by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
November 25, 2004
It started off as a campaign slogan. Former Ontario PC premier Mike Harris ran in the 1999 provincial election with the slogan, "Dalton McGuinty — he’s just not up to the job". When Harris stepped down and was replaced by the totally unimaginative Ernie Eves, Ernie ran his 2003 campaign with the slogan, "Dalton McGuinty — he’s still not up to the job". Well it’s been a little over a year since McGuinty and his Liberals formed a majority government and the phrase has left the realm of electioneering and become a fact — Dalton McGuinty really isn’t up to the job.
To put McGuinty’s leadership in the proper perspective, you need to look no further than the comments that were made last week by Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton. Hampton replaced Bob Rae shortly after Harris and his Conservatives came to power in 1995. The then- new NDP leader spent the better part of the next eight years constantly pointing out how the Tories’ Common Sense Revolution was being carried out on the backs of the poor and middle and lower income earners. Hampton was constantly criticizing the Conservatives for policies that included lowering welfare payments and refusing to increase the minimum wage, all carried out, as Hampton so often said, so they could give tax cuts to their rich friends. It’s been a year since the Tories were banished to the opposition benches so things must be looking up for the disadvantaged in Ontario. Well, not exactly.
Speaking at a recent NDP convention in Hamilton, Hampton said that low and middle class Ontarians are worse off now than they were a year ago. Since the Eves government went down to defeat, Ontario residents now must pay for eye exams, physiotherapy and chiropractic services and are also on the hook for higher hydro rates. It is hard to believe that there could ever be a government that Hampton could consider to be worse than the conservatives. But it didn’t take Howard too long to find one.
There is no doubt that even after only a year in office, McGuinty’s legacy will be his string of lies and broken promises. He made promises that he couldn’t possibly have kept (Highway 407 and the Oak Ridges Moraine) while breaking other promises to take the easy way out (his health care tax/premium). But after a year in office McGuinty has shown that not being up to the job is not just a slogan any more. It is a fact.
Last week the premier made a speech about electoral reform. according to McGuinty, it is our first-past-the-post electoral system that is the reason why so many people, especially the young, are cynical about the political system and politicians. and here some of us thought that breaking promises and lies caused the cynicism. McGuinty promised not to raise taxes and then imposed a health tax. Then he said it wasn’t a tax, it was a premium. after it was revealed that some public sector union agreements contained clauses that said that the employer was responsible for the payment of health premiums, McGuinty said it wasn’t a premium, it was a tax. Yet Dalton has the unmitigated gall and arrogance to claim that young people are cynical about politics because the candidate who gets the most votes wins the election. If this doesn’t prove that he’s not up to the job, nothing does.
McGuinty has no plans for exactly what type of electoral system he wants to see replace the current system. He’s leaving that up to "citizens’ juries" who will make recommendations then we’ll all get to vote in a referendum (just like the referendum we had when he raised taxes; but then it was a premium not a tax, at least until it became a tax again). Writing in the Toronto Sun Christina Blizzard referred to McGuinty’s citizens’ juries as being "vaguely Stalinist". Wonder what she meant by "vaguely"?
It’s hard to believe that we could have a government that Howard Hampton could find was worse for lower and middle class people than the previous tax-cutting, benefit reducing Tories. McGuinty must look back in fondness to the days when the worst thing that Hampton said about the Tony Perkins look-alike was when he called him Norman Bates.
"He’s just not up to the job". It’s not just an election slogan any more.