Opinion:
 

   Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day isn't quite sure about his name these days. Some people call him Stockwell while to others he's Stockwell Dork and Doris Day.

   Stock brought this on himself during our federal election by bringing up the issue of Direct Democracy. In turn it led to the humourous Doris referendum and a shallow national debate by the media and our politicians on democracy itself.

    Prime Minister Chretien is consulting an ethics counsellor as he denies that his wheeling and dealing with bank bosses and corporate chieftains is unethical. Tory Leader Joe Clark is also in ethical turmoil as he explains why he spent time calling Chretien for his own game of wheeling and dealing.

   Doris or Stock is perhaps the big loser in this as in some newspapers he is trying to prove that he isn't a bizarre racist, woman hater or Martian. And he really may be all of those things - who really knows?

   On the referendum issue he has certainly proved himself an enemy of our rights. Stock wants to hold a referendum on the right to choice in abortion and he is portraying it as the democratic and Christian thing to do.

   It is neither. As a former member of a direct democracy group and a Christian (though not part of any church) I spent some long years considering the issues. My personal conclusion on abortion has been that the right to choice is an established right in Canadian society. A good comparison is with Stock's right to a name. Only he has the right to decide whether his name is Stock or Doris. We have no right to hold a referendum vote to decide it for him. So if you get my take you can see that it is the same with abortion. The proper Christian and humanist position is a conservative defense of our established rights, and in abortion that right is the right to choice. The public at large does not have the right to vote that right away.

   We also don't have the right to vote minority rights away or to vote our own rights away. Such actions are a total misuse of direct democracy and they are not democracy at all.

   Some people would have us all as drones sitting on computers voting on every crazy thing in the world. You probably know that in most elections most people don't vote so I guess the number one policy in the world would be that we are undecided as to where to go with our lives and nations.

   Then there is the question of the informed vote. How much voting can you do on issues you know nothing about?  And who is controlling the information you are already receiving?

   I suppose that in Canadian direct democracy the info would come from government, corporate media and the National Citizens Coalition. Not the best of sources - and it would mean that the public would not be in control of the vote at all. In application out of control direct democracy leaves the door open to demagogues and other forces of negativity. These forces do not believe in the will of the people. What they believe in is the ill will of the people, harnessed and manipulated by them so they can build a sick society in their own image.

   This harnessing of negatively even shows through on the simple issues -- many proponents of direct democracy are always calling for votes on taxation. And of course they are all people who don't want to pay taxes. Yet the fact is that tax issues have to be decided by representatives, because citizens can't vote fairly when the issue is whether they should put money directly in their pockets.

   Of course I'm always going to vote to toss myself some fast cash and that is why you can't allow me to do that. Sure I want to see some horrible serial killer get his neck chopped, and only for revenge. We don't think clearly on emotional issues, but there are some issues that are suitable and where direct democracy works fine.

   In Toronto during the days of the forced megacity, citizens wanted to get informed on models of city democracy and to decide by referendum on a final system. It never happened but it would have been a good form of direct democracy where citizens got informed and decided on their own style of government.

   Clearly direct democracy has to be used sparingly. There are only certain issues it applies to and it has to be a slow process where the public becomes clearly informed. We don't need demagogues, manipulators or mad men with insta-Vote computers as our government.

   Yes we don't need them, and we also don't need the wheelers and dealers. Our Prime Minister and party leaders stumble around like people who have forgotten what democracy is … and as they try to remember they keep getting it somewhat muddled. In their state of confusion they continue to wheel and deal with media, bankers and corporations - the upshot of this being that we the people are fading away.

   Every time our leaders forget to consult us they are voting to take our right to democracy away. We might want to call it a new form of directly dishonest democracy, and we might want to note that it is killing us all.

   It is time to reform the system, but let's do it through a slow and sensible process. Otherwise the manipulated majority might vote to end it for us all.
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Federal Housing Debate
Spin Doctoring on CounterSpin - Nov 02, 2000
(Real Housing for Real People, or Another Bedtime Story.)
By Doreen & Gary

   Tonight CounterSpin with Avi Lewis held a discussion called Housing and Homelessness As An Election Issue. The Liberal Red Book III calls for 680-million dollars in aid for Canada's homeless, but only if the provinces match it. Some housing advocates think this is a good beginning. Cathy Crowe of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee wants the Federal Government to spend one percent of its budget on housing. She is elated to be one sixteenth closer to her goal.

   For those of us in the know the figures are nothing more than a Band-Aid treatment.

   The discussion opened with politicians, developers and the public agreeing that we need more affordable housing. The Tory candidate's solution was to bring in more tax cuts and to increase the basic personal exemption. Lacking a platform on housing, the Alliance man wanted to call in experts to study the subject to death. NDPer Libby Davies seemed determined to prove that her party could create a bigger Band-Aid than the liberals. The audience wanted to hear from a homeless person.

    Yes, there is a need for affordable housing, but throwing money to this noble cause is never going to be a solution unless other issues are addressed. Politicians do not want to face these issues and the public is not informed enough to insist that real solutions be put in place.

    First we must decide whether government represents people or corporations. The politicians want us to believe that globalization and tax cuts will remedy the problem of homelessness and housing. But that is very far from the truth. Tax cuts take money from valuable social programs. Civil society ends up eroded and democracy is lost.

   A better example exists in Norway. Citizens happily pay up to 75 percent of their income in tax, but the people get their money's worth. There is virtually no homelessness, a great health care system and lots of employment.

   In contrast to the Third World living standards of Canada, this is a society that people are proud to belong to and happy to give their money to. They have created a more caring and humane nation.

   Human rights abuse is good for business all over the world. For the truth about globalization just look at companies like Nike and look at companies that use child labour to generate huge profits.

   What good are a few shekels thrown to housing and developer friends of the politicians, when we are building prisons and at the same time saying crime has decreased?

   Obvious hypocrisy exists. Our national goal can't be housing, unless that housing is the prison industrial complex. The prison industrial complex is good for business. Workfare is good for business. Target policing that harasses and criminalizes the homeless is good for business. We are returning to nineteenth century workhouse ethics that enslave people.

   It is ironic that this is happening while our politicians are arguing about how much money to dole out for a critical shortage of affordable housing.

   Yes affordable housing can be built, but it isn't a real a solution. As long as the real agenda of government is to put money in the hands of the few it will make homelessness a major factor in the global economy.

   With NAFTA and the WTO, jobs, resources and sovereignty leave Canada and our environment is destroyed for the sake of profit. Everything in sight is being privatized. A real solution that would show that the government is truly committed to building affordable, non profit housing would be to borrow the money from the Bank of Canada and use public money. It was a disgrace to hear the builders complaining that the government could not offer them enough incentive to make a profit on affordable housing.

   If we really want to create affordable housing and eliminate homelessness we have to elect representatives who put people's needs over profits. We must take a more active role in government, stop buying the line that the poor are the cause of all our problems, forget the tax cuts and not let corporations rule the world.

contacts for CounterSping
counterspin@toronto.cbc.ca
416-907-5089
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Will the Alliance be Canada's Fifth Place Party? - Aug.31.2000
by Gary Morton

   Over the last few months the larger Canadian papers have been boosting the Alliance. If they have failed it is probably because the lead shoes worn by Stockwell and Company just don't want to fly.

   Aware of their failure the media now uses the Alliance as a bogeyman to achieve certain political aims. The Toronto Star desperately wants Jean Chretien to resign so Toronto right-winger Paul Martin can come into power. This fits with the Star's true position as a paper that leans a good bit to the right while trying to look as left as many of its readers. Paul Martin is the perfect Star liberal - a wealthy corporate baron who should be leading the Conservatives and not the Liberals. As a bogeyman, Stockwell Day comes in handy at the Star - he's a reason to look for a younger liberal leader like Paul Martin (though Martin ain't really all that young) and a reason for Chretien not to call a fall election.

   Since I'm on the fall election point, let it be said that the entire corporate media sector is in a state of denial over the possibility of a fall election. They don't want it to happen so they can't believe that it might happen. A fall election is their worst nightmare because Chretien will not have retired. And by the time Paul Martin comes in, he'll look a lot like Father Time. Read it between the lines in the big papers - Dare not call a fall election Jean, or the mighty Alliance and the wrath of the voters will destroy you.

   At the National Post they honestly believe the Alliance is going somewhere. They also believe that Joe Clark must be exterminated in the interests of a true far right Alliance majority. Subconsciously, the Post folk believe the liberals will win again, and if they do win the Post would prefer to see Paul Martin liberals that are least a tad on the right. Endless articles and columns in the Post boost the Alliance and attempt to paint the lunatic members of that party as a credible alternative. The Post thinks the Alliance can win, and the Post also thinks that that victory would be so much sweeter if Joe Clark and Jean Chretien were forced into retirement first.

   The Toronto Sun loves to apologize for the Alliance. When Stockwell leaps into bed with separatists, the Sun leaps into the fray to assure us that he is still a virgin. The Sun let's us know that these nice fellows aren't really separatists. They have in fact renounced the whole idea of separation - sort of like heroin addicts that have vowed to stay off the needle.

   The Globe and Mail proved today that it still values a scoop, even if many people there do believe that Jean and Joe should bow out and simply hand the reigns to Stockwell. Today's scoop came as the other top papers were featuring Alliance-soon-to-top-the-polls spin.

   In the Globe scoop, Angus Reid has the Alliance dropping to 22 per cent to the Liberals' forty-six per cent. In Atlantic Canada the Alliance goes under the water with First Nations fishing vessels, dropping eight percentage points to 7 per cent. Joe Clark is afloat at 31 per cent there. In the Alliance heartland of Alberta, Liberal support shoots up 13 points to 35 per cent.

   The Globe article ends saying health care is the number one concern of voters, and that an election is expected this spring.

   With the Alliance now rocketing downhill, the spring election idea may be correct. Jean Chretien will think he can spend some time familiarizing Canadians with Stockwell. And after they are familiar with him they will then vote him into fifth place.

   None of us really knows what will happen. The Alliance will likely do better than fifth place, but only because the media will work hard to make that party's bad ideas and gadfly candidates look respectable.

   Most of us have to earn our way. The Alliance doesn't
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Carbon Tax Proposed as the Greenhouse Gases Threaten the Earth - Aug.31.2000
   Swedish scientist Svente Arrhenius warned at the beginning of the last century that burning fossil fuels could raise atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, creating a greenhouse effect.
   That has happened and this summer open water was discovered at the North Pole by an ice-breaker cruise ship. The find surprised many in the scientific community. Two recent studies provide evidence that the Earth's ice cover is melting at an accelerating rate. It is projected that within 50 years, the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free during the summer. The other study reports that the vast Greenland ice sheet is melting. The U.S. Geological Survey projects that the remaining glaciers will disappear within 30 years. In Europe's Alps, the shrinkage of the glacial area s expected to continue. Shrinkage of ice masses in the Himalayas has accelerated alarmingly. In eastern India, the Dokriani Bamak glacier is shrinking.
   Glaciers and mountain ice are a store of fresh water for use in the summer as the snow melts. As that snow disappears in global warming, the water supply for cities and for irrigation in areas dependent on snowmelt is endangered. The water supply of much of Asia is endangered. Rising sea levels could create climate refugees by the million in countries such as China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Viet Nam, and the Philippines.
   Some environmentalists and groups like the World Watch Institute now think we should incorporate the cost of climate disruption in the price of fossil fuels in the form of a carbon tax. We have to shift to other energy sources and perhaps a hydrogen-based society before we destroy the planet. It may not be possible to make that shift before Earth's climate system is irrevocably altered.
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Canada Poisoning its Children - Aug.27.2000
   Dr. Graham Chance, chairman of an advisory group which oversaw the study, The Health of Canada's Children says Canada's children have become living laboratories and are showing alarming symptoms of environmental poisoning.
   A child's daily exposure to toxic chemicals was the main concern outlined in the 325-page report released last week by the Canadian Institute of Child Health. Canada is now the second highest producer of hazardous waste in the world behind the U.S. High levels of lead, PCBs, pesticides, moulds, methylmercury, dust mites, pollutants from agricultural and industrial sources all seep into the environment and interfere with a child's development and growth process.
   Children more susceptible and at higher risk to volatile substances because they walk closer to the ground, spend more time in the yard, and eat and drink more pound for pound compared to adults. The exposure is linked to a 25% increase in childhood cancers in the last 25 years; a four-fold increase of asthma in the last 20 years; an increase in allergies, hyperactive disorders, brain dysfunction, learning disabilities and weakened immune systems.
    Dr. Trevor Hancock, chairman of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, says bluntly that children are victims of environmental abuse.
    The medical authority suggested policy makers establish a federal office on children's health and a national research centre of excellence on health and the environment. All regulations that protect children's health must be renewed.
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Stingy Canadian Bosses Won't Pay Competitive Wages - Aug.23.2000
   Industry Minister John Manley is blaming Canadian businesses for causing the brain drain, saying they don't pay their workers enough to keep them here.
   Manley was responding to a recent poll that suggested nine out of 10 Canadians have considered moving to the United States, with 81% indicating higher pay is the big lure.
   Manley said. "Compensation levels are lower and to be competitive in a global economy, that's going to be one of the issues that Canadian firms are going to have to address."
   Canadian firms and media constantly complain that high taxes are the cause of a brain drain. Yet facts are showing that stinginess on the part of employers is the key cause. Governments have responded to industry calls for personal income tax cuts only to find that the tax cuts are a new form of subsidy for business. Employees receiving tax cuts find that the boss won't give them a well-earned raise, citing the tax cuts as the reason.
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Genomics make Universal Healthcare the Only Option - Aug.25.2000
(facts pose serious questions on the moral direction of government and media in Canada)

   Last week at an industry conference held in Boston, senior executives from several of the world's leading genomics concerns agreed that genomics, with its promise of being able to show who will be predisposed to what disease, will eventually give rise to universal healthcare in the United States.
   Craig Venter, uber-geneticist of human genome renown said that universal healthcare will come about because the defects in our genomes will make us all uninsurable.
   The writing is on the wall. Genetic testing and genomic analysis will obviously turn the private payer system on its head, making it virtually impossible to run profitably without intense public outcry. Actuarial tables will be turned to salt. The definition of "preexisting illness'' will become hopelessly skewed. Those denied coverage because they carry, say, a breast cancer or Type II diabetes gene will invariably unite to lodge massive lawsuits against insurers. Eventually, public outcry will force Congress to pass such restrictive legislation that it will become impossible for health insurers to fulfill their primary corporate mission: to turn a profit.
   The only option is Medicare. It is undoubtedly the way of the future. And not so long ago it was the way of the present in Canada.
   The new facts pose serious questions on the moral direction of government and media in Canada. Political parties and the big media are constantly pushing the idea of breaking up Medicare, cutting services and privatizing. Not only is it morally wrong, it is a completely wrong direction. Key leaders of our nation are clearly becoming blinded and if they are not shown the light they will destroy Medicare and leave us will nothing but illness and disease as its replacement.
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Alliance Playing Survivor in Attack on Maritimes - Aug.22.2000
Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin says a Canadian Alliance proposal to eliminate business subsidies within two years of forming a government would turn Canada into a chaotic version of the TV series Survivor, where castaways are pitted against each other.
   He attacked the Alliance proposal calling it a silly, immature suggestion that ignores successful government partnerships in such sectors as high technology, aviation and the oil sector of Alberta -- the home province of Alliance leader Stockwell Day.
   "Stockwell Day wants to turn the whole country into a game of Survivor where only one person emerges at the end of the day with a big prize," Mr. Tobin said.
   Tobin also attacked the Alliance last week over comments by a senior party member, John Mykytyshyn, that dismissed Atlantic Canadians as lazy.

Day Freaks After Alliance Pollster Attacks Easterners - Aug.2000
   Stockwell Day tried to distance himself from embarrassing comments made by a Canadian Alliance official who suggested Atlantic Canadians are unwilling to work and concerned primarily with receiving handouts. The comments brought to mind the insulting stuff members of the old Reform Party used to come up with.
   The remarks were made by pollster John Mykytyshyn, a member of the Alliance's National Council. Mr. Mykytyshyn said at a panel discussion that the Alliance was expected to do well in its first election in all regions except Atlantic Canada because "people in the eastern provinces believe in handouts" and being paid for doing nothing.
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Stockwell Day - Rise of a Hot Air Balloon - July.2000
(Article on the recent National Post Poll and the Rise of Day)

   I was one of the people surveyed in the recent COMPASS poll for the National Post. It led to Saturday's National Post Headline of "Poll shows voters tilting to the right." And it helped Stockwell Day gain victory in the Alliance leadership race.

   The right wing trend probably worries a lot of people, yet the poll itself convinced me that the new swing to the extreme right has been mostly manufactured by the corporate sector and wealthy media barons like Conrad Black.

   Take tax cuts for example. The Post news article should have been a banner saying Canadians Want Big Tax Cuts. The question was asked in the poll. And the news article makes no mention of the results on that question, the obvious reason being that the majority doesn't care about tax cuts.

   The people polled were also right wing. I joined the Federal PCs to aid David Orchard in his attempt to gain the leadership. Since then I have been getting called on all of these polls. The pollsters say they are random calls but I don't believe it.

   Even polling a crowd that was mostly to the right led to pathetic results. One result puts the Liberals out in front with the support of 44% of voters to the Alliance with 25% under Stockwell Day. Jean Chretien is by far the favourite leader of right wingers, so why should the liberals bother swinging further to the right?

   Also - they never did come right out and ask you if you preferred Day over Manning. They got that result by beating around the bush with other questions.

   On the all-important question of Social Conservatism, they don't tell you what it is. So no wonder fifty-four percent of Canadians would welcome a political leader who was a social conservative.

   The Post News Article says, "Social conservatism -- opposition to abortion and homosexual rights -- has been depicted throughout the campaign as Mr.
Day's Achilles heel, but the poll findings turn some of this received wisdom on its head."

   Fact is the poll asked questions about homosexual rights and abortion. Those questions would lead you to think that a social conservative is a person who opposes only gay marriage and late term abortions. The pollster on the phone actually had a gay sounding voice, and he was asking me whether it would be positive or negative to make issues like abortion and gay marriage major campaign issues.

   The Post didn't mention those results so I have the feeling that the majority of right wingers have a strong distaste for social conservatism even in a moderate form. And in personal experience, I have talked to members of the Pentecostal Church who abhor Mike Harris and his social welfare cuts. Even Day's core vote would be torn as to whether to vote for him. There aren't really many Canadian Christians in the extremist camp. Those are just some key leaders who get media attention.

   It also makes you wonder about the accuracy of polls. The questions were posed in a way that masked real beliefs. They worked to give the Post a news story of a certain kind -- Canadians are Swinging Right -- They Love Stockwell. And the hidden message is to the other political parties. Keep your platforms on the right if you want to do well in the upcoming election.

   My gauge of the truth comes through running my news site. I collect posts from groups politically active in Canada. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of protest groups. And about 98 percent of them lean to the left of centre. Is Canada is swinging right, while all of the grassroots players, other than the media and the political parties, are swinging left?

   It's a manufactured swing to the far right. The media and the political parties are up in a hot air balloon with Stockwell Day. They are well above the wishes of the people, and the right-wing platforms they adopt will bring us genuine pain and social unrest.

By Gary Morton
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Letter on Taxation and the Fraser Institute
From:  William Dascavich <wmdasca@telusplanet.net>

Dear Editor:
     The Frazer Institute and other apologists for the wealthy elite are fond of telling Canadians that around this time of the year they can finally stop working for the government and start working for themselves.  They call it  "Tax Freedom Day."

    The implication is that any money we pay in taxes goes to benefit only someone in government.  They conveniently forget to mention that without taxes we would have no roads or streets unless we were prepared to pay a toll every time we used them.  We would have no policing services unless we were prepared to hire security guards.  We would have no airports, harbours, public parks, museums or libraries. We would have no food, drug, safety or other inspection services. There would be no public schools so we would be "free" to educate our children at our own cost. We would have no public health care so we could be "free" to pay exorbitant private health care insurance premiums or else go without health care coverage.  There would be no welfare programs for disadvantaged people who would be "free" to cast themselves upon the tender mercies of charity or turn to crime to survive.

    These are but some of the "freedoms" we would enjoy if the wealthy elite would have their way. While I don't approve of the corruption, patronage, and inefficiencies prevalent in some of our governments, I am grateful to be living in a country where government is, relatively speaking, more compassionate toward its citizens than most.  I believe we must remain vigilant that we are not deceived by those who hide behind the "freedom" terminology while seeking to enhance their own wealth and power.
Yours truly,
William Dascavich
5814 - 49 A Street
Vegreville, Albetta, T9C 1H2
Phone 780 632 7562
***************

The Wisdom of Stockwell Day - July.2000
   His supporters say he didn't, but did he say it or not? Here are a few of the quotes in the media and recent books, attributed to Alliance guy Stockwell Day.
Mass Killer Clifford Olson: Day said, "People like myself say, 'Fix the problem. Put him in the general [prison] population. The moral prisoners will deal with him in a way we don't have the nerve to do.' "
Liberal info gathered on Day called "sins of the father," quotes comments by Stockwell Day Sr., a western separatist, who questioned Canada's immigration policies, saying it allowed more non-whites than white people into the country
Homosexuality: In 1986, when leaders of gay groups were introduced to the Alberta Legislature, he was quoted in the Calgary Herald as calling it an "offence to the Lord."
   In February of 1992, Mr. Day was quoted in Alberta Report saying that "Homosexuality is a mental disorder that can be cured through counselling."
   Day also once said, "Nobody gets fired because they're a homosexual. They get fired if they don't do their job. Religious schools are supposed to have protection to teach children according to their beliefs."
Abortion: In 1995, Mr. Day argued that abortion would offend the disabled community because some fetuses were deformed. "There are a lot of couples willing to adopt any baby," he said.
   Mr. Day supported a Conservative Party resolution that would end public funding for abortions. The resolution was narrowly defeated.
   Mr. Day also attempted to link abortion to child abuse. "The thinking is, if you can cut a child to pieces or burn them alive with salt solution while they're still in the womb, what's wrong with knocking them around a little when they're outside the womb?"
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Alliance Spells KKK or Worse - based on info gleaned from a new Ekos Poll -- June.2000
   A new Toronto Star poll paints a frightening picture of Alliance supporters. They are less accepting of immigrants - particularly non-whites. (Perhaps Ekos' nice way of saying RACIST!) They are opposed to abortion and supportive of capital punishment. They take a hard line on homosexuality and they favour privatizing medicare. Alliance voters are interested in seeing this country Americanized. They are also supporters of the religious right as opposed to the gentler Canadian social justice Christian movement.
   "These guys are going nowhere," says Frank Graves, president of Ekos Research Associates.
   But that's what people said of Mike Harris once. What if these guys get in? It'll be too late then! We'll be living in Texas North.
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Parties must Address attack on our Sovereignty by the Word Trade Organization and the IMF- July.2000
   At present all of Canada's political parties, with the exception of the Greens and the Canadian Action Party, have been supporting unfair trade and monetary rules through deals with the WTO and IMF
... here is a sample article on the continuing assault on Canada by the World Trade Organization.
U.S. and WTO target Canada's wheat board - July.2000
(Action would increase food costs in starving world)
   The U.S. has reiterated its intention to target the Canadian Wheat Board and other government initiatives
   U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky told Congress of the plans last week. Ottawa's milk pricing export system has already been declared illegal by a hostile World Trade Organization.
   The U.S. has said it wants to kill the Canadian Wheat Board and similar organizations that offer lower prices for wheat and food. The inefficient American system leads to high prices and the US want to compensate for that through a WTO attack on other nations.
   Canada's farm supply management programs are also under attack as the WTO continues to move toward eliminating the sovereignty of nation states.
- see the monetary reform page.
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A Winning Federal Election Strategy - June.05.2000
Here are the key items for a winning Election Strategy.

- Pre Election Ads. The governing party can use government advertising just before an election for a boost. Mike Harris spent $100 million in public dollars before the 99 Ontario Election.

- Profiling. The liberals are worried about the Alliance. In 99 Mike Harris ran ads before the election, profiling Dalton McGuinty as a weak and indecisive leader. The federal liberals will likely move to profile any new Alliance leader like Day or Long as dangerous extremists, lacking in leadership capabilities.

- The Leader. This is the most important item. If the public doesn't see your man as a leader, you haven't a chance. Image and leadership qualities are paramount. If your party leader lacks image you're doomed. Chretien has an advantage here.

- Platform. Any platform that paints the party as in touch with the grass roots will work. A genuine one would be better. In general platform and the use of hot button issues and other devices don't make a major difference. Harris won on image and not on the Common Sense Revolution.

- The Team. The appearance of a team is more important than the platform. The liberals are weak here as a huge number of MPs are functioning like opposition members. If nothing is done to include them the liberal team will collapse in the election. Efforts to foster even more internal disarray may be the best tactic in destroying the liberals.

- The Promises. Like saving health care and so on. The liberals make big promises and are weak because they fail to keep them.

- Advertising and a lot of it must be targeted.

- Polling. The Tories have majority in Ontario due to polling. They won a majority government by shifting a mere 16,000 votes their way. Polling found the ridings where they were on the edge, and extensive advertising was placed to put them over the top.

Reference  - Citizens on the Web
Results of the 99 Ontario election
Post mortem
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