. Never forget Eglinton West.

Edit: CBC posted this three days ago, so it was probably mentioned previously in this thread. My bad

 

[WislaHD]

This better result in Liberals winning those seats in Ottawa.

So I guess phase 2 in Hamilton, Eglinton West and K-W ain't happening under PC if Ottawa phase 2 isn't. But I guess we already knew that.

 

[rbt]

Can she remove him?

Municipalities are creatures of the province. In theory she can replace the elected officials of a city, and she can amalgamate, de-amalgamate, create, or even erase cities.

It requires a majority vote of the Ontario House to do it. Neither Wynne nor the Liberal party could do it on their own due to the minority government situation.

Wynne could have requested support of the NDP and whipped Liberals into introducing a recall possibility and letting Torontonians decide. This would have been a confidence vote and if the NDP did not co-operate it would have brought down the provincial government. That makes it somewhat hard to do particularly when Ford hasn't actually been charged with anything despite a substantial investigation (I hope police are waiting for the election to end, then will act).


Do consider what might have happened if the provincial government fell trying to reject Ford. We may have seen Ford resign to run as Premier; he was still pretty popular, particularly outside of Toronto, in Spring of 2013.


Ultimately, the province gave power to city council and not the mayor. City Council gave special powers to the mayor that they also had the ability to revoke. They did that.


I expect we'll see some kind of recall capability introduced if Ford is not re-elected. If Ford somehow manages to get re-elected then there isn't much point in having recall capabilities.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Please avoid using oversized, non-standard fonts.

MoD

 

[MrsNesbitt]

Hudak go for Phase 2 in Ottawa? Don't count on it - the "balanced budget" provision will be their excuse.

Like TM said, never forget Eglinton West. If you ever need to see what a PC government would do to transit in Toronto, there you go.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Hudak go for Phase 2 in Ottawa? Don't count on it - the "balanced budget" provision will be their excuse.

Like TM said, never forget Eglinton West. If you ever need to see what a PC government would do to transit in Toronto, there you go.

Well it's a great way to throw away votes. Hudak is so stupid for this... there is no subway debate in Ottawa, just build it. He loses nothing.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

No no no it's smart. The next thing I'd advise Hudak to do is to defer completion of the ECLRT and the Relief Line until the budget is balanced. Also find a way to cancel the Kitcher/Waterloo ION LRT, even though the contracts are signed.

 

[andrewpmk]

No no no it's smart. The next thing I'd advise Hudak to do is to defer completion of the ECLRT and the Relief Line until the budget is balanced. Also find a way to cancel the Kitcher/Waterloo ION LRT, even though the contracts are signed.

Ottawa's LRT is vastly superior to what Toronto calls LRT, Eglinton included. Given that Ottawa's LRT will be largely grade separated and won't run in the centre of a road anywhere, doesn't have the problem of reducing road capacity, it will basically be similar to a subway with level crossings in some outer sections (like the Chicago subway). I believe that Ottawa's LRT has a much higher capacity in the central sections than Eglinton, which really ought to have been a regular subway with the portion east of Don Mills cancelled. Hudak really ought to understand the difference.

 

[gweed123]

Well it's a great way to throw away votes. Hudak is so stupid for this... there is no subway debate in Ottawa, just build it. He loses nothing.

Yup, the debate was over the downtown tunnel in Phase 1. That's pretty much settled, and was buried as being an issue when Watson won in a landslide in 2010. Aside from a few local residents in Westboro playing NIMBY and a few people at the NCC who don't want it along the Parkway, the vast majority of the City wants LRT, and will want it even more in 2017 when it opens (official opening date is still Spring 2018, but they're ahead of schedule now and I think it'll be open by late 2017).

The Phase II LRT in Ottawa is probably the least controversial transit plan in the Province. LRT doesn't have the same type of "second class transit" connotation as it does in the GTA, and there isn't a significant faction against the LRT here, and Council's approval of the LRT was unanimous, very unlike Hamilton and K-W.

By coming out against this project, and even with the half-hearted backtrack, he pretty much just punched every Ottawa area PC candidate right in the gut.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

And we're supposed to think that this guy won't give us another gas plant? Har har har!

AoD