pogge's blog

'Cos the Tim Hudak quoted in today's Toronto Star sounds like an awful lot like the original release:

“The problem that we have is that we have public sector union bosses who are running the government right now..."

Would those be the unions that recently had their collective bargaining rights legislated away and contracts imposed? Would it be those other public sector unions who agreed to a two year wage freeze? Those union bosses certainly have an odd way of asserting their authority.
And don't even get me started on the McCarthyism inherent in charges of "radical environmentalists" slowing down the development of the Ring of Fire. When Cliffs Natural Resources announced last fall that it was delaying the opening of its chromite mine, the consensus seemed to be that the original schedule was unusually aggressive for a project of this scope and the current schedule is simply more realistic. Rushing a development of this magnitude is exactly how things get screwed up.
I expect Hudak to resume ranting about foreign workers any moment now. He doesn't seem to be happy unless he has a boogie man to frighten us with.

Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod on learning that the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario has established protocols in place regarding disciplinary measures that may be used against members who fail to support collective bargaining initiatives and that the union would take the trouble to remind members about them before finding it necessary to invoke them:

"It's unbelievable to me that in this day and age, this union could have so much power over its members that it can put the fear of God into them on whether or not they can help a child at a school,"...

Lisa MacLeod on what Education Minister Laurel Broten should do in the face of continuing job actions by teachers who are in a legal strike position:

"The Minister of Education has the power to stop and prevent strikes. She also has the power to impose a collective agreement," said MacLeod. "She just has to use the power that she has and it's up to these Liberal Leadership contestants to do what Tim Hudak and I are doing: putting students, and parents and teachers first and actually telling the Minister of Education to invoke Bill 115. That puts an end to it and it can be done today."

I'm getting a mixed message here.

This is from an unsigned editorial in the Waterloo Region Record:

Just over a year ago, Ontarians elected a minority legislature, one in which the Liberals held the highest number of seats but were outnumbered by their opposition opponents and could govern only with significant opposition support. It was a collective decision made by voters who left the Liberals in power but on a short leash.
In proroguing the legislature, McGuinty has unhooked that leash. It is through the legislature, filled with their elected representatives, that the people hold the premier and his government accountable. McGuinty has now thumbed his nose at accountability — and the people.

I might have put it a bit more strongly than saying that he had thumbed his nose at us but, close enough.

In his latest column in the Toronto Star, Martin Regg Cohn focuses in on the difficulties Chris Bentley might face in a race for the leadership of the Ontario Liberals because of the recent unpleasantness involving breaches of privilege and contempt motions. But the G20 weekend in Toronto, in June of 2010, is never mentioned.
Chris Bentley was this province's Attorney General when police were quietly given new search and seizure powers in anticipation of the demonstrations that would take place during that weekend in June. I say "quietly" because the provincial government -- including the minister responsible for justice in the province -- did the absolute minimum required under law to notify us of what they were up to until police actually began demanding to search people on the streets of Toronto. But it got much worse than that.

Mark Jarvis at Maclean's in a piece on Dalton McGuinty's prorogation of the Ontario legislature:

Across the country prime ministers and premiers are making it clear that they see legislatures – our elected representatives – as an undue burden. Whether as a means of managing legislative impasses or risks of losing confidence or simply to escape scrutiny, first ministers have demonstrated a predilection for simply shutting down the respective legislative assemblies in their jurisdictions.
It is worth examining the premier’s own words in explaining the prorogation. In an email sent to Liberal supporters McGuinty said: “I’ve asked the Lieutenant Governor to prorogue the legislature to allow those discussions with our labour partners and the opposition to occur in an atmosphere that is free of the heightened rancour of politics in the legislature…”
The “rancour” that Premier McGuinty is so dismissive of is an essential dynamic of public accountability within our democratic system, which sees partisan politics – institutionalized adversarialism – as the best means of securing democracy.

Count me among those who feel that any legacy of McGuinty's has been badly tarnished by the manner of his departure. Shutting the legislature down for months so a party with a minority of seats can maintain control of the agenda is the ultimate act of contempt.