As I strolled past the Harbourfront marina yesterday on my way to vote, I knew that it was going to be a big night for Doug Ford.
For while there was a large crowd lining up to get into the Alaska Grill, the big beer hall at the top right, there was nobody lining up to cast a ballot at the hotel next door.
The election had been a non event right from the start, and with just over 40% of people in Ontario bothering to vote, the writing was on the wall...or the pie chart...
This is a real threat to our democracy.
While the Progressive Conservatives may have won a sweeping victory Thursday night, a large majority of Ontarians decided not to bother heading to the polls.
The province recorded the lowest voter turnout in history during the 2022 election, with just about 43.5 per cent of eligible voters casting a ballot according to preliminary Elections Ontario results.
And since voter apathy almost always favours the Cons, the results were not really surprising.
Although I did find it grimly ironic that Ford's murderous record of failing to properly fight Covid in his province may actually have helped him rather than hurt him.
As the National Observer's Max Fawcett explained yesterday:
For most people, the last two-plus years of the COVID-19 pandemic are ones they’d just as soon forget. As it turns out, they’ve also been a gift for Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford.
In the process of trying to forget the pandemic, the public seems to have also forgotten who Ford was going into it: an incompetent bully who treated the premier’s office like his personal fiefdom. Now, he’s emerged with the new political image of a kind and empathetic (and yes, still incompetent) leader who’s helped the province weather a difficult storm.
So about 4,000 old and vulnerable people died miserable lonely deaths for nothing.
While Ford went on to commit one atrocity after the other, from slashing services for the poor, to eliminating what previous governments had done to fight climate change, and trying to drive nurses out of the profession so he could more easily privatize our medicare system.
And it all went down the Covid memory hole, so he could among other things bribe voters on a massive scale.
And make two thirds of them believe that he was a "great" "good" or "OK" premier, with the help of our shabby bought media.
But he didn't have to worry about that...
For the NDP and the Liberals leaders were an absolute joke. Well meaning but pathetic.
The now four time loser Andrea Horwath spent most of the campaign attacking Stephen Del Duca instead of Ford.
While Del Duca seemed to think he could win without ever attacking Ford as he deserved to be attacked.
And I can only wish them both good riddance, for if progressives think we can fight the fascists like they did, we won't stand a chance.
But fortunately this cloud has a silver lining. For while we don't know what Ford will do with his shiny new majority, I'm pretty sure that sooner or later he will go hog wild.
He won't be able to control himself.
And if you throw Pierre Poilievre as new Con leader into the mix...
It should all make Justin Trudeau's job a whole lot easier, and eventually help give him a super majority.
Yup, the beast may be back for another four years, but the future still belongs to us.
And right now I'm just going to try to make sure this weekend belongs to me...
The resistance will begin on Monday.
Enough of the Con and the crazy.
Have a great one everybody !!!
29 comments:
The MSM completely demoralized none conservative voters by making it appear like the Tories were unbeatable. I do not forgive them for their bad urinalism.
Absolutely agree that Del Duca and Horwarh were pathetic, but that's what you get when your leader's a proven loser. Hell, Del Duca couldn't even win his seat last time in Vaughan. I hope this time around the OLP chooses a leader from among the MPPs who won, even if that is a limited pool.
But JT didn't beat Harper by attacking his horrible record. JT's "sunny ways" campaign offered an alternative to Harper's "prince of darkness" governing style. The OLP forgot that lesson.
Doug and Skippy may be the least of PMJT's worries. At least individually. The people surrounding them are another matter. Apparently Skippy's "lawyer," a longtime bagman for the CPC and UCP, is involved with a far-right religious sect that attempted to call in a hit on the prime minister. Two whistleblowers recently went public with the requests they say went too far.
https://deanblundell.com/news/nathan-jacobson-plymouth-brethren-church-asked-me-to-take-out-justin-trudeau/
Perhaps this is why Doug's thugs had Mr. Blundell's reporter, Caryma Sa'd, arrested. (I don't like that he's a Trudeau marriage truther, but he's still getting scoops that no one else is willing to bother with.) And perhaps it's why Pat King was so enthusiastic about grooming the PM's unstable stepbrother to be his "close friend." Why did Kyle endorse Skippy? All this is what we need the inquiry to find out.
This plot would also seem to explain the escalatory rhetoric against PMJT coming from "liberty defenders" in the US, calling to "liberate Canada" in much the same way as Putin demands to "liberate Ukraine." This tweet from a Kentucky congressman echoes the same sentiment as Tucker & co. Would a reelected Trump or hypothetical president DeSantis place PMJT in the same position Zelensky is now?
https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1531428941067698176
And it would also appear to explain why DoFo's goons are interacting with Putin's, through "back channels" involving the same "fixer" (Dean French) who orchestrated meetings with the Klanvoy. Zut alors, Doug knows "French" after all...
https://pressprogress.ca/top-doug-ford-adviser-sent-premiers-office-backchannel-message-about-meeting-with-russian-government/
What the actual fuck is going on, and more importantly why won't anyone in corporate-captured #cdnmedia go near it? #KlondikePapers
Most likely it is because your sources are garbage?
Press Progress is garbage? Or maybe those whistleblowers knew they wouldn't get a fair hearing among corporate-captured access journalists. There are no legit scandals in their universe unless they're nontroversies involving the name "Trudeau."
Explain why Press Progress was one of the few outlets to report on the Brivana conflict of interest. No one else in the Queen's Park press gallery -- I mean Doug Ford fan club -- would even mention it. Now, consider the alternative hypothetical: the howls of outrage that would be heard for months if Katie was sleeping with someone from the Star or CBC. Stories get killed all the time if inconvenient to the ownership. Canada's news media is owned by conservative donors and sympathizers.
Disprove the reporting or STFU.
Del Duca rebuilt the party. Only two ridings without a canadidate, all riding associations functioning. At first I thought he was following Mulroney's playbook. Announce something on each day of the campaign so the media always have something to run with. But it seemed to falter.
Still, Ontario usually has one party federal and the other provincial. So Ford will be in power until at least after Justin takes his walk in the snow, February 2031.
Hi Gyor...Our shabby media not only made Ford look like he was unbeatable, but also failed to properly expose Ford's really terrible record. But I also blame the progressive parties for running terrible campaigns. None of them visited my riding which has to be one of the most populous in Ontario, there were no signs, and no pamphlets left in mailboxes. So there were absolutely no signs that an election was even taking place. Unbelievable...
Hi anon@8:51 AM....I am willing to cut progressive leaders Liberal, NDP, or Green a lot of slack. But I thought that Del Duca and Horwath failed us by failing to expose Ford's obvious flaws, and in the case of Horwath spending too much time attacking the Liberals instead of the Cons. I appreciate that Del Duca tried to run a positive campaign, but he needed to do a better job of attacking Ford if only to motivate more Canadians to get out and vote. I'm not asking progressives to get down in the gutter like the Cons, but I do expect them to be really aggressive when defending our medicare system, or pointing out the damage Ford did to the fight against climate change...
So this sad little court is only blaming the media for the gross failings of the OLP and ONDP.
Surprised you haven’t blamed the voters yet too.
Hi Jackie....I have warned for years that the political atmosphere in this country is becoming more American and more violent, and the move to improve gun control can only make matters worse. The lynch parties the Cons are holding at places where Justin Trudeau is scheduled to speak are outrageous, and judging from what I have seen or heard couldn't be more dangerous. Why are the police allowing those kooks to get so close to Trudeau, and whose side are they on? I have also urged our security forces to investigate some of the far right religious groups who had a big role in the trucker terrorist movement, and are keeping up their campaign to remove Trudeau from office, by whatever means necessary. Our shabby bought media needs to spend more time on the growing influence of the far right in Canada, instead of playing cheap gotcha politics, before those kooky fascists set this country on fire....
Hi anon@12:38 PM....I don't think Jackie's sources are garbage. She monitors the extreme right like few others in Canada, and what she has helped expose looks very much like a conspiracy to topple our government by force. The threats Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh have received from those violent kooks cannot be allowed too continue, or they will surely end in tragedy. A lot of Cons will have to be investigated, and if they are found to be aiding and abetting domestic terrorism, they will have to be arrested, charged and if necessary jailed. We must never allow this country to be turned into another sick America...
Hi Jackie...I completely agree with you. Press Progress is doing a great job of covering stories that our hapless Con media won't touch. But they should be investigating the far right extremists and their Con accomplices, for they are the biggest threat this country faces. We have a beautiful country, and we can't allow any right wing American style Cons with their violent fantasies to ruin it...
Hi anon@4:41 PM... I don't want to be too hard on De Luca. I'm sure he is a decent man, but as a political leader in a time like this one, he was a total bust. He had some good ideas, but he should have realized that people who had been exhausted by the pandemic would tune him out, unless he gave them a good reason to vote. And stopping Ford from attacking medicare, or undermining the fight against climate change should have been his priorities, and they were not. Still like you, I believe that Ontarians have often been quite happy with the Cons running the province, and the Liberals running the federal government. It worked better when the PC's had better leaders, but as you say it should keep the Trudeau Liberals in power for many more years....
Hi anon@7:19... Who are you calling a "sad little court" you loser Con? And are you so drunk already, or high on crystal meth that you can't read? As I and other have written, the Con media played a big role in suppressing the vote, but progressive leaders must share the blame for helping turn it into the apathy election. But as I said in my post, I'm almost certain this ugly story will have a happy ending. Ford and Poilievre should make the Cons look so bad, Canadians will give Justin Trudeau his biggest majority ever. And what more can we ask for?
'My friends, say goodbye to healthcare as you know it.'
I hope that each and every brain-dead moron that voted for this decrepit old Ford get to experience first hand the damage he has brought on our healthcare system and will continue to inflict in the next ford years. In my current 25+ year career, there were always a multitude of summer students enrolled in some type of nursing/healthcare education. The Ford years has dwindled that down to none. I REPEAT, NONE!!!! Add to that those who are leaving the profession in droves and it will all but ensure the total collapse of our healthcare system.
A big shout-out goes to the Con MSM for ignoring Doug's atrocious record and for Steven "Dull" Duca and Andrea Hogwarts anemic attempts to run this Ford off the road. Speaking of roads, I can only hope that JT will repay Doug for blaming him with every pandemic fuck-up he made by throwing a huge monkey wrench in the big monkey's 10 billion dollar highway he so desperately want$. He's not vindictive by nature but I do hope he gives Ford the comeuppance the fat fuck so rightfully deserves. Fingers crossed:)
JD
Dougie is now peddling Populist Lite as a healthy alternative to the toxic brew his neighbours to the east, west and south are peddling. Given time it will still rot your teeth and add pounds to the mid section but in true Ontarian fashion it is a reserved compromise between tedious reality and their good timing Populist neighbours getting high on mind rotting crap. Perhaps it was inward emotionally focused blame someone, anyone escapism and not insurmountable external forces that destroyed previous civilisations. Election results and Dougies change in strategy suggests voters are evaluating their options and have not totally succumbed to the self defeating simplistic escapism mindset. There is still hope for the future but one way or the other there will be some massive hangovers when the populist party ends!
RT
Hi JD....I know how you feel. You're a thoroughly decent Canadian, the low class yob Doug Ford should never have been re-elected Premier of Canada's biggest and most important province, and those who voted for him, or didn't bother to vote at all, should be ashamed of themselves. But let me try to cheer you up. Firstly, Doug Ford is an ugly slob with a craven need to be loved, so I doubt he will try to undermine medicare, lest he stir up the biggest protests this country have ever seen. He will have to restrict himself to gnawing on juicy Weber's burgers on the road to Muskoka, where Seb and I have encountered him not once but twice. But even more importantly, as I mentioned in my post, the combination of Ford and Poilievre should be enough to finish off the Cons once and for all. And the total destruction of the Cons is after all our main goal. Canadians are in a mellow mood after the pandemic, but give them six months and they will eat him alive, if he doesn't have a heart attack first, because his belly is now as big as the Hindenburg. So cheer up, the next couple of years will be most enjoyable, and I'm celebrating already....
Hi RT...That's a very good point, Ford won the election by posing as a moderate, which may have put many Ontarians to sleep but will not last long. He got his first majority by claiming he had come to destroy Katherine Wynne AND Justin Trudeau. But ended up eating out of Trudeau's hand and all but licking his toes. And it will be more of the same, as he tries to hold on to his alliance with Trudeau only to fail catastrophically just in time for the next federal election, which should return another Trudeau majority, and bury the Cons once and for all. Dougie's dumb followers don't realize that his main enemy is not Trudeau but Poilievre, because what he really wants in his pig like mind is to be Prime Minister. With the Cons fighting each other, and Ford trying to position himself as their next leader, the stage is set for the Final Act, and it will be spectacular !!!
But the Greenbelt! The parts paved over will be gone forever.
And Public Education. Will mandatory online credits in highschool be reversible, if Libs ever get in power again, or will it be too entrenched? Hopefully teacher strikes will have an effect on this, and his cuts
And, hopefully PMJT is steadfast with his Health Transfer conditions. He better be tough with Ford. Ford has a way of making people afraid/lame.
Hi anon@12:00 PM...Yes, we have to expect that Doug Ford will do some damage, but it will be used against him and Pierre Poilievre and as I keep saying that is the main thing. Our mission must be to destroy the Harper Party, and within three years that's exactly what we're going to do. The brutish yob Doug Ford will be crawling along on all fours, Poilievre's head will be sticking out of his ass screaming "help me!" And I'll be laughing even more than I am now and telling anybody who will listen "I told you so!!!"
Hi Kay....You're welcome. I admit I have always been a bit of a hopeless optimist, but I truly believe that old saying: 'The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice." I believe that the Cons have done so much evil that the country and the planet can't afford them any longer. And when Ford and Poilievre start fighting over who should be Con leader, as they inevitably will, they will finish off the Cons, so that we can live in peace at last. We will have to resist any moves to privatize medicare, or keep our seniors living in misery, or deprive our students and teachers of the tools they need to create a better world. But the Harper Party was always doomed to break up, and I'm pretty sure that in the next few years we will see it do just that. And won't that be a beautiful thing?
It would be a beautiful thing.
It's been a bit like living in the twilight zone, but they seem to be appealing to some people. (With some media influence?) But, no matter. I believe what you say will happen, they will self-destruct. Ford, Poillievre, and their ilk cannot continue past 4 years. It's not possible. Not fathomable.
(I deleted a response thinking it would remove a name, but it didn't. But that's okay.)
I like your posts, have been reading them since around '19. I learn a lot. I had to chime in on Ford, because his win was so distressing. Your posts have grounded me in all this craziness, so thanks again.
Kay
I suspect WK was advising the OLP during this campaign.
UU
Hi Kay......I think the pandemic has made a lot of Canadians feel even more morose than usual, and the Con media has only made that worse. It works to undermine our faith in our own country, even though we are one of the most admired countries on earth. But that's why the Cons are going to fail, they are out of synch with reality, and if we attack them they will eventually crumble. The Cons have become more American than Canadian, but if they try to screw with our medicare system they will pay a heavy price, for enough really is enough...
Hi UU....If Kinsella had been advising the OLP it would have attacked Ford as he deserved to be attacked. But that didn't happen, the Liberals ran the most ineffective campaign I've ever seen. But then I don't just want to defeat the Cons, I want to see them destroyed....
I don't understand what, exactly, they're wanting to accomplish. Eg, their motivation. They are on an entirely different planet than I am.
I felt good at the beginning of the pandemic. Proud of the human race for taking measures to help our seniors and other people vulnerable to the Covid virus (which could be anyone). It's Ford's (and his cowardly/compliant Ministers') ineptitude that has made me morose. And then they go and win re-election.
I hope he fails to hide his true colours. I hope Ontarians wise up, and start paying closer attention to policies in future elections. I hope MSM reporters start showing some "grit", as Sean O'Shea remarked on the other day.
I hope the Cons are destroyed, too. They're kinda like children (no offense to children). Where's their compassion and sense of decency?
Kay
Hi Kay....Let's be clear, the Cons lost their moral compass a long time ago. Rather than working for us, they work for Big Oil, and for those who are interested in privatizing (or further privatizing) our health care system. Big Oil wants Justin Trudeau out of the way for having said that it will have to transition to greener sources of energy if we are to contribute to the fight against climate change. And the medicare privatizers want to get their hands on our healthcare system as it prepares to cope with the aging boomer generation. In addition, the rich want lower taxes, and a scaling back of measures designed to increase the participation of women in the economy. So we're up against a massive conspiracy to take this country backwards, and unfortunately many Canadians are too distracted by the dirty Con games to see the larger picture. But eventually they will. We will be victorious, decency will prevail, and the Cons will end up in the garbage can of history, where as I never get tired of repeating, they truly belong....
That is excellent, that they will end up in the garbage can of history. I agree. This can't last much longer, at the rate it's going.
Interesting re the aging boomer generation and privatized health-care.
When the CPC and hopefully PCPO (and UCP?) implode, do you see Conservative parties re-emerging as the Conservatives of old? I know no-one has a crystal ball, but do you see the possibility of that happening? (I don't particularly remember what the old Cons were like, pre Harper and Harris. My very political mother was Conservative, until Mulroney, then started voting for who she liked in her riding. I didn't really start following politics until the Harper years, whom I couldn't stand. Was NDP until Trudeau).
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