Minority

Thursday April 16, 2015

Thursday April 16, 2015Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 16, 2015

Trudeau might be open to forming coalition with NDP, but not with Mulcair as leader

Grumpy Gramps Thomas MulcairLiberal Leader Justin Trudeau says he would “maybe” be more open to the idea of forming a coalition with the NDP if Tom Mulcair was not running the party.

Thursday March 19, 2015Asked on Tuesday whether having someone other than Mulcair as leader would change the dynamic in terms of a coalition between the two parties, Trudeau replied: “I don’t know…. Honestly, I don’t want to get into hypotheses. Maybe, but maybe not.

“There are no problems in terms of personality,” he told The Canadian Press in an interview from Oakville, Ont. “Mr. Mulcair is a veteran politician who has proven himself.

Thursday, November 28, 2013“His style is anchored in the old way of practising politics. Politics needs to be about rallying. And we have very different perspectives on how politics should be practised.”

Some recent polls have suggested the possibility of a minority government in Ottawa after this fall’s election.

Mulcair reiterated his openness last month to a possible coalition with the Liberals if it is necessary to topple Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

Friday, April 12, 2013The Opposition leader accused Trudeau at the time of putting personal interests ahead of those of Canadians because the Liberal leader had repeatedly expressed his lack of interest in discussing coalitions.

“Whenever we have opened that door, Justin Trudeau slams it shut,” Mulcair said. “My first priority is to get rid of Stephen Harper. The first priority of Justin Trudeau is Justin Trudeau.” (Source: CBC News)

Wednesday May 22, 2013

Wednesday May 22, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 22, 2013

NDP will support Ontario Liberal budget

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the party will support the ruling Liberals’ budget, avoiding a spring election.

Horwath made the comment Tuesday while speaking at a news conference at Queen’s Park. She said although the NDP did not get everything it wanted, it was enough to offer its support to the Liberal Party.

“We are prepared to support this budget within a process that ensures the financial accountability office legislation is passed into law early this fall,” Horwath said. “We will pass this budget based on the commitments this government has made and we will remain vigilant to ensure their promises are kept.”
On Friday, Premier Kathleen Wynne agreed to the NDP’s call for an independent financial accountability officer and new accountability measures in the health-care system.

Earlier this month, Horwath demanded that a financial accountability office be created to keep tabs on government spending. She has continually referred to Ornge, eHealth Ontario and the two cancelled gas plants as the type of scandals that can be avoided with an accountability office.

“People are upset that their hard-earned dollars have been wasted in the past by the Liberals,” said Horwath during a May 8 news conference.

Wynne also agreed to lowering auto insurance premiums, but did not agree to cancel plans for new high occupancy toll lanes or what the NDP has dubbed “Lexus lanes.” The premier also stopped short of the New Democrats’ demand to give the ombudsman oversight of hospitals. (Source: CBC News)

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Thursday, May 16, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, May 16, 2013

Examining the B.C. election outcome

No New Democrat anywhere in the country can afford to brush off Tuesday’s upset defeat in British Columbia. That starts with those who toil at Queen’s Park and on Parliament Hill.

Ontario’s Andrea Horwath and Thomas Mulcair really needed British Columbians to lead by example by handing the reins of their province to the NDP.

B.C. leader Adrian Dix’s campaign was supposed to provide the template for Howarth and Mulcair’s own bids for government. Once in power, it was hoped that he would showcase the NDP’s ability to manage a major provincial economy.

Like his Ontario and federal counterparts, Dix had spent the pre-writ period smoothing the edges of his party and it seemed that it would pay off.

Few NDP leaders have ever entered an election campaign with as big a lead as Dix had when the B.C. writ was dropped last month. His strategy borrowed heavily from Jack Layton’s 2011 recipe.

As an aside, it makes matters worse for the New Democrats that the masterminds in charge of the B.C. campaign were the same people who had earned bragging rights by bringing the party to the major role of official opposition in the House of Commons in the last federal election.

Instead of mapping out a safe path to power for 21st-century New-Democrats, Layton’s former chief-strategist Brian Topp and his acolytes ended up highlighting the daunting roadblocks that stand in their way.

Like Layton in 2011, Dix spent the campaign on the high road. There he was exposed to relentless Liberal attacks on the economic competence of his party. (Source: The Record)
[slideshow_deploy id=’824′]

Thursday September 6, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday September 6, 2012

NDP hope to block Liberals from getting majority

Premier Dalton McGuinty’s bid to win the majority government he was denied last October will be decided by the voters of Kitchener-Waterloo in one of two provincial byelections Thursday that could dramatically alter Ontario’s political landscape.

“I don’t know of a parallel situation in Ontario’s history…where one byelection could make the difference between a majority and a minority government,” said Barry Kay, a political-science professor at Wilfrid Laurier University.

The governing Liberals are expected to easily win the other byelection in Vaughan, retaining the seat vacated by Greg Sorbara, the veteran cabinet minister and strategist who quit to devote more time to his other job as chair of the party’s re-election campaign.

After falling just one seat short of a majority in the Oct. 6 general election, McGuinty engineered the Kitchener-Waterloo byelection by convincing veteran Progressive Conservative Elizabeth Witmer to give up the seat she’d held for 22 years to take on a $188,000-a-year job as chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.

“It’s always a little bit easier when you have a majority to act on a mandate, whether you’re trying to introduce a budget or move ahead with a ‘Putting Students First’ act,” McGuinty said this week.

Voters in Kitchener-Waterloo appear to have been turned off by McGuinty’s attempts to get a majority, said Kay.

“I thought that would play better than it has,” he said. “I think they are disinclined to give the party a majority. It’s not just a neutral factor. I think it’s a negative factor.” (Source: CTV News) 

 

Tuesday April 17, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday April 17, 2012

NDP Leader Horwath would rather negotiate on budget than force election

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says she’d still rather try to negotiate with the Liberal government than force another election.

Horwath told the party’s Hamilton convention she knows some people want her to reject the budget if the Liberals won’t make changes, even if it means defeating the minority Liberals and forcing an election.

She says the NDP has made it clear that it wants a freeze on welfare rates lifted and a new surtax on incomes over 500-thousand dollars – and she says the ball is now in Premier Dalton McGuinty’s court.

The Liberals say the New Democrats are under heavy union pressure to force an expensive and unnecessary election.

But while some union leaders like Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan are pushing for an election over the public sector wage freeze, others are urging Horwath to keep talking with the Liberals.

Federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair will address the Ontario delegates before their convention wraps up today. (Source: Globe & Mail)