Charles Sousa wants all of Ontario working: Take a look at his GTA and rural policies

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With today being the "Day of Debates" (an all candidates luncheon at the Canadian Club and a special taping of The Agenda with Steve Paikin) here is some light reading material for you on Charles Sousa's bold new ideas to get rural Ontario and the GTA both working to create jobs and improve the quality of life for residents.

Here is the Sousa Plan to Create Jobs in Small Town and Rural Ontario

1. Acting upon local input into decision-making and building municipal partnerships;

1. Strongly supporting industries like auto, primary & secondary manufacturing and food processing;

1. Providing industry with the right tools to create jobs by promoting innovation and attracting investment; and

1. Supporting small businesses by making access to the Southwestern and Eastern Ontario Development Funds easier, simpler and permanent.

“As a party and as a government, we need to do a better job of listening to local voices,” said Sousa. “People need to know that we take their concerns seriously and are ready to act on them. That’s why listening is the starting point of my plan.”

Sousa, who is running to be Ontario’s Jobs Premier, has put the main focus of his plan for small town and rural Ontario on creating jobs.

Like all Ontario families, people in Southwestern and Eastern Ontario want the government to be focussed on creating jobs in their communities. That’s why Sousa is committed to maintaining strong support for the auto and manufacturing industries and is committed to working with business to create jobs.

His plan to improve access to the Southwestern and Eastern Ontario Development Funds for small businesses will help entrepreneurs to grow their companies and create jobs.

“Making it easier for small businesses to access the funds they need to succeed is the right thing to do,” said Sousa.

To date, the Eastern Ontario Development Fund has created $595M in private sector investment and helped create or retain 13,200 jobs. Sousa plans on building off of this success by making the funds more accessible to rural and small town businesses.

“The funds have worked well for big employers, but Main Street should be benefiting as well. That’s why I’ll make it permanent, bring clarity to the program and make it much easier to access.”

And here is Charles' newly released, hot off the presses plan To Take Action Now To Deal With GTA Challenges

1. Make Metrolinx responsible for the TTC

Gridlock –both literally and politically – is a huge problem for Toronto. By making Metrolinx responsible for the TTC, we can start building transit now, so we’re not having the same conversations ten years from now. “We’re two years behind schedule because of political gridlock,” Sousa said.

2. Site a new university campus in Milton

Milton is the fastest growing city in Canada and we need to take action now to keep up. A new campus in Milton will help our students prepare to succeed and boost the local economy. “We have the funding.  We need to act,” Sousa said.

3. Take immediate action to reform the Condo Act

Ontario has been looking at reforming the condo act for years, and private members’ bills on the issues have previously passed second reading in the legislature.

Within 90 days of becoming Premier, Sousa would introduce legislation to reform the Condo Act. “We have had a lot of input.  We need to act,” Sousa said

4. Make immigration work better for Ontario

By increasing the number of provincial nominees, and pushing the federal government to deliver their fair share, we can take full advantage of the skills that new immigrants have, and make sure that the GTA remains a magnet for economic immigrants around the world. “We need immigration to work for Ontario,” Sousa said.

“We all know that the GTA is a world-class region that is facing significant challenges over the next decade,” said Sousa. “We need comprehensive solutions to address these challenges, and we need to start moving now.”

Sousa is running to be Ontario’s Jobs Premier and has already proposed several concrete steps we can take to create jobs now.

What have the Tories done for Toronto?

Last election, in the riding of Don Valley West, the federal Conservatives came out with a piece of lit which many felt was one of the better pieces of the last election. In a riding which arguably was the Tories best shot at winning a seat in Toronto proper, the piece said merely on the front "What have the Conservatives done for Toronto, anyway?" on a plain blue background, with no sign of party affiliation.

When opened, the piece was revealed to be a Tory ad, and it listed the different investments the Conservatives had made in the city, playing off the supposed hostility of the Conservatives to the city, and attempting to disprove it.

However, after John Baird's "Fuck Toronto" comment earlier this summer, it seems the Tories are delievering a big fat zilch to the GTA:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/681191

The Tory Mental Crime Wave

I was reading this article: http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/462063 about how new crime stats could damage Tory attempts to play the "tough on crime" card. While crime rates are in fact lower across the board, the Conservatives seem to be sticking to their messaging that an obviously shrinking problem is more of an issue then the environment, a slowing economy, or Canada's place in the world. A couple of quotes from the article are particularly worrying:

“(They) try to pacify Canadians with statistics,” he told party supporters in January.
“Your personal experiences and impressions are wrong, they say; crime is really not a problem. These apologists remind me of the scene from the Wizard of Oz when the wizard says, ’Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”’
That assertion was echoed today by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.
“We are not governing by statistics. We are governing by what we promised Canadians in the last election and what Canadians have told us,” he said in an interview.

Pacify with statistics? Not governing by statistics?

Good to know that the Canada's government is not bound by inconvenient things like, you know, the truth, in favour of placating the socially conservative "lock em up and throw away the key" base of the party. I'm waiting for the Elections Canada style accusations thats that Stats Can is full of Liberal hacks trying to cook up conspiracies against the government. Furthermore, given the inaction of the Conservatives on the economy, I wonder how far an ignorance of statistical truths and reality based evidence extends in the party. The article also talks about how media and popular public perspection of crime can be far off the mark in terms of actual crime rates and the like, which brings to mind the comments of former Republican Senator and John McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm, on how America is statistically not in a recession, but the public perception is overwhelmingly that they are in one, a situation Gramm called a "mental recession." Some of Gramm's remarks can be seen in this article: http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jul/09/mccain-adviser-addresses-mental-recession/, and some of them can be very easily applied to the crime situation in Canada.

Mr. Gramm said the constant drubbing of the media on the economy's problems is one reason people have lost confidence. Various surveys show that consumer confidence has fallen precipitously this year to the lowest levels in two to three decades, with most analysts attributing that to record high gasoline prices over $4 a gallon and big drops in the value of homes, which are consumers' biggest assets.
"Misery sells newspapers," Mr. Gramm said. "Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day."

Compare that to the Toronto Star article:
The numbers fly in the face of popular media and political messaging, which portrays crime across Canada as rising in both volume and ferocity.

Anyway, from a political perspective, tough on crime messages, particularly when deployed by Conservative parties, tend to be attempt to win/hold on to suburban voters worried about bad things happening in nice little bedroom communities, like say, Mississauga. Really, that is the only region where tough on crime messaging would be effective from a Conservative perspective, rural areas which might favour tougher crime laws are already generally Tory leaning, while urban areas won't vote Tory anyway. Crime also plays into favoured Conservative tactics relating to putting a scare in voters to get them to the ballot box (Tax on Everything, anyone?). In the past, when areas like the suburban GTA West could be counted on to deliver solid support for the Tories, a crime focus could be expected to work, however, times and demographics have changed. I'm going to semi-quote Gerard Kennedy's response to my question re: selling the green shift to small c-conservative suburbs, that the 905 belt has changed dramatically since the days of the Big Blue Machine sweeping the area (example, from 95 to 07, the provincial PC vote in Mississauga South, a former stronghold, fell from 69% and 23,000 votes to 34% and 14,000 votes) thanks to demographic changes coming as a result of younger, more socially liberal minded families moving in from the 416, and increased immigrant populations in the area, which tend to be more Liberal friendly. Conservative messages of fear based on "personal experience and impressions" as are bound to fail opposed to real progressive action based on, you know, facts. One last interesting tidbit from the Toronto Star article:

“For the fourth year in a row, the lowest provincial (crime) rate occurred in Ontario and Quebec,” said the agency.

Interesting that the Ontario crime rate is so low after 4 years of the "small man of Confederation" Dalton Mcguinty in charge, and following the "lock up the homeless" tough on crime PC's.

Huzzah new GO trains!

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/294296

Look, even from a non-partisan perspective, these trains are awesome. I grew up less than a minute away from the Port Credit GO station, and take the GO train (when I'm actually in Mississauga) at least once or twice a week, so GO Trains formed a significant role in my life.

Anyway, good on Dalton for getting these things, blah blah blah, good for the environment, blah blah, help the economy and reduce congestion blah blah. Lets not get distracted from the central theme: These trains (and trains in general) are awesome. If Dion makes "Parliament will pass a motion recognizing the awesomeness of trains" plank, the Liberals will win a majority, guaranteed.

What, me worry?

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/271064

Hopefully, things like this can show that Dion's leadership of the party is in command, particularly given that the GTA is the powerbase for Rae, Ignatieff, and Kennedy. The annual meeting is a good step forward to ensure a connection between the Leadership and the grassroots, and combined with the upcoming LPC-O AGM, should be a good step forward in ensuring party unity and renewal.