The Ontario election

[Anonymous]

I am unimpressed with any party leader's platform in this election. After fifteen years of Liberal party mismanagement, my province now has the highest sub sovereign debt in the world. And doubling down on disastrous expensive green energy scams has caused hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs to move to the US and reduced vulnerable Ontarians to fuel poverty.





This article is by James Black.



In 2013, city council designated Toronto as a "sanctuary city," committing to provide social services to people regardless of immigration status, incentivizing illegal immigration to the city.



Last week, the provincial NDP made the feelgood proclamation that, if elected, it would extend this policy provincially.



While at university, I spent a year working for a solo-practice law firm that specialized in refugee cases.



I barely made minimum wage but, for a progressive-minded college student, it was a dream job.



Working at a small firm, where I was one of only four employees, afforded the opportunity to interact with clients that would not have been available at a larger practice.



I still remember the haunted look on the face of a Bangladeshi man as he described watching his brother executed by a paramilitary death squad.



I remember a Salvadoran farmer, beaten nearly to death while his farm burnt to the ground for participating in an uprising against MS-13 extortion.



Thankfully, while I was there, we never lost a single genuine refugee case.



But, for every authentic case, there were dozens of phony claims.



In Ontario, refugee claimants are eligible for legal aid, social assistance, subsidized housing and work permits while awaiting their hearing.



One Mexican family, supposedly fleeing cartel violence, filed two applications for social assistance as single parents, double counting their three dependent children.



Months later, the father went home, more frightened of the Canadian winter than the cartel.



His wife remained, collecting both assistance cheques and working full-time under-the-table.



By the time the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) rejected their claim, they could have flown home first class.



Two sisters, also from Mexico, claimed to both be fleeing abusive sicario boyfriends.



Upon receiving work permits, they each took two jobs, serving and bartending.



They were attractive and spoke charming broken English, which surely contributed to their making nearly $4,000 per month each in tips alone.



I don't fault their industriousness but neither of them attended their refugee hearings (or filed a tax return).



After 11 months, they returned home with a small fortune.



In 2009, then-prime minister Stephen Harper stemmed the spike in phony claims by restricting the Mexican visa-waiver program.



In 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dropped the restriction.



The next year, Mexican refugee claims more than quintupled, as 75% of those processed in 2017 were withdrawn or dismissed.



When Trudeau tweeted his "diversity is our strength" open invitation, the backlog of refugee claims stood fewer than 18,000. Today, it is 48,967. Nearly one third of backlogged claims are from Haiti and Nigeria.



Last year, the IRB dismissed over half of Nigerian and 78% of Haitian refugee claims.



Horwath's "sanctuary" policy only attracts individuals seeking to exploit our generosity, rather than those who need it.



Ontarians will decide at the ballot box if they want their government signalling to the world we are a haven for economic migrants.



In democracy, the people are always right.



However, stifling important conversations about immigration policy with false accusations of xenophobia forces people to vote on the issues without a full airing of the facts.



Our compassion for people fleeing persecution is magnificent, and something in which all Canadians should take pride. But attracting illegal economic migrants and prioritizing them equally with legitimate refugees, or the 4.8 million Canadians who live under the poverty line, is bad policy.



Given the current social climate, one is apt to be called a bigot merely for making that point.

[Anonymous]

[size=150]Beware — NDP is more radical than ever[/size]



Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath puts a smiling face on an evil ideology.



On the surface, for those ignorant of history and global affairs, socialism may seem compassionate.



It's sold as a remedy for inequality and a vehicle to help the least well-off among us.



But socialism's methods — giving more power and control to the government, at the expense of individuals — has a track record that has led to plunder, poverty, starvation and death, wherever it's been tried.



Even in Canada, a country dedicated to the rule of law, quasi-socialist governments get greedy, confiscate too much and lose sight of the fundamentals. The hallmarks of an NDP government — whether it's today in Western Canada, or in the past in Ontario under premier Bob Rae — are higher taxes, out of-control spending, sky-rocketing debt, and a business environment that chases away private investment.



I grew up in B.C. in the 1990s during an NDP reign — it was known as the "lost decade" in the province, as countless young families fled to Alberta in search of good blue-collar jobs.



Families were torn apart just so NDP politicians could pursue their socialist utopia. And today's New Democrats are even more radical. They've taken the Marxist doctrine of economic oppression — the core philosophy of socialism — and applied it to our social structure.



They divide us into groups based on the identities we're born with, including our gender and ethnicity, and create a hierarchy of victimhood. If you're a member of a so-called oppressed group, you get extra rights and privileges — at the expense of the so-called oppressors.



Most Canadians reject this divisive identity politics, but the far-left embraces it.



If there was any doubt about the NDP'S extremism, look no further than Horwath's motley crew of candidates.



Laura Kaminker said that wearing a poppy on Remembrance Day was "collective brainwashing" and "war glorification." Tasleem Riaz compared Canadians soldiers in Afghanistan to "war criminals" and posted praise to Adolph Hitler on Facebook (although she now denies posting it herself, saying her account must have been hacked).



Jill Andrew said Toronto's black police chief deserves a "coon award," and Gurratan Singh, brother of federal leader Jagmeet Singh, held a sign saying, "F--k the Police."



Jessica Bell wrote a pamphlet for activists calling for "economic shutdown," "seizure of assets," and "property destruction," and was once arrested for participating in an illegal protest.



Chandra Pasma said having a job is "dehumanizing" and Ramsey Hart has devoted his career to shutting down mining jobs in the North.



Erica Kelly said she hoped "gun nuts" would be bombed by drones, and Dwayne Morgan believes that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government.



These people don't deserve a place in polite society, let alone a position of power in a Canadian government. Horwath has defended these extremists, saying, "people do radical things for change."



But what kind of change would these radicals bring about?



Ontario has suffered for 15 long years under a corrupt and increasingly left-wing Liberal government.



They've fleeced the province with reckless green energy policies, brought in a nefarious social justice school curriculum and will leave future generations with more debt than any other sub-sovereign government in the world.



Replacing the Ontario Liberals with the NDP is like going from a frying pan into the socialist hellfire.



A vote for the NDP is a vote to double down on identity politics and go all-in on spiraling government debt.



It would be the nail in the coffin of Ontario's economic future.

[Anonymous]

Ford is far from perfect and nobody is talking about making the spending cuts this province needs. But, compared to the two other screwballs, it's a no brainer for me.





Elections aren't about perfect choices.



They're about making the best choice from the choices we have.



The choice we make in the June 7 Ontario election has never been more important, or clear.



After 15 years of waste, scandals and political corruption — with Ontario now one of the world's most indebted, non-national governments — the reign of Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals needs to come to an end.



We've seen the damage caused by their tax-and-spend philosophy.





Hallway medicine, runaway electricity prices, deteriorating schools and declining test scores, massive tax grabs like cap and trade, costing us almost $2 billion a year.



And, according to the Auditor General and Financial Accountability Office, bogus accounting that massively understates the province's deficits and debt.



We have two options to start righting the ship, Andrea Horwath and the NDP, or Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives.



We know what the NDP will do because it shares the Liberals' tax-and-spend philosophy of more debt and pretending public services are "free".



An NDP government will continue Liberal policies that got us into this mess, with a rigid political orthodoxy that makes it unfit to govern.



Imagine a would-be premier saying, as Horwath has, that she would never impose back-to-work legislation in any strike, regardless of the hardships imposed on the public.



We know public spending needs to be brought under control.





Horwath, already kowtowing to militant labour unions, isn't up to the job.



Instead, as we have seen from would-be NDP MPPs, what we'll get is identity politics run amok, disrespect for war vets, hatred of the police and a premier incapable of bringing her own caucus under control.



That's why Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives are the best choice for Ontario.



Ford has an all-star team of experienced, capable, high-quality candidates ready to govern for all Ontarians, to begin the difficult job of bringing public finances under control, to provide targeted tax relief to the most hard-pressed and lower-income workers and start the difficult task of fixing this province's public services.



Unlike Wynne and Horwath, Ford knows efficiencies can be found in government.



That controlling public spending will lower Ontario's $12.5 billion a year in interest payments, money saved that can be used to improve public services.



This won't happen overnight given the enormity of the financial hole the Liberals created.



But the way to start digging out begins with the election of Ford and the PCs on June 7.

[Anonymous]

Wynn has admitted the obvious.



[size=150]Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne admits she won't win provincial election[/size]

TORONTO — An emotional Kathleen Wynne admitted today that her governing Liberals will lose the Ontario election on Thursday.



The premier, whose party has been trailing behind the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats in the polls, is urging voters to elect as many Liberals as possible to prevent the other parties from forming a majority government.



Wynne wouldn't say whether she'd stay on as party leader following the vote.



She also declined to endorse the Tories or NDP.



Wynne says whichever way the vote goes, people should hope for a minority win to keep the government "from acting too extreme — one way or the other."

[Anonymous]

How Ford could save $100 million for frontline health care



A line-by-line review of Ontario expenditures to find efficiencies, as promised by Progressive Conservative Doug Ford, would undoubtedly find savings.



But if he wants to start his review with a bang, here's an idea: abolish the awkwardly named LHINs.



You could easily be forgiven for not knowing what a LHIN is. It stands for Local Health Integrated Networks.



They are fourteen independent behemoth bureaucracies created by the Liberals in 2004 — complete with fourteen CEOs each making about $300,000 a year with their own boards and each loaded with bureaucrats. They operate mostly in the shadows.



And they gobble up $100 million a year of our health care money. That's not chump change.

[Anonymous]

As for polls.





Although recent polls suggest it's neck and neck for the Tories and the NDP, Forum Research's most recent results show the PC party now pulling ahead. Forum's large sample — 2602 Ontario voters were surveyed — makes that finding significant.



But the general attitude, otherwise, toward this election?



Hold your nose and vote.



This new Forum poll differs slightly from other recent polls.



An Angus-Reid poll, for example, involving 773 people, put the PC and NDP parties in a dead heat, with the NDP at 39% — a slight advantage — and the PCs at 37%.



The Liberals trailed with only 17% of voters onside.



Interestingly, the Angus-Reid poll showed more people (33%) thought the PC party would be the best one to form government over the NDP (27%); were this a popularity contest, Andrea Horwath would win with a favourability rating that's double that of Doug Ford or Kathleen Wynne.



Mind you, Horwath's popularity has declined slightly over the last few days.



A Maclean's-Pollara poll also claims the NDP is ahead and their lead is growing.



Pollara Strategic Insights says the NDP have 43% of the decided vote, with the PC party and Doug Ford down five points at 32% and the Liberals at 17%.



The uptick in NDP support is said to be a result of the televised debate last Sunday. The Pollara poll surveyed 802 Ontario voters.



The Innovative Research Group conducted a poll that showed a tight race for the NDP (36%) and the PC party (34%), with the Liberals at 22%; an Ipsos poll also put the Liberals at 22%, but they show more support for the PC party (37%) than for the NDP (34%)



The new Forum poll released late Wednesday afternoon shows the PC party pulling ahead with 39% support from decided voters versus 35% for the NDP. The Liberal party nabbed only 19%.



The large Forum sample size adds weight to their prediction of a PC majority with 77 seats; the NDP would serve as official opposition with 41 seats, and the Liberals would win six seats.



Bozinoff uses the term "horse race" to sum up the current situation.



"The NDP had the momentum, but seem to have stalled in the aftermath of a strong performance by Kathleen Wynne in the debate. The PC numbers under Ford have rebounded and they now have him poised for the premier's chair," Bozinoff said. "And the PC party has a seat advantage ... there may be some parked votes out there — parked meaning not committed —and, of course, we don't know what the turnout will be on election day."



People may be prompted to turn up and vote, says Bozinoff, if the race continues to stay this close.



But nothing is set in stone.

[Anonymous]

I am unimpressed with any party leader's platform in this election. After fifteen years of Liberal party mismanagement, my province now has the highest sub sovereign debt in the world. And doubling down on disastrous expensive green energy scams has caused hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs to move to the US and reduced vulnerable Ontarians to fuel poverty.





This article is by James Black.



In 2013, city council designated Toronto as a "sanctuary city," committing to provide social services to people regardless of immigration status, incentivizing illegal immigration to the city.



Last week, the provincial NDP made the feelgood proclamation that, if elected, it would extend this policy provincially.



While at university, I spent a year working for a solo-practice law firm that specialized in refugee cases.



I barely made minimum wage but, for a progressive-minded college student, it was a dream job.



Working at a small firm, where I was one of only four employees, afforded the opportunity to interact with clients that would not have been available at a larger practice.



I still remember the haunted look on the face of a Bangladeshi man as he described watching his brother executed by a paramilitary death squad.



I remember a Salvadoran farmer, beaten nearly to death while his farm burnt to the ground for participating in an uprising against MS-13 extortion.



Thankfully, while I was there, we never lost a single genuine refugee case.



But, for every authentic case, there were dozens of phony claims.



In Ontario, refugee claimants are eligible for legal aid, social assistance, subsidized housing and work permits while awaiting their hearing.



One Mexican family, supposedly fleeing cartel violence, filed two applications for social assistance as single parents, double counting their three dependent children.



Months later, the father went home, more frightened of the Canadian winter than the cartel.



His wife remained, collecting both assistance cheques and working full-time under-the-table.



By the time the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) rejected their claim, they could have flown home first class.



Two sisters, also from Mexico, claimed to both be fleeing abusive sicario boyfriends.



Upon receiving work permits, they each took two jobs, serving and bartending.



They were attractive and spoke charming broken English, which surely contributed to their making nearly $4,000 per month each in tips alone.



I don't fault their industriousness but neither of them attended their refugee hearings (or filed a tax return).



After 11 months, they returned home with a small fortune.



In 2009, then-prime minister Stephen Harper stemmed the spike in phony claims by restricting the Mexican visa-waiver program.



In 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dropped the restriction.



The next year, Mexican refugee claims more than quintupled, as 75% of those processed in 2017 were withdrawn or dismissed.



When Trudeau tweeted his "diversity is our strength" open invitation, the backlog of refugee claims stood fewer than 18,000. Today, it is 48,967. Nearly one third of backlogged claims are from Haiti and Nigeria.



Last year, the IRB dismissed over half of Nigerian and 78% of Haitian refugee claims.



Horwath's "sanctuary" policy only attracts individuals seeking to exploit our generosity, rather than those who need it.



Ontarians will decide at the ballot box if they want their government signalling to the world we are a haven for economic migrants.



In democracy, the people are always right.



However, stifling important conversations about immigration policy with false accusations of xenophobia forces people to vote on the issues without a full airing of the facts.



Our compassion for people fleeing persecution is magnificent, and something in which all Canadians should take pride. But attracting illegal economic migrants and prioritizing them equally with legitimate refugees, or the 4.8 million Canadians who live under the poverty line, is bad policy.



Given the current social climate, one is apt to be called a bigot merely for making that point.

I used to be an NDP supporter before they soldout working people to rich progs.

[Anonymous]

Wynn has admitted the obvious.



[size=150]Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne admits she won't win provincial election[/size]

TORONTO — An emotional Kathleen Wynne admitted today that her governing Liberals will lose the Ontario election on Thursday.



The premier, whose party has been trailing behind the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats in the polls, is urging voters to elect as many Liberals as possible to prevent the other parties from forming a majority government.



Wynne wouldn't say whether she'd stay on as party leader following the vote.



She also declined to endorse the Tories or NDP.



Wynne says whichever way the vote goes, people should hope for a minority win to keep the government "from acting too extreme — one way or the other."

She's consistently ranked the least popular premier.

[Anonymous]

Whoever wins the election in Ontario, I wish them and that province great success and prosperity.

[Anonymous]

Wynn has admitted the obvious.



[size=150]Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne admits she won't win provincial election[/size]

TORONTO — An emotional Kathleen Wynne admitted today that her governing Liberals will lose the Ontario election on Thursday.



The premier, whose party has been trailing behind the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats in the polls, is urging voters to elect as many Liberals as possible to prevent the other parties from forming a majority government.



Wynne wouldn't say whether she'd stay on as party leader following the vote.



She also declined to endorse the Tories or NDP.



Wynne says whichever way the vote goes, people should hope for a minority win to keep the government "from acting too extreme — one way or the other."

She's consistently ranked the least popular premier.

There are so many reasons why that is the case.

[Anonymous]

Kathleen Wynn has all but said she won't even win her own seat. The best she can can hope for is to be a power broker in a minority government.

[Anonymous]

TORONTO — In an 11th-hour bid to save her party from decimation, an emotional Kathleen Wynne admitted Saturday that the governing Liberals will lose the Ontario election next week but urged voters to ensure neither of her rivals wins a majority.



The premier — tears streaming down her face and her voice breaking up at times — appealed to voters to set aside their feelings about her and support Liberal candidates so that they can keep the next government in check.



Her plea comes at a time when polls suggest the Liberals, who have been trailing behind the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats, could be at risk of losing official party status after the June 7 vote.



"If your concern is that you'd be electing me or electing a Liberal government, that's not going to happen," she said. "And so we need Liberals at Queen's Park to stop a majority for either of the other governments."



Wynne, who first entered politics as a school trustee in 2000, said at the beginning of the campaign that she believed her party could turn the tide. But as the polls painted an increasingly grim picture, she was forced to come to terms with her own waning popularity.



The decision was a hard one to make, she said, but seemed to be the only solution in an election where voters appear set on a new government but reluctant to fully hand over the reins to either of her rivals.



"It is a logical next step," she said.



Wynne wouldn't say whether she'll stay on as party leader after the election, but stressed she would keep fighting for her slate in the last days of the campaign.



"You're not getting rid of me, I'm going to be campaigning really hard right through until that last vote is cast because those local fights are really, really important," she said.



She declined, however, to endorse either the Tories or the NDP, nor would she comment on the possibility of strategic voting, a perennial issue in elections where voters appear to be clamouring for change.



Wynne said whichever way the vote goes, people should hope for a minority win to keep the government "from acting too extreme — one way or the other."



The move did not sit well with NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who accused Wynne of "playing a dangerous game" that could propel the Tories to a majority.



"Her request today for a minority government is a demand that she be allowed to continue to hold the power at Queen's Park — something voters have already rejected," Horwath said in a statement.



"Now, a vote for Kathleen Wynne and a vote for Doug Ford mean the same thing. Let's not go from bad to worse."



Ford, meanwhile, had little to say about Wynne's announcement, noting only that the election is about change and people are fed up with the Liberals.



Liberal insiders said the party was essentially fighting for its survival.



Omar Khan, a Liberal executive council member, said the party is now working on maintaining official party status.



"We need to do everything to make sure we get at least eight seats in the legislature...so we can be in a position again to be a moderating influence on the other two parties," he said.



A senior Liberal, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "the party is facing an existential crisis."



"Right now we could win as little as zero seats, so we have to — as Liberals and I think all progressives in Ontario — need to realize that and kick into high gear over the next five days to make sure that doesn't happen," they said.



The source listed about a dozen ridings in which the party thinks they have a reasonable shot at winning, such as Vaughan-Woodbridge, Toronto –St. Pauls, two Ottawa seats and some in eastern Ontario. Wynne's own riding was not one the Liberal source listed.



A senior campaign official said Wynne started thinking about the move after her hope for a bump in polling following the last debate didn't materialize and it became clear the Liberals couldn't win.



Tamara Small, a political science professor at University of Guelph, said Wynne made a strategic — and "very unusual" — move in predicting her own government's defeat.



"It's a realization that the Kathleen Wynne brand might be more detrimental than the Liberal party brand," she said. "They're hoping they can salvage (the party)... it's about saying to people: don't abandon us. We will fix this."



By taking the blame, Wynne could be saving some of her key candidates who otherwise might have been tarnished by public opinion of her, Small said.



"So I think electorally, it's strategic, but as a leader of a party, I actually think it's really selfless. She's saying, 'I'm not going to destroy this organization with my own personal hubris."'



The move could nonetheless backfire and endanger the very seats Wynne is trying to protect by suggesting that a vote for the Liberals is a wasted vote, said David Coletto, CEO of the polling firm Abacus Data.



At this point, polls show there is less fear of an NDP government than a Tory one and this might push some potential Liberal voters to throw their support behind the New Democrats, he said.



"It's a risky strategy for the Liberals, very much a Hail Mary kind of pass at the late stages of the game," he said.



"I view it as the potential harm is greater than the gain but at this stage, I think the Liberals are doing all that they can to keep party status in the legislature and win enough seats that rebuilding is possible or much easier than if they get wiped out."



Liberal Michael Coteau, who served as minister of children and youth services until the election began, said news of Wynne's decision was shared in a conference call less than half an hour before she publicly announced it. Coteau, who wasn't on the call, said he learned of the move on social media.

http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/newsalert-liberal-premier-kathleen-wynne-admits-she-wont-win-provincial-election-3">http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/ca ... election-3">http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/newsalert-liberal-premier-kathleen-wynne-admits-she-wont-win-provincial-election-3



Kathleen Wynn is already preparing her party for rebuilding and rebranding by taking all the blame herself.

[Anonymous]

The last thing Doug Ford needs two days before the election.



http://torontosun.com/news/provincial/horwath-says-ford-family-lawsuit-raises-questions">http://torontosun.com/news/provincial/h ... -questions">http://torontosun.com/news/provincial/horwath-says-ford-family-lawsuit-raises-questions

A decision by his brother's widow to launch legal action against him came as a shock, PC Leader Doug Ford says.



"I've protected Renata in the toughest times, in front of the media ... 15 years of taking care of her both financially and personally, and I've bent over backwards, broken down brick walls to take care of Renata," Ford said Tuesday. "Where this is coming from, you're going to have to ask her. But I tell you my priority, when it comes to that, is the kids."



Renata Ford, whose husband, former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, died in 2016, claimed in a lawsuit filed Friday that her brother-in-law failed to live up to his legal obligations as the trustee of his brother's and father's estates and as a director and officer with the family business, Deco Labels.



"During the period of time when (Ford and his brother Randy) were officers and directors of the Deco Companies and in complete control of their operations, business and affairs, they have so negligently and improperly mismanaged them as to destroy their value," says the statement of claim, which has not been proven in court.

[Anonymous]

I think the results of Thursday's election in Ontario could be very good for progtards. Very bad for Canada and especially Ontarians.



http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/oliver-a-looming-threat-to-ontarios-economy">http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnist ... os-economy">http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/oliver-a-looming-threat-to-ontarios-economy

Be afraid, be very afraid.



Polls suggest the Ontario election has narrowed and the NDP may deprive Doug Ford of his coveted majority. A plurality might even be within its reach. That would be a major problem since an NDP government would have serious negative consequences for the Ontario economy.



In spite of her smiling demeanour and agreeable personality, Andrea Horwath's high tax-and-spend policies reflect a harmful socialist agenda — big government, fiscal profligacy, capture by union leadership, hostility to job-creating businesses, costly ideological obsessions, and socially divisive programs. This is not partisan alarmism. It's a conclusion based on her election platform, her comments and the track record of provincial NDP governments.



The Ontario economy is struggling. It is the largest subnational debtor in the world, with a crushing provincial debt of $325 billion and interest payments of $11 billion annually, greater than the budget for colleges and universities. High energy costs have eroded businesses' competitiveness, especially in the manufacturing sector. This was exacerbated by the dramatic decrease in U.S. corporate taxes from 39% to 26% compared to about 27% here, before Horwath's promised 1.5% tax hike.



Capital is flowing out of Ontario and exports are in jeopardy. The province's credit rating has deteriorated to the point that for the first time, Ontario bonds have a lower rating and trade at higher yields than those of Quebec.



To make things more alarming, we are ending the ninth year of an economic recovery, meaning an economic slowdown or recession is highly likely during the term of a new government. Pressure for stimulative spending to counter a downturn will be intense, automatic stabilizers, like social assistance programs, will kick in, and government revenues from taxes will decline with reduced corporate profitability. Deficits could then spiral out of control and we would face a credit crisis.



Instead of preparing for the inevitable rainy day, an NDP government would do the opposite. [size=150]Horwath intends to spend $30 billion more over the next five years and has no path to a balanced budget. She would raise taxes by $20 billion, which shows that asking the wealthy to pay a little more is NDP speak for taxing the middle class a ton.

[/size]

Ontario represents about 38% of Canada's GDP, so what happens here will affect the entire country. When I was minister of finance, we worried about the direction of Ontario's economy. Now the alarms bells are deafening.



There are other problematic platform promises. Horwath would repurchase all the shares of Hydro One held by private investors, which means reneging on a commitment to investors not to increase government ownership. The buyback would be financed from Hydro's dividends. In contrast, Doug Ford promised to send dividends to residential, small business and farming ratepayers, thereby reducing their rates by 5% or an average of $70 a year. Finally, Horwath's proposal would take about 30 years to complete.



Howarth was clear that she would never legislate a striking union back to work, thereby putting the interests of teachers before our children. Also, we know Ontario students do not test well. Rather than improving education, she would remove the embarrassment by eliminating the tests. And the list goes on, including candidates with limited relevant experience but disturbing and radical opinions.



[size=150]This election presents a stark choice between an NDP leader who would double down on failed Liberal policies that inflicted terrible harm on the economy and Ontarians and a Progressive Conservative centrist who cares about people and would put us on the road to recovery.[/size] All the smiling and spinning won't change that reality.

[Anonymous]