Na na na / Hey hey hey / Goodbye …

 

As in Ms. Wynne and the rest of her Liberal Sycophantic Crew.

The straw the finally broke the beast’s back was yesterday’s release of the Report of Ontario’s Privacy Commissioner, Ann Cavoukian.  In her Report, she found that senior Liberal Government Officials had illegally and blatantly destroyed e-mails relating to the Gas Plant Cancellations that took place just days before last year’s Election.

In a former Blog, in regard to a federal scandal, I predicted that Harper’s Chief of Staff and Senator Mike Duffy would be gone by the upcoming weekend.  The Chief of Staff resigned on the Sunday and just days later Duffy resigned from the Tory Caucus (albeit he should have resigned outright).

The same dynamics can be found in the Ontario debacle …but are much worse.

The Grits have gone from 1 billion dollar scandal to the next and in closing the two power plants under construction, they bought last year’s election result with our money and via their illegal erasure of the written record, have attempted to thumb their noses at us all.  

The negative reaction from the public has been predictable and in the face of that, I believe there is no way the NDP can continue to prop up Wynne and company.

The NDP have set-up a telephone line requesting input from the public as to whether or not they should support the Liberal Budget currently before the Legislature.  I can imagine the ear full they are now receiving.  Their number, for those wishing to call in, is 1-877-341-0244.

I even called in myself and spoke to one of their officials and voiced my concern.  The lady did not even attempt to dissuade me from my criticism I got the feeling she felt the same way I did.

Given this, the Liberals, dear reader are now toast and the sooner they pull the plug the better since if they don’t do it themselves, an early combined Tory / NDP vote will do the trick. 

In these circumstances, it is difficult to see the Liberals being successful in a new election but as I have said on former occasions – never overestimate the intelligence of the electorate. 

But regardless as to how a new election would turn out, for now it appears the current Government is teetering for a fall.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

Is Machiavelli alive and Well?

 

Certainly his deviousness must be as evidenced by the Tories calling for a broad audit of Senate Expenses.

(This Blog will be short and to the point)

From my perspective, there can be only two reasons why the Tories have called in the Auditor General to review Senate expenses.

Either it is an indication that they have folded in the face of public criticism and just want to buy time and by so doing get the issue of the front pages for now.

Or, they want to run on this issue in the next election and hope to use the AG’s Report to support their platform to either reform or deep six the Senate.

If they have done so for the former reason – they are sorely mistaken since it may accomplish taking  the issue off the front page for now but it will be back stronger than ever when the report is released.

And, there will be many more examples of misused government funds albeit both Liberals and Conservative Senators will be implicated.

Not a great strategy given that the Report’s release will occur closer to the time of the next Election.  One could even call it dangerous.

Or, two, if they are indeed counting on a very negative AG Report which they can use to muster support for an election plank dealing with the Senate, it may in fact work to their benefit and hence most Machiavellian.

I do not know which reason is a work here but I fear if one were to peel back the onion, number one would prove to have been the motivating factor.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

A Tale Of Three MAYORS…

 

Let’s start with the biggest story, in more ways than one … – Mayor Rob Ford.

Let’s be honest, Ford has been a great disappointment in his time as Mayor of the City of Toronto.  I won’t get into his many miscues only to say, these past few years, he has brought neither credit to himself nor to his office.

I wrote in a former Blog that he lucked in when a Court ordered his removal as Mayor a year or so ago for the nonsensical reason that he had failed to recuse himself from voting on a $3k grant to a football team composed of disadvantaged youth.  Ford’s sin?  He was the coach of the team.

He had shown himself incapable of doing the job of Mayor by then and I suggested in my blog that the court ruling was manna from heaven since it allowed him to quit the mayoralty post with his head held high.

Not surprisingly, Ford did not see it that way; he appealed successfully and the rest – as they say, is history.

Next on my list is former Ottawa Mayor Larry Obrien.

Obrien, unlike Ford, was a novice to politics having made a name for himself in the very competitive tech field  He wanted to revolutionize city government by making it leaner and meaner and in so doing, mirror private sector organizations.

He too went from one gaff to the next and very early on showed that he could not work with others – the ‘others’ being professional (read ‘long time’) city councillors.

He also campaigned on a ‘zero increased budget’ and yet with the very first budget, he voted an increase.  (Great way to motivate your base). Indeed, in his 4 years as Mayor, realty taxes increased by over 14%.  His campaign promise of ‘zero means zero’ meant …zero.

And then we come to the guy who put Larry Obrien out of his misery … current Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson.

Unlike the first two Mayors, Jim Watson is a consummate politician.  He has known nothing other than politics since he graduated from University.

Where Ford and Obrien have demonstrated they do not play well with others, Watson plays his council like a fiddle.

He campaigned on realty tax increases of no more than 2.5% and through sleight of hand he has convinced the public of having done so, i.e. no need to include user fees and the like in the final total.  Indeed, in this his last full year of office, Watson is now promising an increase of no more than 2%.

The guy is a shoe in for re-election and if he was not a well known liberal, even I might have voted for him.

Okay, so we have two failures and one success.

Why so?

Well judging from the above, skill set play a very distinct role and as the professional politician, Watson has the advantage.

But that said, many of us are tired of professional politicians – we see them as being too steeped in the status quo and accordingly are most unlikely to do what is needed to get municipal government debt – like all government debt – under control.

Simply stated, we are reaching the tilting point when it comes to more new taxes.

And let me continue to be candid here, I voted for the genuine novice, Larry Obrien in the belief that as a successful businessman, he would get our finances under control.  Call me naive.

In retrospect, Obrien failed for two main reasons, one being that he as a successful businessman his management style is ‘top down’ which works in industry but not in politics where compromise is the watchword.  Obrien would have been much more successful had he hired and listened to experienced political operatives to get his agenda through.  More on that perhaps another day.

But it is with respect to the ‘second’ reason that I would like to focus ….  ingrained self interest.

Both Ford and Obrien lean to the right and in so doing attract the enmity of the powerful public unions and left wing biased media. 

Indeed it was a Union Leader who pushed Obrien into court on trump up charges which by the time the court had thrown them out …the damage had been done.  Obrien was toast.

In Ford’s case, his main adversary has been the Toronto Star which, since his election, has been on a vendetta to totally discredit him.  Unfortunately it has been most successful in its efforts.

Conversely, Watson is a keeper of the status quo …and thus big government, big debt -  with unions and the press vying for the privilege of lending him their support.

So what are we to take from these three case studies?

I am glad you asked:

First, if a novice runs for mayor, he had better be a people person who is good at reaching consensus;

Second, even if he has such attributes, he needs to hire very experienced staffers to help make up for his or her inexperience;

Third, in order to gain the support of the powerful public unions and the media, you had better be of the liberal or ndp persuasion;

Finally, let me propose a solution for you.

Given that some cities now are bigger that several provinces;

And given that debt at the municipal level is unsustainable;

And given that Mayors have little more power than the average councillor;

I propose that party politics be introduced into municipal politics especially at the city level.

This would allow voters to vote in a slate of candidates under the Mayor enabling a focused sustained effort to address the issues of the day.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher’