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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!
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!
