Dalton McGuinty's Political Future

So, I'm laying in bed this morning, looking for a reason to get out from under the covers, and the local radio pundits are re-hashing last night's results.

A rumour is divulged. McGuinty's second term as premier may be short lived. Seriously. The talk last night in Cornwall was he's being courted to seek the leadership of the federal liberals. Honestly that's what they said.

Getting out the vote.

One Last Dispatch From The Trenches. Today will be the longest day of the Ontario Provincial campaign and comes down to two things: voter apathy and GOTV.

I think the Liberals have more to fear from voter apathy than do the Conservatives, who in the past have been very good at getting out the vote.

So, get out and vote. Then make sure your friends, family and neighbours vote. Whining about Dalton isn't going to do a bit of good today. But, well planned GOTV strategies do win ridings.

Dalton to give $80 million to Reisman and Indigo Books

Independent book stores were the first casualty of the book selling giant.

Depending on whom you ask, Toronto-based Indigo Books and Music has cornered at least 65 per cent and perhaps as much as 80 per cent of the Canadian retail book market. And now, according to some industry observers, it's positioning itself to become the dominant player in supplying non-text books to school libraries in Ontario and possibly the rest of the country.

Library Services look to be the next victim.

Members of the CBA and education wholesalers held an emergency meeting last Friday in Toronto to discuss the issue but are waiting for the results of the election before deciding what to do. This week they'll be arranging meetings with the Premier, the education and culture ministers and the Ontario School Library Association.

“What we really don't want is one supplier to our public libraries,” said LeFave, whose own store has sold books to more than 100 school libraries in Ontario. She and Ledingham are concerned that Indigo may lack the expertise in curriculum-related book selection and sourcing, invoicing, cataloguing and processing that wholesalers and community-based booksellers have developed over decades.

Related see backroom bombshell

McGuinty in talks to toss the Catholic School Board

Will Dalton bail on Catholic school supporters?
From the comments:"I hear McGuinty's in favour of moving to one system and has been in talks with the pres. of OPSBA (who is a Liberal candidate), about a possible pilot in the north."

I suppose I should have found three sources before I posted this but if main stream media can run with anonymous sources I sure as hell can.

In other news - Our candidate was today endorsed by the Ottawa Citizen. Savard Talks Business

The sense to pound sand in a rat hole.

Dispatch from the trenches: It's a given that Dalton will lose seats in rural Ontario - eastern Ontario in particular. The race here is very close but we'll get the vote out and I expect win by as little as a 1000 votes. Cold comfort in the wee hours of the morning.

Clive is predicting that October 10th will be a very sad day for Ontario.

For me, this is the saddest thing I have learned in the last two months. That the country I have chosen to make my home is not really what I thought it was.

The Ottawa Citizen editorial board has largely endorsed every local PC candidate. Citizen columnist, Randall Denley asks, Will McGuinty fool us twice?

If McGuinty's record was simply one of mediocre performance, that would be one thing, but the Liberal leader has a difficulty telling the truth that is deeply troubling.

I can't speak for the electorate as a whole but he certainly fooled conservatives. At least for a time. I'm not as subtle as Clive. The saddest thing I've learned in the last two months is that many of the rank-and-file, in the party I've supported since I was a teenager, don't seem to have the sense to pound sand in a rat hole.

They believed the lies and innuendo seeded by Liberals on faith-based schools.

Secular education purists spewed indignant outrage - duped into believing their cause was somehow better represented by liberals. Others, who I'd just as soon not label, were blind to everything except the prospect of schools full of little brown children. Dalton McGuinty spoke of divisiveness and values but we all know what he was really talking about - Madrassa schools and little brown immigrant children.

John Tory should have known better you say. I'm not so sure. I didn't expect the knee jerk reaction of the conservative base to take such a hold. And I certainly didn't expect the Liberals to resort to out-right racism and get away with it.

In spite of the recent polls, this still feels like a horse race to me. Every campaign holds its surprises - it would be good if Clive were surprised to find that this is the country he thought it was.

McGuinty in the shameful company of PW Botha

From The Trenches: The hypocrisy of McGuinty.

Forget for a second about Muslims, Jews and Hindus: Tory's pledge would also bring about fairness for the large majority of the independent faith-based schools in Ontario that happen to be - hold on to your rubber boots and tractor caps- Christian. Out of the 53,000 students attending privately funded faith-based schools in Ontario, an estimated 35,000 are Protestant Christians. Of those, the largest single group belong to schools owing much of their existence to farmers!

That's right, the same post-World War II Dutch immigrant farmers who played a vital role in reshaping this province's agricultural sector, who founded the recognized and respected Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, also created their own Protestant Christian schools. Unlike their Catholic brethren from Holland, who were fortuitously greeted with publicly funded schools of their own faith upon arrival in Ontario, the Protestant Dutch farmers and associated small businessmen - resourceful and infused with a Calvinist work ethic - established Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools (OACS).

Read the rest of this column from agricultural writer Nelson Zandbergen, then ask yourself - can liberal bellies be any closer to the ground?

Looking straight into the face of poverty

Another Dispatch From The Trenches: I can't remember the conservative base ever being as interested in poverty as they are this election. Manufacturing jobs losses in Ontario is the reason. The McGuinty Liberals can defend their new job record but here in the trenches the outrage is palatable. Working people are looking straight into the face of poverty.

We've lost almost twice as many manufacturing jobs as the rest of Canada combined over the last two years. We have the least competitive business tax structure of any province. Poverty is looking straight back at us.

Dalton's whereabouts in the riding today has been announced on local radio. He's meeting supporters at the home of the Liberal candidate.

The Savard Team and supporters were out at a Burma Shave rally. Don't know how things are going elsewhere but we're feeling very good today.

Dispatch From The Trenches

There's a rumour in this riding that Dalton will be coming to Cornwall tomorrow. He may make time for the media but I'm waiting to see if he makes time for the man in the street. Or anyone not wearing a Liberal campaign button.

He's been sanitized ... or hosed off. Bad things seem to happen when they let him out with the common people.

Where have I been the last few months ... working really hard to get this guy elected.
And today we're feeling very good.

A safe bet

Nothing left to chance? I'd call it a safe bet - nine year olds don't vote.

When asked why those children were picked to meet Mr. McGuinty, Ms. Hart replied:
"That's what they said they wanted, Grade 4". The "they" of course was the Liberal campaign team.