Ontariario Final Result - Ford PC's / 76 - 40 - 7 - 1

[JOE]

as a detached observer I thought Wynn was going nutty & her last term policies reflrcted a woman who was out of control.



in that regard she reminded me somewhat of the last days of BCs Christy Clark.

[Anonymous]

as a detached observer I thought Wynn was going nutty & her last term policies reflrcted a woman who was out of control.



in that regard she reminded me somewhat of the last days of BCs Christy Clark.

The Ontario Liberals have been nuts since they were first elected in 2003. The people of Ontario were their experimental guinea pigs.

[Anonymous]

^^Not quite.



One of the obvious reasons for the big victory of Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives Thursday night was completely overlooked during the just-completed election campaign.



It was a new law in Ontario that for the first time restricted third-party advertising during the campaign to $100,000, and to $600,000 for the six months prior to the election.



That eliminated a huge advantage the Ontario Liberals enjoyed in the 2007, 2011 and 2014 elections, where there were no limits on third-party advertising and public and private sector unions spent millions of dollars relentlessly attacking whoever the PC leader happened to be at the time.



That benefitted the Ontario Liberals — who won all three elections — because they were able to use all of their advertising budgets to run positive ads about their leaders (Dalton McGuinty in 2007 and 2011, Kathleen Wynne in 2014), the negative ones against the PC leaders having been created, and paid for, by the labour unions.



The amounts of money involved were staggering and, according to Ontario Chief Electoral Officer Greg Essensa, who had been warning about the problem for years, risked  creating "an uneven playing field," influencing election outcomes.



Given that Thursday's election of  Ford and a PC majority government was the first time the PCs have won an Ontario election since 1999, and the first time limits were placed on third-party advertising, it would appear Essensa was right.



While elections are influenced by many factors and people like to say they aren't influenced by negative advertising, the fact is, negative ads works, particularly if they are repeated relentlessly.



If they didn't work, political organizations wouldn't spend millions of dollars running them.



In the 2007, 2011 and 2014 elections, labour unions in Ontario, according to the Globe and Mail, spent $15.4 million on third-party advertising, much of it attacking PC leader John Tory in 2007 and Tim Hudak in 2011 and 2014.



hat was 94% of all third-party advertising during these elections, compared to corporate ads of only $641,000 in total, plus $409,000 by other advocacy groups.



In the 2014 election alone, third parties spent $8.7 million on election advertising, higher than any of the political parities and an increase of almost 400% from 2007.



Hudak and the PCs repeatedly argued that the lack of any limits on third-party advertising reduced them to having to campaign election after election with one hand tied behind their backs, giving the Liberals a huge advantage every time out.



They tried to prove through the courts that umbrella labour organizations like the so-called Working Families Coalition — an alliance of teacher, nursing and construction unions — were actually Liberal front groups, but were unsuccessful.



Ironically, it was Wynne's Liberal government that eventually tightened campaign financing laws after her victory in the 2014 election, where the Liberals again benefited from the lack of any limits on third-party advertising.



They did so amid growing controversy about their own fundraising practices, including selling access to Liberal cabinet ministers, going so far as to set up individual fundraising quotas for them of up to $500,000.



As a result of such criticism, the government tightened election financing rules for this election, the first one they've lost in Ontario since 1999, followed by victories in the 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2014 elections, until Thursday night.



You could even say the Liberals contributed to their own demise.

http://torontosun.com/news/provincial/goldstein-limits-on-union-attack-ads-key-to-fords-victory">http://torontosun.com/news/provincial/g ... ds-victory">http://torontosun.com/news/provincial/goldstein-limits-on-union-attack-ads-key-to-fords-victory

That explains it. I was wondering how that Liberal regime kept getting reelected.

[Anonymous]

Ontario had its best voter turnout in almost two decades, with 58% of eligible voters casting their ballot and virtually equaling the 58.3% turnout in 1999 when Tory Premier Mike Harris earned his second term in office.

[cc]

https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1005857233115099136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blazingcatfur.ca%2F">https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1 ... tfur.ca%2F">https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1005857233115099136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blazingcatfur.ca%2F



Now in Ontario, they don't get to do vile things they you shouldn't do anymore

[Anonymous]

https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1005857233115099136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blazingcatfur.ca%2F">https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1 ... tfur.ca%2F">https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1005857233115099136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blazingcatfur.ca%2F



Now in Ontario, they don't get to do vile things they you shouldn't do anymore

I am overlooking his Conservative party membership more and more all the time. Good for Doug Ford.

[Anonymous]

https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1005857233115099136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blazingcatfur.ca%2F">https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1 ... tfur.ca%2F">https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1005857233115099136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blazingcatfur.ca%2F



Now in Ontario, they don't get to do vile things they you shouldn't do anymore

I am overlooking his Conservative party membership more and more all the time. Good for Doug Ford.

Brother, Tommy Douglas has been dead for a long time. The NDP is the anti working class party. Like them or not, the Tories are the only party fighting for things like resource development that sustain a strong middle class and against carbon taxes that will endanger them.