Parkdale-High Park Progressive Conservative Nomination Meeting - Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

Please join the Parkdale-High Park Progressive Conservative Association for our nomination meeting, to select a candidate, for the upcoming Ontario general election. The meeting will be held on Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 in the "Council Chambers" room on the second floor of the Swansea Town Hall Community Centre, 95 Lavinia Avenue, Toronto. Registration opens at 7:00PM. The meeting will commence at 7:45PM.

Notice of meeting having been provided to all members, and the period for nomination having now passed, the meeting will convene and acclaim Ms. Ghina Al-Sewaidi, as Progressive Conservative candidate, in Parkdale-High Park.

For more information please email Blair McCreadie, Riding President at blair.mccreadie@gmail.com.

Editorial: What taxes does Ontario Premier Wynne want?

QMI Agency - Premier Kathleen Wynne seems to have forgotten something in her rush to impose new taxes and tolls on Ontarians to pay for the Liberals' $50-billion, 25-year Big Move transit scheme.

What she's forgotten is the voters.

Voters who must have the final say on this issue, the majority of whom, polls show, aren't in favour of what Wynne's proposing.

But there's a simple solution.

Wynne needs to end her tiresome dance of the seven veils before friendly crowds of elites, hinting at which taxes and tolls she's thinking of imposing, and start coming clean with the public.

Especially so, since she has no electoral mandate to implement any new taxes or tolls, given that she was chosen as premier by Liberal partisans, not democratically confirmed in a general election.

The honest thing for Wynne to do would be to tell the public now what taxes and tolls she's prepared to implement to fund the Big Move and then to run on them in the next election.

So far, the only people the public is hearing from on that issue are special interest groups like the Toronto Region Board of Trade and unelected bureaucrats at City Hall.

In June, unelected bureaucrats at Metrolinx, the province's regional transportation agency, will chime in, again, on which new taxes and tolls they favour.

Clearly, this is all part of a co-ordinated plan by like-minded elites to wear down the public into thinking they have no choice but to meekly accept higher taxes and tolls to pay for transit.

It's time to end this charade.

On Wednesday, Wynne suggested at a friendly forum held by CivicAction, that she might move ahead with imposing new road tolls and taxes to pay for the Big Move, without the support of the affected municipal governments.

The fact she would say this just two days after the Ontario Auditor General said her government misled the public on the real costs of its political decision to cancel the Mississauga gas plant two weeks before the last provincial election, doesn't surprise us.

After all, arrogance is nothing new for Liberals.

But it's all the more reason for Wynne to come clean with the public now about what she's planning.

Hudak Has a Plan For a Better Ontario

TORONTO – Ontario can do a lot better with a plan to get us on the right track and the leadership to put it into action, PC Leader Tim Hudak said tonight to a sold-out crowd.

“In order to do better for our job creators, our loved ones and future generations, we need to address the jobs crisis and debt crisis we face today – and we cannot solve one without solving the other,” Hudak said.

Hudak outlined his comprehensive plan of action to grow the economy. Key elements of Hudak’s plan include:

Reducing Ontario’s 300,000 regulations by at least a third

Lowering the cost of doing business including tax reductions and affordable energy rates

Making our labour laws competitive so companies have the confidence to hire, and

Building new subways and highways to get people home and goods to market faster

“We’ll get people moving again and we’ll grow the economy, but we can’t build a strong Ontario on a foundation of debt,” Hudak said.
Hudak’s plan to end government’s reckless overspending includes making government pensions affordable, reducing the size and cost of government, and opening up contracts to competitive bidding to get the best quality at the best price for the taxpayer.

Hudak described this as a moment of truth for our province: “It is a time of challenge but also a time of promise. A time of crisis, but a time of hope. We have hope because we have a choice.”

“If you believe Ontario is on the right track, the good news is you have two parties to choose from. But if you believe Ontario can and will do better, there is only one choice: our Ontario PC team,” Hudak concluded.

“Let’s stop waiting for better and let’s make better happen.”

Watch the video and download the speech here.

Toronto Star editorial: Ontario should limit ‘third party’ election spending

April 11, 2013 - Elections Ontario head Greg Essensa makes a good case for reigning in third party interest group advertising during provincial campaigns.

A gaping loophole in Ontario’s election finance rules allows so-called “third party” interest groups to dodge campaign spending limits. They’re increasingly using this lack of oversight to outspend bona fide political parties and sway the results of a vote. And that isn’t healthy for democracy.

By way of a remedy, Ontario’s Chief Electoral Officer Greg Essensa has asked the province to set up an independent body to find ways of reigning in third-party advertising. Reforms would ideally include spending limits, contribution caps, tighter reporting requirements and some anti-collusion provisions.

The need for such change is pressing and so obvious that it should be delivered with a minimum of bureaucratic dithering and delay.

In his annual report earlier this week, Essensa noted that third-party organizations — mainly unions and related groups — spent more than $6 million on advertising in the 2011 provincial election. That’s more than triple the $1.8 million such organizations shelled out for the 2007 vote.

The biggest-spending third party, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, lavished $2.6 million on its effort to defeat the Progressive Conservatives. To put this in some context, even the New Democratic Party didn’t spend that much. In fact, it exceeded the combined advertising spending of 19 of Ontario’s 21 registered political parties.

In short, third party organizations now rival mainstream registered political parties in advertising clout. Fairness demands that they come under more scrutiny and regulation.

“The current rules for third parties are inconsistent with how other political entities are treated,” wrote Essensa. “Candidates, constituency associations and political parties are all subject to annual and campaign reporting requirements, as well as campaign period spending limits and annual and campaign contribution limits.”

These regulations are meant to provide some semblance of a level playing field in the political arena. They limit the degree to which money can be used to influence the electorate. But this intended fairness is distorted as long as third parties are exempt from similar restrictions.

Unions and others with a case to put before the public mustn’t be silenced at election time. They have a right to express their views, and to spend money in order to do so. But this right must be framed by limits in keeping with how other political players are treated.

Essensa notes that Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, New Brunswick and the federal government have all adopted controls over third-party advertising. And, in a rare display of agreement, the parties at Queen’s Park have signaled their openness to reform.

Being on the receiving end of a sizable interest group onslaught, the Tories have long pressed for action. But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath also favours a look at third-party spending limits as part of a wider examination of election finance rules, and Premier Kathleen Wynne has said she is willing to consider Essensa’s recommendations.

Given all that, there’s no acceptable excuse to maintain the status quo. Queen’s Park needs to turn off the lights and declare the party over when it comes to unfettered third-party election spending.

New Report on Liberal Policy Failure: "Environmental and Economic Consequences of Ontario's Green Energy Act"

April 11, 2013 - The Ontario Green Energy and Green Economy Act was passed in May 2009 with the purpose of addressing environmental concerns and promoting economic growth in Ontario. Its centerpiece is a schedule of subsidized electricity purchase contracts called Feed-in-Tariffs (FITs) that provide long-term guarantees of above-market rates for power gen-erated by wind turbine farms, solar panel installations, bio-energy plants and small hydroelectric generators. Development of these power sources was motivated in part by a stated goal of closing the Lambton and Nanticoke coal-fired power plants.

This report investigates the effect of the GEA on economic competitiveness in Ontario. It focuses on three questions: (1) Will the GEA materially improve environmental quality in Ontario? (2) Is it a cost-effective plan for accomplishing its goals? (3) Are the economic effects on households and leading economic sectors likely to be positive? The answer to each question is unambiguously negative.

It is unlikely the Green Energy Act will yield any environmental improvements other than those that would have happened anyway under policy and technology trends established since the 1970s. Indeed, it is plausible that adding more wind power to the grid will end up increasing overall air emissions from the power generation sector.

Click here to download the Fraser Institute report.

Letter to Education Minister Liz Sandals from MPP Lisa MacLeod

April 2nd, 2013 (text here)

Dear Minister,

On Sunday, I was surprised to learn that you announced a “new” deal with the Ontario Secondary Schools Teachers Federation (OSSTF) after you and Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne supported an imposed collective agreement and voted for it in the legislature just last fall.

You will remember last spring a memo from the Ministry of Education to all Directors of Education on March 29, 2012 stated, “(This year’s budget allocation) provides no funding for any salary increases resulting from individual employee movement on the grid.” By July of 2012 your government was touting the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) deal to be a “roadmap” for school boards when negotiating new collective agreements for teachers. Given salary grid movement was not frozen, the deal cost taxpayers $450 million after it was replicated with all teachers’ unions. At the time the government suggested unpaid days off, non-banked sick days and other curbed benefits would save $150 million. By your own math the legislated deal has already left a $300-million hole in the government’s fiscal plan.

Now we learn you are prepared to give concessions on unpaid days, maternity benefits, sick days and retirement gratuities. If, for example, you enhance retirement gratuities from 10 cents on the dollar to 25 cents on the dollar, Ontario parents and taxpayers could be on the hook for an additional $63 Million when extended to all of Ontario’s 140,000 teachers. I need not remind you that teachers federations have a so-called “me too” clause built into their contracts, and therefore what you offer one union you are forced to extend to members of all the other unions. By tinkering with the existing collective agreement, your government could end up costing Ontarians hundreds of millions of dollars more at a time when our students have suffered through a labour dispute for the majority of this school year.

This is especially disappointing given Ms. Wynne had assured both parents and MPP’s that she would not re-open contracts and that “there was no new money” for wage increases or enhanced benefits. Not only did she re-open contracts, but I was also concerned to read that you are now discussing opening up and using the Education Ministry budget envelop and not the Education Ministry “wage” envelop as in previous months. This subtle, yet substantial reference indicates you have mislead the public and have altered an existing collective agreement that will now be funded in part outside the normal wage envelop from the whole education budget. In order to pay for your new commitments on maternity benefits, sick days, unpaid leave and retirement gratuities it is abundantly clear that you will be taking money from existing programing intended for students to pay for an increase in benefits to teachers unions. All of this at a time when many school boards are teaching students in portables, having difficulty fully implementing full day learning and struggling to fund textbooks.

As Minister, I ask you, do you not think it reckless to reallocate funding away from those programs used to educate our children and put it toward increased salaries and benefits, particularly after a fractious school year? Is it fair to Ontario’s students who have been used as pawns in a labour dispute to give up more in the future–their future– from their education? Are you even aware that Ontario’s debt and deficit as it stands now seriously compromises our public education system–makes full day learning unsustainable– unless tough but necessary decisions are made? Do you agree that your short term arrangements to pacify an electoral partner could have long term affects for our students?

It is now less than eight months since these collective agreements have been in place and your government has already reopened contracts, signalling to every other public sector union that if they are unhappy with the province’s fiscal parameters during or after negotiations they can count on your government to give into their demands. In that vein, I ask why was it necessary to negotiate a separate deal with OSSTF when the invocation of Bill 115 imposed agreements on all teachers unions? Similarly, while this agreement with OSSTF will cost indeed new money, is the government seriously considering even more money to appease ETFO in negotiations that are now underway?

Ontario students and their parents deserve better. Ontario taxpayers deserve to know the answers.

Kindest regards,

Lisa MacLeod, MPP

Nepean-Carleton
Ontario PC Education Critic

Why the Ontario Progressive Conservatives are the party of ideas

by J.C. Bourque - The Globe and Mail - Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - Describing the world as it is and crafting a serious response to that world has not been the priority of any of Ontario’s three political parties for some time. The last general election demonstrated this fact. All three parties chose not to mention the fiscal disorder of the province and how it threatens our prosperity and the quality of the services the province provides. The government punted this important issue to Don Drummond – his report, obviously scheduled for release after the election.

Of the three major parties, only one appears to have finally decided to grapple with reality. Tim Hudak and the Progressive Conservative Party have released a number of interesting, innovative and occasionally controversial policies that seriously attempt to respond to the problems facing the province. It is unclear whether there is much room for ideas over rhetoric in a media-dominated political landscape, but for those who believe a politics of ideas is crucial for the future of the province, the PC Party policy papers are a good place to start. Here is a list of the most impressive policies to date.

Social impact bonds

Through a Social Impact Bond, private investment is used to pay for programs, which are delivered by non-government service providers with proven successes in preventive interventions (for instance, recidivism). Financial returns to investors are made by the government on the basis of improved social outcomes. If outcomes do not improve, investors do not recover their investment (see this excellent McKinsey & Company video explaining the concept). The vehicle originated in the UK but has now crossed the Atlantic and has been embraced by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. This policy has the potential to inject new approaches into a public service delivery model that has not seen innovation in decades.

Rebuilding public infrastructure through partnering with pension funds

It is clear that Ontario faces a huge infrastructure backlog. Old roads and bridges need to be repaired. New energy assets need to be built. The infrastructure deficit is estimated to be in the hundreds of billions in this province. We will only overcome this backlog through innovations in both governance and finance. Pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are particularly well-suited to long-term investing. Toronto based pension funds are some of the most advanced pools of investment capital in the world. Many of them pioneered direct infrastructure investing. Yet, they continually fail to invest in Canadian infrastructure projects. Several Ontario based funds have called for Ontario to allow pension funds to collaborate and recapitalize our aging infrastructure. Allowing them to do so would open a conduit to billions in new infrastructure investment.

A concrete growth agenda

The PC Party has developed a comprehensive theory of growth that includes: tax cuts; the elimination of corporate subsidies and the redirection of these funds towards broad-based tax relief; infrastructure investment, including subways in the GTA; the promotion of free trade by knocking down trade barriers between Ontario and the western provinces; and comprehensive labour reform. Their plan to decrease the deficit will result in a smaller government, but their commitment to increasing incentives for the public sector and implementing open tendering could produce better public services at the same time.

Conclusion

It is clear that the provincial Tories are unabashedly pro growth, believing that the best way to ensure a stable, prosperous province is through a healthy economy and not an ever growing state. Although the other parties have yet to produce their party policies and the Tories have only introduced a series of non-binding “white papers,” the province can hope that an election about ideas is finally approaching at this important moment in Ontario history.

J.C. Bourque is a business strategy consultant in Toronto. He has worked on several campaigns for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

Ontario can no longer be content by being first in debt and last in job creation

by Tim Hudak, Special to the National Post, February 22, 2013

I have a vision for an Ontario the world marvels at. An Ontario that again leads Confederation, and that again becomes a magnet for people from all over the world who seek a safe harbour, and aspire to a better life.

It calls for a government that spends within its means, offers more value for less money and focuses on core priorities. With a health care system that’s there for you, where and when you need it. An education system that properly prepares our children to succeed in an increasingly competitive world – by raising the bar in math, science, literacy and skilled trades. A place that gives businesses and entrepreneurs the tools and the confidence they need to invest, expand and create good jobs.

All delivered by a government that respects the people who elected it, and the people who pay the bills.

That’s the Ontario we all want.

But today our province is at a crossroads where two tracks diverge: The first, judging by this week’s Throne Speech, entrenches Dalton McGuinty’s legacy of overspending, debt and job losses. The second is a bold and optimistic path, leading toward balanced budgets, a strong economy and a new hope for all of us that Ontario can rise again, and resume its leadership role in Canada.

If you think our province is on the right track, then there are two parties on offer: The Liberals – who have had 10 years to deliver a better Ontario – and the NDP, who want to prop them up. But if you think we’re on the wrong track, then there is only one party, and one plan on offer, and one positive alternative.

Are we headed down the right track today? Our debt has doubled under the Liberals, and more than half a million people woke up this morning with no job to go to. Ontario is buckling under a $12 billion deficit and a debt that’s set to hit $411 billion in just a few years. And the economic heart of our province is becoming clogged by gridlock, robbing our economy of billions of dollars in lost productivity.

We can do better. This crisis is not about the ideologies of the right or left. There is only a right direction or wrong direction, solutions or more problems, progress or decline. If the Liberals won’t make the tough decisions to get Ontario back on its feet, there’s another party and leader who will. I have a responsibility to demand a plan that brings about the change we need – not to continue down a reckless path toward more debt and fewer jobs.

I also have an obligation to table a plan of my own, in the absence of one from this government. I have done so through our Paths to Prosperity white papers on getting Ontario back on its feet with a balanced budget to create jobs. You can view and share all 11 in the series so far at http://www.ontariopc.com/paths.

Better days lie ahead for our province. But we can no longer be content to be first in debt and last in job creation. We need a new approach. For Ontario to reach its true potential, it’s clear we need to change the team that leads this province.

National Post

Tim Hudak, MPP, is Ontario PC Leader.

Tim Hudak: Vision for a Great Toronto

Notes for Remarks by Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak to the Toronto Board of Trade, February 13, 2013

Being elected MPP eighteen years ago afforded me many new opportunities, including the opportunity to spend a lot of time in this great city.


There are so many things that are so very right about Toronto. The four instruments of change – culture, academics, politics, and economics – are consolidated here.

We’re a hub for academia and innovation – host to teaching hospitals, bio-tech companies and three of Ontario’s universities.

We house Canada’s banks, national corporate headquarters and stock exchange.

We have one of the largest major media markets in the western world with four major daily newspapers…A good or a bad thing, depending on which day you ask me.

And we border some of the great North American markets – natural trading partners with millions of consumers and a demand for our goods, services and technology.

Yet for all these great strengths, our city and our province are falling farther behind.

Parkdale-High Park Ontario Progressive Conservative Riding Association Annual General Meeting

Please join us for the Annual General Meeting of the

Parkdale-High Park PC Association

Saturday, January 26th

YELLOW GRIFFIN PUB

2202 Bloor Street West (north side, just east of Runnymede)

With Special Guest Speaker:

RICHARD CIANO

PRESIDENT, ONTARIO PC PARTY

Registration and Breakfast 9:15AM – 10:00AM

Annual General Meeting10:00AM

AGENDA

1.            Approval of the Minutes of the 2012 Annual General Meeting;

2.            Report from the President

3.            Report from the Chief Financial Officer;

4.            Report from the Membership Secretary;

5.            Election of Officers and Directors (President, 5 Vice Presidents, Secretary, Chief Financial Officer, Membership Secretary; and up to 5 Directors);

6.            Appointment of an Auditor

7.            New and Other Business

8.            Adjournment 

In order to vote at the AGM, you must either (1) hold an active 2012 membership in the Association, and renew your membership at the meeting by no later than 10:00AM on Saturday, January 26^th, or (2) purchase a new 2013 membership in the Association by no later than Friday, January 11^th.