Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Ontario Election 2011 - Comparing the Liberal, Progressive Conservative, NDP, and Green Platforms

Top 5 reasons to vote for the Liberals
1 – Education - A bevy of accomplishments in this area. Higher test scores, higher high-school graduation rate, lower class sizes, more schools built, full day kindergarten, etc. Future promises include 3 new undergrad campuses, increased tuition grants, more full-day kindergarten spaces.

2 – Business Tax Cuts - Cuts in Corporate Income Tax and Small Business Income Tax have helped create jobs. Further cuts promised.

3 – HST – It was a necessary change and will create a lot of jobs. They bungled the execution, which is why it’s more unpopular than it should be.

4 – Families – New caregiver leave program.

5 – Transportation – Full day GO train service, money back guarantee for GO train delays.


Top 5 reasons to vote against the Liberals
1 – Taxes – Health Tax, Eco Fee, rise in PST (hidden within HST). They’re promising no new taxes (again).

2 – Corruption – It started with $30 Million in grants to Liberal-friendly groups, got bigger with the OLGC scandal and finally exploded with the eHealth scandal.

3 - Caledonia – They abandoned the people of this town to lawless thugs by ordering the OPP to stand down. An absolute, utter embarrassment and the single biggest reason why McG is not fit for the Premier’s office.

4 - Energy - Billions of dollars going to Solar, Wind, and other renewables which will generate very little usable energy. The Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program has us buying renewable energy at significantly higher rates. Hydro rates increased sharply under the Liberals, and will continue to rise.

5 – Debt/Spending – Ontario used to owe about $100 Billion when the Liberals took over, we now owe $200 Billion. That’s money that we’ll have to pay back. This is mainly because government spending has increased almost 80% under the Liberals.

Five isn’t enough for this list, so I’ll add some more:

6 - Pollution – They promised to close all coal power plants by 2007, then moved it back to 2009, then again to 2014.

7 - Labour – There haven’t been any big strikes because the unions have been bought off with a lot of (our) money. The dollar figures are staggering.

8 - Premier Dad – They proposed a new sex-ed curriculum, then quickly abandoned it after being pressured by conservative groups. They banned pit bulls, which led to countless dogs being euthanized, but apparently didn’t reduce the rate of dog bites. They proposed a ridiculous young driver law, then quickly backpedaled. I can’t wait to see what they try next.


Top 5 reasons to vote for the Progressive Conservatives
1 – Taxes: Income splitting for families, 5% income tax cut for the first $75,000, corporate tax cuts, remove HST from hydro and heating.

2 – Healthcare – 5000 new long term care beds, tie hospital CEO pay to performance, increase residency placements for medical students educated outside Ontario.

3 – Deficit – Reduce cabinet size by 20%, reduce public payroll through attrition, review public sector compensation.

4 – Transportation/Infrastructure - $35 Billion in spending promised.

5 – Good Government – Appoint minister in charge of reducing red tape, make government information for contracts and expenses public.


Top 5 reasons to vote against the Progressive Conservatives
1 – Tim Hudak – After McG’s numerous screwups, this election should’ve been a cakewalk for the OPCP. Instead, they find themselves about to lose.

2 – Healthcare – They want to eliminate LHINs, which means that provincial healthcare would go back to being controlled from a central location (like Toronto).

3 – Education – They want to eliminate the foreign scholarship program, which was designed to bring the smartest people in the world to Ontario.

4 – Protectionism – Buy Ontario policy for government institutions.

5 – Energy – Ending demand based energy pricing.


Top 5 reasons to vote for the NDP
1 - Taxes – Small business tax cut, remove HST from electricity and home heating.

2 - Healthcare – Eliminate ambulance fees, cut ER wait times by half, open 50 new 24-hour clinics.

3 – Good Government – Ombudsman will get oversight of health spending.

4 - Transportation – 50% of transit operating costs, infrastructure spending on roads, bridges, and bike lanes.

5 – Andrea Horwath – Best person for premier out of the big three. If only she didn’t believe in policies that will hurt the economy.


Top 5 reasons to vote against the NDP
1 - Taxes – They will raise the corporate tax rate.

2 - Healthcare – They will eliminate LHINs.

3 - Protectionism – Buy Ontario policy for government contracts.

4 - Deficit – Develop an Ontario Retirement Plan, which will cost a lot of money. Also, we already have the Canada Pension Plan.

5 – Energy – Maintain Feed-in-Tariff, stop building nuclear power plants.


Top 5 reasons to vote for the Green Party
1 – Taxes – Income tax cuts, business tax cuts.

2 – Good Government – Reduce red tape, put all public contracts online, disclose expenses, and improve FIA requests.

3 – Really Good Government - Eliminate corporate and union donations to political parties. This one deserves its own section.

4 - Transportation – More HOV lanes, transit tax credits.

5 – Environment – Reduce pollution, improve water quality, improve sewage treatment.


Top 5 reasons to vote against the Green Party
1 – Taxes – They want a carbon tax!

2 – Nanny State – Incentives for people pursuing healthy lifestyles, require residents to participate in local energy projects.

3 – Energy – No new nuclear plants.

4 – Food – Comprehensive and unnecessary plans to micromanage Ontario’s food.

5 – Issues – Their platform is short and easy to understand, but it has very little information on key issues such as the HST, Healthcare, and Education. Meanwhile, one fifth of it is dedicated to a non-existent problem (food).