Dalton McGuinty has had a rough year and a half as premier of the province of Ontario. He started out doing nothing but telling basic lies that were worthy of a 5-year-old. He promised to do all sorts of good and wondrous things, many of which he was unable to do or simply just decided not to do. and when he was confronted with these lies and deceptions, he did what any reasonably intelligent and self respecting 5-year-old would do — he blamed someone else. It was those big bad Conservatives (aka the previous government) that left him such a whopping deficit (that only two of his top cabinet ministers could see coming) that he just had to break all of those promises. None of it was his fault.
as time went by and Dalton was growing into the job, his lies became more sophisticated. When he brought in a health tax after promising the voters that they would not pay one penny more in taxes than they did under the previous provincial government, he denied it was a tax. It was a health "premium" cried McGuinty. Then, when it was discovered that some collective agreements between the government and their employees contained a clause left over from a bygone era that made the employer responsible for paying health care premiums, Dalton told them not to be silly. It’s a tax, not a premium, chuckled Dalton.
Now, after fumbling and stumbling from crisis to crisis, Dalton McGuinty has shown that he truly is ready for big league Liberal Party style governing. To use a baseball analogy, Dalton has finally gone to the show.
Ontario’s Minister of Transportation, Harinder Takhar, came under fire last week. Takhar owns a business, the Chalmers Group of Companies, which under the rules has to be run in a blind trust for as long as Takhar sits in cabinet. Tory staffers managed to snap a picture of Takhar attending at the company’s premises. according to the Minister, he just went there to talk about his daughter’s education although he never quite made it clear why this had to be done at the Chalmers Group.
Takhar alternatively told the Toronto Sun that he never went to these premises before or not very often. according to a Progressive Conservative Party release, Takhar has his own reserved parking space at a place that he never goes to/hardly ever goes to.
To add to the allegations of impropriety, the rules governing blind trusts state that the trustee must be a person at arm’s length to the Minister. Takhar’s trustee, John Jeyanayagam, is not only an employee of the Chalmers Group of Companies but he is the Chief Financial Officer of the Minister’s Mississauga Centre Riding association. Jeyanayagam hardly seems to be at arm’s length on two fronts.
The opposition demanded Takhar’s resignation or alternatively that he step down until the matter can be investigated by the province’s Integrity Commissioner. Not only did McGuinty refuse to temporarily require to have Harinder Takhar step down temporarily, he employed a strategy that would make Paul Martin and the Liberal Party of Canada proud. Dalton showed that in the world of Liberal Party politics, he has arrived.
Much like Paul Martin who defends the sleaze and corruption in his government by going on the attack, McGuinty blamed the PCs for the Takhar incident by accusing them of "stalking" the Minister of Transportation in order to come up with the picture. This of course is the same tactic that is being used successfully in Ottawa in the Gurmant Grewal matter. The federal Liberals have successfully diverted attention away from what Martin’s Chief of Staff and Health Minister said on the tapes by raising allegations against Grewal and accusing him of editing or otherwise doctoring the audio tapes. and as we all know, this diversion works.
Unlike Paul Martin who appears not to know where he is most of the time, Dalton McGuinty knows he is in Ontario. Like the feds, the more sleaze that emanates from the Liberal government, the higher they rise in the polls in good old Ontario. and McGuinty’s polls are on the upswing. Keep those scandals going, Dalton.
a few more Takhar-like controversies and Dalton will be a shoe in for Martin’s job should the PM lose confidence motion and decide to pack it in. But if Dalton McGuinty were to get Canada’s top job, who could we find to lead the province?
How does Premier Harinder Takhar sound?