Stephen Taylor, Author at Stephen Taylor

Eves on his career

Former premier and PC Party leader of Ontario Ernie Eves gave a candid and honest view of his tenure as premier of the province to Ian Urquhart of the Toronto Star. While the Tories have revitalized themselves with new leadership, Eves gives a sense of where the party lost its footing leading up to the election and where it needs to go from here.

Some interesting quotes:

“The best advice I could give him (McGuinty) was: trust your inner self. Sometimes you’ll be advised to do things that something inside you tells you isn’t the right thing to do, and you’re going to have to have the courage to (say), `That’s all very interesting, but we ain’t doing it that way. We’re going to do it this way.’ Because at the end of the day you’re going to be the one who pays for it.” — Ernie Eves

“The strength of our party has always been that when we do fall on bad times, we have been able to revitalize our party. … I think the party now has a tremendous opportunity because, rightly or wrongly, and I’m not knocking Frank or Jim, I think the party now has chosen a leader that doesn’t have the Harris-Eves baggage. And I think that’s a tremendous opportunity.” — Ernie Eves

“I think he’s been captured by exactly what I advised him not to be captured by. I think Dalton McGuinty is basically a decent guy, but he doesn’t have the experience that some of us had going into the job. … You can’t please all the people all the time in public life. … You can govern for a while on political spin. You may even get lucky and win an election. But I think ultimately at the end of the day people get a sense of what you’re about.” — Ernie Eves

“I don’t regret one moment I’ve spent in public life, and there have been some that have been more pleasant than others. I think people go into public life because they want to try and make a difference. … I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity and then to be able to serve in cabinet” — Ernie Eves

“Silly” Healthcare Summit 2004

In what has largely been described as a summit of posturing and promising what has already been promised, Paul Martin’s summit to hash out a “fix for a generation” is going as smoothly as expected for a meeting between the premiers and the man who ripped funds out of healthcare and now promises its “fix”.

“We should put out a chart tomorrow that (shows) $1 trillion that the provinces will spend on health care in the next 10 years … Then they can put out a chart tomorrow (showing) how much they’re going to spend in the next 15 years. We can then put out for 20 . . . You can get into these silly numbers all day long” — Gary Doer, Premier of Manitoba

“Maybe next time they’ll be talking about a 40-year plan. And then you just keep increasing the size of the numbers accordingly.” — Dalton McGuinty — Premier of Ontario

“A generational fix should not be a one-time fix of funding today and gone tomorrow; a generational fix should not be high expectation now with a declining federal share after two years.” — Bernard Lord, Premier of New Brunswick

“Remember etch-a-sketch? You sort of put it on, you shake it all up and it would disappear on you. You can’t build a health-care system on the basis of an etch-a-sketch plan.” — Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia

“While the numbers have been debated to some extent, all agree that the federal government will have a significant surplus which will increase with time — while the provinces and the territories are dealing with chronic deficits.” — Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario

On blaming Paul Martin himself for the need for a “fix for a generation”:

“Those Draconian cuts ….. were the start of it all … There was a unilateral [and] sharp decrease in federal transfers.” — Jean Charest, Premier of Quebec

Queen’s blogging talent

Ah, frosh week has come and gone for the new undergraduates at Crazy Go Nuts University and like blogging superstar Joey Devilla, a fellow alum from the aforementioned university, I’ve been enjoying some of the new blogging talent from Queen’s U.

Hypothesis.ca is one such blog that’s brought me back into the madness that was froshweek. Their special on matress-flipping, I must say, was masterfully crafted and more informative, than say… Dan Rather during that same week. Keep up the good work John!