Vote conservative, not Tory!

[Jason Kauppinen]

Vouchers are a bad wedge issue,

Vouchers are an excellent wedge issue.

It will be breaking a quasi-monopoly that OPSU has over education--they wouldn't be able to send all of Ontario's public school kids home whenever they decide to strike--parents would be able to send their kids to other schools.

It would put incentives in place to reward productive, effective teachers and push incompetent ones out of the profession.

If would provide the equivilent of a Catholic school board for every faith if it was implemented properly.

[Heartofsong83]

Considering that there is not a FPO (Freedom Party) candidate in my riding, I will probably be voting FCP.

I'm torn. The PC candidate is a good one. Tough decision this election.

I only have 3 candidates in my riding right now: Liberal, PC, NDP - and all are bad candidates. I almost ran myself except I lacked the money, so I am likely going to spoil my ballot...

[SUZANNE]

You didn't run because you lacked the money?

AAAAAAAAARGGH!!!!!

It's only $200-- it could have easily been raised.

[Thomas]

and still, it is not too late to run

[SUZANNE]

True. If you can find 25-30 people to sign.

[GratianGasparri]

True. If you can find 25-30 people to sign.

Today's a good day to find them. There are several churches that meet in both morning and evening.

[nickjbor]

has the FCP limited it's candidates to 77?

[carfix2000ca]

I received an email saying there should be over 80

[Mike1984]

Julia Munro in York-Simcoe has been around for a while now, seems to be a small c conservative.

I will be voting for her even though I don't like any of the PC policies.

[Electric Gulag]

Unless something DRAMATIC happens, Tory has no chance of forming a majority. The best-case scenario for Tory is a minority. So what we're choosing between here is a Liberal minoriy (effectively giving more power to the NDP), or a Tory minority wherein the faith-based school boards would never be implemented. So the whole faith-based promise is now a mute point: it will never happen.

We have to decide whether or not we should park our votes with either the FPC or the FCP and hit the reset button on the Conservative Party - or - try to keep a dying corps on life support, and support John Tory.
.
Until recently, I was going to hold my nose and vote Tory. But given this lackluster campaign, I'm now of the mind that this Conservative Leadership is just terrible and needs to be scrapped. I'm probably going to park my vote with the FCP and wait for the s__t-storm to hit that will eminate from a Liberal-NDP minority govt. Hold on to your wallets!!!!

[justanothervoice]

Vouchers are an excellent wedge issue.

It will be breaking a quasi-monopoly that OPSU has over education--they wouldn't be able to send all of Ontario's public school kids home whenever they decide to strike--parents would be able to send their kids to other schools.

It would put incentives in place to reward productive, effective teachers and push incompetent ones out of the profession.

If would provide the equivilent of a Catholic school board for every faith if it was implemented properly.

I could not have said that any better!
I see it as a way for Parents to have more choices and a way to make the schools compete.
To survive and compete they would have to weed out the bad teachers.

They really only need two boards.
Public and Religious (it would be made up of all religious schools)
I'm a Christian and it would be nice and easy if all the other religions became Christian, but since thats not very realistic, they deserve to be recognized as equal to the Catholic schools.

All of those Parents are paying education taxes and all of their Kids deserve to share in the funding.
No one is asking for total funding of private religious schools, all they want is for the government to direct the same amount of funding that they allow for Kids in public school to be directed to the school of their choice.

I'm okay with certified Teachers.
(there are Christian Teachers colleges now)
I'm also okay with bringing in testing so we know how our Kids are doing compared to other Kids in the province.
Its one thing for religious schools to tell us their students are doing better, and its another to prove it by testing.
As far as Ontario curriculum being used, as long as they can teach it from a Christian point of view (in the case of Christian schools) its a good thing because all of the Kids will eventually be in Universities and they need a good general knowledge base.

[Dacre]

Vouchers are a bad wedge issue, since rich people already vote Conservative.

Rich people already vote Conservative? Who told you that? There are plenty of Liberal wealthy in Canada. Maybe the majority. Most of the wealthy Conservatives seem to be Red Tories. So I'd say this statement is only true at most union halls and NDP headquarters.

[nickjbor]

the Tories will not win, period. unless, as you said, something dramatic happens. the question is liberal minority or liberal majority

[conservative_1]

I will be voting FCP, and have actually made some donations.

I do agree with funding of religious schools, It has only become a big issue because of the Media i would say, which take any opportunity to criticize it. They are just treating this subject the same as any social conservative proposals.

I won't vote PC though, I would never do it for someone that participate in a Gay Pride Parade, or someone that is pro-abortion. I am more flexible on the fiscal side, but even there i suspect Tory won't measure up.

The best Ontarians can do is try to get Tory ousted, and the best way to do it is to not vote PC. I wonder if there are FCP or FP candidates in his riding and how they are doing. Perhaps they need some volunteers???

[Connie Fournier]

The religious school funding idea is NOT a social conservative proposal, conservative_1. It is merely a ruse to get religious schools under provincial control, and religious school supporters should be fighting it tooth and nail.