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Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

John_Dee said:
Agreed. I barely know who he is myself. Him not being a household name is putting it politely. Oddly, the NDP are in a similar boat with their non-entity of a leader. I don't doubt that Horwath is a perfectly nice person and means well, etc. etc., but she's about a charismatic and forceful as a wet strand of spaghetti. She's had her turn and has been completely ineffectual. For the good of her Party, she really should step down.

As for Thug, the only question seems to be whether he'll survive and lead his Party to defeat or if he'll be pushed first. If the latter, well...As delightful as that would be - oh, to see the look on his face when it happens!! 😆 - it would give him the option of grandstanding if the Cons dump him and move on to losing the next election anyway. I can hear him now: "Y'see? Y'see!?!? If they'd kept me as leader, we woulda won that election!!" And you know the usual media outlets would allow him to use them as megaphones.

I suppose there's also the prospect of him stepping down voluntarily. But that's just crazy talk. I think we all know the likeability of that happening.
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Yeah, it isn't a matter of people "warming up" to Del Duca; rather, it's a matter of Ontarians reverting to a generic safe-choice default. Del Duca might as well be Justin, as far as anyone cares.

And I somewhat beg to differ about Horwath; if she were such a useless nonentity, she wouldn't have gotten a third of the vote and a solid Official Opposition caucus in '18--and she didn't do that just because of toxic PC and Lib leaders. She's "known", and her negatives are still relatively low. *Her* problem is the inverse of Del Duca's: that of her party *not* being a generic safe-choice default, a media infrastructure still stubbornly conditioned t/w viewing the NDP as an inconsequential "third party"--and of course, Premier Ford's modus operandi being one of treating her and her caucus like a nails-on-chalkboard annoyance, "I won, you lost, nyaaah". So her problem is less one of lack of charisma, than of lack of oxygen--she and her party have been gaslighted to the margins...
 
Liberals are kind of a 'default' voting position for many people--myself included. I was ready for them to go in the last election, but I didn't vote PC. I would have, had they chosen any leader other than Doug. I don't really subscribe to the economic orthodoxy of the NDP (which seem remarkably naive and unserious) and the Greens are not a political force in Ontario. I don't have any strong conviction for Liberals, just more a default, reasonable middle of the road. I wish we had Conservative parties at the provincial and federal level that were less saddled with populist nonsense and social conservative baggage.
 
afransen said:
Liberals are kind of a 'default' voting position for many people--myself included. I was ready for them to go in the last election, but I didn't vote PC. I would have, had they chosen any leader other than Doug. I don't really subscribe to the economic orthodoxy of the NDP (which seem remarkably naive and unserious) and the Greens are not a political force in Ontario. I don't have any strong conviction for Liberals, just more a default, reasonable middle of the road. I wish we had Conservative parties at the provincial and federal level that were less saddled with populist nonsense and social conservative baggage.
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I think you'd need to time travel back to the early 80s for that one.

Conservative parties have been consistently pushing in the direction of "Doug" for nearly 40 years now. There's not a trace of the ilk of Bill Davis left.
 
Admiral Beez said:
I can't see how Ford's government survives this.


And shame on Minister of Long-Term Care Dr. Merrilee Fullerton for not standing up to Ford or resigning on principle and speaking out when best practices were ignored.
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If politics (and the electorate) were rational I would agree (and celebrate) but there are many examples of irrational voting. Why would anyone vote for Doug Ford, Boris Johnson or Donald Trump - their records were readily available and they have lived up to them. Trump almost won re-election (or, if you believe him, did win!) Boris is ahead in the UK polls despite lying, corruption and general sleaze.
 
DSC said:
If politics (and the electorate) were rational I would agree (and celebrate) but there are many examples of irrational voting. Why would anyone vote for Doug Ford, Boris Johnson or Donald Trump - their records were readily available and they have lived up to them. Trump almost won re-election (or, if you believe him, did win!) Boris is ahead in the UK polls despite lying, corruption and general sleaze.
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While the above is entirely true; I can partially answer the bolded question:

Its very clear in the study of elections that voters, beyond hard-core partisans, rarely vote for anyone.

Rather they vote against someone else.

In the case of Doug Ford; the anti-Wynne vote; combined with some members of the electorate who would never vote NDP; conspired to create that result.

Likewise, the anti-Clinton vote was a material factor in the election of Trump.

It is, of course, important to note that due to our dysfunctional electoral system, neither Ford, nor Trump were elected with the support of a majority of voters. (as is commonly the case even w/better candidates)

Indeed, in the U.S. context, Hillary still got more votes than did Trump.
 
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Richard White said:
Not really. He is the lesser of two evils and I don't think that people will vote in Andrea Horwath as premier (I am an NDP supporter but have no use for Andrea).

When the choice is a braindead idiot who does not have your interests at heart or a no name politician who has a fresh perspective who do you think people will vote for?
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Given the party status, Del Duca has been about as low profile as you can be. My guess is that the Liberals will be ready come election time to unseat the Cons. Hell, he might not even have to say much - worked for Ford last time.
 
old boy said:
Given the party status, Del Duca has been about as low profile as you can be. My guess is that the Liberals will be ready come election time to unseat the Cons. Hell, he might not even have to say much - worked for Ford last time.
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Also the old adage: Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

AoD
 
If Patrick Brown (currently Mayor of Brampton) was the leader of the provincial Progressive Conservatives, we would have had a better Premier. And a higher minimum wage, and (shockingly) paid sick days.
 
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PinkLucy said:
Many people who put out fires and rescue people from burning buildings didn’t start those fires.
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Well, to be fair, most governments don't actively murder their own citizens by starting fires, but that's apparently sufficiently a low bar for this minister with respect to her role in safeguarding lives.

AoD
 
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