Hideous orange text comes verbatim from the latest PC Party of Ontario ad, which you can watch (if you want to hear a bunch of nonsense) here [edit: the ad has since been removed].
"Most politicians tell you what they think you wanna hear"
Yeah, and here it comes...
"I could do the same"
You are.
"I could tell you that our debt is nothing to worry about-"
It actually isn't, so I guess point for you. Oh no, wait, you're being facetious.
"-and, we can spend more forever."
Well, even a five year old knows that isn't true. Also, pretty sure that's not the message of the other two big parties. But whatevs. GO ON . . .
"I could tell you that if we do nothing, the jobs we've lost will just come back on their own."
Oh, Tim—we're not all morons, that's not the message the other two big parties have been sending out either. Why you wanna play me like a sucka?
"Or I could be honest with you"
Well, you haven't been so far, so I'm not expecting much.
"The truth is that a million people woke up in our province this morning ... without a job."
ACTUALLY, Tim, the truth is that 364,700 people in the labour force aged 25 and over woke up in this province this morning without a job. Or, if you want to talk about those 15 and over, then 583,100 of those in the labour force. That's hardly a million. Or can't you count?
Ok, whatever. Give it to me straight, Tim.
"The truth is that we're spending $1.5M, every hour, that we just don't have."
Well, I don't know what to say about that, besides the weird pause after 'the truth'. I'd like to think it's because when you're about to tell a lie, you hesitate a little after you say 'truth'.
Well, maybe you could get the Bank of Montreal (BMO Financial Group), the Bank of Nova Scotia, the 407 ETR, Barrick Gold, CIBC, CN Rail, Canadian Tire ... through Vale Canada Limited—who donated a total of more than $780,000 to your bloody party instead of paying fair corporate taxes—to help with that debt problem. Yeah, many of them donated to OTHER parties as well, so double or triple that figure and you get the amount of money that large corporations pay to have us HARASSED by political ads. Thanks a lot, jerks.
By the way, that's donations to the party in 2014 alone. 2014 isn't even half done yet.
For more super fun campaign and party donation information, visit:
http://rtd.elections.on.ca/rtd/jsp/en/RTDParty.jsp#
Aw shit, now I have to look at the campaign donations. Whoa, and that's another $185k. Fun stuff.
But I digress. Where are you going with this, Tim?
"The truth is that we have 100,000 more bureaucrats than we did in two thousand and nine, but our hospitals are even MORE overcrowded."
I had to write that 2000 and 9 out, it's a pet peeve. I was always taught you only use 'and' when you're denoting what comes after a decimal place. So, as far as I'm concerned, it's two thousand nine.
Hmm. Well, let's dissect this. our population is 4% greater than it was in 2009, at a 2013 figure of 13,537,994.
This is a contentious issue. I'm a public sector worker, so I'm understandably worried about this statement—partly because I have had about a decade of trouble securing a job in this field, which supports the public by providing information and services, but also partly because I think Tim Hudak might have been dropped on his head as a baby.
Ontario does NOT EVEN HAVE 100,000 bureaucrats, TOTAL. At last count available from Statistics Canada, we have just under 88,000 provincial government workers (CANSIM table 183-0002, and thanks to Donovan Vincent of The Star for posting this link in THIS ARTICLE he wrote in late May). In fact, if you want to compare the 2009 figures to the 2012 figures, you totes can.
ONTARIO ACTUALLY HAS FEWER PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT WORKERS AT LAST COUNT THAN IT DID IN 2009. Nearly 2% fewer, in fact.
If you want to focus on the TOTAL number of public sector employees (including non-bureaucrats) then you'll see that the increase in jobs is LESS THAN ONE PERCENT. The population has grown by 4%, and the number of people providing services to that population has grown by less than one percent.
And for interest's sake, because you brought up hospitals, Tim, let's see how many people work in health and social services. Oh, look, it's gone up by 3%, nearly keeping pace with the population growth.
Back to your blather.
"The truth" [insert ridiculous paternalistic pause] "is that without a realistic plan" [OMGWTFLOL] "that puts your interests first" [I'm pretty sure you should be replacing your with business here, Mike . . . I mean, Tim] "none of this is gonna change."
Hmm . . . "Gonna"—that's folksy.
"Our million jobs plan will take urgent action to grow the economy-"
The economy has grown, Timmy Tim Tim. It's just that folks like you and me—no, folks like me and the rest of the 99% (definitely excluding you)—DO NOT SEE THE BENEFITS. Here, lemme 'splain: the expenditure-based GDP for Ontario grew by about 36% from 2000 to 2011, from 513 billion dollars to 611 billion dollars (2007 chained dollars). That's from CANSIM Table 384-0038, by the way, in case you feel intrepid. Per capita, that's about from $44,708 to $45,600, or 2% growth.
Compare that to average income in Ontario from 2000 to 2011. In 2011 constant dollars, Average income in 2000 was $39,300, while in 2011 it was $39,600 (CANSIM Table 202-0402). That's an increase of less than 1%. So, per capita GDP—what we typically use to measure our economic activity—has gone up more than twice the rate of the average income. I reject your hypothesis that trickle-down-economics works. [EDIT: I initially had final consumption expenditure data in the place of GDP at market prices (looking at the wrong column), so the GDP increase claim was inflated. I've since corrected it, but it remains double the rate of income gains in the same period.]
"-we'll cut out the waste-"
WHAT WASTE? Oh, right, Gas Plant. That's something YOU WOULD HAVE DONE TOO, by the by, and the problem wasn't the party in power, it was the fact that politicians let NIMBY-spouting voters dictate where we locate power plants. You even campaigned on cancelling the Mississauga gas plant in the 2011 election. How soon we forget.
"-and improve public services, for you."
1) I think you mean "for business" again, and 2) how the hell are you gonna improve public services when you're ready to fire more than 100% of the people who deliver them?
"Together, we can get Ontario. Working. Better."
That's not a sentence. Who taught you English?
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