Ontario's Premier Doesn't Get It.

It would seem the McGuinty Liberal government at Queens Park is completely incapable of acting in the best interest of anyone besides public sector unions. Considering this government was ostensibly elected to represent the interests of ALL Ontarians, their willingness to throw around tax money to OPSEU, to the OPP, and now to Ontario's prison guards is appalling.

With Ontario's deficits stuck well into double digit billions, it should be clear to anyone with half a clue that the government has to stop increasing spending, and start reducing it.

Bob Rae realized this about halfway through his single term as Premier, and the result was Rae Days. For all that, though, he was incapable of reducing government spending significantly, and as a result was soundly thrashed in the 1995 provincial election which elected the Progressive Conservatives under Mike Harris. This government kept it's promises, and massively reduced government expenditures during the following years, while simultaneously cutting taxes. The result was a span of strong economic growth in Ontario.

But a departure from the decisive government of the late 1990s by the PCs in the early 2000s led to an increase in government expenditures, and a picture of a government that had lost touch with it's raison d'etre. The result was a Liberal victory in the 2003 election, highlighted by Liberal promises of a balanced budget, no new taxes or tax increases, and labour peace between the government and public sector unions.

What did Ontario get? Labour peace, but only because the Liberals gave away the farm to public sector unions. As a result, even with the Liberals early on breaking their promise not to increase or add taxes with the health care tax, health care in Ontario is a disaster, literally threatening the lives of Ontarians. Other tax increases followed, but Ontario is now a fiscal basket case, a “have not” province with a standard of living underneath the national average for the first time since Confederation.

Consider: are you any better off today than you were in 2003? Do you feel any more confident about the future than you did then? Do you think our healthcare system will be there for your children like it is for you? I doubt most Ontarians will answer any of these in the affirmative.

As we move closer to the fall election, the question Ontarians need to begin considering is this: can Ontario afford another four years under Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals?