Preview of 2013

Happy New Year! I hope everyone has had a great holiday break, and has started off 2013 properly.

For my first post of the year I thought I might offer a bit of a preview for what we can expect in the coming months. Making predictions is an easy way to appear foolish, but we know a few events are scheduled to happen that we can anticipate.

In January the Ontario Liberals will gather together and select a new premier for the province. Dalton McGuinty will resign (and likely retire from public life) and there will be a cabinet shuffle that follows. Yes, some of that is speculation, but it is very safe speculation. The real question is whether our new premier will call the legislature back into session or delay and call an election in the spring. Most of the political watchers I speak to believe that Ontarians will be going to the polls before June, and I tend to agree.

In April a different Liberal Party will be holding a convention to pick a leader. The Liberal Party of Canada will do its damnedest to find a leader to take them out of the political wilderness. The obvious money is on Justin Trudeau (LPC – Papineau, QC) to win handily. However, weaknesses could be exposed in the debates that will raise Martha Hall Findlay and Marc Garneau’s (LPC - Westmont-Ville-Marie, QC) profile. The selection of a permanent leader for the third party could cause a radical change in the landscape at the federal level.

In May British Columbians will be voting. Polling for over a year has suggested that Christie Clark’s government will be wiped out in an election. The same was true for Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives before the 2011 Ontario election. Campaigns matter. Many BCers could have parked their vote with the BCNDP and could be persuaded to switch.

Quebec has a minority government, and their Liberal Party will also be choosing a new leader in 2013. An election could come on there at any time. Quebec politics seems particularly unstable at the moment and so we could see any leader as premier this time in 2014.

In broad strokes I have some ideas for the Orange Tory blog in 2013. As I’ve mentioned before I hope to feature more articles about my local context in Brampton and Peel. I also hope I can shed more light in getting involved in local politics and a formal political party. I got a number of politically-themed books for Christmas and I have long considered a book review feature. We shall see how things develop as the year progresses.

I am quite proud of what the Orange Tory became in 2012, and I look forward to developing it further. As always I welcome feedback on the future direction of the blog. All the best to you and yours in the coming year, and thank you for making 2012 so wonderful.