Poll Alert! New EKOS on Monday

@Bigcitylib2 monday, and for all the poll needy we are going to be doing a rollin poll fairly soon so numbers every day!
— Frank Graves (@VoiceOfFranky) May 31, 2014

X Ethical Oil SpokesThing Running For Tim Hudak

Jamie Ellerton, his name is, and he's running down in Parkdale High-Park.  Click through link below for more on him:

@SunNewsNetwork @JEllerton The old ED for @Ethical_Oil is running for Tim Hudak? The BCLSB file on him: http://t.co/HSuMHixehL #onpoli
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) May 31, 2014

 His bio is interesting:

As the Executive Director of a national NGO, Jamie gave expert testimony to the House of Commons Finance Committee on the 2012-2013 federal budget.

The NGO he is referring to is, of course, Ethical Oil.  But note that he will not refer to it by name.

Mark Steyn Hires A Spy

As my readers may know, conservative political commentator Mark Steyn is in some legal trouble, having gotten himself sued by climate scientist Mike Mann.  While we should be careful to judge these things before they are done, it is fair to say that things are not going well for Mr. Steyn.  His legal arguments have been shot down at every turn; one team of lawyers have already abandoned him suspecting, perhaps, madness.

Certainly, Mark's latest activity on this file has the stench of lunacy about it.  He has hired a private investigator to follow Mike Mann around and collect "evidence" of something or other:

I'm happy to announce we're now taking it to another level. As you know, legal maneuvering and the usual procedural folderol of the sclerotic US "justice" system has delayed my efforts to get Mann deposed, discovered, and for the first time in his life up on the witness stand, testifying about the "hockey stick" under oath. So it seems to me this is an excellent time to get on with the broader campaign against the climate mullahs. Aside from the best free-speech legal team in the land, we've now taken on someone to direct this side of the investigation against Mann. He's already working full-time on the case - he was in Washington yesterday for the Congressional hearings on the IPCC, and meeting with climate scientists and others. He'll also be heading to Penn State and other places hither and yon. I've been very grateful for your suggestions since I struck out on my own five months ago, and if you've any more I hope you'll continue to send them our team...

I don't know what Mark expects to find:  Dr. Mann handing off attache cases to Russia assasins, or maybe lunching with an agent from Hydra.  But it is particularly noteworthy that he's making public the fact that he has hired someone to tail the good doc. It smacks of an attempt to intimidate. When his case finally does get to trial, I imagine this will be useful in proving malice.

PCPO Candidate for Sudbury Paula Peroni: Job Losses Will Be In Other Ridings

They're still doing the calculations, but:

Peroni says the party's numbers "are indicating very minor numbers in job loss here in the city... what we're really after are the high-paid bureaucrats, the majority of which are in southern Ontario, central Ontario, so we expect very little impact here in Sudbury."

Fair enough. If they're mainly going after fat cats in the south, then let's see the numbers. This should be on the record, in case Hudak wins.

Over to you, PCPO candidates in and in:

You got some calculating to do.

The Shorter MaRS "Scandal"

In 2002, Ontario's Progressive Conservative government, eager to throw off the notion that it hated science and evidence, ordered the building of some big buildings with words like "science" and "discovery" in their very names.  Today these buildings sit only partially tenanted, and the current government must deal with this fact.  Money is involved.  The end.

Tory Turmoil For Tim Hudak

See PCPO candidate Jeff Bennett disown Tim hudak's 1,000,000 jobs plan at local candidates debate.

Sri Lankan Paper Accuses NDP Candidate of Extremism

Don’t know quite what to make of this.  The source is a Sri Lankan Newspaper (The Sunday Leader); the guy in the picture does look like Neethan Shan, and he is definitely standing in front of a Tamil Tiger flag.  On the other hand, some of these Lankan papers through around their accusations pretty lightly.

Lame Group Of Seven Painting Fails To Sell

And no wonder.  Five dead trees, four rocks, a cloud, and an island.  And that is it. The trees aren't even blowing over the lake as in more ambitious G-of-7 pics.  This is very shoddy work, barely up their usual "rocks and trees" standard.  Yes it has all the required elements.  Rocks.  And trees. But just barely.  Like it was phoned in.  "Throw in some rocks.  Some trees.  Add Water.  Hey presto! More than they deserve!"

And I must say I am not generally impressed by this Lawren Harris charactor.  He apparently did all his painting sitting in the same chair out back his cottage.

PCPO Candidate For Simcoe-Grey Is Ready To Break Contracts

“We’ll do whatever it takes to stop WPD Canada from putting the wind turbines in this vicinity,” said [said PCPO candidate Jim] Wilson. “It is in process, and it may end up in a lawsuit, but we just can’t allow it.”

It seems to me that you can't effectively argue that the OLP was wrong to cancel those gas-pants...to the tune of zillions in legal and other fees...while at the same time promising to blow zillions by breaking contracts so as to cancel wind-farm projects.  In 2011 the OLP pandered to NIMBYS; in 2014 the PCPO is willing to pander to a different set of NIMBYS.

Dennis Gruending On The Federal Government's Callous Stance Re Syrian Refugees

...is here.  A small cruelty they must think they get away with, either because their supporters don't care at all or think one is too many.

New EKOS Poll Shows Steady OLP Lead, NDP Sliding Off Track Into Snow Fence Of Failure, Green Party Surge!!!!!!

From here.

Looking at the NDP numbers, one could make cheap jokes about "electile dysfunction", but we are above that here at BCLSB. The Green party spike is fascinating and, I hope, permanent.  Having even one GP rep has made an out-sized difference not only federally with Canadian Hero Lizzy May as an MP, but out in B.C. where Andrew Weaver has been stirring up shit like nobody's business as an MLA.  Electing a Green MPP in Ontario would be like a refreshing taste of spearmint in the stale air down at Queen's Park.

PS.  Yes just writing about Ontario polls is lazy but nothing else has got me really juiced the past couple of weeks.

Booyah! New Ipsos Poll Shows PCPO Collapse!

To watch Darrell Bricker, Global CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs,  strut about twitter today, you'd've thought Hudak's PCPO had a strangle-hold on the Ontario provincial election.  But really their vote is imploding! According to his own damn polling agency:

Ontario Race Tightens: Hudak PCs Slip (35%, -4), Horwath NDP Gain (28%, +4) and Wynne Liberals Stall (31%, +1) among Decided Voters

Im...Fucking...ploding.  Darrell doesn't see this, cuz he's invested in some theory about "Laurentian Elites", where nine-toothed goobers from the West and the rural areas are taking over the political realm and us losers from the big cities, with our intellectuals and manufacturing and uppity multicult ways are doomed to be replaced by a bunch of  corn-pones who shovel pigshit and mine bitumen for a living.  But it looks like he's missing the BIG SHIFT, at least as it applies to Ontario.  Hudak's million pink-slip plan has laid an egg among the populace, and the soufflé of discontent he was hoping to ride into office is in the process of falling into a dump cake made entirely of electoral  crap!!!  BOOYAH!!! BOOYAH!!! ONWARD OLP SOLDIERS!  VICTORY OR VALHALLA!!!!

New Forum Poll Shows OLP Moving Ahead

Sure its only Forum (from here, but behind irritating pay-wall.).  But it does show what common-sense dictates...that running on a platform of "leaner times for all" won't fire up no crowds. It also shows something confirmed by every other poll, regardless of source: that the NDP campaign has come out of the starting blocks like a burnt soufflé from your mama's oven.  And the message they've  run on...trying to compete with Hudak for the right-wing vote...has been incoherent.  PCPO supporters still think they commies; their own supporters are no longer sure.

Doug Holyday In Trouble

Good morning, Toronto residents.

From here.

Most Interesting Bit From The New Abacus Poll

...which you can find in its entirety here:

Voters more likely to have been contacted by OLP or PC campaigns than NDP campaign.

...which reflects my own experience in Scarborough this time around.  The NDP has been very slow off the mark, them of the unparalleled ground game.  And they started the damn election in the first place!  Anyway, OK news for the OLP.  VICTORY OR VALHALLA!!!

Update: Derek Leebosh of Environics disputes my conclusion:

@Bigcitylib2 Its an interesting point but can be easily explained by how many more OLP and PC incumbents there are compared to NDP
— Derek Leebosh (@Dleebosh) May 20, 2014

@Bigcitylib2 In the first half of a campaign incumbents tend to be first off the mark. Also, NDP likely being more selective in targetting
— Derek Leebosh (@Dleebosh) May 20, 2014

Die Media Die: Paywalls Already On Way Out

I believe that over the next 24 months we will see the legacy meter model (yes, legacy only after two years) fade into the background.

In its place we can expect to see new alternatives emerge, such as premium sites, tablet experiments, new smartphone developments, and creative concepts that we’ve not yet even imagined. As well, we might likely see in the next year or two innovations around the idea of selling content memberships rather than newspaper subscriptions.

It’s unfortunate the meter paywall approach is turning out not to be the saviour it was hoped it would be. But as has been said many times before, hope is not a good strategy.

The author is Sandy MacLeod, vice-president for consumer marketing and strategy at The Toronto Star.  Not hard to forsee this one.  Really, the problem for the newspaper industry is nothing is working. Maybe "giving away news" ten years ago was a really bad idea, but it isn't something that can be put back in the box.  What's the answer?  I don't know the answer.

PCPO MPP Lisa MacLeod: An Inconvenient Clip

Its truncated, sure.  But anyone's first impression of PCPO MPP Lisa defending  Tim Hudak's jobs plan is that a Hudak gov. will somehow include women taking maternity leave in its total of 100,000 civil servants fired.  Clarification is surely needed.

Hudak's New Ad

My favorite bit.  He's just fired a bunch of people.  It wasn't an easy decision.  It was a hard one. It didn't make him happy.

The rest of  is here.

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.

New EKOS Poll Result Is Good For OLP

First the highlights: our polling shows the Liberals with a clear and possibly growing lead. They have opened up a seven-point lead on Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives (PC) and the (for now) hapless NDP have blown up under a decision to pull the plug on a budget that normally would have been seen as quite attractive to the NDP and their supporters. 

My analysis: SUCK IT HATERS!  SEE THIS PINK THING WIGGLING HERE!  ITS MY ASS! KISS IT! BOOYAH!!!  BOOYAH!!!!!  VICTORY OR VALHALLA!!!