christinablizzard.ca

Stop the buses.

It looks as though we’ve been saved from an unwanted and unnecessary election by a last minute bit of budget brinksmanship.

Premier Dalton McGuinty announced this afternoon he’s reached a deal with New Democratic leader Andrea Horwath for her support getting the budget through the Legislature.

In addition to the additional support for welfare and childcare that he threw her way last week, he also agreed to a tax on the rich - an NDP idea that is popular with voters. His compromise? The money raised by the tax will go to pay down the debt.

So it appears to be win, win, win.

Voters get not to have another vote. The Libs get to cling on to their minority government. And the NDP get to look like they wrung concessions from them.

Horwath is taking her time responding to the premier’s statement, but if she turns this down, she will be toast.
Next year, of course, all bet are off.

Long before computers and viruses, the Trojan Horse was the subterfuge by which the Greeks finally made their way into Troy.

Of course, “Beware Greeks bearing gifts” has a whole new connotation, given the European debt crisis.

But the notion of infiltrating your enemy using what ostensibly is a gift is alive and well in this province.

When the Conservative government of Mike Harris initially negotiated the deal by which slots were allowed in racetracks, the revenue splitting was 20% for the racetracks and the rest for the province, with some of that going to municipalities.

The horse racing industry should have recognized a ruse when they saw it back then. Gradually, over time, racetracks have become slot venues, with everyone now wondering why they have horse racing happening at a slots venue.

The announcement that Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation will remove the slots from three tracks in Windsor, Fort Erie and Sarnia not just signals the loss of more than 500 jobs. It sounds the death knell for horse racing in this province.

Fort Erie, particularly, is a track that helped build up Woodbine. Without it, even Woodbine will have trouble continuing as a racing venue. Sad day for the thousands of people involved in horse racing in this province.

Now that karen Stintz has essentially pulled off a coup at Toronto City Council, perhaps the people of Scarborough should consider separating.
Like him or not, Mayor Rob Ford was elected by hundreds of thousands of people across the city.
Not so Stintz, who represents her own little fief - with its own subway.
Now Stintz, in her megalomaniac wisdom is telling the people of Scarborough - not one of whom voted for her - what kind of transit we should get.
PC leader Tim Hudak held a news conference to back subways Tuesday.
“Council has degenerated into a war of personalities,” he told reporters.
He’s right.
How would I pay for subways? I’ve been saying for years that people in the ‘burbs should pay more to travel the TTC. If we’d been doing so over the years, by now we’d have enough money to pay for subways. Then you get the fatcat developers who make a killing every time a subway is built near their property to kick in as well.
I live in Scarborough. I’m tired of downtown types sneering at us because we drive everywhere. We have to. We have such poor transit. Why should Karen Stintz and the rest of the city tell Scarborough we have to give up two lanes of a major east west road - just because we’re Scarborough and we can’t afford subways?
Thanks but no. If we’re not getting subways, you can stick the LRT. I’ll stay in my car.

PC leader Tim Hudak had a tough time in scrums this morning, explaining exactly his party’s position on the approximately $450 million the horse racing industry gets from slot machines.

When he was asked why his party supported horse racing, Hudak kept talking around the issue.

“Dalton McGuinty is not just cherry picking, he’s pulling big bricks away,” he said of the government’s response to the Don Drummond report. Except that wasn’t the question.

Quite apart from the horrible mixed metaphor, you’re left wondering if Hudak actually understands the issue.

The $450 million isn’t a subsidy. It’s shared revenue the racetracks get as part of a deal struck when the government allowed slot machines in to their racetracks. Now that the government no longer needs the tracks, they’re pulling the deal and leaving the gee-gees high and dry.

Why couldn’t Hudak just say so?

Health Minister Deb Matthews was fighting for her political life Friday afternoon, as she held a news conference to tell reporters that the government is moving to get some accountability back into the air ambulance system after the Ornge debacle.

She called in the OPP this week to probe “irregularities” at the air ambulance system.

Changes to the Ambulance Act will allow the government to appoint a supervisor or investigators when it’s in the public interest.

She also said she was lied to about the safety of the helicopters.

“We were assured they had fixed it,” Matthews told reporters - although she couldn’t say who had given those assurances.
Teh choppers were configured in a way that made it difficult to perform CPR in-flight.

They’d also been told there was no mixing of the private and non-profit parts of Ornge.

Tory critic Frank Klees, meanwhile, says Matthews should resign - and the government should change the name of Ornge to Ontario Air Ambulance. Or something more colourful - like, say, LEMNS?

Whitby-Oshawa Tory MPP Christine Elliott wouldn’t put a number on the kind of support Tory leader Tim Hudak needs to survive as leader.

With the vote expected Saturday in Niagara Falls, the number most people are eyeing is 66.9%. That’s the number John Tory got in review after the 2007 election. Tory stayed on - only to lose a byelection in Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock.

It’s the same number Joe Clark said was not enough in 1983. He called a leadership convention.

Elliott said she’s not supporting anyone in the hotly-contested race for president.
“I am neutral in that respect, because in my role as deputy leader I think that’s important that both Tim Hudak and I as leader and deputy leader will be working with whoever the members decide to elect,” she said.
“But they are all three great candidates.”

After losing an election in 1999, Dalton McGuinty got 81% support.

“We’re not really focusing on a number,” Elliott told reporters Wednesday.

“I think the important thing for us is to move forward after this is over and get to work on jobs and the economy,” she said.

And Elliott acknowledged that mistakes were made in last October’s election, but said it’s time for the Tories to move on. She said it’s time to stop, “looking in the rearview mirror.”

Her hubby, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has picked his guy for president.

“He has indicated that he is supporting Richard Chiano,” Elliott told reporters.

It’s unlikely Hudak will get 80% support. Tories are a cranky bunch at the best of times. They tend to be fractionalized and tribal - and grumpy. Indications right now are that he’ll get more support than Clark and Tory did. And that’s all he needs.

Well, that has to be the most bizarre press conference ever.
Tourism Minister Michael Chan and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan show up at a news conference at Queen’s Park to tell us Ontario Place will be sold off. Could be for condos. Could be for a casino.
We just have to trust them to do the right thing.
What’s not to trust? This is the government that brought us eHealth and the Ornge helicopter boondoggles. What could possibly go wrong with them selling off prime waterfront real estate?
Oh, wait a minute. That….
They arrived at the presser with no details of the plan. They seemed confused about which parts of the park will close. They couldn’t agree as to whether the Cinesphere would close or not.
John Tory, the guy who’s going to head the advisory panel wasn’t at the news conference.
It was, in short, a shambles.
Are the Liberals losing their touch?

I am so tired of boomers being blamed for everything.
Now, Prime Minister Stephen Harper talks about delaying the guaranteed income supplement for a couple of years.
Why do all politicians make it sound as if Boomers are just such a big problem?
Hello?
It’s our tax money that has kept you all afloat for the past four decades.
It’s our hard work and effort that has paid for the overly-generous benefits of people who are already retired.
Can you blame us for wanting the same thing?
Instead, what we get is this nonsense that there are too many of us, we’re getting too old, we are going to be too sick.
No, we’re not.
We are actually health conscious and in better shape than any generation before us.
The fact that successive governments squandered our tax money and didn’t save it for our retirement is hardly our fault.
So stop blaming us.

Haven’t been blogging for a while - just too busy with so much going on and keeping the column going.
Now I’m fired up, though.

William spoke in four languages in Yellowknife, greeting people in French, English, Dene and Inuvialuktun. language. Here’s what he said:

Thank you, Premier. Merci, Monsieur le premier ministre.

It’s great to be here north of 60. This place is what Canada is all about: vast open beauty, tough, resilient, friendly, peoples - true nature, true humanity. Thank you, Chiefs, for this heartfelt welcome - and thanks to all of you who have travelled such great distances to join us today. Catherine and I are deeply honoured.

We have been here just 12 hours, but we have already sensed the extraordinary potential and the irrepressible spirit of adventure that marks out the peoples of the Territories and defines this land. We are so excited to be here.

Mahsi cho. Quyanaq. Merci a tous. Thank you very much.
Mahsi cho is Dene.
Quyanaq is Inuvialuktun.