Tommorow's Tory Bozo Eruption?

Radio show host Bill Murdoch worries #Niqab wearing #terrorists might sneak into citizenship ceremonies. Lead. @cbcasithappens
— carol off (@caroloffcbc) March 17, 2015

Sure he's retired.  And when you do that the mind immediately starts to go.  And he was always a bit nuts; this is the guy that wanted to kick Toronto out of Ontario.  But...

Handouts For Hunters

"The only good coyote is a dead coyote," Bruce-Grey Owen Sound MP Larry Miller told about 150 people during sheep day at the 45th annual Grey Bruce Farmers Week.

[...]

Bill Murdoch, the longtime area MPP, was passing around a new petition he'll take to Queen's Park demanding a province-wide $200 bounty on dead coyotes. It is legal to hunt coyotes year round with a license, but they're hard to find and not worth the effort without an incentive, Murdoch and others said at the meeting.

If they were that big a problem, surely they would be "worth the effort" without an incentive. Next, Murdoch will be demanding Ontarians subsidize the local tractor pull. Get off the gravy train, Bill.

Tory MPP Bill Murdoch On Dictatorships

In this country we elect our dictators, other countries just appoint them.

I don't know if he is referring specifically to the ancient Roman practice of having Senators appoint a leader to rule during emergencies, or whether he's just being stupid. But I have suspicions.

Bill Murdoch On What's Wrong With Toronto...

...and why he would kick it out of Tim Hudak's Ontario:

Q How does the Toronto mentality differ from, say, the Ottawa mentality?

A I think a lot of the cities like Ottawa and London have been settled with people from rural Ontario. Toronto's been settled by people from out of Canada. So it's a whole different, multicultural city

I think what Bill means is that he came to town once and seen hisself a neegro. But maybe I'm over-analysing.

And on the capital city of the new Ontario:

One guy wrote it up, here in my own riding, that we'd have it in Bognor. That's where I live ... and we have a new bridge.... We didn't have a bridge for a long time and we argued and fought about it and finally they built us one.

So, in conclusion, if Hillier retires the PCPO has a substitute redneck to come in off the bench.

Hudak's Got Separatist Problems

Bill Murdoch takes the old Randy Hillier line, advocating partition:

OWEN SOUND, ONT.–A Progressive Conservative member of the Legislature says he thinks Toronto should become its own province.

He said rural Ontario is fighting a losing battle against "a Toronto mentality," adding that Toronto decision-makers ignore rural voices.

His big complaint--well, the coyote problem looms large, as does "red tape" for food producers.

Of course, unless the producers start selling to one another, it isn't immediately clear how separating from T.O. would solve the problem (or more specifically, separating Toronto off from the rest of Ontario--Rurontario would get the 905 ring). It isn't likely anyone here would want to lower their food safety standards to make it easier for a bunch of beef farmers to sell us downer cows, just because said farmers elect a different government. But if you look at this article on the same meeting of the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture, Murdoch's strategy seems to be clear: partition would allow Rurontario to blackmail Torontario:

Murdoch says Toronto would still rely on the rest of the province for many of its essentials, such as food, energy and raw materials.

"Where are they going to get their power? We've got a nuclear plant. We don't need Toronto," said Murdoch, who is annoyed that new wind energy proposals are in rural Ontario.

But I'm not sure that anyone in London, for example--which would apparently be the capital of the breakaway province--would want to eat rancid steak either, just because their fellow Rurontarions are looking to cut costs.

In any event, I am sooo hoping that Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak looks kindly on Mr. Murdoch's ideas. In fact, I hope he's willing to campaign on them.

The Loyal Opposition

You know I can almost see something under Bill Murdoch's dress. Is he supposed to be a Scotsman or a particularly raunchy girl-scout?

In any case, Dalton McGuinty can sleep sound tonight.

NOW They're Against Harmonization, But then...

QUEEN'S PARK, Nov. 30 /CNW/ - We know that Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak supports the HST; earlier this year he said there was "little sense" in having two separate sales taxes and understood how the HST "can help the economy" (March 24th, 2009 - Don Valley West, Conservative Party Annual Meeting).

And his House Leader Bob Runciman also said "I think our Party is supportive of harmonization" and that the HST is "something we think should occur" (March 24, 2009 - Media Scrum).

Ted Chudleigh (Halton): "Taxing businesses for their input costs is also a negative thing to do in an economy. It would be far better if we could find a way to harmonize the PST with the GST." (October 2, 2008 - Legislative Assembly Hansard)

Norm Sterling (Carleton-Mississippi Mills): "The Ontario government should harmonize its provincial sales tax with the federal goods and services tax." (April 23, 1992 - Legislative Assembly Hansard)

Okay, so that one is from a long time ago...

Gerry Martiniuk (Cambridge): "We have called on you to stimulate our economy by reducing the tax burden on business and new business investments, eliminating capital taxes in Ontario, reducing taxes on small business, and initiating serious negotiations with the federal government on tax reform." (October 22, 2008 - Legislative Assembly Hansard)

Frank Klees (Newmarket-Aurora): "No one can argue with wanting a more simplified tax process I think we all support that." (May 21, 2009 - London Conservative Leadership Debate)

Note that Tin Hudak is willing to let his MPPs pound on desks and generally look silly, but he has stated that he will not repeal the tax if elected. Oh, and lets not forget that the harmonization is a deal between the Provincial Liberals and the Federal Tories. As head desk-pounder Bill Murdoch has already admitted:

Stephen Harper Conservatives are pretending they had nothing to do with the controversial plan to blend the federal and provincial sales tax in Ontario, Tory MPP Bill Murdoch says.

"They can't divorce themselves away from this," Murdoch told Sun Media. "They're part of this whole scheme."

Team Hudak Goes For Its Own Jugular

Stephen Harper Conservatives are pretending they had nothing to do with the controversial plan to blend the federal and provincial sales tax in Ontario, Tory MPP Bill Murdoch says.

"They can't divorce themselves away from this," Murdoch told Sun Media. "They're part of this whole scheme."

And they are too, though Hudak and co. have been trying to portray the GST/PST merger as soley the creation of Dalton McGuinty, so as to make it easier to oppose. Murdoch's intervention, however, insures that we will have a bit of Tory-on-Tory violence.

As to the Ontario HST itself, well, I'm not sure what I think of it yet. I believe the plan is to send out cheques to the tune of $300 a couple of times a year (the story says $1,000 but I don't think you get it all at once) so the whole thing works out to be revenue neutral, and most of the big business lobby groups are touting it as a boon to administrative efficiency. You wouldn't, however, think the province would get on board with something like this if they didn't come out ahead. So skepticism is the order of the day.