I remember an eminent authority on such matters saying, just before the Mike Harris Tories in Ontario won their second majority government, almost exactly 15 years ago now : “The pollsters usually get it right.” And in that case they did. They may still get things more or less right in 2014, just before the […]
Despite our alleged provincial flag, we don’t follow British politics across the pond the way we used to, in 21st century Ontario. If we did, we wouldn’t be so perplexed by the shift in direction Andrea Horwath is finally trying to bring to our regional (local?) social democrats. (See, eg: “Ontario election: Traditional NDP supporters […]
GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. SATURDAY, MAY17, 2014. 2:00 AM ET. Before I lay me down to sleep this morning, I have been asked to put the counterweights’ Ontario election watch 2014 to bed for this 24th of May holiday weekend. (Which takes place on Monday, May 19 this year. Even though we are still apparently commemorating the […]
Tim Hudak’s “wild and crazy plan for Tories to win” may not be “that crazy” (Martin Regg Cohn at the Toronto Star, believe it or not), but the latest opinion polls on the current Ontario election campaign certainly seem to qualify on both counts. As noted yesterday, a Forum Research poll taken on May 12Â […]
In what increasingly does seem like the wild and crazy “northern uprising” of the 2014 Ontario election, the counterweights editors aptly enough opined only yesterday : “anyone who is hoping that Kathleen’s Liberals will win at least another minority government on June 12 probably ought to be a bit worried. If the May 9 Ipsos […]
The late great Canadian literary critic, Northrop Frye – who came to Toronto via Sherbrooke, Quebec and then mostly Moncton, New Brunswick, “to compete in a national typing contest in 1929” (!!!!) – once called Ontario “surely one of the most inarticulate communities in human culture.” And there is something about the still very youthful […]
GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014. 3:00 PM ET. So (as the premier often begins her remarks on any subject) … a lot has happened in Ontario politics today – and sooner, it seems fair to say, than the smart money thought. This morning NDP leader Andrea Horwath announced that her party would not be […]
So much is going on north of the Great Lakes these days that it’s hard to focus on any one thing. So here are quick notes on five things animating the late-afternoon water-cooler debates among we counterweights editors on Wednesday, April 23, 2014 : (1) On Monday Susanna Kelley, empress of the excellent ontarionewswatch.com, posted […]
One of Canada’s leading go-to guys on political opinion polls, Éric Grenier, posted some intriguing Ontario politics notes last Saturday – under the headline “Tim Hudak And Ontario PCs’ Polling May Be On The Rise (Maybe).” Grenier pointed out that : “A survey conducted by EKOS Research for iPolitics between March 27 and April 3 […]
Back on January 21, I was reporting that “A new poll suggests the Progressive Conservatives are off to a strong lead in two Ontario byelections being held next month … The poll, conducted Jan. 15, took a random sample of voters in both Thornhill and Niagara Falls … In Thornhill, 44 per cent of voters […]
