The last election special I’ll be hosting for sometime is taking place today (Thursday, Oct. 6) at Vapor Central. The Mernahuana Show is doing a Thursday night crossover with regularly scheduled Third Klass Comedy. It’s going to be interesting because comedians will add the necessary vibe that is actually found inside Queens Park. They’ll provide antics. I’ll provide the politics.
The CBC‘s big woe is to show a Toronto Maple Leafs home opener or not. Against Montreal Canadians no less! Until a Toronto Maple Leaf home opener is declared an Ontario holiday this problem won’t be solved. Who’s going to promise that Freedom Party’s Matthew Oliver?
Outside of Ontario few people actually care about our provincial election. A Bob Rae play is not known in other provinces. Outside of their own province people just don’t know who provincial political players are. I could name a British Columbia premier, such as Glenn Campbell, but who’s their new person. (I could google the answer, but like I said, we don’t really care what happens in other provinces.) It’s not even an Ontario thing. Quebec has Jean Charest, but he has been premier forever. Two days ago Manitoba won a fourth NDP majority. But that was national news.
Apparently some farmers somewhere love socialism. Not Ontario farmers! Where it’s the opposite. Cities vote for the orange and rural vote for the blue. Except northern ontario where ondp has a manitoba like love affair with the party. Creating a rural vs. urban divide in the caucus. Ontario NDP could make some gains in Ontario as the province heads to minority government possibilities. The polls are showing a deadheat! With premier Dalton McGuinty pulling ahead of Conservative Tim Hudak in the last legs…we think. Hudak is sucking wind coming down the homestretch despite being propped up by the Toronto Sun. Who are also predicting the Leaf’s make the playoffs! People didn’t really know this young MPP who has been around since the province was ruined by premier Mike Harris. Then they discovered they didn’t much care for him either.

Voters want all three parties to work out well thought out solutions. Politicians and pundits complain minorities don’t work. Unfortunately, media (both traditional and social) short term memory (and they complain about potheads) has everyone unaware that Ontario had a minority government during the economic crisis of the ‘70s. The NDP under the leadership of Stephen Lewis and Progressive Conservative Bill Davis stewarded Ontario beautifully.

Here in his own words Premier Davis explains how it worked, “I actually respected the opposition and their leaders. Sure, we had our public moments in the house, but we had pretty good relationships. That’s the secret of minority management.” (Toronto Star Sept. 10/2010) We need two leaders to step up for the sake of province to demonstrate leadership. Though Davis hasn’t been welcome in the party in decades he is thought of positively in the province on all sides of the political spectrum. His progressive stance on community colleges, social programs and health care can no longer be found in Tim Hudak’s Conservatives. Which are based on Mike Harris political bully principals. Hudak’s wife Deb Hutton was Harris chief of staff and got those “fucking Indians” out of Ipperwash. By having the OPP shoot Dudley George. Then forgot about it completely…And you thought Premier Bob Rae was bad.

Hudak won’t play well with others. In fact he’ll go the route of Prime Minister Harper and do anything, but work well. A summer BBQ video showing Harper encouraging Toronto supporters to pull off a political hatrick has been pulled by YouTube numerous times after complaints from the Prime Ministers Office or Hudak’s campaign team. Weirdly it’s not that bad of video, but I guess they don’t want the association with Mayor Rob Ford who hosted the BBQ and PM Harper.
Depending on how bad Premier McGuinty falls into minority status he may step down. It’d be great if their interim leader was their most seasoned politician MPP Jim Bradely. Who handed me my grade eight diploma! A leaderless Libs would pave the way for a better Lib-NDP partnership. New Democrats haven’t ruled out working with either. Much like Stephen Lewis it’d be on a bill-by-bill basis…but it won’t be Hudak.

In fact leader Andrea Horwath basic speech for the past two years to New Demorats has been about how Queens Park has become nothing more than a grade school playground and she’s the mom to keep the boys under control. You’d think she was predicting a minority… I most recently saw her give this style speech at Vancouver federal NDP convention, but haven’t seen it on the campaign trail.
Vapor Central staff will be keeping track of Freedom Party votes as they come in on some kind of big board. With a friendly competition among cannabis enthusiasts to see who will garner the most votes. Tune in tonight to The Mernahuana Show at 8 p.m. for alternative coverage of Ontario election. Yah I know people outside of Ontario are not interested whatsoever in provincial politics, but the comedy will be awesome and my election special outfit is more than worth toking and tuning into.