This goes deeper

I am a Canadian by birth, not by choice. In Canada, as a conservative, the wins are unfortunately much more rare than they should be. Right before the recent federal election, where Canadians were scared into voting Liberal AGAIN, after 10 stunningly bad Liberal years under the idiot Trudeau, we had a snap provincial election in Ontario. It wasn't time for one, but the conservative premier called for one because he was doing well in the polls. Doug Ford won re-election with almost no change in support or representation in parliament from his previous majority provincial government.  All in all, a waste of time and money.

But Doug Ford leveraged the same fear of the boogeyman Donald Trump that now prime minister Mark Carney did, to win.  Everyone in Canada seemed to know Mark Carney was an empty suit, a total dud, except for senior citizens who immediately panicked and got him re-elected.  In Ontario it was a different story.  Doug Ford,  while seemingly good on some issues, was pretty flat on others.  I voted for Doug Ford.  My whole family voted for Doug Ford.  While it was no deep-seated endorsement of the man, it was the knowledge that a provincial Liberal win, or worse a provincial NDP (the socialist party that is officially and ironically called the New Democratic Party) win would doom the province.  Both parties have won in the past and the province has paid the price.  We haven't had a conservative leader since the 1990s.

And we still don't. 

I voted for this completely imbecilic boob of a man who might as well be a provincial Liberal party leader. I voted for  Pierre Poilievre for prime minister. He's a common sense conservative who would have been able to work with president Trump (if only), I expected stupidity and failure from Mark Carney and he did not disappoint.  With Doug Ford, this goes deeper.  I didn't expect great conservatism from him but he has really betrayed conservatives, the province of Ontario and all of Canada with his absolutely buffoonery.  His blustery "I'm tough and I'm going to stand up to Trump" attitude is fake.  He's weak and it's obvious.   Not only that, it's so painfully misguided. Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, is making deals with the president and Alberta is doing a lot better than Ontario these days.  She happens to be a real conservative, not for nothing.

It's not just the bluster, it turns out, he can't run a province.  That aside, this latest attack on Trump was pointless unless the objective was to derail trade talks.

I may actually abstain from voting in the next provincial election. A few months ago, I wrote to my local member of provincial parliament, commending him on the job he has done but calling for new provincial party leadership. I never heard back. Either he didn't care, was too scared to respond, or doesn't check his emails. Either way, they've lost my support until something changes. 

Danielle Smith, another great Canadian politician

It's not only Pierre Poilievre in Canada that is making sense.  Danielle Smith is the premier (governor) of the Canadian province of Alberta. Alberta is the Texas of Canada. She's a conservative and has been to see then president-elect Trump at Mar-a-Lago and was at the president's inauguration yesterday.

She's a very vocal critic of Justin Trudeau and his abject failures on many fronts. She's also been rightly critical of fellow conservative and premier of Ontario Doug Ford, who is a conservative in the RINO mold. She's someone who is going to be able to work with president Trump in a mutually beneficial way for both Alberta and the United States.  

Canada's most populace province re-elects conservative government

This is a good sign for the coming midterms. Canada's most populous province, Ontario, one that federally has typically voted Liberal (think Justin Trudeau), yesterday re-elected a majority conservative provincial government.  Doug Ford was re-elected as provincial Premier.  It's a good sign.  Mostly.

For the first time in my political voting life, I did not vote in this election.  Doug Ford was as wacky as Justin Trudeau in calling the Freedom Convoy illegal and unacceptable.  While I'm happy the conservatives won, and I understand his position on the issue was a politically expedient one designed not to alienate a typically liberal province, the choice to slander those who were peacefully protesting a bad government decision was unacceptable to me.

Even many of the federal Conservative Party leadership candidates are supporting a repeal of the Trudeau COVID mandates, which was the impetus for the Freedom Convoy.   I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone in my thinking that Premier Doug Ford was being politically expedient when he badmouthed the Freedom Convoy rather than standing up for their concerns.  The basically status quo election had a miserable voter turnout for Ontario provincial elections, roughly 44%, representing the worst provincial election turnout in the province's history.  

I'm glad the Conservative Party won.  The alternatives were either a liberal or an outright socialist.  So the least bad option prevailed. Good.  But not great.  The best sign is that the mood of Canada is not rabidly liberal and it probably carries over into the United States as an existential truth at the moment. 

Tone deaf Premier of Ontario

Say it with me --  "I will never vote for the conservative party of Ontario as long as Doug Ford is the head of the party."  This man is the most disappointing leader I have ever seen.  With Justin Trudeau you expect stupidity.  Doug Ford was elected as a conservative but has been governing as a frightened child. 

Happening Now: Conservative vs Liberal vs Socialist in Ontario

My home province of Ontario (Canada's most populated province) votes today for a new premier (our version of governor).  After 15 years of Liberal party hegemony, fraught with scandal, corruption, inefficiency and some truly bad policy, voters are looking for a change.  Unlike the U.S. we typically have three viable options - the Liberal party (think Bernie Sanders), the New Democrats (think left of Bernie Sanders) and the Conservatives (which vary from people as conservative as Hillary Clinton, all the way over to Ronald Reagan).

Thankfully voters have finally had enough of the Liberals.  The provincial conservative party (sadly named the "Progressive Conservatives") held a strong enough generic lead to form the next government but in a snap leadership race months before the election (due to a sudden, not-so-surprisingly-ill-timed #MeToo-type scandal for their leader) they chose to elect the brother of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford (of crack mayor fame), as their leader.

He has no such scandal associated with him but he is not the most telegenic candidate.  He's been portrayed as Canada's version of president Trump by the media here.  They have attempted to smear him and his party.  Yet he clings to a slim lead in generic balloting.  The Liberals have not made a comeback - and risk garnering so few votes they may no longer qualify as a party if you can believe it. 

But this is going to be a change election.  The only other choice for change is the New Democrats (NDP) - the true socialists.  They have surged with a candidate who ironically speaks yells an awful lot like Hillary Clinton.  See for yourself.

She's also rude and exudes a sense of entitlement:

Just, wow. And apparently just HORRIBLE at basic math:

All that, said I expect our mini-Trump to win a majority government in provincial parliament as his votes are not so concentrated as the NDPs which will solidly over-perform in some areas, just as Hillary Clinton did in California, which did not help her one bit either.   Conservatives deserve to win because they are offering common sense.  They are listening to voters.

I'll report tomorrow on how it turned out.