"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday 8 December 2014

Happiness runs s in Circular Motions

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Fiendish Plot ....":

Ontarians gave them 4yrs of more BS. 4yrs of doing whatever and however the liberals please. I betting the voter turn out in the next provincial election will be much higher.

Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 7 December 2014 12:23


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I  think whatever the Liberals please is not  necessarily what  they will do in the next four years. 

I think whatever feverish political strategists indicate will please the greatest number is what  Liberals will do.

It's  the nuanced change in modern politics I find difficult to adapt.

It isn't a new factor.  It was ever thus.  Y'know......bread and circus ..circuses? circusi?  Circus I?

All leadership dressed up in tu-tus, toe shoes,sugar plums and miscommunication.

It's not peculiar to Liberals. 

Conservatives and New Democrats  and other levels do it too. 

The affluent have expectations of their government. 

The astonishing result of the last provincial election is proof positive how far the pendulum has swung.

Bob Rae, a decade and a half ago was drummed out by Public Service Workers Unions. He dared to suggest how jobs might be saved in an economic downturn. He was so drummed out he joined the Liberals.

In the last election,Sid Ryan head of  CUPE , was fully on side with Ms Wynn and the Liberal budget

Not with Andrea Horvath and the NDP .....the  party of organized labour.  Hah!

Teachers'  unions have every reason to love Liberals.

After service was withheld for months and Ms Wynne  publicly declared there was no extra money
to settle their dispute.......The dispute was  magically and quietly settled.     

Last week we learned from the Auditor , it cost 500 million with less unpaid professional development days meaning more paid professional development days, an extra sick day and phased out pay-out of unused sick days on retirement. A nefarious practice ended two decades ago in other municipal services.

Last week the Minister of Education was repeating the mantra of justification for cost. Not the Premier.  She who made public the vow of no more money.

I hear  Professional Firefighters have won  parity with  Police  in the latest arbitration decision  in their favour.

No-one can forget  the stirring picture of firefighters in protective gear holding signs on high ;

Firefighters for McGuinty ... on the eve of the previous election.

No doubt  police would have been mustered as well if  participation in politics wasn't prohibited
by the Police Act.

No parity there.

There were cancelled  power generation contracts; one  to save the seat of smooth and unctuous Charles Sousa currently Provincial Treasurer ... the other to bow to indomitable force and erstwhile Mayor McCallion of Mississauga.

Public health nurses, librarians  all   whose jobs require university credentials look to teachers
as comparitors in wages and benefits negotiations .Teachers contract are for ten months.

Teachers  look to police and firefighters whose jobs do not require university credentials.

Every new statutory holiday has hefty cost but wins political kudos.

Patients have meds distributed by nurses at the end of long shifts.

Children receive less instruction and  programs like special education assistance are cut so the greatest needs  are not met.

 Every year Food Bank usage climbs by leaps and bounds.

 Housing wait lists are meaningless. They never reduce.

Stealing potentially empty poppy boxes become common  criminal occurrence.

Increased  spousal abuse increases the need for shelters .

On and on it goes, the ever-widening circle spinning,spinning out of control.





7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ms Wynne is also taking on the TDSB on which she was once a rabid trustee. That is going to take a lot of time and probably money to sort out. Because the teachers in the province sure were not the beneficiaries of that " secret settlement ." Any financial pay-offs simply did not trickle down.

Anonymous said...

I have to disagree with you. After blowing away billions with the last 12yrs of scandals, and coming back with a majority screams: “We can do as we please”. Hudak was a fool with his talk about cutting union jobs. He lost his status as leader and should have lost his seat as well for stupidity. That being said the Liberals will continue their scandalous ways, because the people of this province gave them the 2 thumbs up to continue.

Anonymous said...


I think there should be a merit/demerit system for ALL politicians.

When their demerit point gets to a certain number, they are out and should go straight to jail - DO NOT STOP.

The length of time in the slammer to be determined by public vote.

Anonymous said...

15:00- We're a long way from that one. They now get lucrative payouts, retirement packages and private sector jobs. Being scandalous pays well in this province.

Anonymous said...

15:15
But no one can force us to read their books.

Anonymous said...

14:19
You must be a teacher at the top of your pay grid. Every other teacher benefited from the "secret settlement"
Even EFTO members who coincidentally called then Education Minister K Wynne's bluff and got a reduced wage package in 2008 got payback.

Anonymous said...

14:19
I wish I were in that economic bracket.
Missed again.