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For all the talk from the premier and his education minister about putting students first, it's difficult to believe that some kind of labour disruption in the school system wasn't the goal of Bill 115. Mission accomplished.

Teacher unions are vowing to curb extracurricular activities for students after Ontario passed controversial legislation Tuesday giving the government power to impose contracts on teachers and ban strikes for at least two years in efforts to fight the $14.8-billion deficit.
...
For high school teachers, it’s intended as a one-day protest on Wednesday, said Ken Coran, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation.
But Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, declared: “I’m not setting a time limit on it.”
“It is not business as usual,” he told a crowd of reporters in front of the legislature.

That same article indicates that a legal challenge is being prepared to the parts of the legislation that appear to violate the Charter of Rights. Meanwhile, at the CBC:

I just sent the following email message:

Subject: Please vote No on Bill 115
To: Jerry J. Ouellette <jerry.ouellette@pc.ola.org>
CC: Dalton McGuinty <dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org>, Laurel C. Broten <lbroten.mpp@liberal.ola.org>
I'm writing to ask you to vote against Bill 115, the so-called Putting Students First Act.
There are quite a number of problems with the bill but in the interest of brevity I'll limit myself to the following.
Under the guise of ending a strike that has never begun, this legislation puts the Minister of Education beyond any kind of accountability. It would allow her to make decisions without regard to the legislature and would leave those affected by those decisions without recourse to existing labour legislation or the courts. It's not just an assault on the collective bargaining process, though it is that. It's simply undemocratic -- it demonstrates contempt for the legislative process and for the concept of accountable government.
We send people such as yourself to the legislature to represent us and to govern us, not to rule us. There should be no place in a democracy for legislation that allows elected representatives to put themselves beyond the rule of law. Since debate on this legislation has now been limited to a degree that simply doesn't allow for the proper examination of this issue, I would respectfully ask that you vote against this bill.
Yours truly,
Name and address

It's addressed to Jerry Ouellette for the obvious reason: he's my MPP. I've stuck to my normal style for messages like this: make it clear in the subject line which legislation is at issue and where I stand on it and keep the message polite and reasonably brief.
Steal anything you find useful here.

This was posted to the Ontario NDP website this morning:
Horwath calls for executive bonus ban

New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath says millions paid out in bonuses to senior managers in the Ontario Public Service shows that the government is more interested in playing politics than ensuring everyday people get the services they need – and called for a ban on executive bonuses.
“In tough times, people want to see scarce dollars invested where they’re needed most. They hear a lot of talk from government but see that the people who need breaks the least are the ones who keep getting them,” said Horwath.
Ninety eight per cent (98%) of managers employed directly by the government in Ontario’s public service received bonuses in 2011 costing the treasury $35.6 million. Many more are employed in the broader public sector. Horwath says New Democrats plan to introduce a Bill to put a freeze on bonuses during the current restraint period.

Bad move.

Liberal campaign ordered Mississauga gas plant killed, Chris Bentley says

The Liberal re-election campaign — not the government — made the controversial $180 million decision to scrap a Mississauga gas-fired plant, admits Energy Minister Chris Bentley.
Testifying Wednesday at the legislature’s estimates committee, Bentley emphasized that the announcement came in “a Liberal Party press release” — not from the ministry.

That's an interesting admission to make, though we all really knew it was the case. But Bentley has now admitted publicly that the decision was taken by the campaign and announced on Liberal party letterhead. It was an abuse of power for nakedly partisan purposes and if it's not enough to bring a government down, it should at least cost someone his job.
Bentley claims to be in the dark as to who actually made the call. He also wants us to bear in mind that both the Progressive Conservatives and the NDP had pledged to close the plant so we might still be out of pocket a great deal of money if either party had won the election and followed through on that pledge.
Doesn't matter. The Liberals have now publicly admitted to their abuse of power and they should be held to account for it. So who made the call?

In justifying the $188,000 per year that newly appointed Workplace Safety Insurance Board Chair Elizabeth Witmer will earn, Dalton McGuinty said:

It is a big job

And it probably is. It's an important agency. The job might well be worth what Witmer will earn and she might well earn every penny. But that does raise a question: if the job is that big, why was the current chair only working on a part-time basis?
Wouldn't that suggest that the WSIB was being poorly served until this current appointment?