by arthur Weinreb,
august 10, 2004
Last week, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty got tongues wagging when he came close to telling the truth. Close, but not quite.
Speaking at a luncheon in suburban Markham the McPremier told his audience, "I am not for an instant denying that I made a promise and I broke it, but I’m also asking people to take a look at the circumstances that led to that. Maybe we were a bit ambitious, maybe we got caught up in it all. But I’d rather stand accused of being too ambitious for Ontarians than side with the cynics".
Well let’s skip over the part about the "cynics". as every journalist and reporter that has quoted that line has said, the "cynics" exist because politicians in general and McGuinty in particular cause them to be cynical.
While it may seem that Dalton has had a change of heart, as Christina Blizzard pointed out in her Toronto Sun column, McGuinty had a change of media advisors after recently hiring Jim Warren who used to work for former Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman. Warren apparently came up with the strategy of having the Dalt fess up to the obvious.
But the morally challenged premier wasn’t exactly apologizing for his misleading the people who voted him into office. He was minimizing and justifying his lies and deceit. He admitted breaking a promise when the reality is that he that he broke several of them. The most important promise that McGuinty made during the campaign was when he looked into the camera and said that he wouldn’t increase taxes. Then, in addition to smaller tax grabs he quickly imposed a significant and regressive health tax upon the voters that put him in office. and McGuinty looked so sincere when he promised not to raise taxes. That campaign ad was reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s looking in the camera, wagging his finger and saying, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman--Miss Lewinsky." McGuinty is absolutely Clintonesque in the way that he appears the most truthful when he is lying.
The premier’s father, Dalton McGuinty Sr, held the riding of Ottawa South for the provincial Liberals from 1987 until his death in 1990. Junior then ran and won the seat that was held by his late father. Prior to entering politics, McGuinty Jr. practiced law in Ottawa; a practice included a lot of young offenders work.
It’s no secret that kids and teens handle problems and face difficulties differently than adults do. and anyone who has spent time around the adult and the juvenile justice systems can readily see this difference. Whereas adults of average intelligence who try and talk themselves out of legal difficulties will sometimes drop their attempt when they realize how nonsensical what they are saying sounds, young people will continue to stick to a story no matter how silly they seem. and although adults do this too, kids will go to greater lengths to minimize what they have done. Sound familiar?
Even though some in the media have portrayed McGuinty’s Markham speech as a confession, the McPremier, in true juvenile form, minimized what he had done. He said he didn’t deny that he "made a promise and I broke it". Well, those Ontarians that are half awake know that it was more than one promise that Dalty broke. McGuinty and his Fiberals broke promises regarding increasing taxes, lowering automobile insurance rates, lowering tolls on Highway 407, freezing hydro rates and stopping construction of the Oak Ridges Moraine, just to name a few. and Dalton and his advisors seem to think that he should get brownie points for admitting the obvious. We all know about the promises that McGuinty broke--his Markham speech was hardly the great revelation that some think it was.
Much like the little juvie who justifies severely assaulting another kid because "the guy, like, deserved it", Dalton justifies his actions as having some greater societal good. Just as the young offender sees his assault as being appropriate in the circumstances, McGuinty justifies his lies and deceptions as being for the greater good. He characterizes his broken promises as being "ambitious". He’s proud of his lies. What a poor excuse for a leader.
We don’t know if the young offenders that McGuinty represented learned anything from him but it seems the Premier learned a lot from them.
This province was much better off when its premier’s big claim to fame was that he was a golf pro.