The #olpldr voting is finally upon us (starting tomorrow) and soon we'll know what our future looks like. Are we going to rebuild the Ontario Liberal Party with a new base of participants, or cement the hold insiders have maintained for decades? Depends who shows up. #onpoli 1/10
Largely unnoticed in this race are the many people who joined just because they felt a need to. No one signed their forms or paid their memberships - which has been happening in some places no matter what anyone claims. Many people just...join. #olpldr#onpoli 2/10
I'm hearing more and more from folks who desperately want to do something about the issues in our province, and want to do it in the Liberal Party, and they're just getting no response. They joined, paid their fee, and...nothing. Except fundraising emails. #olpldr#onpoli 3/10
Here's the ugly truth. Some people like it this way. Some people regard the Liberal Party as theirs and while they know they need money and votes to win, they'd rather everyone else stay quiet between elections. They see no other role for the party base. #olpldr#onpoli 4/10
Doing politics as usual means exactly that - mobilizing money and bodies to win elections, and then ignoring everyone outside a small inner circle between elections. And I see @StevenDelDuca and his team standing for nothing if not politics as usual. #olpldr#onpoli 5/10
I'm supporting @coteau, I've made that clear. But I've been impressed with the energy and enthusiasm that all the other candidates, @KateMarieGraham@MitzieHunter@AlvinTedjo @LiberalBrenda and their supporters bring to this race. I don't want to lose it. #olpldr#onpoli 6/10
To me, the choice isn't even between leadership candidates. It's between trying new things and including new people - admitting the Ontario Liberal Party has to change - or simply doing the same damn things with the same damn people...again. #olpldr#onpoli 7/10
The growing "anybody but Del Duca" attitude isn't based on hating @StevenDelDuca personally. It's based on what he represents and the team he's attracted. Because fundamentally, we have one person committed to the past, and five committed to the future. #olpldr#onpoli 8/10
To the many people who joined the Ontario Liberal Party only to be greeted by silence, I am very sorry. If we want something better, we need to cut through the apathy together. We need to choose something new, and better, than the way it's always been done. #olpldr#onpoli 9/10
This weekend, we all choose together. And like any election, it's going to come down to who shows up. Make the time. Put in the effort. Because truthfully, the biggest advantage we have over people who oppose change is that we care more than they do. #olpldr#onpoli 10/10
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Let's be clear what "conscience rights" really means. It's the idea that no professional should be required to do something they disagree with, even if needed to give effect to someone else's rights or as part of doing their own job properly. #cdnpoli 1/6 globalnews.ca/news/9180654/c…
"Conscience rights" can apply to lots of situations. Some teachers don't believe in evolution. Should they be required to teach it? Some nurses and doctors don't believe in ending a pregnancy or even contraception. Should they be required to provide this information? #cdnpoli 2/6
At the most extreme, some police officers don't agree with gun control, or apprehending a child from a parent, or enforcing the mental health act. Should they be required to enforce even laws they disagree with? Frankly, yes, yes, yes, and yes some more. #cdnpoli 3/6
I don't write enough about real poverty. I do write about it, but not enough. Politics revolves around issues that get politicians elected - right now that's the middle-class squeeze, inflation, cost of daycare - not what it's like to go hungry or be homeless. #onpoli 1/15
People get wrapped up in their own problems and concerns. That may not be admirable, but it's normal. When you're worried about the price of gas or the interest rate on your mortgage, real poverty may not seem to be an active concern for you. But it is. #onpoli 2/15
We all live in the same society together. We can't wash our hands of each other's problems and pretend they don't exist. There are politicians selling that line to people who want to believe it but it's a lie. If the house next door is burning down, it IS my problem. #onpoli 3/15
Apparently I hate Canada and I want to destroy it. I hear that a lot. So do many politicians, wide groups of bureaucrats and public employees, anyone in media, and sometimes the entire membership of registered political parties. Let's talk about what that means. #cdnpoli 1/8
A very few unhinged people think that I and many, many others are agents of foreign powers. As in, I've been somehow recruited to undermine Canada, where I live and was born. I don't know how to reason with that but it's a small part of the problem, so let's move on. #cdnpoli 2/8
Most people, when they say someone hates Canada, mean that person has a vision of Canada they disagree with. As in, you believe I hate the Canada that exists in your own mind because the Canada that exists in mine is different. And that makes sense, to a point. #cdnpoli 3/8
The Liberal Party, as it exists, is not welcoming to or accepting of the center-right. There, I said it. Call them red tories, mainstream conservatives or any other name you like. We've done a piss-poor job of keeping these people in the fold and a reckoning is due. #cdnpoli 1/14
Language matters, and I'd like to unpack what we mean when we describe people as "not tolerable." I'd also like to unpack what the right and alt-right mean when they describe Trudeau and others as "woke." Because these are the words that divide us. #cdnpoli 2/14
There are some truly intolerable ideas and beliefs out there - things we can never accept or accommodate. But that needs to be reserved for genuine evil and not just political difference. We've lost that thread. Everyone we disagree with, lately, is "intolerable." #cdnpoli 3/14
I'm trying to understand what's happening with politics in Canada, especially on the right. I read a lot of comments, though I obviously don't have time to pick fights with all of them. Still, I have to say, I'm discouraged. We're seeing the worst in people, lately. #cdnpoli 1/9
I'm seeing freedom defined as never having to do what you're told - even if that's just to not make life worse for other people. Forget about legal and illegal for a moment. We're just talking about human decency here. Apparently we're only free when that's optional. #cdnpoli 2/9
I'm seeing equality defined as a society where government does nothing to help people at all, and just lets them sink or swim on their own. That's what's "fair" apparently. As opposed to taxation for any purpose, which is apparently communism. #cdnpoli 3/9
I pissed off ring-wing twitter quite a lot by pointing out that "gatekeeper" is a nonsense term as Poilievre uses it. I got told, time and again, that everyone knows who "they" are, and was offered a wide variety of definitions that don't agree with one another. #cdnpoli 1/7
I don't deny the word "gatekeeper" has power and can be effective. If you're angry about anything, you can find someone to blame for it, rightly or wrongly. Everyone hearing the term knows who their "gatekeeper" is. It means whatever you need it to mean. #cdnpoli 2/7
The trick to Poilievre's rhetoric - and it's intentional, believe me - is that people really do think he has specific "gatekeepers" in mind. People really do believe Poilievre has a list and a plan, and if they only give him power he'll get rid of them all. #cdnpoli 3/7