OT: Sens Lounge LXXV | Future Thread

[BonkTastic]

You missed your take on Schreiner!.

Honestly? He's probably who I would have voted for, despite the fact that it's akin to throwing your vote away in this election. The three candidates are so bad, I probably would have voted with my conscience over voting for a buffoon.

I'd gladly take someone who is in it for the right reasons, regardless of experience, over someone who has made a career of "getting elected" instead of "serving the people".

I can forgive political mistakes based on inexperience. It's harder to forgive "experienced" politicians who make bad decisions based on retaining power & greed (Wynne & Hudak, this is you).

 

[Mr Invidious]

Ontario politics are that bad?

Well, we re-elected one of the worst premiers ever a few years back, paid the price for it, as one would expect, and have now re-elected said party with a potential majority government after they have turned this province into a cesspool of financial debt.

It could be better.

 

[Caeldan]

Well, we re-elected one of the worst premiers ever a few years back, paid the price for it, as one would expect, and have now re-elected said party with a potential majority government after they have turned this province into a cesspool of financial debt.

It could be better.

With the new premier being part of the former's inner circle!!

 

[Harbinger]

Ouch. Sounds as bad as Alberta politics.

 

[saskriders]

Thank god PC lost

 

[BonkTastic]

Of course the other awesome part is seeing a potential majority government elected on a popular vote around 35% yet again...

I wonder what the lowest popular vote to win a majority has been provincially.

We so need vote reform, that referendum last time was so poorly worded.

The problem with FTPT is that neither the Conservatives nor the Liberals will EVER change it. They realize that they are the two big dogs in federal ( provincial politics, and approving a representative vote over FPTP means reducing their power.

The NDP have said they would look at replacing FPTP, but they won't do it either... if they ever get enough votes to form a majority ANYWHERE, their "short man syndrome" will kick in, they will see themselves as "finally having become a big dog", and they won't want to give up their majority power either.

Canada is screwed to be a FPTP electoral nightmare until the majority of citizens realize how bad it is, and demand a change. Unfortunately, most of the country is basically illiterate when it comes to politics, so there's that.

 

[BonkTastic]

How have the PC's lost two elections in a row that was basically handed to them on silver platters?!? I mean, I don't mind, because I'm pretty left-wing, but god damn... HOW?!?

It's absolutely mind-boggling. By all rights, Hudak should have won in 2011, but he bungled that campaign so bad that SOMEHOW McGuinty won.

... and here we are in 2014, coming off of McGuinty's RESIGNATION and what should have been the implosion of the Liberal Party of Ontario, and he still can't manage to win!

"Incompetent" doesn't even BEGIN to describe Hudak.

 

[Mr Invidious]

I already figure that there's not a very good chance that I will be living in Ontario once I have completed my schooling, so maybe I can get out alive.

 

[DrakeAndJosh]

Official majority.

 

[DrakeAndJosh]

How have the PC's lost two elections in a row that was basically handed to them on silver platters?!? I mean, I don't mind, because I'm pretty left-wing, but god damn... HOW?!?

It's absolutely mind-boggling. By all rights, Hudak should have won in 2011, but he bungled that campaign so bad that SOMEHOW McGuinty won.

... and here we are in 2014, coming off of McGuinty's RESIGNATION and what should have been the implosion of the Liberal Party of Ontario, and he still can't manage to win!

"Incompetent" doesn't even BEGIN to describe Hudak.

He went way too far right. He has to be stepping down after this.

 

[Senscore]

Yuck.

 

[Mr Invidious]

How have the PC's lost two elections in a row that was basically handed to them on silver platters?!? I mean, I don't mind, because I'm pretty left-wing, but god damn... HOW?!?

It's absolutely mind-boggling. By all rights, Hudak should have won in 2011, but he bungled that campaign so bad that SOMEHOW McGuinty won.

... and here we are in 2014, coming off of McGuinty's RESIGNATION and what should have been the implosion of the Liberal Party of Ontario, and he still can't manage to win!

"Incompetent" doesn't even BEGIN to describe Hudak.

I'm being dead serious when I say that the PC's could have gotten any person off of the street and ran with them at the helm and they would probably have a better chance at coming out the victor.

Hudak shot himself in the foot so many times that they had to amputate him at the knee. I'm almost convinced that he's a robot designed by the Liberal party to throw the election. It would explain a lot of things.

 

[DrakeAndJosh]

I'm almost convinced that he's a robot designed by the Liberal party to throw the election. It would explain a lot of things.

Sounds like another scandal.

 

[BonkTastic]

I'm being dead serious when I say that the PC's could have gotten any person off of the street and ran with them at the helm and they would probably have a better chance at coming out the victor.

Hudak shot himself in the foot so many times that they had to amputate him at the knee. I'm almost convinced that he's a robot designed by the Liberal party to throw the election. It would explain a lot of things.

I'm not sure how Hudak thought that running on a platform of "Creating jobs, but I'm also going to get rid of 100,000 jobs" was a good idea.

Also: proudly announcing that you will be "firing teachers" during your campaign is also not a good idea. You never win votes like that... all you do is pander to your hardcore base, who was surely going to vote for you anyways.

 

[YouGotAStuGoing]

If Hudak were smart, he'd have kept his own politics out of it and just bashed the Liberals consistently. People claim to hate the attack ads, but when the chips are down that's what they vote for. The lack of clarity in his promise to cut 100,000 jobs also made federal employees nervous, which lost him those votes too. If he'd have played the role, smiled for the cameras and kept his ******* robotic ****ing pretty-boy mouth SHUT, he'd have had no problem winning this.

Instead, Ontario is telling Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals that lying is okay, wasting money is okay, multiplying our provincial debt two times over is okay, and promising to raise already exorbitant taxes is okay. Not only is it okay, but hey, here's MORE power because you haven't thoroughly ****ed around enough with what you've got.

We had McGuinty lie to our faces, and we re-elected him for a second term. Now this. What's the saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I must be brain-damaged?

This province is going to hell in a handbasket.

 

[StefanW]

Now that it looks like a clean majority I feel guilty for not tossing my vote to the Green party like I wanted to. Serves me right for strategic voting.

 

[Senscore]

If Hudak were smart, he'd have kept his own politics out of it and just bashed the Liberals consistently. People claim to hate the attack ads, but when the chips are down that's what they vote for. The lack of clarity in his promise to cut 100,000 jobs also made federal employees nervous, which lost him those votes too. If he'd have played the role, smiled for the cameras and kept his ******* robotic ****ing pretty-boy mouth SHUT, he'd have had no problem winning this.

Instead, Ontario is telling Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals that lying is okay, wasting money is okay, multiplying our provincial debt two times over is okay, and promising to raise already exorbitant taxes is okay. Not only is it okay, but hey, here's MORE power because you haven't thoroughly ****ed around enough with what you've got.

We had McGuinty lie to our faces, and we re-elected him for a second term. Now this. What's the saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I must be brain-damaged?

This province is going to hell in a handbasket.

Don't worry. We've got a cheque from Alberta coming in the mail.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Yeah....well, it means I'm screwed. The way hydro rates are going and another Liberal government, I'll have no choice but to sell my home (sell it low) in the next 5 years and try to start over...in my mid 40s. Not going to be a good future at all.

 

[StefanW]

If Hudak were smart, he'd have kept his own politics out of it and just bashed the Liberals consistently. People claim to hate the attack ads, but when the chips are down that's what they vote for. The lack of clarity in his promise to cut 100,000 jobs also made federal employees nervous, which lost him those votes too. If he'd have played the role, smiled for the cameras and kept his ******* robotic ****ing pretty-boy mouth SHUT, he'd have had no problem winning this.

Instead, Ontario is telling Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals that lying is okay, wasting money is okay, multiplying our provincial debt two times over is okay, and promising to raise already exorbitant taxes is okay. Not only is it okay, but hey, here's MORE power because you haven't thoroughly ****ed around enough with what you've got.

We had McGuinty lie to our faces, and we re-elected him for a second term. Now this. What's the saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I must be brain-damaged?

This province is going to hell in a handbasket.

IMHO, the PCs could have taken a broom stick, put a scarecrow head on it, and propped that up as the party leader to safely win this election. Wynne was cast as being an McGuinty ally, and people were out for blood. But then Hudak defied all logic and started talking about radical policy points that made no sense whatsoever. I mean cutting the jobs of 100,000 people, who all buy things as consumers in our economy, and create more breaks for the wealthy in the hopes that it trickles down, should have been dead and buried as a political strategy by the end of the 1980s.

It felt like Wynne was really irrelevant in terms of decision making among voters. People were either voting for Hudak or against him. That is a terrible thing when you have a very unpopular incumbent that was extremely vulnerable.

The Liberals have a majority, but in my opinion the PCs lost the election more than the Liberals won it.

 

[BonkTastic]

If Hudak were smart, he'd have kept his own politics out of it and just bashed the Liberals consistently. People claim to hate the attack ads, but when the chips are down that's what they vote for. The lack of clarity in his promise to cut 100,000 jobs also made federal employees nervous, which lost him those votes too. If he'd have played the role, smiled for the cameras and kept his ******* robotic ****ing pretty-boy mouth SHUT, he'd have had no problem winning this.

Instead, Ontario is telling Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals that lying is okay, wasting money is okay, multiplying our provincial debt two times over is okay, and promising to raise already exorbitant taxes is okay. Not only is it okay, but hey, here's MORE power because you haven't thoroughly ****ed around enough with what you've got.

We had McGuinty lie to our faces, and we re-elected him for a second term. Now this. What's the saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I must be brain-damaged?

This province is going to hell in a handbasket.

I actually thought this province was PRIMED AND READY for an NDP government... Their center-left competition Liberal party going up in flames, non-threat Tim Hudak leading the PC's... it was looking like a slam dunk. The Cons would get their usual 30% and enough votes to form the opposition, and the NDP's would steal a ton of "protest" votes from typically-Liberal-voting Ontarians to form the next Ontario government.

... and then stupid Horvath forced an unnecessary election by rejecting what essentially was an NDP budget from the Libs, and showed her true colours.

Horvath couldn't see that there was a clear line to NDP victory in the not-so-distant future, but that wasn't good enough, so she forced an election and shot herself in the foot.

Stupid.

 

[Caeldan]

If Hudak were smart, he'd have kept his own politics out of it and just bashed the Liberals consistently. People claim to hate the attack ads, but when the chips are down that's what they vote for. The lack of clarity in his promise to cut 100,000 jobs also made federal employees nervous, which lost him those votes too. If he'd have played the role, smiled for the cameras and kept his ******* robotic ****ing pretty-boy mouth SHUT, he'd have had no problem winning this.

Instead, Ontario is telling Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals that lying is okay, wasting money is okay, multiplying our provincial debt two times over is okay, and promising to raise already exorbitant taxes is okay. Not only is it okay, but hey, here's MORE power because you haven't thoroughly ****ed around enough with what you've got.

We had McGuinty lie to our faces, and we re-elected him for a second term. Now this. What's the saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I must be brain-damaged?

This province is going to hell in a handbasket.

PCO has actually lost seats this round even... I mean wth.

 

[BonkTastic]

Yeah....well, it means I'm screwed. The way hydro rates are going and another Liberal government, I'll have no choice but to sell my home (sell it low) in the next 5 years and try to start over...in my mid 40s. Not going to be a good future at all.

You're going to sell your home because of hydro rates?

Seems a little extreme, IMO...

 

[BonkTastic]

I mean cutting the jobs of 100,000 people, who all buy things as consumers in our economy, and create more breaks for the wealthy in the hopes that it trickles down, should have been dead and buried as a political strategy by the end of the 1980s.

I feel as though the PC's are borrowing American political strategies (ie: hiring American political strategists) without really having a firm grasp of the voting demographics.

Funny enough, things like a Census help with those sorts of problems. Ironic.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

You're going to sell your home because of hydro rates?

Seems a little extreme, IMO...

Not just hydro, but all the costs. Property taxes, hydro, water rates...everything going up faster than my pay. The problem with big government is they think it's nothing to raise rates by 5, 10 percent, but it adds up over the years when the paycheque only goes up 1-2%.

I've been losing buying power steadily over the last decade. There's not really any wiggle room left.

 

[BonkTastic]

I've been losing buying power steadily over the last decade. There's not really any wiggle room left.

I totally hear you on that one. Problem is, none of the three parties will really ever help you with that, in their current incarnations.

Libs policies will keep your salary steady(ish), but raise taxes
Cons policies will keep/ push your salary low (assuming you don't own a business), but tax low.
NDP will be best for your salaries (assuming you don't own a business), but tax sky-high.

In the aggregate, on average, they're all the same. It's depressing.