John Laforet

If there was ever a time to have an election it is right now, before the proposed provincial budget for 2012 passes the legislature. Ontario's last election was light on policy and heavy on platitudes from all sides. The Liberals engineered a platform designed to preserve enough seats to cling...

An important lesson for political communicators is to learn to manage expectations. Just as in business, the old adage 'under promise and over deliver' goes a long way to establishing credibility. Unfortunately for the Liberal Party of Canada, months of hype in the lead up to Monday night's defeat in...

You would think if the government of Ontario owned a tract of land that was home to species protected by it's own Endangered Species Act, it would be off limits for development, right? Wrong. In Dalton McGuinty's Ontario, his government is making Ministry of Natural Resources land at Ostrander Point...

When voters went to the polls this past October and re-elected Dalton McGuinty, they did so with a very different understanding of what the Premier had in store for Ontarians. The Premier's campaign focused on expanded Go Transit services, building three new undergraduate university campuses, cutting...

As Federal Liberals meet in Ottawa this weekend to begin the party's rebuilding process, who they elect President will have a dramatic impact on the party's fate. Pundits have pegged the race for president of the Liberal Party of Canada as being between former Deputy Prime Minister

2011 was a year of elections for Canada with Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Yukon all going to the polls in general election, while Alberta and

The Liberal Party of Canada's plan to deny bloggers media accreditation to their upcoming January 2012 convention contradicts the party's plans to engage Canadians in rebuilding efforts.

The decision demonstrates a lack of recognition of the impact bloggers have on social media and by extension, public opinion....

As the Federal government tries to move away from automatic annual increases of 6 per cent to federal health transfer payments to provinces, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is finding opposition to changing the status quo. Flaherty has proposed replacing the 6 per cent increases with a formula that...

Premier McGuinty,

As you are aware, Bill 10, the Local Municipality Democracy Act, 2011, will be introduced on Dec. 1. The bill seeks to restore local democracy to planning decisions for renewable energy projects that the Green Energy Act stripped nearly three years ago. Rural Ontarians will be...

Occupy Toronto supporters went to bed Monday night in a precarious position. For the first time they were knowingly on the wrong side of a court ruling that not only upheld Toronto's municipal bylaw against sleeping in parks, but specifically ordered them to abide by it....

According to the United Nations, the world's population hit seven billion on Oct. 31 of this year. To mark the occasion, a number of jurisdictions and organizations declared specific babies to be the world's 'seventh billion.' The children's charity Plan International used the symbolic opportunity to highlight a...

On Sept. 28 2011, while Occupy Wall Street entered it's second week of high-profile coverage for their occupation of Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, an occupation of a very different kind began taking place in Lowell, VT. Those occupying the 'blast zone' on Lowell Mountain, have adopted code...

What does interim NDP Leader Nycole Turmel, have in common with Phillip Brown, General Manager of the City of Toronto's Shelter Housing Support and 65 employees at the Hospital for Sick Children?

By analysing government documents I have calculated that they earn...

Ontario's election last week resulted in the first minority government elected since 1985 and while the seat counts within the legislature are more decisive than the 1985 result, the politics of Ontario is considerably more divided.

The last minority parliament saw a good regional mix of New...

Dalton McGuinty and Kermit the Frog each know from experience, it's not easy being green. For Ontario taxpayers, the legal reality of defending McGuinty's green energy dream isn't getting any easier either with Trillium Power's announcement this week of a $2.25 billion dollar action against the Province of...

The Ontario Liberals attempt to quell voter outrage with their natural gas plant proposal on the Mississauga-Etobicoke border, further demonstrates how politicized Ontario's energy planning has become under Ontario Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty.

As PC Leader Tim Hudak seized on McGuinty's cancellation of a natural...

As Ontario's General Election approaches its midway point, politicos and voters alike are trying to determine what the ballot box question will be. At the start of the campaign, the Liberal's $10,000 tax credit for employers hiring new Canadians seemed to provide a flashpoint. While a recent poll...

According to Suncor Energy, Alberta tar sands development is the primary focus of their business. On their website they boast about being the first company to develop the tar sands and take credit for the formation of this controversial industry. In Ontario, Suncor Energy is a pioneer in...

Supporters of wind energy subsidies have historically done a fantastic job of tying the merits of wind energy to the contemporary problems of the day. During the latest worldwide economic crisis, wind energy proponents have heavily touted the number of jobs created by wind energy production as a reason to...