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Ontario Election 2003

12:21 / 30.09.03

The Ontario election is on Thursday, and with luck, it'll mark the end of the Conservative government. Election prediction has the Liberals winning 49, Conservatives 20, NDP 7, and 27 too close to tell... so it looks like the Conservatives are dead!

Even the last Conservative premier, aka the most hated man in Ontario admitted today he was voting Liberal:

"Listen, I was there as leader and involved in campaigns and now it's Mr. McGuinty's turn and his team and I wish them well," Harris told reporters. Obviously, I'm voting for him," he said, minutes before correcting himself and saying he would be voting Conservative.

The gaffe had his advisers pulling out their hair. "Obviously he misspoke," said a senior aide, who called Harris to find out what happened. "He immediately indicated that he meant to say he was voting for Premier Eves."

The only bad news is the NDP not doing as well as it should, probably winning 10/103 seats at the most, even though they'll get a good 20% of the popular vote....

12:54 / 30.09.03

"Sounds like Mike's been hitting the sauce again." - Cailin

which would have been a far better explanation for his gaffe. As C pointed out, he is a former golf pro (and a failed teacher), so it's almost expected of him. I'm happy that the Conservatives are (apparently) on the way out; I am disturbed by how much of the people's opinion has been subtly influenced by all of our newspapers. Even the conservatives paper (the Sun) has been less than flattering when it comes to Mr. Eves. Each media outlet has been touting the liberal lead, focusing almost exclusively on them, using the tories for contrast. It's like the NDP don't really exist at all. Damn shame. I like their policies the best.

14:17 / 30.09.03

With luck, the Liberals will go through on their promise to study proportional voting and we can look forward to many years of a Liberal/NDP/Green coalition government.

01:42 / 03.10.03

....how sweet it is:

Liberals 72
Conservatives 24
NDP 7

...the long dark years of neo-conservatism are dead. Really dead. Like 30 lost seats dead! Like half the cabinet is collecting pensions now dead! Long live the lesser of two evils!

Foust is SO authentic

02:24 / 03.10.03

Well, I voted Green.

04:17 / 03.10.03

I voted NDP, knowing that my riding would go Liberal anyway, so I could participate yet not feel I was part of the problem once the Liberals inevitably do something to piss me off.

I just wish the NDP had taken that 8th seat, since I don't think they get afforded official party status otherwise.

Here's hoping the Liberals institute change where it's needed, not just for the sake. Dalton's rhetoric seems to be centred around changing everything but the weather, which if done without consideration, could really mess things up.

11:42 / 03.10.03

...the long dark years of neo-conservatism are dead. Really dead. Like 30 lost seats dead! Like half the cabinet is collecting pensions now dead! Long live the lesser of two evils!

It's one step towards something beneficial for the province. Now if we can only wrap our heads around electing somebody who isn't all about spouting meaningless crowd pleasers like "It's time to start working and building and dreaming together" instead of putting together any kind of real progressive proposals.

14:33 / 03.10.03

I voted NDP, and as much as don't like the Liberals, they'll prove themselves much less evil than the Tories if they listen to people for once instead of pushing changes through (school funding, amalgamation, etc.) for our own good.

97% of my hometown voted against amalgamation! Does the town exist anymore? Nope.

My great hope is that the Liberals will actually go through on the 'we'll study proportional representation' promise, and the Green Party can start getting some seats...

14:37 / 03.10.03

Don't get your hopes too high on that one. The Liberals like to talk a free-and-open game, but they hate giving up seats to anybody.

pointless and uncalled for

15:24 / 04.10.03

I'm really suprised about this. There are people who voted for Harris on a second term but couldn't support Eves. Not that I'm objecting to this but it boggles the mind.

16:24 / 04.10.03

I'm from Toronto originally but have been living here in NYC for a couple of years. My Mom told me that this election was going to be by proportional representation. Was she wrong? The Liberals are just "considering it". That bites. There needs to be a big push for a non-confidence vote if they don't come through with an actual democratic reform like that.

04:31 / 05.10.03

Proportional representation is anything but likely, since for the party in charge they're almost guaranteed a minority government, which is likely to derail any significant changes proposed by any government.

pointless and uncalled for

14:42 / 05.10.03

So I hear that the Liberals refused to afford grace to the NDP and retain a tripartite system. Seems like a basically flawed move and one with potentially disasterous results.

21:29 / 05.10.03

Hopefully, the federal NDP can win some seats in Ontario next year, giving the provincial wing a boost for any by-elections that pop up...

I think the Liberals may give a stab at proportional representation, as they must know that although they just got a majority government with less than 50% of the vote, the Tories could do the same in 4 years...