TORONTO. COLLEGE PARK FOOD COURT. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2013. 9:00 PM ET.  So it is now official – and the “pleasant surprise” vainly hoped for on this site just two days ago has come to pass. Kathleen Wynne is the new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. Very soon she will also officially become not […]

Without actually wanting to add to my colleague Frank Bunting’s recent over-effusive references to the work of Thomas Walkom at the Toronto Star, I have been drawn in spite of myself to yesterday’s further ruminations by the same authority,”Do Canada’s, or Ontario’s, Liberals matter any more: Thomas Walkom.” At least on the surface of things, […]

It is now less than  10 days until the Ontario Liberal leadership convention opens at the old/new Maple Leaf Gardens in the provincial capital city. According to one observer : “Unfortunately, the race has been incredibly dull in terms of candidates and substance, and the party is unlikely to see any spike in the polls […]

Without any doubt, we would say here, the biggest news of 2012 in the larger universe to which Canada belongs (though quite independently of course!) was the re-election of Barack Obama as president of the USA. And we did at least follow this big story, like everyone else. As early as January 13, 2012 we […]

According to a Toronto Star report this past Friday: “Premier Dalton McGuinty’s resignation has given the Ontario Liberals a significant bounce … the governing Grits have vaulted to second place, ahead of the New Democrats, and closed the gap with the Progressive Conservatives, says the latest Forum Research survey.” The report goes on: “The Conservatives […]

[UPDATED NOVEMBER 24]. With only a week left before the deadline for entering the Ontario Liberal leadership race (don’t forget your 250 party-member signatures and $50,000 entry fee), the slate of candidates on offer has become much clearer than it was a month ago. And so has the process involved. As Robert Benzie and Rob […]

[UPDATED OCTOBER 30]. A sentence in  one of Martin Regg Cohn’s recent Toronto Star columns (Saturday, October 27, 2012) has revived some of my enthusiasm for what strikes some among us as a benign potential Ontario political development, that has lately seemed to have slid too far beyond the pale of realization in the real […]

[UPDATED OCTOBER 21]. Ontario politics has entered one of its rare phases of deep fascination – at least for the small band of regional deep thinkers who are actually interested in Ontario politics. (Unfortunately the band does not appear to include the lovely Alison Pill, even though she was born and raised in Ontario’s capital […]

TORONTO. OCTOBER 15, 2012. 11:00 PM ET. Like everyone else (except Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, apparently), I was altogether surprised by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s announcement early this evening (“just before 6:30 pm ET”), that he was proroguing  the Legislative Assembly at Queens’s Park, and stepping down as leader of the provincial Liberal Party. As […]

There is certainly a case for minority government as a democratic tonic these days, especially in “Westminster” (ie British-style) parliamentary systems like Canada’s – and Ontario’s. And no one makes it better than Peter Russell. At the same time, the no doubt very small band of we the too-concerned people of Ontario, who have been […]