Opening Statement



Thursday 15 May 2014

Anchors Away with Andrea Horwath's NDP?

What was NDP Party leader Andrea Horwath thinking when she pulled the plug on the Ontario Liberal budget? The NDP polls are consistently low, lower and the lowest. She has plunged the party and it's progressive support spiralling down into a spring election she has very little chance of winning. 



Spring election 2014: What to do?!?

Andrea fought valiantly in 2013 to get progressive NDP concessions included in the Liberal budget. This spring she decided point blank not  to support the OLP budget. She rightly claimed on principle that they did not carry through with many of their promises, for example in lowering our car insurance rates. Nonetheless the Wynne Liberals had developed what can largely be described as 2 consecutive NDP style budgets. An Ontario Pension Plan for many of our working families was among the budget items within easy reach.

Despite the NDP's positive influence, the party has ironically incurred public distaste being blamed as the culprits responsible for propping up a corrupt government. Andrea's true efforts are not reflected in the the polling numbers. It's very possible the NDP could even lose seats. 

For Ms Horwath it is now irrevocably time to sink or swim. Regretfully, the NDP doesn't have a coherent and clearly articulated platform. Rather it seems more like she is stuck up the creek without a paddle, to coin a phrase. Today Andrea announced the party would raise the minimum wage and cut small business taxes. Sounds good! Something for everybody at the grassroots level. But yesterday she announced it was only "common sense" to somehow cut $600,000 in provincial expenses. That unfortunately sounds a lot like Harris minion Tim Hudak! When asked why she wouldn't endorse Horwath's platform, Mississsauga Mayor Hazel McCallom had the best line of the election yet. Looking puzzled she quite bluntly replied she isn't aware that the NDP has one. In this she is not alone and time is quickly running out! As the saying goes: Snooze you lose!



Unfortunately all is not well on the NDP Good Ship Lollipop!

It would seem a slam dunk that the NDP would have our union support. Sadly the party has been all but mum on our big teacher issues since 2011 beyond saying that they were against Bill 115 and wanted changes to Bill 122.  Rather than actively supporting us in no uncertain terms the NDP has been distancing themselves from being labelled the union party. Rather, it seems the NDP now fancies itself as some lifeboat of sorts for the middle class. 

Without a well developed and clearly articulated election platform it's impossible to know what the NDP have to offer. Fair enough, they've floated the idea that they aren't the Liberal party. But like the OLP they seem to be gambling that faced with a PC win, we will just climb aboard their ship to set sail over the election horizon with our support and votes. 

As teachers it could be very bad news to support a Liberal party that stripped our contracts in 2012-13, then virtually eliminated local bargaining with Bill 122 this year. We haven't even seen a contract offer yet. Besides the salary, benefit and working condition issues, we don't know if they even intend to continue funding our pension at past levels. All we have are vague assurances that they support public service unions and aren't Tim Hudak's neo con PC's.

Unless Andrea has a big secret weapon to torpedo an OLP or PC election victory, she needs us as much as we need the NDP. But how do we know that either of them will not turn upon us too like the Harris PC's, the McGuinty Liberals or for that matter the last provincial NDP government?

Hope forever beats eternal in the NDP heart! Will voters against all odds suddenly arise in mass to vote them into government again like in 1990 when faced without a palatable PC or OLP alternative?.Despite the questionable internal numbers they will invariably float showing that a surprise win is possible in each riding across the province during the weeks ahead, the plain truth is that they haven't even come close to forming a government let alone the opposition party in almost 25 years. One experiences deja vu as the Tim Hudak flotilla now blasts it's election guns picking up the PC union fight from where Mike Harris left off in 2003. In pulling the plug on the OLP it seems Andrea has just gambled away our future. It's at best a long shot that 2014 will somehow just just be like 1990 all over again. A pure bathtub full of election gin. Quite frankly with all the OLP + NDP hijinks it looks a lot more like 1995 to me!



Quite frankly she hasn't gotten a prayer of winning ....

I'd be willing to bet that the NDP is gambling that the PC's will win enough seats to form a minority government. Then the OLP would be hard pressed not to welcome an NDP-OLP coalition to keep them out of power. The NDP could demand cabinet seats. They could demonstrate an ability to govern. Sadly, it is the best bet that they have had since 1995 to get any direct hold on power whatsoever

We are all stuck now in a very bad situation. The stakes are foolishly high. It's equally possible that irate voters will instead decide to "toss the bums out", both the OLP + the NDP, and swallow the PC bromide that all will be well under a Hudak neo con government. Do the teachers fully support either the Horwath NDP and any of the Wynne OLP candidates without concrete assurances that we won't continue to be taken for granted? Or get screwed again? Alas, there are no easy right answers! 

Anchors away!

NEWS LINKS

34 prominent party members criticize Horath for abandoning progressive NDP politics in an attempt to become something for everybody @ Thumbs down? 

Andrea's response @ Has to

More election coverage below! Scroll down ....

COMMENTS?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

David David. The polls are propaganda. Bought and paid for by the media who as you may or may not know is bought and paid for. The strategy is voter suppression on one hand and promoting strategic voting on the other. The public tunes into the election within two weeks of E day. That is when the real polling begins. Look for ONDP to pick up to as many as 30 seats. They are in no trouble in Toronto despite the reporting. Go into those incumbent NDP ridings and see the lawn signs. Plenty enough to go around. The OLP is in bad shape. Worse than is being let on. See once stalwart tacticians like Warren Kinsella very publically distancing themselves from the OLP campaign team. Something is happening and very likely it'll be a PC govt followed by an ONDP or OLP opposition. Horwath continues the dance of the seven veils as she teases out her campaign platform. She has been in the media lens more than any other ONDP leader in 30 years. People are going to wake up to a similar result as they say in the Federal election with Jack Layton's Orange Wave. Again this was the media supressing NDP support through false polling. They have never been more scared than now.

Kulture Kult Ink said...

Yes. As noted, each has its party bias. That is why I will be referencing the aggregate 801 polls here on my site. Also see my blog on the elections as Political Theatre.

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