Kid you not, regardless of the deafening silence, there really is a provincial election campaign wrapping up in Ontario.
This one has all the hype and excitement of a pie-munching contest at a nursing home.
It’s as if Ontario voters hit the snooze button the day after Dougie Dollar called the election that the pollsters tell us few outside the Ford orbit wanted. Certainly not wanted by the opposition parties. Not in the depth of winter. Not when they had ridings without candidates.
And while the polls say a majority of Ontario voters didn’t want an election in February, the polls also say that the Blue Machine, with a lot of rare blue collar, union support, is headed for another majority.
Union locals are lining up behind Ford. For the first time ever, the Ontario Professional Firefighters Association has endorsed the Tories. The endorsement queue includes trades and construction locals along with a huge endorsement from the Unifor auto workers local in Brampton. (Of course, that doesn’t mean all union members will vote for Ford, but it does have a nice ring to it, if you’re Doug Ford).
Oddly, the Trump tariff threats have been a Godsend for Ford. While Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie was challenging Ford to a push-up contest, the preem was talking tough on tariffs and protecting Ontario jobs, especially in the auto sector.
In Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry, the race – if it can be called that – was over before it started. The NDP and Liberals had to dispatch candidate search parties. The Libs finally found a candidate, two weeks after the election was called.
If Ford is back in office at the end of the month, he will be on track to become Ontario’s longest serving premier since William G. Davis. As they say in Texas, who would of thunk it.
Nolan Quinn is going back to Queen’s Park and a possible cabinet promotion.
He won by 14,000-plus votes last election with a 42.24% turnout. The chance of matching that spread could be a challenge. The reason being voter turnout could be a lot lower. Folks just aren’t into this election. And, weather will play a big role.
Campaign teams will need to work extra hard to, as they say in campaign rooms, turn out the vote.
This is where the local Conservatives have a huge advantage with a well-funded, well-organized team.
When Mayor Elzear Emard showed up at city hall on the morning of Feb. 2, 1966, his desk chair was missing. So were 36 photos of city fathers that graced the walls of the second floor, each replaced with a miniature Bonhomme de neige.
The photos and chair were found by city police and 10 students at Cornwall Classical College were questioned.
The ‘theft’ was part of a Cornwall Campus Winter Carnival prank.
The carnival shenanigans included the ‘kidnapping’ of carnival Queen Suzanne Hurtubise, a first-year nursing student, who was ‘released’ when the ‘kidnappers’ were provided a ransom of 15 tickets to the carnival dance.
Mayor Emard said it was all in good fun and the long arm of the law should take it easy on the students. No charges were filed. Police Chief Allan Clarke agreed with the mayor (who happened to be one of three members of the police commission).
“They are good boys. I don’t want them to have criminal records,” he said.
He suggested a penance of shovelling snow in front of city hall, which the college masters deemed appropriate.
When a cranky city resident told city council that he was told that two city employees helped in the prank, Mayor Emard shot back, “If you don’t have any proof, sit down and shut up.” The man sat down.
The unsolved mystery is how the pranksters pulled it off?
FEBRUARY 1966: Charlottenburgh Township (now part of South Glengarry) was negotiating with the city to have the Edo plant just east of the city supplied with city water. The plan called for the township to build the water line then turn it over to the city which would bill the user. The township hoped that further negotiations would extend the water line in the township. … A teen night club opened on First Street East. … Fire destroyed a barn owned by Glenn Dafoe just east of Ingleside. The fire killed 17 cows. … NHL expansion to 12 from six teams was announced. St. Louis, San Francisco , Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Minneapolis-St. Paul had the winning bids. A Vancouver bid was rejected. … Michelle Derouin was Grand Prize winner at the Kinsmen Music Festival. … The city’s planning board called on council to create a full-time director of planning position. The city had been using a University of Toronto professor as a planning consultant. … A Canada-wide survey showed that the average price of a carton of cigarettes was $3.49. … The United States ramped up the number of troops in Vietnam to 200,000.
TRIVIA ANSWER: Cornwall lawyer Lucien Lamoureux was elected Liberal MP for Stormont in 1962. He became deputy Speaker in 1963 and Speaker in 1966 In 1968 he ran as an Independent in Stormont-Dundas. The Liberals and Progressive Conservatives did not run candidates but the NDP opposed him. He won by 5,000 votes. Lamoureux retired in 1974 and was appointed ambassador to Belguim. He died in 1998 at age 77. He has been called the greatest Speaker in House of Commons history. Lamoureux whet his appetite for politics when he served as a political aid to Lionel Chevrier in 1945.
TRIVIA: He won two Stanley Cups while serving as a Liberal member of Parliament. In one of his election victories, he defeated a young lawyer named Alan Eagleson.
QUOTED “Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States.” – J. Bartlet Brebner, historian.
