Joy and sorrow, products of every election day, certainly fell on Thornhill yesterday. Of course, there is joy in the re-election of Ontario Liberals to majority government and in the confidence voters gave Premier Dalton McGuinty. Despite all the legitimate criticism he and his government have received, voters recognized his integrity, forgave his first-term failures and entrusted him to address old and new issues with sincerity until 2011.
Disappointment in Thornhill because Peter Shuman, a radio talk show host from a station I though no one listens to anymore (it’s so out of date even my 90-year old mother stopped listening to it decade ago), defeated sitting MPP Mario Racco, a popular former municipal councillor and one-term MPP. I still looking for analysis election night results were very slow being published, reportedly due to computer problems at Elections Ontario) to determine if he was the only Liberal running fort re-election who missed another term. Certainly the religious schools issue was a major factor here, even after John Tory’s climb-down on funding. Thornhill is dominated by Italian-Canadian and Jewish ethnic groups and the Progressive Conservative strategy was to win Thornhill on the appeal of public funding for Jewish schools. In this case the strategy worked. Thornhill was represented by the Progressive Conservatives when I moved here in 2000, switched to the Liberals in 2003 and now has returned to the PC fold. In a bizarre election-night TV interview, our new MPP as much as admitted he didn’t want his new job, stating he ran to be part of a PC government and serve with John Tory. Not his exact words, but he didn’t know how to respond to his election because spending four years as a back bencher was not part of his plan.
Finally joy and delight in the good sense Ontario voters showed as 2/3 of them rejected the undemocratic proposal for electoral reform. Ontarians know there are problems with the current system. The 50% (estimated last night) voter turn-out is a sign of the disenchantment (although a cool and rainy evening - the first in months - may also have been a factor, as well as poll forecasts predicting a Liberal majority) and there is ample scope for legislative reform, but a proposal to reduce local representatives by 10% and replace them with appointed partisans was obviously a non-starter. The emphatic “no” vote makes me wonder why we worried it would be only the 60% threshold and sport of half the ridings that would save us from a rogue electoral system. The voters came through again and made the right choice.
Borrowing from former PC premier Ernie Eves , always the gentleman of Ontario politics (commenting on CTV last night), congratulations and thanks to all the winners, to all the candidates who put themselves forward and campaigned vigourously to provide voters with choices and options and to all the party workers who poured their hearts, souls and energy into the contest. It’s how democracy works and what gives our system its strength.
Disappointment in Thornhill because Peter Shuman, a radio talk show host from a station I though no one listens to anymore (it’s so out of date even my 90-year old mother stopped listening to it decade ago), defeated sitting MPP Mario Racco, a popular former municipal councillor and one-term MPP. I still looking for analysis election night results were very slow being published, reportedly due to computer problems at Elections Ontario) to determine if he was the only Liberal running fort re-election who missed another term. Certainly the religious schools issue was a major factor here, even after John Tory’s climb-down on funding. Thornhill is dominated by Italian-Canadian and Jewish ethnic groups and the Progressive Conservative strategy was to win Thornhill on the appeal of public funding for Jewish schools. In this case the strategy worked. Thornhill was represented by the Progressive Conservatives when I moved here in 2000, switched to the Liberals in 2003 and now has returned to the PC fold. In a bizarre election-night TV interview, our new MPP as much as admitted he didn’t want his new job, stating he ran to be part of a PC government and serve with John Tory. Not his exact words, but he didn’t know how to respond to his election because spending four years as a back bencher was not part of his plan.
Finally joy and delight in the good sense Ontario voters showed as 2/3 of them rejected the undemocratic proposal for electoral reform. Ontarians know there are problems with the current system. The 50% (estimated last night) voter turn-out is a sign of the disenchantment (although a cool and rainy evening - the first in months - may also have been a factor, as well as poll forecasts predicting a Liberal majority) and there is ample scope for legislative reform, but a proposal to reduce local representatives by 10% and replace them with appointed partisans was obviously a non-starter. The emphatic “no” vote makes me wonder why we worried it would be only the 60% threshold and sport of half the ridings that would save us from a rogue electoral system. The voters came through again and made the right choice.
Borrowing from former PC premier Ernie Eves , always the gentleman of Ontario politics (commenting on CTV last night), congratulations and thanks to all the winners, to all the candidates who put themselves forward and campaigned vigourously to provide voters with choices and options and to all the party workers who poured their hearts, souls and energy into the contest. It’s how democracy works and what gives our system its strength.
