votes

Monday March 27, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday March 27, 2017

Hydro rates shock Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s approval rating

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has seen a historic slump in her job-approval ratings as Ontarians continue to fret over increased hydro bills and the sale of the Hydro One utility, says new polling by the Angus Reid Institute released Friday.

With a 2018 election looming, the provincial Liberal Premier has the endorsement of only 12 per cent of voters, down from a 41-per-cent approval rating just 18 months ago, the Angus Reid Institute survey revealed.

The institute’s executive director, Shachi Kurl, said Ms. Wynne has sunk to depths almost never seen among provincial premiers in recent history, with only former British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell dropping below 10 per cent before he resigned in November, 2010.

“There is no way to sugar-coat this, it’s not a good situation for the Premier,” Ms. Kurl said. “But clearly, based on what we’re seeing and hearing, there may be some continuing belief that the Premier herself, or the party can turn things around” before an election that is scheduled for June, 2018.

In surveying premiers’ approval ratings, the Angus Reid Institute polled 5,404 Canadians, including 804 Ontario residents. The survey was conducted between March 6 and March 13, just after Ms. Wynne’s government announced it would reduce hydro rates by an average of 25 per cent for households, and more for people in rural areas and small towns that were hardest hit by rate hikes over the past decade.

“I would suggest people really hadn’t had the opportunity to absorb whether or not they feel this is something that will credibly give them some relief, and whether or not it is enough at this stage,” Ms. Kurl said.

“You can reach a point with the electorate where a level of cynicism or a level of hardening sets in and no matter what is done, there’s no turning things around.” (Source: Globe & Mail) 

 

Tuesday October 23, 2000

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 23, 2000

They’re Off; Chretien calls Nov. 27 vote; opposition calls it opportunistic

Canadians will decide Nov. 27 whether the Liberals should be punished for calling an early election or rewarded with a third mandate.Amid opposition claims that his government is arrogant, cynical and out of touch with ordinary Canadians, Prime Minister Jean Chretien visited Governor General Adrienne Clarkson at her official residence yesterday.

He asked her to dissolve Parliament, officially triggering a campaign that had been going on informally for weeks.

Speaking outside Rideau Hall against a backdrop of autumn leaves, the prime minister said an early election is necessary to let Canadians decide what should be done with the country’s burgeoning massive budget surplus.

Immediately, the other parties dumped all over the Liberals, protesting that the election call — just three-and-a-half years into their five-year mandate — is unnecessary and opportunistic.

Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark, NDP leader Alexa McDonough and Canadian Alliance campaign co-chairman Jason Kenney each described Chretien’s go vernment as arrogant, framing what is likely to emerge as a central theme of the campaign.

“What’s happened today is that Jean Chretien has walked off the job, ” Clark said. “He’s walked off the job with a lot of business left to be done.”

The dissolution of Parliament leaves 20 pieces of legislation unfinished, effectively killing them.

“The record of this government is that of arrogance, ” Kenney said. “Canadians are tired of this tired government.”

Chretien calls Nov. 27 vote; opposition calls it opportunistic

“I wouldn’t expect them to say anything else, ” Heritage Minister Sheila Copps said.

“It is an election campaign and obviously they’re out to oppose the government. The reality is it’s the Alliance-Reform that asked for the election originally. Asking people to make a choice when you’re in the fourth year of the mandate — I don’t consider that arrogant.”

The smiling prime minister, who walked to the Governor General’s residence with his wife Aline, said he was feeling both confident and humbled by the opportunity to ask Canadians for another mandate.

Copps enjoys the highest profile among local Liberal MPs, who represent every riding in Hamilton, Halton, Brant and Niagara.

But Marlene Richards, Canadian Alliance riding association president for Ancaste r-Dundas-Flamborough-Aldershot, said she is sensing that voters in the Hamilton area are hungry for a change.

“There’s something exciting in the air, ” she said. “I’m feeling very, very positive about our own riding.”

Most local Alliance riding associations expect to nominate candidates within the next week.

During the weekend’s provincial Tory party convention in Toronto, both federal Alliance leader Stockwell Day and Conservative leader Joe Clark made appearances, seeking to win support for their competing camps among Mike Harris Tories.

The future for Day and Clark will depend on their ability to make gains in vote-rich Ontario, which holds more than one-third of all the seats in the federal Parliament. (Hamilton Spectator, A1, 10/23/2000)