Ontario is red again

The Ontario general election was held today; polls closed at 9 p.m.

The votes are in for the most part and it's abundantly clear at this point that Ontario is looking at Liberal majority government.

While there were many potential election issues to choose from (seniors' care, for example, or autism funding, etc.), Conservative leader John Tory managed to trip up his own campaign before it could even get out of the gate with the publicly funded faith-based schools debacle.

Despite this promise being made early on, the topic refused to fade into the background for the duration of the election and was his political undoing. Tory's attempt to diffuse the issue nine days ago by stating that he would allow Members of Provincial Parliament to vote on faith-based schools in the Legislature, made his leadership look weak. Political pundits speculated that a free vote would kill the bill and Tory could walk away saying he kept his promise. It seemed like he would stand by his principles - unless opinion polls told him otherwise. Appearing to be indecisive, wavering or as though you were trying worm your way out doesn't look so great if your slogan is "Leadership matters".

And with that, Premier Dalton McGuinty returns with a second majority. Congratulations. Plus, I'm a fan of the idea of dental care for low-income families, among other things.

Speaking of the status quo, the referendum on whether to remain with the First Past the Post electoral system or change to Mixed Member Proportional has resulted in... well, the status quo. The difficulty here was that not enough was done to educate the public on what the options were. A pamphlet with my voter card is hardly enough, and although there is plenty of information on the Internet, one had to actively research the topic to understand what was happening. Both pro and con-MMP groups accused each other of misinformation, which only adds to the confusion.

And referendums are not usually the greatest instruments for initiating change, as the electorate will usually choose the status quo.

In short: this provincial election held no surprises.

And a little message to the federal branch of the Canadian government: for Pete's sake, please try to get along for the next six months. With Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario just coming out of provincial elections this month, and Quebec, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories and Manitoba earlier this year, we've got volunteer and voter fatigue. It would be nice if, for the next half a year, we weren't bombarded with more campaign material and had time to recuperate.