by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
June 7, 2004
The public in Ontario are outraged at Dalton McGuinty and the provincial Liberals. after breaking election promise after election promise, McGuinty imposed a hefty health care tax, calling it a premium to hopefully fool the unwashed masses into believing that it wasn’t a tax. This was after the premier promised not to raise taxes--no, not one cent said candidate McGuinty. The premier excuses his dishonesty by employing his favourite phrase--"it was the right thing to do."
The voters have no tolerance for his lies and deception and when all is said and done, McGuinty, despite protestations to the contrary, is responsible for the rapid decline of the federal Liberals’ fortunes in Ontario.
The media, on the other hand seem to have no difficulty in accepting what McGuinty is now saying as being the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. On June 1, the Liberal government announced that they were going to introduce legislation requiring fixed election dates. Currently, other than having to have an election at least once every five years, the actual date is solely up to the premier to decide. The purpose of having fixed election dates is to prevent the government of the day from using the timing of the election for partisan political purposes.
Even with McGuinty’s record of deceit, the media is acting as if it is already a done deal. The Globe and Mail went the furthest with the headline that read, "Ontario goes to the polls on October 4, 2007".
The Liberals have a majority government so they can pass any legislation that they want to pass so this is not the reason that the proposed act should not be treated as a certainty. But this law will not be written in stone, nor will it be entrenched in the constitution. It is a simple act of the legislature, not unlike the Taxpayers Protection and Balanced Budget act. McGuinty promised to comply with that act, but when it didn’t suit his political purposes not to raise taxes without a referendum or balance the budget, he simply moved to abolish the legislation. "It was the right thing do to", droned the premier.
Fast forward to late summer, 2007. McGuinty is in political trouble and doesn’t want to go to the polls in October. all he has to do is introduce legislation to repeal the fixed elections act and make up some reason why he had to do it. any similarity between what McGuinty says and what he actually does is strictly coincidental.
The media is a lot more gullible than the general public are. The media should have at least pointed out the fact that McGuinty can choose to ignore fixed election dates like he ignored the Taxpayers Protection and Balanced Budget act. after all he has a track record for not following through.
For the media, that would have been "the right thing to do".