Your morning briefing

Headlines

-Premier Kathleen Wynne can't buy a good poll lately. And, well, today is no different, as a new Mainstreet/Postmedia poll found 58 per cent of those surveyed agreeing that the Premier should resign. She's not going to do that, according to her. But this poll, and the Election Act bribery charges laid against Wynne's former deputy chief of staff last week, are going to make for an epic case of the Mondays.

-The Stop the New Sex-Ed Agenda Party is running its first candidate not named Queenie Yu in the Ottawa—Vanier byelection, the Citizen notes. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, meanwhile, sent some of the O—V candidates a questionnaire to learn where they stand on the following: "the second phase of the light rail transit project, a proposed truck tunnel, funding for the Ottawa police direct action response team and guns and gangs unit and additional funding for social housing."

-Ontario will start providing free and easy counselling to jurors in January, CBC reports.

-The Canadian Press has examined the "disturbing reality" of child sexual abuse in indigenous communities.

-Now let's talk a little fundraising. Here's Premier Wynne earlier this year, when her government was being needled for its cash-for-access fundraising practices: "Every party does high-end fundraising, every party does low-end fundraising. I think it’s part of the democratic process.”

And now here's Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau this weekend, following a few weeks of the federal Liberals taking flak for their fundraising practices: "What's happening at those fundraisers is, people are saying we support the democratic process."

The Ontario Liberals ultimately buckled and decided to reform the system, although only so far. The Trudeau government is getting there, even with contention that the federal fundraising rules are amazing. You see, fundraising reform is not unlike the five stages of grief. There's denial ("We need to follow the rules, and whatever the rules are, the money to run a party has to come from somewhere"), anger ("partying with the one per cent"), bargaining ("...Ontario’s teachers unions received millions of dollars from the government to help cover the costs of collective bargaining — the same unions that donated $800,000 to the Ontario Liberal Party and spent $6.5 million attacking its opponents in the past three election campaigns..."), depression ("Despite all those positive measures, one metric — Wynne's performance rating — remains stubbornly depressed") and acceptance. Federally, cracks are already beginning to show.

-The Ontario Public Service Employees Union brought in a lawyer specializing in "union avoidance" to probe its own staff union, the Toronto Star reports. That whole, uh, stuff-show heads to the Ontario Labour Relations Board today.

-A ban on smudging inside a provincial building in Thunder Bay is becoming a problem amid a coroner's inquest, according to the CBC.

-Corrections Minister David Orazietti is trying to expedite the installation of a body scanner at the London jail, the Free Press says.

-Ford Canada workers have voted in favour of their new contract with the automaker, albeit with most of the employees at the Oakville plant spurning the deal.

In the opinion pages:

• The Toronto Star supports the health minister singling out doctors who prescribe a lot of painkillers
• The Star also wants the province to give a basic income pilot project a shot
• The Toronto Sun sees the Ontario Liberal government's debts, not its deficit, as the bigger problem

Events

8:45 a.m.

Premier Wynne to visit Northern Secondary School for a Treaties Recognition Week event. 851 Mount Pleasant Rd., Toronto.

9:00 a.m.

Bill Mauro, minister of municipal affairs and MPP for Thunder Bay—Atikokan, will make an announcement in Fort Frances on behalf of Jeff Leal, minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs. Fort Frances Municipal Office, 320 Portage Ave., Fort Frances.

10:00 a.m.

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath holds a media availability with young people from across the province to speak about student debt. Queen's Park.

11:00 a.m.

Elizabeth Dowdeswell, lieutenant-governor of Ontario, will be joined by Dipika Damerla, minister responsible for seniors affairs, to present 20 outstanding individuals with the 2016 Ontario Senior Achievement Awards. Queen's Park.

2:30 p.m.

Dr. Eric Hoskins, minister of health and long-term care, and Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day, on behalf of the Chiefs in Assembly, will make an announcement regarding First Nations health care at the Special Chiefs Forum on Health. Chelsea Hotel, Churchill Ballroom, 33 Gerrard St. W., Toronto.

To contact the reporter on this story:
gzochodne@qpbriefing.com
905-926-8026
Twitter: @geoffzochodne