Is Doug Ford ''too Hoserish'' to run diverse Ontario?

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by vid

Well, you shift the spending onto city budgets to shrink the provincial budget, forcing health care and daycare to be covered by property taxes, and city councils take the blame for tax increases! It's actually quite brilliant.

Puts the cities in a really shitty situation, but who cares? They don't vote PC!

Taken from the Mike Harris playbook. But the execution has been hamfisted.

More to come, no doubt.

[wave46]

Originally Posted by vid

The PCs promised to "reduce spending to eliminate the deficit", but they want to do it without raising taxes or firing anyone. So how do you do that?

Well, you shift the spending onto city budgets to shrink the provincial budget, forcing health care and daycare to be covered by property taxes, and city councils take the blame for tax increases! It's actually quite brilliant.

Puts the cities in a really shitty situation, but who cares? They don't vote PC!

That's probably the most 'clever' thing the PCs have done so far. It's not good (as a policy, I mean), but not actually dunderheaded from a PR point of view, which has been their modus operandi so far.

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by vid

Dude, you run this website. You could close this thread!

I could but I have too much respect for free speech to close the thread, that's what free speech is all about

On that note I got into a disagreement with a guy over PM's here and he threatened to report me

Originally Posted by Sarah89

Doug Ford is nothing new... just following the policies and legacy of the infamous Maggie. The media is far from leftist owned. Canada and our news media has probably been in Conservative control since Mulroney. Serve the rich, hoard the money. Destroy social mobility and create an oligarchy. The rich eat the butter from the trough as evidenced with the heft corporate welfare payments given to them while no poor person gets a chance.

I never said the media are leftist-owned, I said the media are left-wing because there are a hell of a lot more journalists working in the media than there are CEO's and most journalists identify as liberal. The only exceptions to this that I can see are the fittingly-named Rebel media and the National Post

No poor person has a chance? Really? Because I kind of thought we had equality of opportunity in Canada as evidenced by people like Jimmy Pattison who grew up poor on a farm in Saskatchewan and is now a multi-billionaire, although I expect you'd prefer equality of outcome. I agree about ending corporate welfare though, it's ridiculous and should stop, i've never been a fan of Prime Minister Zoolander nor his crony capitalist, vote-buying strategy

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by wave46

That's probably the most 'clever' thing the PCs have done so far. It's not good (as a policy, I mean), but not actually dunderheaded from a PR point of view, which has been their modus operandi so far.

You are right about that. It's difficult for the municipalities to band together and put the blame on the Ford government. The reason is that is won't be equal across the board. Some places won't be hit at all but some will really suffer.

[Dengler Avenue]

So what's going on? Did PC download healthcare to be a municipal responsibility now? I heard the news but didn't quite get it.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

So what's going on? Did PC download healthcare to be a municipal responsibility now? I heard the news but didn't quite get it.

Healthcare is being more centralized (at least the management of it... I'm not aware of how the funding sources are being shifted). It's easier to make the omelettes smaller when you have control of the eggs in your own basket.

Again, Harris did something similar, taking greater control of education from local power. But his government balanced that by downloading many social services to municipalities (and reducing provincial funding for them).

Healthcare needs reform and cost control, but the model Ford's following has been criticized as being doomed to fail on those fronts.

[vid]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

On that note I got into a disagreement with a guy over PM's here and he threatened to report me

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

So what's going on? Did PC download healthcare to be a municipal responsibility now? I heard the news but didn't quite get it.

Municipalities paid between 0% and 25% of the healthcare costs in their jurisdictions. (This was a funding transfer they made to their district health units or LHINs or something.) Now, all municipalities will pay 30% of the healthcare costs in their jurisdictions. Provincial transfers to municipalities are also being cut 5%, so municipal governments are looking at being forced to shift a significant chunk of their budgets onto property taxes, or cut a lot of things entirely.

But on top of all of this, a lot of the information with regards to provincial funding levels has not yet been provided, when usually it's all submitted in mid-summer, so municipalities are not even able to start the budget process right now (which would normally be half-way through by now) because they don't actually know how much money they have access to to build a budget in the first place. It's about to get seriously fucked up.

This government is truly dysfunctional, and when they ask for clarification the responses they get are either non-responses or threats of more cuts. We could be looking at municipal property tax increases in the double digits across the board in the new few months, especially in the smaller communities that didn't have to pay for health care until recently and are now being forced to pay for 30% of it.

My advice to the city was to do everything they can to brand this for what it is: provincial download tax.

Ontario is, essentially, shifting its tax burden from income to property values.

[Dengler Avenue]

Ford: 17% cut in income tax!
People: Yay!
Ford: 3% increase in property tax!
People: That’s peanuts so yay!
Ford: Hehehe...

Disclaimer: Those numbers aren’t exact.

[vid]

There hasn't been an income tax cut. He left the rates the same. There was a proposed income tax cut for small businesses (part of Doug Ford's platform) but it was cancelled.

The property tax rate increase is going to be well over 3%, that's guaranteed. Under the old funding model, Thunder Bay was looking at a 3.5% tax increase. It will likely be more now.

[Sarah89]

I wonder if Doug will go on to develop Alzheimer's disease like the other ultra evil conservatives Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher as punishment from God. It would be hilarious. But he'll probably die of Diabetes first.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by Sarah89

I wonder if Doug will go on to develop Alzheimer's disease like the other ultra evil conservatives Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher as punishment from God. It would be hilarious. But he'll probably die of Diabetes first.

This forum is always so mature. It's so out of character to see such old school trolling like this.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

This forum is always so mature. It's so out of character to see such old school trolling like this.

Is that (the trolling part) why Ottawaresident got banned??

I’m curious who banned him and why. Sure he sounded like that one annoying guy among a group of people but banning him seemed a bit of an overkill. (Some can say he’s better off investing time elsewhere, though.)

[Loco101]

I'd prefer to see the Doug Ford PCs lose the next election. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Ford isn't PC party leader next time.

[vid]

With the latest poll numbers in Ontario (federal Liberals leading by 17 percent! Ontario is a notable outlier in this election right now, I think the Conservatives are leading every other province right now) it sounds like the Conservatives are already preparing to blame their loss on Doug Ford. It's gonna be interesting.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by vid

With the latest poll numbers in Ontario (federal Liberals leading by 17 percent! Ontario is a notable outlier in this election right now, I think the Conservatives are leading every other province right now) it sounds like the Conservatives are already preparing to blame their loss on Doug Ford. It's gonna be interesting.

The Liberals are doing decently well in Quebec as well. They have a shot at picking up seat there from the NDP and Conservatives.

With Trudeau constantly mentioning the similarities between the federal CPC with the Ontario PCs, it's really going to hurt Scheer who has praised Ford a number of times.

[Dengler Avenue]

Scheer needs to pay dearly for his close tie with Ford and for not being able to contain Bernier.

ONPC should be looking at a total rebrand/revamp if they lose.