Oh NDP,You Have So Sold Out

From CFRA:

Alex Cullen, the NDP candidate for Ottawa-West Nepean admitted public sector job cuts are likely if his party is in power following the June election, but would likely not approach the number proposed by the PC's.

The NDP!  Sacking civil servants!  I never thought I would see the day.  And the problem with this strategy is that the vote they're trying to steal, the Tory vote...those people don't buy it.  They still think the NDP are communists.  And the party base, the people who've voted Orange forever...they're starting to think maybe they aren't communists, and looking at Kathleen Wynne's OLP.   The NDP has convinced exactly the wrong crowd that they've abandoned their values.

So they taking it on both left and right buttock.

NDP Should Stop Crapping On Windsor

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is damaging Windsor’s economy by exaggerating and exploiting the Herb Gray Parkway girder dispute as an election issue, Mayor Eddie Francis claims.

Francis has asked the Horwath election campaign to cut it out. He’s asked twice — the party ignored a written request last week and returned to slagging Windsor’s most important infrastructure project first thing Monday.

“They’re being reckless and irresponsible,” Francis fumed after the Horwath team attacked the parkway project the second time. “They’re degrading the quality of the project and it’s hurting us.”

That is all.

If Tim Hudak And Andrea Horwath Want Someone To Meet Rob Ford

Then they should go ahead and meet him. Oppo leaders often meet people the premier won't, as they typically have more time on their hands than the premier.  It would be a lovely opportunity for a photo-op with the mayor.  I'm sure Tim Hudak would like more pictures of him and Rob Ford together; I'm sure Andrea Horwath would like a few more too.

PS.  I'm a T.O. resident and I'm fine if Premier Wynne would rather deal with someone else rather than the mayor.  What good would a meeting do other than further the man's re-election plans?

Kathleen Wynne Is The Only Adult In The Room

@andreahorwath @rmarchesempp your unwillingness to have #AdultConversation re #UserFees 4 roads led me to cancel my @ontariondp mmbrshp :0(
— Trevor Haché (@trevorhache) May 30, 2013

From The Liberal Scarf:

Hache twice ran for the NDP in Ottawa-Vanier, and as Policy Director for Ecology Ottawa, a major Ottawa-area environmental organization which he was also a founding member of. (In the interest of full disclosure, I also worked for Ecology Ottawa for several months as a fundraising canvasser.)

Horwath moved the ONDP away from promoting public transit and sound environmental policy in the last election when the ONDP platform included a plank to use your tax dollars to subsidize gas prices for big gas guzzling cars. The ONDP's latest move to shows they continue to reject real models for public transit funding, and it'll be interesting to see how the rump environmental wing of the ONDP handles Horwath embracing the Rob Ford position on public transit.

Wynne's  call for "enhanced revenue tools" can be pretty easily mocked as code for higher taxes.  But at the moment she is the only provincial leader who seems to be offering a real solution to what everyone agrees is a real Ontario problem (gridlock around the GTA). The others want to pay for transit by summoning the magic pony.   And down here in T.O. Rob Ford's entire plan for expanding the TTC has been to wait for the magic pony to show up carrying bags full of money.  Mr. Hache's resignation is encouraging in that it suggests that a few politicians out there not named Wynne have realized there is no magic pony.