Lost beneath the local media’s extensive coverage of a Rob Ford sighting in Midland last weekend was a much more relevant political event. While the second-leading candidate for Mayor of This CityTM has suspended his campaign to go to Robhab, a more impactful political race is taking place as we speak. I’ve seen a few Ontario election attack ads during hockey games, but otherwise not much media coverage compared to such important occasions as the one-year anniversary of the videotape of Rob Ford smoking crack being seen by The Star. Erm, make that the first videotape of The Alleged Mayor of This Alleged CityTM allegedly smoking a substance believed to be crack cocaine to be viewed by a reporter. :P
But enough about Rob Ford…let’s talk Tim Hudak. The Ontario PC leader, best known as Timmy Six-Pack for his fervent support of the right to sell beer in convenience stores–an initiative I could get behind–now stands a pretty reasonable chance of being the next Premier of This Province*. Admittedly, it’s a pretty low bar to climb. After all, the last man to stand as Premier resigned from his leadership of a government one seat short of a majority over its most recent billion-dollar spending scandal. And yes, there was more than one billion-dollar spending-scandal under Dalton McGuinty…
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that the provincial NDP launched an election platform to end wasteful spending and support job creators. Waitaminnit, that’s the NDP platform? I’ll be damned if I ever saw the (Rae) day that the provincial socialists took a page outta Mike Harris’ playbook, but it sounds like Andrea Horwath’s moved the Dippers a little more than two inches to the right. Which is interesting for me, considering that I live in a riding that’s been held by the NDP provincially since 1999. (And no, I did not vote for the incumbent in the last election!)
But just like George Smitherman’s mayoral campaign ideas four years ago seemed to be awfully similar to Rob Ford’s, it seems the NDP is simply stealing from the party with the proven track record–for better or worse–of cutting spending and reducing debt. A left-wing party promising to cut the waste sounds an awful lot like one of Dalton McGuinty’s broken promises. How’s that balanced budget coming along, Kathleen Wynne?
I’m not saying that I’m definitely voting for the Tories, but just how I felt that voting for Rob Ford would prevent Smitherman, McGuinty’s former right-hand man, from winning the Mayorship, it certainly seems like the Ontario PC Party has the best chance of unseating the Liberals. And while I still rue the day that I actually marked a big fat X next to Rob Ford’s name, I’m pretty sure that Tim Hudak is no Rob Ford…even if his vision of privatized alcohol sales would enable several drunken stupors. :P
As far as I’m concerned, if you’re still unquestionably committed to the Ontario Liberal Party after 10+ years of shoddy governance and gross fiscal mismanagement, you’re just about as bad as those card-carrying members of Ford Nation. I mean, no one’s actually seen a video of Dalton McGuinty allegedly smoking a substance believed to be crack cocaine, but some of his decision-making while in office certainly raised the question as to whether he might have consumed some white, powdery substance, perhaps in the form of a rock… ;)
*catchphrase not yet trademarked.
