Entry tags:
Obligatory election post
1) That was somewhat unexpected, although EKOS had been calling for a majority Liberal government.
2) I'd give at least 50/50 odds that with a combination of a majority government and concern over deficit levels some of the "revenue tools" for transit which the government dodged when it could see that they would get no support from the other parties will be back on the table, and in legislation, within a year or so.
3) Given that the Harper government has even the National Post generally turning against it, and that the Liberals seem to have a respectable although not overwhelming lead at a national level, this may be the beginning of the end for the Harperian ambition to turn the country to the right. I've posted about this before, and it's becoming clear that the American neocon / Tea Party variant of conservatism is not effectively transplantable to Canada. (We do have a concern with government deficits which was not part of Canadian conservatism until the 1980s and 90s, but a big chunk of that was from the home-grown part of the Reform Party project. (as an aside, it is interesting to note that the government of the Reform-Party-background Harper has actually been extremely poor at putting major Reform Party planks into place, notably those involving transparency and electoral reform; and that the deficit-allergy component was normalized under the Liberals in the 1990s).
4) I keep seeing Hudak's platform referred to as an "austerity platform". It wasn't: a true austerity platform does not include tax cuts, and it normally sells itself with belt-tightening rhetoric rather than a dubious stimulative model with regard to jobs. It was a small government platform, which is somewhat different.
5) What I will be looking for with the Liberals is to see whether they have finally got over the McGuinty problem of making advanced announcements that sound impressive and then walking back from them to much more modest positions.
ETA:
6) I also keep seeing obituaries for Hudak's career which talk about his taking the high road and eschewing attack ads in this election. Of course he could do so; he had an attack dog in Andrea Horwath who was making all the attacks on the Liberals and Wynne personally the PCs could have wanted.
2) I'd give at least 50/50 odds that with a combination of a majority government and concern over deficit levels some of the "revenue tools" for transit which the government dodged when it could see that they would get no support from the other parties will be back on the table, and in legislation, within a year or so.
3) Given that the Harper government has even the National Post generally turning against it, and that the Liberals seem to have a respectable although not overwhelming lead at a national level, this may be the beginning of the end for the Harperian ambition to turn the country to the right. I've posted about this before, and it's becoming clear that the American neocon / Tea Party variant of conservatism is not effectively transplantable to Canada. (We do have a concern with government deficits which was not part of Canadian conservatism until the 1980s and 90s, but a big chunk of that was from the home-grown part of the Reform Party project. (as an aside, it is interesting to note that the government of the Reform-Party-background Harper has actually been extremely poor at putting major Reform Party planks into place, notably those involving transparency and electoral reform; and that the deficit-allergy component was normalized under the Liberals in the 1990s).
4) I keep seeing Hudak's platform referred to as an "austerity platform". It wasn't: a true austerity platform does not include tax cuts, and it normally sells itself with belt-tightening rhetoric rather than a dubious stimulative model with regard to jobs. It was a small government platform, which is somewhat different.
5) What I will be looking for with the Liberals is to see whether they have finally got over the McGuinty problem of making advanced announcements that sound impressive and then walking back from them to much more modest positions.
ETA:
6) I also keep seeing obituaries for Hudak's career which talk about his taking the high road and eschewing attack ads in this election. Of course he could do so; he had an attack dog in Andrea Horwath who was making all the attacks on the Liberals and Wynne personally the PCs could have wanted.