[Newsbot]

Title: A tale of 10 premiers: The best and worst fiscal performers in Confederation a sign of the shifting times | National Post
Category: Provincial Politics
Posted By: shockedcanadian
Date: 2016-02-04 06:20:16
Canadian

[shockedcanadian]

No surprise here. I am sure the OPP are so heart broken by their fanboy actions that ensured Wynne was re-elected. Not to mention an absolute incompetence in enforcing laws to protect the taxpayers. No conflict there.

The OPP are heavily at the trough and demanding the rest of us to vote for the provider of that trough...no conflict there!

The RCMP have been playing political God in federal politics for decades, no surprise that the OPP do the same at the provincial level.

[BeaverFever]

$1:

according to a new ranking from the Fraser Institute

You can stop reading right there

[PluggyRug]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

$1:

according to a new ranking from the Fraser Institute

You can stop reading right there

Don't think so.

[2Cdo]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

$1:

according to a new ranking from the Fraser Institute

You can stop reading right there

Yeah because it's not from the "proper" political stance.

[BeaverFever]

Well considering that they're a right-wing think tank that solicits money from big corporations to put out propaganda, you can't take them seriously. Its leadership is largely comprised of current and former right-wing politicians and executives from industries that are heavily invested in public policy such as Tobacco, Oil, pharmaceuticals, etc. They stopped disclosing their sources of corporate funding in the 1980s after much criticism of being corporate hacks.

As one example from it's long list of widely debunked reports and shameless money-begging tactics, in 2000 the Institute asked for sustained funding of $50,000 per year from Big Tobacco, highlighting the Institute's recent pro-tobacco study and conferences that questioned the link between cancer and smoking, which they boasted "received widespread media coverage both in Canada and the United States". The CEO of Canadian tobacco company Imasco was on the Fraser Institute's Board of Trustees at the time. The United Nations International Labour Office even criticized them for "making methodological errors" and having "a strong conceptual bias."

[ShepherdsDog]

Yuh mean it ain't been vetted by the Red Star of Truth?

[andyt]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

$1:

according to a new ranking from the Fraser Institute

You can stop reading right there

The FI themselves admit they're not taking structural problems into account, ie problems that are beyond the control of the premier. It's a lot easier to have low debt when you have money flooding in, as Alberta did, for instance. If Ontario went on a strict austerity binge, things would get very tough indeed in that province.

A better way of ranking would be to look at what the premier has to work with, what problems the province has to deal with. BC is doing well because we have a diversified economy. Christie Crunch didn't create that, she was about putting all her eggs in the exporting LNG basket, which has turned into a spectacular failure. And BC people are getting restless about all the problems arising from under funding govt departments, from child welfare to education. Of course now that election time is coming, she'll turn on the taps, won't be number one again in the next ranking.

[Lemmy]

2Cdo 2Cdo:

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

$1:

according to a new ranking from the Fraser Institute

You can stop reading right there

Yeah because it's not from the "proper" political stance.

Not so much as its political stance as its reputation as junk science. The "economists" who go to work for the Fraser Institute do so because they can't get work elsewhere. Everyone in the trade knows it's a dead-end on their career to hang their hat a place like the Fraser Institute. Take that for whatever it's worth but the Fraser Institute is to economic research what the National Enquirer is to journalism.

[shockedcanadian]

Of course every publication has a political position, you can take that with a grain of salt if you'd like. One fact is undeniable. $320 Billion dollars or so.
E-health, gas plant, Sudbury by-elections, OPP unions support, quiet payment of teachers for their time on strike.

I want the next generation to round up some lawyers and launch a class action lawsuit against the children of this government who put a millstone of debt around their necks at birth. Without consequences, the government will operate like some police forces in this country operate, with impunity. What's worse, they are rewarded for this abuse with a majority government! There is no national Security facing Ontario like the uncontrolled debt of the province and the mediocrity that is allowed to float on water due to the abuse of this debt. None.

I live in Ontario and I can say with honesty that I would be pretty damn angry if I lived in Saskatchewan or Alberta seeing the same provinces ask for more while not even having a remote concern with the abuse of taxpayers and future generations. I want to know if ANYONE in this country ran their person finances like the province of Ontario how they would avoid bankruptcy. This isn't a couple of billion here, this is nearly half the countries debt ffs. Drinking wine and playing the piano while the ship sinks.

It's plain and simple theft and abuse. Read the sunshine list every year in Ontario, there are no words to describe how insulting this is to Canada. This is about reality of excessive wages for basic services.

[Lemmy]

shockedcanadian shockedcanadian:

Blah, Blah, Blah, then: It's plain and simple theft and abuse. Read the sunshine list every year in Ontario, there are no words to describe how insulting this is to Canada. This is about reality of excessive wages for basic services.

It's an insult to Canadians to pay qualified professionals good salaries? The list isn't adjusted for inflation. When the list was introduced in 1996, if we adjust for inflation, the minimum salary to get on the list in 2015 would have be $142,000. The number of people on the Sunshine list has decreased, over its 19 years, when adjusted for inflation. You knew that right?

[PublicAnimalNo9]

$1:

Which brings us to Wynne, and her C- of 61.4 per cent.

All the whining about what the FI is and who is in it doesn't negate the fact that they were pretty goddam generous in their assessment of the Wynned Bag.

[Freakinoldguy]

Lemmy Lemmy:

The "economists" who go to work for the Fraser Institute do so because they can't get work elsewhere.

And you have verifiable proof that these economists can't get work elsewhere because, I'd be interested to see it?

[BeaverFever]

$1:

Read the sunshine list every year in Ontario

What a joke that sunshine list. As Lemmy said, it's not adjusted for inflation and $100k isn't even a high salary anymore. If anything, it's often a sign of chronic under-funding because many (perhaps most) of the people on there are just average hourly workers who have significant amounts of overtime pay because their employer doesn't have the budget to hire enough workers. Take a look at how many of those people are firemen, policemen, bus drivers, etc.

Let me give you another example, a friend of mine is a teacher and she made the sunshine list last year. Why? Well because teachers have the option to take 75% pay for 4 straight years, "banking" the other 25%, and then in the 5th year they can take an unpaid leave of absence and get paid their banked salary in lump-sum. So when she came back to work in September after a year off, just due to timing of payments, the banked time plus her salary received int hat same year added to over $100k and she was on the list.

I'm sure you frothed yourself up into a rage when you saw here name there with the others, but were you aware of what those earnings represented, or the fact that she had only been paid 75% for several years before? Of course not. But thanks to the sunshine list frothers like you can know her name, and you can track her down and scream at her on the street in front of her school if you like.

The whole sunshine list is a joke and cynical propaganda ploy created by the Harris gov't that nobody has the guts to touch

[PluggyRug]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

$1:

Read the sunshine list every year in Ontario

What a joke that sunshine list. As Lemmy said, it's not adjusted for inflation and $100k isn't even a high salary anymore. If anything, it's often a sign of chronic under-funding because many (perhaps most) of the people on there are just average hourly workers who have significant amounts of overtime pay because their employer doesn't have the budget to hire enough workers. Take a look at how many of those people are firemen, policemen, bus drivers, etc.

Let me give you another example, a friend of mine is a teacher and she made the sunshine list last year. Why? Well because teachers have the option to take 75% pay for 4 straight years, "banking" the other 25%, and then in the 5th year they can take an unpaid leave of absence and get paid their banked salary in lump-sum. So when she came back to work in September after a year off, just due to timing of payments, the banked time plus her salary received int hat same year added to over $100k and she was on the list.

I'm sure you frothed yourself up into a rage when you saw here name there with the others, but were you aware of what those earnings represented, or the fact that she had only been paid 75% for several years before? Of course not. But thanks to the sunshine list frothers like you can know her name, and you can track her down and scream at her on the street in front of her school if you like.

The whole sunshine list is a joke and cynical propaganda ploy created by the Harris gov't that nobody has the guts to touch

That may be so, however it does not have any effect on the abysmal fiscal mismanagement of the Wynne "government".