Ontario

He will be getting down on his knees for a bunch of Nazi sympathizers

VOTE!!

"Ontario governments had reduced public grants for university operating revenues from about 80 percent in 1980 to around 50 percent in 2004 and to only 38 percent in 2017. Over this period, domestic and international tuition fees and miscellaneous fees paid by students jumped from 15 percent of operating funds in 1980 to 56 percent in 2017, to become the largest source of operating funds."
...
"Long before Ford, Ontario universities have pursued other avenues of privatization, particularly in ancillary services (internet technology, catering services, food courts, residences, conference venues, parking, merchandise, etc.). These turned many campuses into glorified platforms for landlordism, for contracting out, and for monopolistic forms of profit extraction. The current direction in privatization is to cut even more deeply into core education functions."
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"The next phase of the Ford government university policy was dominated by the Laurentian University–Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act debacle, which revealed not only the government’s gross negligence in financial oversight but also a range of their anti-democratic education politics."
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"The Laurentian–CCAA process obtained for its supporters an unprecedented, radical downsizing and extraordinary corporate centralization of a public university—now sometimes called “the Laurentian model.”
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"Then, after the program closures and mass terminations were executed, the Ford conservatives moved in to reduce and replace Laurentian’s Board of Governors in their own narrowly corporatist image so as to ensure their ideology of downsized provision, top-down management, and “market-aligned” education would be carried through and maintained long term."
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"By supporting the CCAA process, the Ford government enabled the Laurentian board to:
• break collective agreements and slash over 200 faculty and staff positions.

• eliminate seventy-six academic programs directly affecting over 932 students, mainly but not only in arts and basic sciences.

• destroy Huntington University, Thorneloe University, and the Université de Sudbury, three small federated universities that provided mostly arts programs and had been founding partners with Laurentian.

• cut the second oldest Indigenous studies program in Canada without any consultation with Indigenous communities

• cut a disproportionate number of programs vital to the Franco-Ontarian community, including the well-enrolled sage-femme / midwifery program

• wipe out individual and institutional donations to Laurentian for teaching and research

• end or disrupt research activities, including research with community and third-party obligations

• close important cultural and sports activities with destructive community effects

• and inflict massive reputational damage on the institution, including internationally.
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"It needs to be emphasized that the entire CCAA process was unnecessary, enormously costly, and could have been ended by the Ford government, which has instead supported it through to the present day."
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"Advocates for public university education face in the Ford government both deepened crisis conditions and a hardened neoliberal drive that seeks to reduce public funding while furthering privatization and corporatization. This is consistent with capitalist accumulation—not “stabilization”—including class streaming and forcing the costs of education onto working people"

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/39631999

CBC News

Nothing posted yet.

Radio Canada here.

A couple of websites that give suggestions of how to vote against the Conservatives:

• https://smartvoting.ca/
• https://votewell.ca/
• https://338canada.com/
• https://www.notoneseat.ca/

Hi r/Ontario. As you may have heard, there’s an election in Ontario right now. Doug Ford called it more than a year early because he cares more about keeping his job than he does about the people of Ontario. In light of that it’s been really encouraging to read all the discussions about the election here and see so many folks encouraging their neighbours to get out and vote.

Ontario Greens are fighting for a fairer Ontario. We have a plan to build more homes and bring costs down, cut taxes for folks making under $65,000 while asking the wealthiest to pay their fare share, and protect our critical food and farming industry from sprawl.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. You can find the rest of our platform at: https://gpo.ca/platform/

I wanted to take a moment to answer as many questions as I can about all things provincial politics, electoral reform, and fantasy tunnels.

I’ll be back on Monday at 12PM to answer as many questions as I can. In the meantime GO VOTE!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/39548994

Fair Vote Canada on Bluesky:

Tired of unaccountable "majority" governments elected with 40% of the vote?

The Ontario Green Party and Ontario NDP commit to proportional representation to make every vote count.

Nothing from the Ontario Liberal Party and Ontario PCs.

Read more:

https://www.fairvote.ca/22/02/2025/ontario-election-2025-where-parties-stand-on-proportional-representation/

Ontario Parties on Electoral Reform

Ontario PC: Nothing in platform. Ford is on record as opposed to electoral reform.

Ontario NDP: ✅Mixed Member Proportional Representation

Ontario Liberal: Nothing in platform. Bonnie Crombie previously said she would support a Citizens' Assembly.

Ontario Greens: ✅Proportional Representation ✅ Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform

The Green Line has an elections guide up showing the platforms of the different parties. Want to know if there are similar guides for balance.

Some interesting data prior to the debate.

There's a significant room of undecided voters.

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OLP is making gains.

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Ford's Trump stunt is wearing off.

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The tariffs aren't nearly a top issue.

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If the OLP trend continues and ONDP-leaning voters go for Crombie's plea to vote OLP, Ford might get knocked down to a minority.

Watching how the numbers move post-debate and will post again.

Author: Mark Winfield, Professor, Environmental and Urban Change, York University, Canada

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has justified his early election call on the need to respond to United States President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports.

While the threat of tariffs on all Canadian imports has been paused — although Trump has since slapped levies on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S. — Ontario voters need to reflect more than ever on the province’s circumstances and the performance of its government as they prepare to head to the polls next week.

The Ford government’s approach to the environment and climate change, as well as its policies on a range of other issues like housing, health care and education, is best understood in the context of its overall “market populist” approach to governance.

Several defining features of this model have emerged over the past six and a half years under Ford’s rule.