petee_c

TTL & Christien,

I have no problems with what teachers do, and there are many good teachers out there.

I have no problems with the work that doctors do either.



I'm just saying that education and healthcare are a big part of our budget. My perception is that the education spending has grown when times were good. Now the times aren't as good, and measures need to be taken to rein in spending. A pay freeze sounds a lot better than a lay off.

I am not sure what the private school teacher makes, and have never been in a private school so I can't comment if it is better, or if it's harder (more challenging curriculum to teach) or easier as the kids may come from a better soci-economic(sp?) background and hence do better?

There have been a lot of hospital cuts in recent years. Many hardworking front line healthcare workers have taken cuts or gotten laid off. Many of these people work evenings, weekends, stats to provide care to the sick in hospital, and they haven't had a pay raise or a contract for quite a while. A lot of these people were probably young, and at the bottom of the seniority pile of OPSEU or CUPE. They were probably nurses, therapists, rehab assistants, pharmacy staff (Pharmacists and techicians), imaging people (xray techs), or lab techs. They made a lot less than doctors in healthcare. I think even some hospital CEO's have taken pay freezes.

You can't adjust the bottom line for education or healthcare, if the ones that collect a large portion of the budget won't reduce the amount that they collect.

P

Torontoworker

I beg to differ: Nice guy or not, he's got an agenda that is not well thought out - it's a knee jerk program borrowed from the Republican Party and transplanted here.

Let's go into the way back time machine:

Back before he was married to Deb, she would attend the Republican conventions to touch base and do research. What she brought back from these trips (her fellow travelers names escape me right now) was the basis for the 'Common Sense' handbook that the future Premier put out and which seemed to work ONCE with the common man in Ontario. Harris was 'headhunted' by the big blue machine and was best described at the time as 'the best of the worst' that the party could live with. Deb Huton became senior adviser and some say, disciplinarian when he would wander off half cocked or stray from the party line.

The interesting thing with Hudak is that he comes from a teaching family (both parents and sister) as well as he himself was a teaching assistant. How hard will he be on teachers if elected? It could go either way I suppose. Look at Harris: pretty much despised teachers and fought lot's of battles with them even though he was once a teacher himself. He left the profession after the teachers federation tried to remove his teaching certificate due to some <cough/hack> professional standards issues. The school board itself had no issues with him although one must point out that the North Bay school board... <edit: stop now says legal adviser!>

But I digress.

Back to Hudak.

His track record in Government was really spotty. Northern Mines and Dev. <A sleepy Ministry where he did nothing of note> Culture and Tourism <If you F**k this one up - your OUT is the saying around Queens Park> and then the old Consumer Ministry. Here's a funny story; so because the old MCCR had the LCBO/LLBO under it's mandate - good old Tim made it his mandate to visit virtually ALL of the wine producing regions in the world as a 'representative' of the LCBO <along with Deb the odd time> on the basis of 'research' into??? We could never figure out what this research was; better grapes for Ontario? LCBO have very experienced people so...?? Certainly not EXPORTING our wine to France or Italy. LOL Perhaps considering the fact he comes from Fort Erie and I don't know... I kept hearing scurrilous rumors they owned a winery... Nahhh, that can't be it.

So meanwhile down in the trenches - they can't get any direction on issues that were affecting consumers at the time. There was a real problem with 'curbsiders' who were selling hundreds of cars a year without a license - some of these cars were death traps or had liens on them. Legislation was long over due. Where was the Minister senior people would ask? In France. Last week it was Oz and NZ. The Deputy Minister and Senior Directors of divisions basically ran the Ministry. Wine came first.

Hudak and <Deb, the brains behind it all> are all against the centrist philosophy that ran this Province <well> for so many years such as the Frost era and Davis era. Called 'Red Tories', these moderates were successful at bridging the gap between the Liberals and the NDP/CFF parties and their viewpoints.

Hudak's views are NOT moderate, for example: 1. He proposed scrapping the Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal, 2. Is on record as signing a petition in 1998 calling for the defunding of abortions, 3. Wants to Spend $20 million to force prisoners to perform 40 hours of manual labour a week., 4. Count's Regan and Thatcher as 'idols'. Why do I get the feeling he would fit in well south of here?

Anyway, you get the drift - he's very far from a Bill Davis and certainly had the knife at the ready when John Tory faltered over his funding of religious schools and that fiasco. Word has it he 'loved' John's religious school funding and told him to 'go for it' when most everyone else in the party said no way. Gee, that's not Machiavellian at all, is it Deb?

The problem we have today is there isn't anyone right now in ANY party that appears to be ready to lead this Province out of the current mess we are in. Trickle down economics has been debunked. Spending our way out of trouble as the Liberals have tried to do hasn't worked. Fighting with unions or giving them the family jewels hasn't worked.

Part of the problem seems to be based in Ottawa. Ontario has been affected by free trade, Global trade agreements, out/off shoring of manufacturing jobs and crappy Provincial transfer funding. Quebec has their own deal. Alberta is a petro state unto its own. Ontario under the big Mulroney lie was supposed to be a center for the 'Service Industry' after we lost all our manufacturing plants in the free trade shakedown. Yes, we get 'serviced' all right... Lie number 47.

We need a moderate leader that will stand up for Ontario in Ottawa and will listen to the average working person instead of unions on one side and the Catherine Swifts of this earth and her like on the other side.

<Off my soap box>

tcc

"...Hudak's views are NOT moderate, for example: 1. He proposed scrapping the Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal, 2. Is on record as signing a petition in 1998 calling for the defunding of abortions, 3. Wants to Spend $20 million to force prisoners to perform 40 hours of manual labour a week., 4. Count's Regan and Thatcher as 'idols'. Why do I get the feeling he would fit in well south of here?..."

I don't have a dog in your race, but this statement is somewhat revealing about what we have been told to embrace as "da Canadian values". Do we really need a bloated bureacracy to police 'human rights'? What are we, Afghanistan? Whether or not you accept the activity of abortion, does the state need to fund it? Prisoners making license plates and gravel are not good? As for Reagan and Thatcher, they were prime examples of the kind of strong visionary leadership that you pine for. Remember, they came in at times of great economic and labor malaise and managed to lift the economic tide for everyone. Allowing us to be Porsche owners.
Pity us on the Left coast. It looks like we're in for 4 years of darkness. IMS issues will seem minor.

Targatoo

Yep. Anyone remember these wonderful uses of our tax dollars?

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/...on-claim-ever/

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/...nient-parking/

The concept of enforcing human rights is noble. The application of that ideal through the current regime, however, is flawed, unfair and expensive.

I don't think it's extremist to want to address a problem. I don't know Hudak's vision so I won't comment on it.

Torontoworker

National Post aside... <It's like the Star going on and on about their God - Jack Layton> both news sites have agendas. I used these examples to show where he is politically compared to previous Tory Premiers.

Not saying that *some* aspects of the OHRT are not insane - there are ample examples right inside this organization fighting their own employees! But the *application* of the legislation and the aim/goals of the legislation are two different things. I'm up for a house cleaning - not a killing off - a new direction. As far as prisoners doing work? Studies world wide show it does nothing for re-offending rates and actually costs more to administrate then is collected in income for the state. *Sounds* great however and hit's the target market. In the US it would be the white farmer from Kansas. Up here - the transplanted concept would be the same demographics except Chatham Ontario is replaced I guess.

His statements today will not reflect any of these ideas. That's for after when he hopes he is in power. Mc Liar did the same-thing. We heard NONE of his ideas concerning creating jobs in Korea and profits for Samsung in his lead up to the last last election.

Please... no more retreaded tires from either party <I ignore the NDP> - lets have some new thinking here.

Targatoo

And its those *some* aspects that delegitimize the whole operation, in my eyes. Sometimes the best answer is to shut something down and then find another way to address the issue at hand.

Most Canadians agree that the States is too lawsuit happy. I think we've become a little too Human-Rights-Tribunal happy. Sometimes, life just sucks and makes you sad. Doesn't mean that somebody needs to cut you a cheque, nor should the government prop up a kangaroo court to ease your sorrow.

*retarded tires

Jaak Lepson

Says it all ...

ronnie993tt

He resigned after seeing this.



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Did you know this about bats? The newsletter from, "The Home & Gardener" said:
Put up a bat house to encourage the presence of these shy animals. Bats consume 3,000 or more mosquitoes and other insects nightly, and bats are less likely to be rabid than dogs are.

Need another reason?
Bats are responsible for up to 95 percent of the seed dispersal essential to the regeneration of forests.Our planet is populated with plenty of bizarre and astonishing creatures.
Here are three from the Bat Family...
Sucker-footed Bat


Red-Winged Fruit Bat



Left-Winged Liberal Ding Bat If we could just train him to eat mosquitoes. . . . or do SOMETHING useful!