Andrea your legacy will be bigger than Dalton's but for all the wrong reasons.Your selfishness, grandstanding and failure to do what you were elected to do......vote! This in action will cause more harm to the people of Ontario than any other Premier....Yes Andrea you will be #1 at something...hope you can live with your inaction, your party has lost my support!!

I have filed a complaint with the Ombudsman re: OLG, and asked for him to look into the connection between Mr. Tannenbaum's bingo hall buy-up and the "coincedental" closing of the SAR. In his last report, the Ombudsman seemed to feel that there is not enough oversight of some govenrment agencies; here is one he should look at very closely.
They have a handy complaint submission form on their website.

Reading yesterday*s news about the NDP party failing to vote openly on the Liberal attack on democracy called a budget? I would like to make the following observations: This is like a poorly scripted soap opera! Are all 3 parties involved? Bad cop, good cop and Jezebel! You place them in the proper category where tou think they each belong. My hope is this unholy union doesn*t produce any children as they would have the following gene deficiencies: Natural bullies, liars, uncontrollable desire to slaughter innocent animals [ only horses up till now but who can tell ] Eat food only from a public trough, yellow streak down their backs and walk strangely from the lack of a spine. What a disgraceful display on all their parts. David Nicol Mt. Hope Ont.

Mr. Rigg is right. A class action suit is the only way left to get the gov't's attention. The Ontario Medical Association did it..... why can't we??? The panel is just a smokescreen to keep us quiet. I suggest that the horseman's associations contribute as well as any private individuals. If anyone wishes to spearhead a fund to initiate an action, I'll be one of the first ones to contribute. Let's get the ball rolling.

I agree John. Every horse person needs to go online to the Ontario Ombudsman and fill out their complaint form. I looked at it last week, and have been formulating responses to their questions. We need to organize a standard response for everyone to lodge their own complaint!

What we need to do now is bear down like an old, classy racehorse would in the final stretch of a mile. If we just sit back and accept the hand that was dealt to us we are no better than Horwath turtling. We owe it to our families and our horses not to go out without a fight. I understand there is irreparable damage that has been done (ie. cancelled breedings/closed facilities etc) but that's just the beginning. There will be a lot more in the months to come if we don't take action NOW!!

I wouldn't waste your time emailing another MPP, we see how much that has helped (NOT!!). The "tell them what you think" approach has fallen by the wayside. We need to take it upon ourselves to fight for our industry, our livelihoods, our families, our homes, our horses and our freedom to do what we love, horse racing. We need EVERY voice!! Just ask yourself, 'what have I got to lose?' and let that motivate you!! If we let it all slip away, we have no one to blame but ourselves!

As mentioned on another horse racing forum, what better an opportunity to inform the masses of the repercussions Ontario will face than at Queen's Plate this coming Sunday. We don't necessarily need to obstruct business (although that should be up and coming in my opinion), but we DO need to educate patrons further as there are still an overwhelming amount of people that have NO IDEA where their money goes when they pull on the 'one armed bandits' (into the hands of the biggest bandits of all, the Ontario government).

I know if I was in the position to attend the slots in my leisure, I would be outraged and infuriated to know that my hard earned dollars (that I was taxed on already) may as well be direct deposited into the government's bank account every time I hit the "SPIN" button.

I urge the Liberals and NDPs to hold onto their seats now because come election time, they'll be out on their a$$es if I have anything to do with it!!! Hopefully you will all join me in the fight to save my passion (and yours) that is horse racing!

ANDREA JACK WOULD SO DISSAPPOINTED IN YOUR ACTIONS TODAY.JACK WAS FOR THE PEOPLE AND WE WERE ALL IMPORTANT..............

Thank you to Jamie Higgs for consulting with his MPP. Jamie, perhaps Steven Clark can reach out to Mr. Hudak and see if the Conservatives will join us in our fight against the OLG. Perhaps that is the trick. In exchange if they help us we can vow to support them come next election. Hudak could be the guy that helps us more than anyone else.

Georg Leber-ICR Racing

This is the second time Ms. Horwath and her party bailed on the people of Ontario. How does she expect anyone to believe in a party that can't take a stand and cast a vote one way or the other. The NDP have zero credibility. The Conservatives showed some courage and stayed true to their word and voted against the budget for the second time. I believe they are the only alternative to this sorry bunch of incompetents.

We need to have our industry leaders get in touch with the ontario ombudsmen Andre Marin to investigate the OLG and its plan to end SAR. He just finished with Ornge and tore a slice out of the liberal party, so he will tell it like it is with no fear of repercussions. We cannot count on any politcal party to help us obviously, they say to our faces what we want to hear then stab us in the back. We as an industry are receiving no support outside the industry. Have Mr Marin ask the liberals to justify risking 60,000 jobs,risking 1.1 billion annual revenue,risking 260 million in associated taxes, giving bingo halls pull tag videos (vertical slots) with the government getting only 25% vs 75% with SAR and the halls getting 47% vs 20% for tracks and horsemen with SAR. The numbers make no sense, so there is obviously more to this than meets the eye and its time to find out what it is definitivly. Track owners,OHHA, OHRIA, COSA and any other associations affected by the loss of SAR need to contact Mr Marin and demand an investigation, it took only 17 complaints to get the ORNGE investigation going.In the mean time some civil disobedience will get us desperately needed media attention.Oh yeah we should abstain from paying the NDP salaries.

NDP FOR THE WORKING CLASS HELL THEY DON'T EVEN NO
HOW TO VOTE . COME ELECTION TIME WE DO .
P,S DON'T COME TO MY DOOR ASKING FOR MY VOTE
GEORGE ANDREWS

The headline hunting & posturing by a handfull of Liberal & NDP MPP's certainly did the racing industry a lot of good.
No matter what Horvath was going to support the Liberals, the only bunch to come out of this debacle with anything like honour are the Conservatives.
Just because the budget was passed doesn't mean we back off fighting

What a bunch of spineless, gutless cowards the Horwath and her NDP'ers are. It is beyond me how any government in this country or any country can be so ignorant and unresponsible to the people who put them in power. What is next?? Communism?

We must remember that McGuinty and Duncan do the work of two men..... Laurel and Hardy.Surely they realise that many horse people will have voted Liberal last time and it will rebound on them next time. As for the NDP, who in their right mind would ever vote for them next time, when all they want to do is sit on their ****** when it comes to the crunch.Andrea, you are what we call in the UK a WOS Waste of Space

Thank you Ontario you have just killed the horse racing industry in Canada let alone Ontario. Now the rest of the country will do the same thing and lo and behold you will only have racing at fairs if any at all. There will be no North American Cup, No Queens Plate, No Breeders Cup atleast not in Canada. Your purses will be so small that you will not be able to make a living as is now the case in Saskatchewan at $1,000 for bottoms and only racing one day a week. How are you going to better the breed as there will be no bottom racing to develop the horses. Oh well everything has to end sometime. I think that people should get ahold of the SPCA and let them know of the thousands of horses that will be put down because of this decision.

Who is going to join me in what I've been saying all along the only recourse for us is to launch a Class Action Law Suit for Punitive Damages against the Provincial Gov't and the ORC. The ORC is like the NDP abstaining because they knew their jobs were secure. Of course the Breeding Operations are facing the immediate brunt of this political crap. After the presentations by the OHRIA and the SBOA which were excellent; however you see where that got us! Their all smiling now thinking they have done a wonderful job but we can bring a frown to all those faces and yes I am very angry with the way this turned out as Iam sure that everyone else is. I am just a small guy who has invested everything I had believing that this Industry is one of the few opportunities to enjoy and to become a part of and perhaps reap some rewards from the efforts of your trainers and of course your horses. If I can get any assistance from anyone or any of our Associations then I will close with saying a famous quote " Just watch me".

funny how the politicians get mad when the public do not bother to vote..BUT what is the public to say when PAID elected officials do not vote on important issues?

This is a wake up call people. We cannot rely on our MPPS to do anything to save our industry. We, whether it's with OHRIA at the helm or not, have to get better organized, get stronger and start fighting to save our future. There was and is, no way in hell that anyone in government is going to do what we need and want--to stop the cancellation of the SARs program--without a major fight. Dennis Mills seems to be willing to fight back. We need the other 59,999 to start do their part!

Mr Leber

I think it was you that brought up the point that the P.C's have not gone on record that they would reinstate the slots at Racetracks if elected next time. I can tell you that I just got off the phone with a representative of MP Steven Clark in my riding. I can honestly say they have been great and have responded quickly to my emails and calls and I am very satisfied with his efforts. I did ask one thing to his collegue, I asked if Mr Clark will get back to me on whether or not Mr Hudak will go on record that he would reinstate the Slots program if elected? I will let you know his response.

As my Mom used to say" Wipe that smirk off your face...". Revolting.

MPPs were also to vote to amend the Taxpayer Protection Act so that the government can freeze a planned corporate tax cut and slap a 2% surcharge on Ontarians who earn $500,000 and up a year.

The McGuinty Liberals agreed to the tax changes in their negotiations with the NDP.

The act would have required politicians to notify the voters in the last general election that they intended to increase taxes.

'Very unfortunate that the Liberals were not requiered to let the race industry know their intentions of terminating the SAR's program prior to the last election'

great news!!!!im wandering what plan Mcguinty has for me a 41 yrs old barely educated been in horse racing all my life??? welfare i guess!!!good job to all associations involved in this cuz u really didnt do anything and now its too late!!! we;ll see most of you's at the welfare line....

Politicians federally and provincially beg for voter turnout in an election. What a poor example the NDP have set by abstaining from voting on all three readings of bill 55. Why anyone who bothers to go out and vote in the next provincial election would cast a vote in their favour is beyond me.

I'm sorry and disgusted with all the conservative and especialy the NDP party's for whom I voted for last election hoping that they would do the tax payer some good but now I can see their all the same bunch of hypocrites. Do you know what might be a good thing is that we all every last voting soul, vote for the liberals and by doing so, we would get riteof the conservative and NDP parties because we would not need them any more to fight for the tax payer and let the liberals do as they please, they are doing it anyway, they do not listen to anyone, they do WHAT THEY WANT not what the public wants. Just look at all the money they could put towards the dept if we got rite of all these other parties, the dept would be paid in one month, JUST FOOD FOR THOUGHT. HAVE A NICE DAY.

Look at the pair of them. They look so smug... Like Jacob Marley and Ebineser Scrooge! Look out Ontario, it's going to be a very rough ride. : (

Well they did it again.

The NDP are dead to me. If Taras Natyshak tries to make a speech anywhere any even so much as says the word horse, I hope someone throws an egg.

Our government at work, didn't even bother to vote. What are we paying them for?

Georg Leber-ICR RACING