Ontario Election 2007 - The Aftermath

I am on vacation today, which is good, since I need to take my wife to the OB/GYN for the latest ultrasound. Thankfully, all is well. I am also glad to be off today, since it gives me some time to recuperate after a grueling night of watching election coverage. By now, I'm sure everyone knows that the governing Liberals under Dalton McGuinty, won a second majority government. Though I don't have cable TV, I did manage to tune in, using my RCA rabbit ears, to the free CTV broadcast (which was so-so, as they spent more time cutting people off to show the CTV and election logo and summarize the results) where for about the initial ten minutes, it looked like a neck and neck race until the Liberals took off with it, and less than half-an-hour later, it was predicted that they would win. I still stay tuned to watch some of the close riding races (my riding was not close at all, but I didn't expect a different outcome since our local conservative candidate sucked in his campaigning strategy - I still voted for him anyway, since there was not a chance in hell that I was about to vote Liberal or NDP (the Family Coalition party was a distant alternative, but the candidate was still in college, so I didn't think he was very qualified).

I have to say that despite what has been reported in the news and what not, I don't believe John Tory hanged himself in this election, with the school funding issue as his convenient noose . While I may disagree with Tory on that one issue (I not only believe that the government should not fund other faith-based schools, but I am rabidly opposed to the current funding of Roman Catholic schools - it absolutely does not make any sense why RC schools are currently funded by the provincial government). Anyway, I believe what did Tory in is the apathy of the Ontario voters. I don't think the general electorate gave a rat's ass about who they wanted as Premier and who they wanted as the governing party. If you look at the record-low turnout for the election, you can see that people just didn't care. McGuinty will spin it as such that he was the clear choice and people voted for more of the same. But just like the many broken promises McGuinty has delivered, after a while, people seem to see all politicians the same - promise breakers, who may be idealistic before taking power, but are tyrants upon seizing control of the legislature. Perhaps some of this affected Tory as people saw him as flip-flopping on the schools issue, but I think it has more to do with the fact that people voted just to keep things the same. People naturally don't like change, unless there is something that directly impacts them. Also, people view the Liberals as a middle-ground, so while not perfect, the perception is that they are better than the right-of-centre party and the left-of-centre party.

If you also look at the MMP (mixed member proportion) referendum, you can see some parallels. It was widely defeated (and I'm glad it was, since it's not the solution in election reform - I don't like first-past-the-post either, but I dislike MMP even more. It was conceded by many that a big reason why MMP failed is because people were not sure what it was. My wife read all of the literature and still had a hard time with it. I admit, it is confusing for most non-followers of politics. So people just stayed on the safe side and voted for the existing system as it is (which has its own inherent problems).

I really respect the fact that this morning, of all the party leaders, only John Tory was gracious enough to afford TV and radio interviews, probably after a long night with little sleep. That's just how the guy works. He lost the Toronto mayoral election in 2003 or so, and even in losing, he made deliberate efforts to help his oppoents (including the winner) pay off their campaign debts. Some people say that John Tory is not electable because he's too nice of a guy. Others will say that he is too principled and not sleazy enough to schmooze with the political power brokers. Others will also say that he is not as socially conservative to woo the ultra right wingers like me. I don't agree with any of the above points. I think that John Tory did nothing wrong to lose the election last night. Rather, it came down to voters who just didn't care anymore about raising the bar and voting in someone with integrity and character. Complacency is the deal of the day and sadly, that is nothing new in Ontario.