FJAG said:
Like you I voted Conservative in the last Ontario election with more than a little trepidation.
I consider it the litmus test. There's enough depth in the current Ontario cabinet to provide some levelling and stability. I'm waiting with bated breath to see how it works out.
op:
I grew up in Blue Ontario, with Bill Davis and the gang. It seemed to work well enough, and it could again. We'll see, I guess. I was not a fan of Harris, although some of his reforms like municipal amalgamations and downloading of services like EMS to counties and regions seem to have worked: the Liberals didn't touch them.
For me,the choice was a bit forced. At first, I didn't really know what to do. I was not at all impressed by the Tories' self-immolation as a result of the Brown mess, and I was not encouraged by ranting extreme social conservatives like Granic-Allen. (I've read the Ontario sex ed curriculum and I really don't know what the hell she and the rest of her gang were on about. It's pretty vanilla, really)
I would never vote NDP: I see that as the high road to a real socialist hell, especially at a time when Ontario needs a business-oriented government more than ever. The Liberals were well past their best before date, and clearly suffering from what I call "second term-itis", which IMHO is a disease endemic to the Canadian political system.
That left the Tories. I was impressed by the disappearance of Granic-Allen (I think Ford realized she was a liability), and I truly believed that the Tories were the best party in tough economic times. I was reinforced in that belief by Ford's early statement as Premier-elect that he would stand by the Trudeau Govt against US protectionism.
They may still have some extreme social conservatism baggage (like the CPC did when they first got in), but I believe that they will have their hands full on the fiscal/economic front for the next couple of years anyway. Ontario is a manufacturing, farming and trading province, with a very heavy cross-border freight volume. US protectionism could be lethal to Ontario, and to any government that looks like it can't handle the fight.
So, I'm willing to give Premier Ford a chance. I'll watch very closely, but I'll try to be fair. In the end, I am in complete agreement with George Washington's skepticism about the party system:
"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."
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