A Commentary by Doug Draper
So they are job creators, are they?
Mike Harris leads his comrade in arms and Ontario’s Mike Harris lite, Tim Hudak
That’s all we have been hearing from the Conservative’s Mike Harris, Stephen Harper clone Tim Hudak.Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak announced during a campaign stop this May 9th that some of his agenda would include eliminating about 100,000 public sector jobs in the province without, he insists, crippling “vital services.”
Excuse me for not having the memory of a fly, but I seem to remember a script like this back in the mid-1990s when Mike Harris, who was Hudak’s Tory boss at the time, promised that he would slash our taxes ant, at the same time, take a meat axe to the public sector. And everyone, from people working for the most minimum of wages to teachers and other public servants, thought that was just plain dandy until Harris ultimately came after their jobs, wages and benefits.
Now we have this privileged kid, who grew up with two teachers as parents, saying he is going to pup the boots to these people. Meanwhile, his Harper government friends at the federal friends have just presided over net job losses across Ontario and Canada totalling 29,000 – not too mention thousands more who have simply given up on finding a job and no longer show up on the unemployment lists.
Stephen Harper and frend Tim Hudak. Where are the jobs for Canadians this April? Have they gone to temporary foreign wokers? Where does that fit into Hudak’s job creation plan?
But then again, you never hear Hudak slamming his friends in the Harper government for losses of jobs in Ontario do you. It is always the fault of what he likes to define as the Mutiny/Wynne government, as if he is not a member of the Hudak/Harris government.
And while all of this is going on, the United States is booming ahead with reports of around 280,000 new jobs this April – one of the best monthly job reports since the crash of the ‘Great Recession’ in 2008.
What Ontario voters might want to study is the fact that the U.S. economy has done this with corporate tax cuts that are hardly as low as those Hudak’s federal buddy, Stephen Harper, has already allowed here in Canada. And Hudak is promising to cut corporate taxes in Ontario even lower, at the expense of revenue needed for services for seniors, health care, education and other things many normally expect a government to deliver.
Enough on this for now. I will have more to say on the topic of cutting corporate taxes and slashing public service resources in Ontario later.
(NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)
Niagara At Large 
I’d rather be shot in the face than have Tim Hudak, also known as “Mike Harris lite” as Premier of Ontario…this is a very angry sounding man and all he will do is cut, cut and cut again, everything from social services to much needed doctors, nurses, and teachers….It’s ok to cut things, but when you do it on the backs of the poor and disabled, your just asking for another riot, just like the one that happened in 2000 when Harris dictated this province….
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Here is a link to a Brock University professor in economics explaining why Hudak’s economics are not only wrong but dangerous. http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2014/05/06/how-not-to-create-a-million-jobs/
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I suggest the people of Ontario exercise “STRATEGIC VOTING” _ vote for either Liberal or NDP candidate in your riding who has the best chance to defeat the Conservative candidate. It may mean ‘holding your nose’ to cast your ballot but it better than splitting the Liberal/NDP vote to allow the Conservative candidate to win the riding.
If it is a Liberal riding, vote Liberal; if an NDP riding vote NDP _ return the incumbent to Toronto.
If the riding is currently held by a Conservative support either the Liberal or NDP candidate who has the better chance to defeat the incumbent.
I would like to recommend support for other parties, such as the Green. Unfortunately, under our present system of ‘first past the finish line’ a vote for either the Liberal or NDP candidate in your riding is a vote for the Conservative candidate.
MOST IMPORTANT: Exercise your right to vote.
In spite of the ‘Harper Photo Op’. today we honour those who went to Afghanistan to bring a sense of democracy. Let’s exemplify their lesson to the people of Afghanistan by voting June 12.
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I think Bill Doyle’s comments are exactly tight. Hold your nose, whatever. Avoid at all costs, and yes, they are many…. to invite slash and burn nasty Hudak. A man who has forgotten his roots, his parents, his family, should be sent to the hinterlands.
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Vote For Hudak And Be Haunted, Once Again, By The Ghost Of Mike Harris
Does that mean that a vote for Wynne we will be haunted by the ghost of McGuinty or if we vote for the Liberal supporter, Horvath we will be treated to Rae Days and runaway spending?
Why do we get to vote for the best of a poor lot instead of once in a while we could get to vote for the best of the best?
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Rae and Harris faced the same problem. Rae addressed it in a humane way with “”Rae Days”. I lost at least a week a year as a result. I would do it again if necessary rather than the “Harris Days” of slash and burn.
Unfortunately, we seem to have moved from an “US” society to a “ME” society.
Hudak is promoting the “ME” concept that is why I will not support the Conservatives this time.
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The problem, Preston is that we can’t really vote FOR anybody anymore because most politicians seem to be so extreme in different ways … Hudak with the slash and burn mentality which is certainly against any economic principals I learned when I got my degree in business, or Wynne with her creative big world programs that will cost billions and years to create … only to have us learn later that there was some scam going on like the gas plant thing … or whatever … For years now, I have been voting against and not for … as with this rigged electoral system, this is the only way one can make their votes count.
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Premier Harris’s cutbacks resulted in severe hardships for many, in a number of areas. His justification (and exact words) were “we can’t afford to spend like that”. That means the money isn’t there, which I had agree with, provided it was true. But that changed when he committed to the Olympics and the Toronto waterfront redevelopment, using money he had just said he didn’t have for welfare and other social programs. The splurging on the waterfront continues to this day under the liberals, and also includes the Pan Am Games, the Athletes’ Village and there is even a plan to finance the horse racing industry. Although some economic benefits can be expected from them, we are still spending money we claim not to have, and none of these things are essential. Other cities and provinces survive just fine without such extravagances, so what is our excuse why we can’t manage? Since we are finding the money to splurge, borrowed or otherwise, I submit that the claims about the province being nearly broke no longer hold water. How can we say we are hard up and yet throw away so much cash? I think it is time to reverse Harris’s cutbacks, including to welfare benefits. Premier Wynne’s proposed budget has a number of worthwhile things in it: a pension plan, timely in an age when the Baby Boomer bulge is moving through its retirement years and is straining the Canada Pension Plan, and the retirement age has already been extended to 67; increased taxes for higher income earners, but not the lower ones. This is fair since someone has to pay for the Pan Am Games and other indulgences that the taxpayers have not objected to having, and I don’t see why this should be at the expense of the poor or the welfare recipients; an increase in welfare benefits, a reasonable idea since we are having the money to spend on extravagances, and therefore can longer say we can’t afford our social programs; a hike in the minimum wage; and even a job creation scheme, which surely ought to please the critics. Premier Wynne and her budget should be supported. That being said, we should also oppose the splurging on the unnecessary extravagances I have mentioned, regardless which party is in power. But make no mistake, the Harris years were a nightmare for a lot of people, and many of us have not forgotten.
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I agree with your views re Harris Years.
I agree with you regarding the Wynne Budget.
Unfortunately Wynne has not followed through with her past commitments in the budget to get the NDP support. Perhaps this election will cause her to implement thebudget proposals to earn NDP support once again
I prefer the NDP policy to credit corporations for job creation in Ontario rather than tax credits to corporations to create jobs offshore.
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At least Bob Rae kept people working , 4 day weeks are a lot better than trying to collect UIC, Bob had a huge building, built downtown Niagara Falls, to house the Ministry of Tourism and Recreation, Mike Harris killed that move, also Bob said OK to a Casino for the Falls, after Wayne Thompson the Mayor, held a referendum on a Casino. Which then started a building boom for Niagara Falls.,
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I am and never was a Bob Rae supporter…but remember he and his party woke one morning with the surprising realization he “WAS” the Premier…Why was the NDP elected? Remember the truth, not what the corporate media has brain washed you with all these years, the reality was, the Ontario people were sick to death of the other two Corporate Parties.
Also remember the state of the Canadian economy at that time was God awful with no sense of what to do next. The Ontario Public sector, with their jobs for life were sitting pretty with nary a worry while Ontario people in general were sick with worry about their homes and their families.
What were Rae days and why all the fuss and ado? He asked the tenured public sector to take a day off and allow others that would be laid off to work so they would have a pay check to take home… The “BIG” Unions ( Basically CEOs) fought this tooth and nail and guess what the brain washing media supported them???? Why because they thought it was wrong to ask a Public Sector worker to take a day off??? Even as it meant others would have a pay check???? NO absolutely NOT it was totally NDP bashing that rivals that which is taking place in many countries in the world today, Corporate Control of People and their lives.
So in essence think before you bash or throw stones for our glass homes are not immune to breakage.
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I think having a couple of Rae days a month was so much better than everybody having a whole year of Hudak days once he implements his pink- slips-to-create-a-million-jobs-plan. I remember the Harris days all too well, the number of people that died over this period … I can recall their names in my head and how my agency used to honour them … usually a dozen or so in our quarterly newsletters. People with mental health issues are vulnerable, but I remember many people turning to us for the first time in their lives as they were brought to despair by some of the policies that Harris put into place.
While I don’t endorse runaway government spending either, slash and burn is just as bad, as over time this leads to more government spending on things we really don’t want to spend it on … more prisons, more hospitals, more police, more homeless shelters, etc. I think if we can somehow curb the white elephants of government, such as eHealth, ORNGE, OLG, Pan Am and other boondoggles and then put more investment in the people of the province and help boost the incomes of the poor and vulnerable, then we do have something closer to what I believe we all want to see.
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