Why the Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party is in a free-fall

The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party commenced a three-day policy convention in London, Ontario, today (September 20, 2013). For that reason, I tuned into “London Today” with host Andy Oudman, who can always be counted upon to deliver compelling political radio discussion. The show was a magnificent piece of civic reportage (click here to listen to it). The PC party’s key local membership – who called in to the show – illustrated that the PC party is a conflicted mess in political free-fall.

That free-fall is not confined to London. Read more

Analysis – Ontario: 2013 by-election results versus 2011 results

The ballots have been counted in Ontario’s five provincial by-elections: London West, Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Scarborough-Guildwood, Windsor-Tecumseh, and Ottawa South. Pundits are telling the public what they think the 2013 by-election results – considered in isolation – mean, but I have a different analysis for you which, I think, reveals what is actually happening to the parties in Ontario. Below, I compare the results from the 2013 by-elections to the results from those ridings in 2011, each adjusted for the riding’s change in voter turnout.

The big conclusions – described in more detail after the data from the five ridings are broken down below – are these: Read more

Londoners alarmed by sudden emergence of info re: Ontario PC candidate, Ali Chahbar

{SUMMARY: Over the last 24 to 48 hours, I have received e-mails and reports from Londoners concerned about newly emerging information about Ali Chahbar, who is currently the Ontario PC candidate in the London West by-election to be held on August 1, 2013. Given the nature of this information, and the fact that there is almost no chance that the London Free Press will let voters know about it, I think it would be wrong of me not to tell Londoners what I’ve been told, before they go to the polls on August 1. A detailed report – with links to documentary evidence – follows, so that journalists and others who need fulsome evidence will have ready access to it. However, for those who need the short version, the summary is this: 
 
 

• a computer screen capture/image has just emerged of a federal Conservative database entry from 2007 listing one Ali Chahbar as being a provincial supporter of the Ontario Liberals, and as being affiliated with that party;

 

• reliable sources state that Ontario PC candidate Ali Chahbar – who has claimed to have been a life-long conservative, but who has admitted being a card-carrying federal Liberal – is not now and has never been a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.

 

• Ali Chahbar has made it his habit to point out to voters that he is married to London lawyer Rasha El-Tawil, but voters have expressed concern to me nobody has told the voting public that Ms El-Tawil is the same Rasha El-Tawil who was president of the anti-Israeli campus group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights while she was at the University of Western Ontario. There is concern that the voting public is not being told that, in that capacity, Ms El-Tawil and her group erected an offensive anti-Israeli “apartheid wall” at the university’s student centre in November of 2004, for which stunt the group lost its status with the university. The wall was intended to be an “effigy” of the wall erected in Israel to protect Israelis from ongoing attacks by neighbouring radicals whose mission it is to end Israel’s existence. Ms El-Tawil and her group consistently have identified Israel not only as “oppressors” of Palestinians, but have accused Israel of engaging in “genocide”.

Londoners are concerned that Mr. Chahbar’s choice to run as the PC candidate in London West are based not upon any particular sympathy for conservativism, but upon a desire to win a seat – under any party’s banner – in Ontario’s legislature where he might pursue or side with anti-Israeli policies that are frequently associated with anti-Semitic calls for boycotts on Israel, or with sympathies for (or indifference to) those who advocate the implementation of Sharia law. Given the Liberal government’s waffling on bringing Sharia within the scope of Ontario law, voters want certainty from all candidates, including Mr. Chahbar, that they reject Sharia, and that that they do not share the anti-Israeli/anti-Semitic views of Ontario’s radical leftists. This author believes that, particularly given his affiliations, Mr. Chahbar has some explaining to do, and must make it clear that he condemns the political views propounded by his spouse and others in respect of Israel and Sharia.} Read more

Ontario Budget: Understanding Horwath's Additional "asks", and Hudak's non-participation

The pundits have spoken, and they are unanimous: Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath simply cannot take yes for an answer, and Ontario Progressive Conservative party leader Tim Hudak won’t make budget demands because he wants an election. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think those conclusions are incorrect. Here’s why. Read more

Ontario Student Pride, Initiation Rituals, and Big Mother (a.k.a., Premier Kathleen Wynne)

The only “outdated” and “dangerous” aspect of a slushy slip and slide event held by engineering students at Ryerson University is the response it generated from Big Mother, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. Read more

Ontario's Fiscal Freefall: Liberal vs. PC = Feet-first vs. Head-first

The more some things change, the more other things stay the same. The Liberal premier, finance minister, and energy minister have all announced their resignation from politics. The Liberal Party of Ontario is imploding. The province has fallen into a fiscal crisis. But Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives are doing a replay of the “we’re liberals too” campaign that left that party with opposition status in the 2011 election. Read more

Second Presidential Debate: Obama's Exploding Libyan Cigar

President Barack Obama’s response to the September 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya was the defining issue of the second U.S. presidential debate. Obama claimed that the day after the attack on the U.S. Consulate there, he:

“…stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened. That this was an act of terror and I also said that we’re going to hunt down those who committed this crime.”

That was a lie. Accordingly, in the manner of a civil litigator cross-examining a lying witness, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave Obama a minute to retract or qualify his answer. Obama did not do so. It was his undoing. Read more

Biden's Rand Card: Preparatory Advice to Paul Ryan

Will Joe Biden play the Rand card in tomorrow’s debate against Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan? How should Ryan respond if he does? Read more

Credit Where Credit's Due: McGuinty's Liberals Get One Right

Ontario’s government today announced that pharmacists are no longer among those prohibited by law from performing certain services. The government’s news release featured the fact that pharmacists will now be able to administer the flu shot. For those – especially seniors – who find it difficult or inconvenient to get to the more limited number of places where flu shots are administered, this is certainly an added convenience. But the bombshell change is this: “…pharmacists can now also: Renew or adapt existing prescriptions…”. That is a major, praiseworthy change. Read more

Just Right: Paul Ryan and Al Quds Day

“Just Right” is a radio show that airs every Thursday from 11:00 AM until noon, on 94.9 FM CHRW in London, Ontario. The hosts are my good friends Robert Metz and Robert Vaughan. The show looks at science, culture, current events and more, and gives listeners an insight the value of which normally long survives the significance of the particular event being discussed. Today, I had the distinct pleasure of filling-in for the illustrious Mr. Vaughan, and of preparing commentary on two items I found to be particularly interesting this week. The first: Republican Vice-Presidential running mate Paul Ryan’s devout Catholicism, his affinity for the writings of Ayn Rand, and the fatal flaw in his approach to defending capitalism and individualism. The second: the true nature and goal of the wretchedly anti-Jewish Islamic “Al Quds Day” demonstrations, and the destructive effect of permitting the demonstration to be held on the grounds of a legislature (in this case, Queen’s Park, in Toronto). Read more

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