Worth Reading – February 21, 2013

I recently was speaking with someone and she was baffled by my “Orange Tory” moniker. I get this reaction from time to time. I grew up in McGuinty’s Ontario, and I was very disappointed and dissatisfied with the government and policy choices of that era. There did not seem to be a consistent set of values behind the policies, and if they were I found them unsettling. It was a deficit in principles and clear core values that drove me away from the Liberal Party. Andrew Coyne in the National Post discusses the Liberal leadership race and how they have squandered an opportunity to renew their party with policy. 

The Senate. What are we suppose to do with it? I think the NDP policy to abolish the Senate might be the most practical solution, but in reality we should try to reform it. Every federation in the world has an upper house. Adding a legitimate Senate could balance out some of the troubles we have with a distorted House of Commons. Andrew Coyne’s take here.

The Wynne government presented their Throne Speech this week. Her government endeavoured to appeal to both Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats. Tim Hudak (PCPO – Niagara West-Glanbrook) has already announced they will vote against the Throne Speech. This sets up a Liberal NDP-backed budget.

Martin Regg Cohn, the Toronto Star’s Queen’s Park reporter, released a piece today discussing how the Ontario Legislature is working. He suggests that Andrea Horwath (ONDP – Hamilton Centre), as leader of the third party, is doing her part to make the legislature work. Of Hudak he says, “Hudak,by contrast, never misses an opportunity to oppose. Instead of influencing government, he is marginalizing himself.” According to Cohn he is making governing harder while not getting his policies advanced.