John Stall

John Tory took the hit for screwing up the last election by sticking to his guns on funding faith based schools.  Voters not only rejected the policy but rejected him as well.  He promptly stepped down after failing to win his own seat.  But who will take the hit this time?  The Leader? or the campaign team who [...]

We just returned from a fabulous weekend getaway in Cape Cod where in addition to gorging on lobster and watching whales frolic in the Atlantic,  we went in search of the Kennedy compound in Hyannis port and found it by way of a path to the beach through a public park.  The compound consists of about [...]

If the most recent polling this past weekend by Nanos Research is on the money, Ontario is heading for a minority government. The numbers are so close; however, that it could be a minority led by Mr. McGuinty or Mr. Hudak, but only with the blessing of Andrea Horwath. All of the leaders have ruled a [...]

Preparing for and performing in a televised leaders’ debate is one of the most challenging and perilous aspects of campaign communication, because the objective is to appeal to two distinct audiences while sounding sincere to both. The two audiences are the one watching in real time and the one hearing, reading or watching what the [...]

I hope for the electoral process that the televised provincial leaders’ debate tonight is a game-changer for one of them, but I don’t have high expectations. These leaders’ debates have become boring, predictable and not very useful, when it comes to helping people decide who to vote for and why. In my view, the debates [...]

I suspect the polling industry is going to become an angle of Ontario election coverage soon, as a result of the wildly different polling pictures released so far. Earlier this week, I found myself paired in a charity golf tournament with the CEO of one of Canada’s largest multinational polling firms. As we chatted in the golf cart [...]

While listening to U.S. President Obama lay out elements of his Jobs Act to Congress as a road map to economic recovery,  I was reminded of a simple solution that was passed along to me by Navin Chandaria, an Indo-Canadian entrepreneur friend of mine, who operates more like an ultra-preneur. His theory is based on the [...]

As much as I dislike being pressed to make election predictions, I was asked so many times by friends and family over the weekend how I thought the Ontario election would go, that I might as well share my early sense with you here as well – and no, it is not a bias assessment but rather a gut feel at this [...]

It was a head shaking memo that the Toronto Star got a hold of this week from some disgruntled Liberals at Queens park urging/warning them not to accept any invitations to TIFF events.  The memo was written by the Premiers chief of staff Chris Morley who essentially indicated that it was more important for them to [...]

“In my mind, I’m going to Carolina” …  and what my mind sees is a 25-foot sailboat laying on her port side in the middle of an intersection about a mile up from the ocean. The hull has been almost sliced in half by the remnants of a couple of pine trees. The boat isn’t the [...]