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Tuesday September 21, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday September 21, 2021

How much does Ontario really matter to the federal election?

September 26, 2019

In September of last year, Ford said he wouldn’t campaign for O’Toole and the Tories in the next federal election, preferring instead, he said, to focus on provincial business. Ford was absent from the federal campaign trail in 2019, too, when then-leader Andrew Scheer was up against Trudeau. The Tories welcomed, and perhaps engineered, that. 

The unpopular Ford has kept his word — perhaps to the pleasure and to the advantage of the federal Conservatives. As the Globe and Mail reports, he’s even instructed his ministers not to campaign; if they do help out fellow conservatives, they’re meant to keep a low profile. As Laura Stone and Marieke Walsh write, “Mr. Ford’s cabinet members are being told that if they attend a community event at the same time as any of Mr. O’Toole’s candidates, they are not to post any photographs or digital evidence to social media, according to one of the sources.” 

Young Doug Ford: The Series

Pollster Éric Grenier notes, that this time around, there’s no guarantee Ford would hurt the CPC’s chances. But, given the looming uncertainty surrounding the pandemic in the weeks to come and the possible emergence of vaccine passports as a Liberal wedge issue, he says, “I’m not sure what role he plays. If he just stays out of it, maybe that’s better for everybody — because I’m not sure if he helps the Conservatives if he gets involved, but I’m also not sure he hurts them. So it might just be safer for the Conservatives not to open up that potential Pandora’s box.” Indeed. And it seems the party won’t. (TVO) 

 

Thursday March 15, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday March 15, 2012

Massive gambling and lottery shakeup coming

Cities — including Hamilton — will help shape the future of gambling in their communities during a massive shakeup of gaming operations in Ontario.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation announced the broad strokes of its plans to modernize its operations Monday, including introducing online gaming, building a new casino somewhere in the Greater Toronto Area, expanding into new areas and closing several money-losing operations.

It’s not clear how these changes will affect Hamilton, including Flamboro Downs, the racetrack and slot machine behemoth located on the city’s outskirts. And though this announcement opens the door to new gambling opportunities in Hamilton, it’s still too early to say what form that will take.

What is clear, however, is that city council and the community will have a say in the outcome.

“It will be up to us to determine what the future of gambling looks like in Hamilton,” said city spokesperson Mike Kirkopoulos.

The OLG offered few concrete details on Monday, declining to reveal which facilities would be closing and how exactly the changes will play out. The plan is expected to add $1.3 billion a year to provincial coffers and result in 2,300 net new jobs in gaming and 4,000 spinoff jobs in retail and hospitality.

Many of those jobs will be created by a brand new, state of the art casino scheduled to be built somewhere in the GTA. However, the OLG’s top executive say the Hamilton area is not being considered for that project.

One of the key elements of the plan is to bring facilities to “where people happen to be,” said OLG chair Paul Godfrey. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)