My voting plan: Screw the rural areas, what have they ever done for me?*

[electricland]

So we have a provincial election coming (on October 10 -- good, I don't need to worry about an absentee ballot). There was a Liberal campaign ad on A-Channel, formerly The New VR, formerly CKVR, last night (early! hmph) with Ordinary Ontarians talking about how much Dalton McGuinty cares about the environment and has restored self-respect to rural communities and blah blah blah. My reaction, underscored by Metro Morning's take today, is "To hell with rural communities." The Greater Toronto Area has almost exactly half Ontario's population but only 47 of Ontario's 107 seats (44%). Provincial and federal governments delight in screwing us over because everybody hates Toronto, right? So beating up on us is a cheap way to curry favour with other regions. Apparently any time we get something we need it builds resentment, but you know what? Too damn bad. Toronto and other big cities have a lot of issues -- transportation, immigration, and pollution are three that spring to mind -- that smaller towns and rural areas simply don't have to deal with on anything like the same scale. And no, the answer is not to starve us out of existence. I'm glad that in recent years there has been a bit of a move toward an urban agenda across the country.

I want to know where my candidates stand on the following:
- Uploading of provincial responsibilities like welfare and social housing, which currently account for 32% of Toronto's budget
- A region-wide transit strategy and the money to pay for it
- Green belt legislation
- Environmental issues generally

For extras, I'm interested in:
- how their parties would handle mixed member proportional representation if it got in (more on this when I learn more) -- the anti-MMP side are saying that parties would load up their slates with patronage appointments, so it's presumably important to know how parties view the matter

Election coverage:
CBC
Spacing
Toronto Star

*I realize that they feed me and are generally a Good Thing to have around. But they're certainly not going to vote to oblige me. So enlightened selfishness it is!

Comments

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

you might want to ask at the all candidates meeting why McGuinty's much-lauded Greenbelt legislation allows the government to plow under greenlands for new highways in the Greenbelt whenever they fell like it aka 'it supports development beyond the greenbelt' - that doesn't sound like a greenbelt to me, it sounds like a publicity stunt*cought*

[thespian.livejournal.com]

Toronto has a sixth of the population of Canada. It has a higher population in the city itself (not even the metro area) than every other province but Quebec (add the Metro area, and the city is 1.5 million short of having more people than Quebec). I've personally never understood why Toronto puts up with as much crap as it does; Quebec leaving would be a pain, but Toronto becoming a city-state would cripple much of Canada.

[lostvoice.livejournal.com]

You should read King John of Canada, by Chrissy's friend Scott. It has a very interesting perspective on this Toronto vs the rest of the country argument. I'd be happy to loan it to you. Plus, I have to get you your potato salad bowl and spoon back!

[raithen.livejournal.com]

as part of the rest of the country, I am staying Quite. Far. from this discussion today ;) But I may well look up the book sometime. Unless my head would go splodey....

[themusesbitch.livejournal.com]

She should read it, especially since she and life_on_queen came to the party and bought a copy of the book!! Well, also-especially because it's hugely relevant to the content of this entry.

I need replacement parts for my brain.

[lostvoice.livejournal.com]

'Cause I obvious forgot that R&C were at the launch party.

I still need to get her bowl back to her, though.