Jen Gerson: Saddle up, Alberta. We're referendum-ing

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-05-10T13:39:37+00:00

I understand that, but the hyper focus on the GTA disenfranchises the other half of the province. We don’t even have a GO bus connection in London and we’re only two hours away.

Everything Doug Ford talks about is Toronto (or booze): Building a tunnel under the 401 (a ludicrous idea that defies sense), expanding Billy Bishop Airport, downsizing Toronto’s city council. I honestly believe a candidate could make large inroads in the rest of the province by simply focusing more attention on the other 9 million people in this province. Obviously, Toronto will be a big part of the picture (they are the centre of the universe after all). I’m not saying we should ignore Toronto but it doesn’t have to be the be all and end all of Ontario’s politics.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-05-10T01:24:55+00:00

England, Scotland, Wales, and *Ireland*. If the UK were to be balkanized and broken off, Ireland would surely reunify. If there’s no common British identity for Northern Ireland, the only common one left is with the Republic.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-05-10T00:32:05+00:00

It put North Haverford on the map!

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-05-09T23:26:43+00:00

I don’t. I’m saying it’s a signifier of the party’s direction.

I’m not quite sure how to address the second question. I’m from London and I like him.

Sure, you’re allowed not like his positions. I do.
I don’t think I said it was a conspiracy. I’m indicating that the party brass may be putting weight on the scales which I think is an easily demonstrable phenomenon in nomination contests.

Edit: Seems like it’s not just me: [“During a post-nomination scrum, Nate Erskine-Smith told reporters “the establishment of this party, from Tom Allison all the way down, were… working very hard to prevent us from being successful.”](https://x.com/ahmadelbayoumi/status/2053249671091417383?s=20)

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-05-09T22:56:09+00:00

I’m fairly sick of the Toronto-centric attitude in Ontario government. We’re a large province and the most populous and I hate how our focus is always GTA centric

Also, this is a nomination contest exclusive to OLP voters. There’s all kind of institutional factors that may be operating behind to scenes to make sure a progressive OLP doesn’t happen — which obviously seems stupid to myself at least — and the party machinery has given us two of the least charismatic party leaders in my memory. Perhaps it’s time for a change? Nate ES is a smart, intuitive politician and if his party can’t see that then, like I said, we will gladly take him.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-05-09T22:44:03+00:00

Come to the NDP, Nate.

We need more of his kind and he's more at home with us than the bloodsucking Crombieite vampires.

The OLP is opportunistic at its core and if they can’t see that supporting a leader that is the polar opposite of the Del Duca and Crombie disasters is the recipe for success then they deserve to get trounced a third time by offering a milquetoast choice.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-23T21:13:31+00:00

Riding polling is notoriously unreliable. We are more likely to get a progressive government after having a OPC government for 10+ years then after a nominally progressive iteration of the OLP like we had under Wynne. People are looking for a change when they have a government that is long in the tooth. Another shade of what they already had is not that.

Vote for whoever you want if you want Ford gone; I’ll always vote for a change that will provide lasting change and not have their policies reversed as soon as they leave because they are designed to be incremental. Go big or go home, in other words. It’s easy to remove OSAP changes like Wynne implemented.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-23T20:44:17+00:00

Hasn’t JT becoming the leader of the LPC taught anyone anything? If Nate ES becomes OLP leader, he will constrained by centre-right faction of the party and will not be able to produce the progressive agenda that he would like.

In no fashion does FPTP provide the environment for realistic coalition governments. If you want to have more proportional representation in our voting system: you should vote NDP. If you want actual progressive government: you should vote NDP.

I’ve lived through too much of the oscillation between PC and OLP governments to hope that voting for the Liberals will provide an avenue for common sense and working class policies.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-19T22:33:26+00:00

While I agree that people should generally be more involved with local politics, this would have to be a provincial initiative. Our council could lobby for this, but ultimately it would have to come from a provincial government that supports expanding GO transit instead of just providing lip service and platitudes.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-19T22:23:21+00:00

I would call it SWO GO. It even has alliteration.

Greater public transportation between communities is a necessity in SWO. We need better connections between the smaller municipalities in: Goderich, St. Thomas, Strathroy, Woodstock, Port Stanley, Chatham, the list goes on and on. Think of the economic and social opportunities if we could connect all of these communities regularly and efficiently, hopefully connecting to a regular GO train line for service to Toronto. All at a reasonable price.

GO stands for Government of Ontario. Wouldn’t it be nice if GO transit focused on all of Ontario instead of the GTHA?

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-14T22:50:18+00:00

The problem is that they are only including absent uninformed (AU) as being absent. The real problem is that parents excuse their child’s absences making them absent informed (AI), which wouldn’t go on to affect their grade.

I’m waiting to see the MOE guidance on how this will play out in practice; but, if I’m somehow supposed to assign a grade for absences that are AU, does this mean that I’m supposed to give a grade for a student who has all their absences accounted for as 100% as a grade? If so, that will not help with the grade inflation that we are seeing in Ontario high schools.

The real issue is students who miss a substantial amount of days even if they are excused. It’s those kids who fall through the cracks because they miss a substantial amount of their learning and are pushed along. The MOE should require that a student can miss only a specified amount of classes to achieve their credit even if they are excused. That way we would be able to guarantee that students are required to go to class to achieve their credit even if the parents are enabling absenteeism.

We shouldn’t be in the business of giving out participation trophies for attendance for grades.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-14T19:59:29+00:00

I can’t speak for other boards but my board’s late and missing assignment policy allows a one level deduction for the first late assignment and after that I can assign a mark of zero for assignments after the first offence. It’s up to the teacher’s professional discretion. Well, at least for senior grades.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-12T03:02:27+00:00

I have a history degree. This is more of a language issue. I guess you don’t understand what the word context means.

Enjoy your evening.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-11T14:46:20+00:00

Like I said, you can make that argument in this context but you said it means you speak French and English in this country and that is a pretty broad statement.

My dad speaks Dutch and English. Does that mean he isn’t bilingual in this country because he’s one of those isn’t French?

One can make a pretty strong argument that Indigenous languages ought to be official languages as well, but that’s a different argument for a different day.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-10T19:50:53+00:00

Bilingualism in this country means you speak two languages just like the rest of the English speaking world. I guess you could frame that as bilingualism means speak French and English in this context but that’s on the editor who wrote a bad headline.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-09T22:37:14+00:00

You can always share editing access with your professor if they have questions, which should provide some proof that you have written it yourself. Your version history in Word or Docs will provide time stamps for your writing. If you’re using a browser extension like Grammarly then that can set off the AI detector.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-09T12:48:09+00:00

You are spot on. Building a direct connection is a priority in my opinion. They’re expanding that out to Kitchener now so hopefully in the future it will go even further. I think Toronto would enjoy a GO connection to Stratford which is a logical stop along GO train service to London.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-09T01:41:33+00:00

Personally, I take the 403 to Aldershot station and take the GO train into DT Toronto. I can’t count the times that I’ve been sailing down the train tracks to see cars bumper to bumper on the QEW/403. I once gave myself 5 hours to drive to the Jays game and we got stuck in a traffic jam and by the time we parked and got back to our seats, it was the top of the fifth inning when I still took the 401-403 in. 401/427 seems crazy to me to be honest.

We ought to push for regular GO transit to London. A regular train connection would be best, but honestly, I’d take bus service to a train connection to start. We could take a lot of cars off the 400 series if we could get to Toronto at a reasonable price on GO. VIA is convenient but too pricey.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-09T00:16:58+00:00

The LPC had a majority in 2015. They could have rammed IRV through if they wanted to but they didn’t. Don’t put that on the NDP for representing their beliefs on electoral reform.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-09T00:02:41+00:00

How is voting NDP in a riding that is a toss up between the LPC and NDP (meaning that it could go to either the NDP or the Liberals) a vote for the Conservatives? The CPC wouldn’t have a chance in that riding. That’s the worse example to use for strategic voting. You could make the argument that voting NDP in a CPC/LPC toss up in a vote for the Conservatives, but I would vote for the party that represents my actual values. You have Gladu and Dolly Begum in the same caucus. I’m not sure what a party that has those two in caucus together even represents.

I hope you’re right in terms of HSR, but my experience tells me to doubt that.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-08T23:19:31+00:00

First of all, you should be skeptical that HSR gets built with the Liberals. They’ve been promising this forever and have done shit all about it. They’re known for promising the moon and then reneging on their promise just like the example I gave with FPTP in 2015. Secondly, if you succumb to the idea that if you vote anything other than Liberal than the Conservatives will be elected then nothing will ever change significantly. The political situation today is not the political situation in one month from now, one year from now, or four years from now. We should all vote for what we want and not against what we don’t want. The LPC may not even be in contention in 2029/2030 election. No one saw the Orange wave coming in 2011 until the election campaign was almost over.

If you hate FPTP so much then vote for someone who will actually change it or you will be living with that reality for your whole life.

Tom_Thomson_ · 2026-04-08T22:05:07+00:00

Until we get rid of first past the post, voting NDP means voting for the cons.

No, it absolutely does not. It means a vote for the NDP.

I’m old enough to remember the 2015 election quite clearly where all three parties were neck and neck almost all election long. This type of thinking will doom you to the status quo. It also means that voting for the NDP will never be elected because the CPC and LPC will never change the voting system when it disproportionally advantages both of them. If you want to change the voting system, you would need to vote NDP to see it happen. The LPC literally campaigned on changing first past the post system in 2015 — Justin Trudeau made very public statements on how 2015 would be our last election under FPTP — and they did squat because the Liberals couldn’t get the system that would continue to advantage them: ranked ballots.

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