Worth Reading – March 7, 2013

With a minority government in Queen’s Park an election could be triggered at any time. The next big hurdle for Premier Wynne (OLP – Don Valley West) will be her budget. With an election so close, the Progressive Conservatives have announced hard caps on spending for the next campaign. As an observer I have to wonder if this strategy will leave the Tories fighting an election with a hand tied behind their back. Clearly they cannot afford to be plunged into deep debt, but it could cost them the election if the Liberals and NDP have more resources.

Speaking of an Ontario election, ONDP leader Andrea Horwath (ONDP – Hamilton Centre) this week announced she would not support the government unless meaningful action was taken on auto insurance premiums. 

Detroit will no longer be operated by a democratically elected government. Republican Governor Rick Snyder will be placing management of the city under an appointed official to help balance the city’s dismal accounts. The optics of these takeovers has been bad. Now more than 50% of Michigan’s black population is governed locally by unaccountable officials.

Steve Paikin of TVO takes a look at the new map of downtown Toronto’s federal ridings. Paikin expresses remorse for the loss of the riding of Trinity-Spadina, which, according to him, encapsulated what downtown Toronto was. Paikin says he realizes that he should have expressed his support of the status quo. Remember, decisions are made by those who show up.

Related to the above, and featured in this Tuesday’s post, a nifty little website that has calculated the outcome of the next federal election with the new seats if the votes are the exact same in the exact same places. 

Tabatha Southey takes the Senate scoundrels out behind the woodshed. 

I really love this piece. It is essentially a person stating the unvarnished, uncomfortable truth. Rob Burton, Mayor of Oakville, says that to pay for Metrolinx’s Big Move each household in the GTA will needto pay $1000 per year more in taxes. The question is, how?

Steve Paikin asks a critical question about the gas plan closures in Oakville and Mississauga – Did McGuinty have the authority to do it?

Chantal Hébert in the Toronto Star argues that the defection of NDP MP Claude Patry (BQ – Jonquiere-Alma) to the Bloc Quebecois may only be a superficial wound at this time.

Finally, Samara Canada has synthesized all the ideas and suggestions from the Redesigning Parliament series into a Top 5 list of suggestions. Samara also has a permanent page set up for this series.