The Progressive Conservative death wish continues with the election of Tim Hudak as leader. This snarly, arrogant protege of Mike Harris has never held a job in his life and is one of those lifelong politicians who has become rich at the public trough and has the arrogance to try to shove aside welfare recipients for doing the same thing. Hudak will never be premier unless …..
Dalton McGuinty blows it. Which is entirely possible.
Hudak put his finger on the only “eye of the needle” chance he has when he said in answer to a question about his Human Rights policy that there is a wellspring of public resentment among the public. There is and it’s big time and it’s growing and it is the one way Hudak could sneak into the premier’s role.
McGuinty shows very little sign, two thirds of the way through his mandate, that he even understands the need for bold action, never mind actually doing something bold. And there is every sign he is leading by opinion polls instead of by policy implementation that addresses major concerns.
Take the royal fuck-up on eHealth. This province, which should be a leader, is dragging the hind end in terms of computerizing health care records across the province. The costs to the system is billions and desperately needs to be fixed. McGuinty put in place an excellent team consisting of Dr. Alan Hudson and Sarah Kramer to address this major challenge and they were making substantial progress until they made silly expense claims and failed to tender all contracts. Not illegal decisions or actions but dumb ones for sure. In the case of the non tendering of some contracts, the reason cited was time pressures and, in some cases, insufficient qualified suppliers to make the tendering process worthwhile. There have been no criminal charges laid, or even hinted at but without question there were dumb decisions.
Criticism was heaped on the team by the many who are perfect and have never made a poor judgment or acted with anything less than absolute perfection. Nevertheless, instead of whacking eHealth on the wrist, and warning them to follow a tendering process even if it is a waste of time, and then telling them to get on with business – instead of that, McGuinty opted to play it safe politically. He got into high dudgeon mode, trying to out bombast the Tories in expressions of outrage and in the process let Hudson and Kramer take the fall to satisfy public opinion. Now, out of the carnage, we have civil servants back in charge, the very ones who couldn’t do it before, the best team in the country no longer available and Ontario’s medical technology needs sacrificed to the slavering political wolves of the opposition and media. Dreadful. A truly pathetic response when strong leadership was needed.
People are also angry – in a fury actually – about the crap in Windsor and Toronto with CUPE unions holding the public hostage by shutting down city services in both cities. It’s no different than CUPE’s dreadful display at York University this winter. The public is fed up and it should be. What is McGuinty doing? Zip all.
Labour reform is long overdue to make unions responsive to their own members and to force a democratic process on them. More than half of the CUPE workers on strike don’t want to be on the picket line and don’t support their leadership but, since there is no way for them to control their leaders or to force democratic votes, the decision to go on strike is made by a small handful of union leaders who lose nothing through the strike, unlike their members who are without a paycheck until the strike is over.
McGuinty shouldn’t force the strikers back to work. He should instead force reform of the way unions are run and the way their leadership is elected. There should be mandatory, supervised votes counted by non-union personnel before public sector strikes can take place. There was fury over the York University mess and there is public fury over the current mess. Irresponsible union behaviour left unchecked is another path that could become a breach in the dam for Hudak.
At a time of high unemployment and when we need to put people back to work, there are desperate infrastructure needs going unmet, while we throw billions at the dinosaurs of GM and Chrysler. We should be rebuilding roads, bridges, sewer and water systems instead of pissing away money on car makers who deserve to be in the pile of crap into which they’ve driven themselves. Where’s the leadership at Queen’s Park?
On almost every front there are challenges and a need to set new directions and new paths to meet the needs of the world that is changing around us as we speak. In the environment, in justice, in social assistance, in welfare reform, in public transportation – there is no end of opportunity for new and exciting ideas and changes to be undertaken. McGuinty has been given a golden opportunity to provide bold leadership and to show the way in Canada, God knows the leadership in Ottawa is as bad as it gets but this should only make it easier for McGuinty to act. Instead he dithers, he and his handlers playing to the politics of every situation instead of doing what is right and trusting people to judge them fairly.
Hudak has no chance to become premier on his own. Only Dalton McGuinty can make that happen and if he continues to govern in the same manner as he has recently, Hudak may just find himself head of the pink palace. At which point I am moving to Australia.
Labour reform is long overdue to make unions responsive to their own members and to force a democratic process on them. More than half of the CUPE workers on strike don’t want to be on the picket line and don’t support their leadership but, since there is no way for them to control their leaders or to force democratic votes, the decision to go on strike is made by a small handful of union leaders who lose nothing through the strike, unlike their members who are without a paycheck until the strike is over.
There is such a provision in Ontario law, s. 42 of the Labour Relations Act allows an employer to force a vote of the striking workers on whether or not they wish to accept the last offer the employer made. Also, a majority did vote to strike. Now maybe many of them didn’t actually want to strike but wanted to give their leadership negotiating leverage – but there was still a secret democratic vote.
Jacob, you’re right about the provision but I am talking about much broader reform. I’m talking about all strike votes – before and during – having to be counted by non-union personnel. If it’s good enough for the Academy Awards to have their votes counted by an independent 3rd party it is even more important it be done in union matters.
I would put term limits on the senior union leadership of a maximum of 10 years and then a mandatory 4 years out of office before they could run again. And all counting of ballots to be done by an independent 3rd party. Write-in votes would be allowed.
Unions are the last vestige of big boss, Tammany Hall style leadership where intimidation is the norm for anyone who dares oppose the leadership. It needs to change and change now. And while they are at it, unions should be forbidden from making political donations or for acting en masse in elections at all levels.
Cool!