party – mackaycartoons

Tuesday June 5, 2018

June 4, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 5, 2018

Wynne acknowledges election is lost, urges voters to ensure NDP or PC minority

An emotional Kathleen Wynne on Saturday acknowledged that she will no longer be premier after the June 7 election and encouraged voters to elect Liberal candidates to prevent the NDP or PCs from securing a majority.

The 11th-hour move comes as Wynne and her Liberals try to save the party from electoral decimation next Thursday.

“Even though I won’t be leading this province as premier, I care deeply about how it will be led,” the Liberal leader said during a campaign stop in Toronto.

“People want change, but by and large they’re confident about where Ontario stands and where Ontario is headed. For this reason — I heard this over and over again — many voters are worried about handing a blank cheque to either Doug Ford or the NDP,” she continued.

She added that voters don’t trust Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford and are concerned that an NDP government “will approach the responsibility of running Ontario’s economy with a plan that is risky and unrealistic.”

The only way to keep the province’s next government on a “short leash,” Wynne said, is to send as many Liberals to the Ontario Legislature as possible.

“The more Liberal MPPs we send to Queens Park on June 7, the less likely it becomes that either Doug Ford or the NDP will be able to form a majority government,” Wynne said.

The Liberal leader has, until today, been defiant in the face of daunting poll numbers that suggest the Grits could lose official party status after the vote. In Ontario, parties need at least eight seats in the legislature to be formally recognized. (Source: CBC)

SaveSave

Tuesday May 8, 2018

May 7, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 8, 2018

Trudeau to stay out of June Ontario election

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has no plans to campaign for Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals during the Ontario election, but the federal Conservative and NDP leaders are helping their provincial counterparts as the race officially kicks off this week.

Mr. Trudeau appeared with Ms. Wynne in Cambridge, Ont., last week as Toyota announced a $1.4-billion upgrade to its Canadian manufacturing operations, backstopped by $220-million from the federal and Ontario governments.

But Mr. Trudeau will stay out of the campaign once the writ drops on Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

“As the [Prime Minister has] said before, Ontarians will make their decision on who to elect as premier and he will work with whomever they choose,” PMO spokeswoman Chantal Gagnon said in an e-mail. “Since taking office, we have worked hard with the province of Ontario and achieved much.”

1995

Mr. Trudeau has generally steered clear of provincial campaigns since becoming Prime Minister, Ms. Gagnon said, although he campaigned in an Ontario by-election in 2016. He also campaigned with Ms. Wynne when he was Liberal leader during the 2014 Ontario election. During the 2015 federal election, Ms. Wynne promised to do everything she could to defeat Stephen Harper and elect Mr. Trudeau.

“The federal Liberals anticipate, as almost everyone … that the Liberals are going to lose the election,” said Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto.

“Associating Trudeau directly with that is not a positive.”

A recent Nanos poll puts Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives at 42-per-cent support, 11 points ahead of the Liberals. The Ontario New Democrats sit 10 points behind the Liberals, but Ms. Wynne still scores lower than Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Mr. Ford for preferred premier, the poll said. The leaders will square off for a first televised debate on Monday night. (Source: Globe & Mail)

SaveSave

Wednesday April 18, 2018

April 17, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 18, 2018

Andrea Horwath defends party’s big-spending platform

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath knows her plan to provide free or low-cost licensed daycare to families across the province will cost billions of dollars, but said the program will become sustainable in the long run.

November 17, 2014

The NDP platform, released Monday, promises to spend $375 million in the first year of the childcare strategy, followed by another $1 billion in the second year. By 2023 the price tag rises to more than $3 billion annually.

Under the plan, families earning less than $40,000 will get free daycare, while those with higher household incomes will pay an average of $12 per day.

The NDP leader told CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning Tuesday the idea behind the program is to get more women back into the workforce.

March 20, 2018

“It’s a sustainable plan,” Horwath said. “It’s one that recognizes that some families can pay some money toward childcare, but the lowest-income families simply are not able to afford anything at all.”

Some families could end up paying more than $12 per day, Horwath said, but most will pay less. She was unable to pinpoint the income cutoff that would determine whether a family will qualify for the $12 daily rate.

“Unlike the other plan that’s out there, our plan is one that’s got universal access to childcare. It’s not about how old your little ones are. It’s about how much your family can afford to pay,” she said. (Source: CBC)

Saturday May 27, 2017

May 26, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 27, 2017

Conservatives return to the scene of Stephen Harper’s last stand to pick a new leader

As noted by at least one scribe with a long memory, when Conservatives last gathered at the Toronto Congress Centre — a convention hall in north Etobicoke, down the road from Pearson airport — it was for a notable rally on the second-last day of the party’s ill-fated 2015 campaign.

May 13, 2011

What that evening seemed to present was a portrait of a party down to its last resorts. Stephen Harper, a man otherwise determined to be seen as a serious person, was campaigning in the company of Rob and Doug Ford and delivering a stump speech that relied on cash-register sound effects.

And two days after that rally with the Ford brothers, the Conservatives were reduced to 99 seats. Nearly all the ridings in the vicinity of the congress centre went to the Liberals, with Conservative incumbents falling across the crucial Ontario suburbs of Etobicoke, Brampton, Mississauga and Oakville.

The 2015 campaign precipitated Harper’s resignation. But the year-long campaign to replace him has not quite amounted to a repudiation of his time in office. And the return of Conservatives to Etobicoke this weekend, this time to crown Harper’s successor, offers an opportunity to measure what has changed, and what hasn’t.

What will assuredly change is the face of the party. By sometime Saturday night, the Conservative Party that was reconstituted after the schism of the 1990s will have its second leader.

Each of the 13 candidates also offers some kind of change from the Harper era. Maxime Bernier, for instance, wears nicer suits. Erin O’Toole is a military man. Andrew Scheer promises to be friendlier.

But as Michael Chong has learned in suggesting that the Conservatives might get on side with pricing carbon emissions, there are limits to how much change they are interested in entertaining right now. Or at least what kind of change. (Continued: CBC)

The Telegram, May 30, 2017 (St. John’s Nfld) *With slight alteration.

Friday May 19, 2017

May 18, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 19, 2017

What Maxime Bernier’s Canada would look like

The libertarian former cabinet minister is leading the Conservative leadership race, heading into the final stretch.

April 27, 2017

Maxime Bernier has a dramatically different idea about how Canada should work.

Bernier would get the federal government out of health care, transferring the full responsibility to provinces and paving the way for more private delivery.

Bernier would tie Canada’s foreign aid to “morality,” and believes billions of it should be spent instead on tax cut and healing the poor at home.

Bernier would end federal “welfare” for Canadian businesses, and axe popular tax credits for things like kid’s hockey gear and teachers’ classroom supplies in favour of across-the-board tax cuts.

And Bernier wants to do it all in a four-year term, should he become Conservative leader at the end of the month, and should he defeat Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in 2019.

May 28, 2008

In many ways, Bernier’s approach would be a significant break from the Stephen Harper era. Harper took a slow and steady course, favouring incremental change and reassuring moderate Canadians there was no Conservative “hidden agenda.”

Bernier is proposing dramatic change quickly — and his agenda certainly can’t be accused of being hidden.

“They’re conservative ideas, they’re conservative values,” Bernier said this week, discussing his libertarian-leaning platform.

While popular with a good chunk of the Conservative base, there is some concern within the party about how the greater population will receive Bernier’s libertarian policies — and how well he can bring together the Conservative family after a divisive leadership campaign. (Continued: Toronto Star)