I was watching Politically Speaking on Rogers Cable the other night and the guest was newly elected MPP, Jim Wilson. It was an interesting show as the host, Norman Sandberg ran against Wilson in 1999 in the newly formed riding of Simcoe Grey. Needless to say, Wilson got one of his highest percentages ever during that election.
What was good about the show was the fact that you found out more about the job of Deputy Speaker, which Wilson was during the last 4 years. In the past when Wilson wanted a meeting with a Minister he would have to wait weeks if not months and then it would be with the Deputy Minister. As Deputy Speaker when he wanted a meeting with a Minister, they actually came to his office and he did not have a to wait. As a Speaker of the House you are not allowed to be partisan when you are in sitting in the big chair. The host asked Wilson if he intends to run for Speaker, and his answer is no. If any member of the NDP or PC's were to run for Speaker then you would have 53 Liberal seats and combined 53 PC and NDP seats. The only time the Speaker gets to vote is when the vote is tied.
During the course of the show, Wilson kept praising the NDP and their leader, Andrea Horwath. He likes the her, he likes the party because as he said they, and the PC's had much the same platform during the election. He feels that the days of the unions supporting the NDP are over as Horwath has a much different approach than Howard Hampton and Bob Rae did.
I have to give Jim credit as it knows how to play the game. He's one smart cookie when it comes to politics. What he, and his party are doing is trying to position themselves with the NDP and take away what has in the past been the NDP/Liberals working together. During the campaign Hudak, and even Wilson were going around saying that the Liberals would do a backroom deal with the NDP to form a coalition and block out the PC's. Well the Liberals have made it clear that they won't enter into any power sharing agreement with either the NDP or PC's. They will deal with each party on each issue as it comes up.
So to me it seems that the PC's are the ones now looking towards the NDP to form some sort of coalition to keep the Liberals on their toes. With Wilson changing his tune towards the NDP this minority government should be very interesting to watch.
Until next time!
Norm Sandberg ran one of the worst campaigns ever, in my opinion. I always found his candidacy that year interesting, since he was employed by Ainley and Associates, same Ainley clan that were integral parts of Wilson's campaigns in those years. That set up the scenario whereby employee was campaigning basically defacto against employer. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love politics in Simcoe Grey. Who gets all the work in the riding, and who donates to all the local campaigns? That's right it's Simon Ainley and his company. I also liked the part of the show when Wilson said the PC's were outspent 4 to 1 because the Unions were backing the Liberals. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. For Wilson it's not ok to have a union backing a political party, but it's just fine when the major local companies back him and other Conservatives because of business connections.
ReplyDeleteAnd, AGAIN, no one takes Jim to task for being the Minister that put Ontario Hydro into the fiscal dump it finds itself, or the Minister who tried to force private, two-level health care on the Province, fired nurses, and put so many hospitals into virtual bankruptcy...
ReplyDeleteThat was the biggest problem during the local campaign. None of the candidates took on Wilson when he was the Minister of Health or Energy. They should have had the facts and campaigned on his past record. I think it would have made a bit of a dent in his campaign, but Conservatives in this riding would vote for any type of Conservative even if they committed a crime, and that's the problem. I asked my daughter who her boyfriend voted for as I saw him when I went to vote and she told me Jim Wilson. When I asked why Wilson, she said because his mother told him to vote for Wilson because they always vote Conservative. So he voted for Wilson, not because of Conservative policies, but because his mother said so. Nobody will beat Wilson with that type of attitude.
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