First – disclosure time. I was a volunteer for Conservative Michael Ceci in Willowdale. He is an absolutely terrific young man with an even more terrific team. He is smart, articulate, and being Italian can never hurt. And I have to give kudos to Michael’s mother Nancy who not only ran the campaign office, the volunteers, the telephone lists but was a gracious and fun “boss”. Michael will be a political winner one day soon.
I have been involved in elections since the 80’s –Bill Davis former Premier of Ontario. David Peterson, former Premier of Ontario … Pierre Trudeau the late Prime Minister of Canada, John Turner, former Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, former Prime Minister … some others that included Dennis Timbrell, Jim Peterson, the late Ian Scott, Monte Kwinter, Mel Lastman, Art Eggleton, Rob Ford, Barbara McDougall, Chaviva Hosek, Betty Disero, Elinor Caplan , John Tory, John Carmichael, CS Leung, – Liberals and Conservatives.
So what? Well, having been there and done that at so many levels, I was stunned by the results of this provincial election. And so were many others. Unexpected is one of the right words. Disappointed is another. So what happened? Only 52% of the people who could vote bothered to vote
The Liberals won. I was not working on their campaign. But, it was my first time in 30 years of attending victory parties that there was no victory. People were actually crying – real tears running down their faces – men and women. Okay, I have felt bad on occasion, but crying?
I am not going to analyze or pontificate or make judgment calls. There is enough of that in the media that will continue for at least another week or two. Kathleen Wynne won, fair and square, and she is the Premier. She deserves credit for managing to stand tall and overcome the horror that was Dalton McGuinty.
It was McGuinty who extended former Mayor David Miller’s term of office an extra year – without consent from the voters – just giving the unionistas enough time to run a few strikes (didn’t you love the garbage pile up?) before they got their pay-offs. It is no wonder that Miller hasn’t shown his face around this city before 9:00 p.m. at night since he was booted out. I expect that McGuinty will slink around after dark for the next few years as well. We don’t yet know the full extent of his “oversights” but we will. You can count on it.
Did you vote? Why not? Did you expect it to be another minority government so why bother? Well, this is how political operatives work. Figure out the last line and then work back to make sure that the preceding events make it happen. So kudos to them as well.
Stop the presses! As I write this blog the news has just been announced that Gila Martow, in Thornhill, has won after a recount. Whew! Hurray! The first count showed that she had lost by less than 100 votes and that was not a happy result. But Elections Ontario did a mandatory recount and found a human error. She is now the official winner! Yasher Koach Gila.
Now back to me. So my comments have now “hooked” almost 16,000 people who have read them and liked them. I love that.
And the phony user name uglies who follow my every post have gone from 6 to 4. They are the trolls who post insults – two have been permanently booted from Disqus. That is good. Interesting what prompts someone to lie, insult and generally attack another person based on no facts but their own sense of inferiority. I’ll have to ask my brilliant cousin Jerry Friedman, a real, bona fide, SHRINK about that. If anyone will know, he will. I’ll let you know what he says.
Just a reminder to all my readers out there – I am severely limited in my internet/social media skills. I don’t tweet, twitter, facebook, text, etc. You can get me via email – check my web page.
Of course, the genius son is always aware of what is going on in my world and his company, Newbox Solutions, handles it all. I don’t always follow his instructions. He wanted me to change my Disqus picture which was from a fatter era. The ugly trolls’ insults included “fatso, fatty, tub of lard, blimp, lose weight” in some of their posts. But the good news is that when I do meet someone new, they often say, “gee, you aren’t as fat as you look in your picture”. Now what can be better than that? So I’m keeping the picture.
What next? All the action on my blogs has added some sales of my first two novels – Deadly Justice and Final Justice. I asked the son how come the “old” books (10 & 12 years ago) were still selling when I had a “new” book, The Third Hole just released last year.
“Mother, if someone reads your blogs and/or your comments in the media and becomes interested in reading your books, they start at the first one, not the last one”. Mm, I should have figured that out for myself. So I am still waiting and hoping for a movie deal on The Third Hole. No luck yet. But it is all fun.
The next political adventure will be the municipal election in October. My choice?
ANYONE BUT CHOW! Remember Horwath, Miller, McGuinty, Layton and of course, Thomas Mulcair. They are all in the same canoe! I’ll be going into more detail in my next blogs.
Of course, it is my opinion only. But this is my blog so I can say whatever I want. Your comments are always welcome.
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