I want to talk a little bit about being realistic. The most recent Ontario election saw the liberals take back a majority government, something most of the advanced research polls did not predict. Most thought it would be another Liberal minority or perhaps and PC minority, but I don’t think very many saw a Liberal majority in the research.

 

I’m not going to say which way I voted, but I am of the opinion that the Conservatives, in a very odd way, did themselves in and probably not for the obvious reasons. There was a lot of negative campaigning, and while I think it’s wrong, (stand on what you will do, not what others won’t do), I also think we have become accustomed to that and we kind of see through it. Unless it’s completely one sided, in which case someone ends up with egg all over them and it’s usually the one flinging it in the first place.

 

But no, this time I think what did Mr. Hudak in was, at least in part, his promise of a “million new jobs”. I don’t think that was a realistic stand to take; even if it was true. A million is a number most people can’t really fathom. We’ve gotten so used to hearing it lately, that we don’t really take the time to consider what it means. In 2011, Ontario’s population was just under 13 million people, according to the 2011 Census. That would imply one new job for every 13 people in the province. Let’s assume now that approximately 25% of the population is not yet of working age and another 25% are beyond working age, just for the sake of comparison, these aren’t hard and fast numbers. But at half the population that would mean one new job for every 6.5 people.

 

 Really? Is this realistic? Particularly when he was going to start by thinning out 100,000 public service jobs to start with. Now I’m not criticizing the party in general, I happen to think that there are times when a conservative government is appropriate; the same way there are times when a more left leaning government is appropriate. But if I were running a campaign and my boss said “put down that we’re going to make a million new jobs over our mandate”, I would probably think he was crazy. Just like most of us dream of what we would do with a million dollars, can we really fathom how much that is until it’s in a bank account collecting interest? Did the PC party consider the “optics” of what that number meant?(It’s funny to me that we often use the term “optics” to describe what someone has said – I spoke in the past about how important vision and hearing are, but this is a good example of how they inevitably intertwine).  It’s almost a fictitious number, and the optics of using such a phrase has really lost its meaning. Had Mr. Hudak instead made the claim that he would create 10,000 jobs per year for the next 10 years, I would have had less trouble believing it. Think about that, that’s 100,000 jobs in 10 ten years, a number most of us can really put some value to, but still merely 10% of his initial promise; but it is realistic.

 

So what’s this got to do with hearing? After all, I’m not a politician, (thank goodness for that!), I’m a hearing aid guy. Well take a moment to think about the reality of what may happen when someone says they have a hearing aid that seems way too cheap to be ….. realistic.