Nom de Blog: Gazette Gets It

One of the better analyses of Ontario’s election can ironically be found in the Montreal Gazette here:

Webster says that McGuinty’s refusal to deal with FBS is code for not accommodating “immigrant Others”. That is a mouthful. Does that mean the end of multiculturalism as we know it? (CBL was second to point to Bigotry behind the McGuinty position).

John Tory tried to deal with FBS by way of an inclusive policy on education. But he learned that people are fed up with political correctness. People are indeed worried about what Webster calls “Islamic madrassas in Toronto the Good”. That’s because we don’t want to end up with the immigrant silos of Europe.

The debate should therefore be about more choice in education. The teachers’ unions are against that. Other provinces have more choice and are doing just fine. Let’s run the next election more clearly on a platform of more choice. Choice means that we should have publicly funded charter schools that teach Ontario’s curriculum, but aren't otherwise beholden to any centrally managed education bureaucracy or teachers' union.

Ditto the hospital workers unions were against John Tory’s plans to have more Shouldice clinics. So let’s be clear, we want to open that up. We have 4 years to make our message better understood.

It is time Ontario stood up to these government monopolies and their unions. John Tory tried to do that and oddly even Conservatives were calling him un-conservative. That misses the point of the larger issue of conservatism really standing for freedom of choice.