by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
June 14, 2004
Dalton McGuinty, the McPremier of Ontario is now running radio commercials in an attempt to extricate the Martin/McGuinty Liberals from the mess that he created when he introduced health care "premiums" in his May 18 budget. McGuinty promised over and over and over again (even after he was told that the deficit was about $5.6 billion) that he would not raise taxes and then hit Ontarians for an extra $300 to $900 a year. In a world where you can fool all the people almost all of the time, Ontarians didn’t buy his Liberal spin that the "premium" was not a "tax" and a recent poll put McGuinty’s approval rating at 9 per cent. If he sinks any lower, he’ll be the first politician to hit absolute zero.
On his radio spots, McGuinty tells Ontario residents that "every penny" of the health premium will go towards health care and will pay for more MRIs and other medical equipment. This is not the first time that Dalton has talked about pennies; those little coins that like the Fiberals are a nuisance to have around are practically worthless. During last fall’s election campaign, the straight-faced premier-to-be told the voters that they wouldn’t pay one cent more in taxes under a McGuinty government. While Dalton speaks incessantly about small change, Ontarians have to fork over big bucks.
No doubt the leader of the Martin/McGuinty Liberals was pressured into doing something by the federal Liberals. although the feds were taking a lot of flack over adscam, their electoral fortunes did not really begin to plummet until they started to crash in Ontario as a result of McGuinty’s lies and deceptions. as much as Paul Martin tries to pretend that there is no connection between his party and the provincial party, the voters aren’t buying it.
McGuinty probably never counted upon the fact that he wasn’t the only one who could play the radio game. after his radio spots began to air, NDP leader Howard Hampton began running radio spots about how the hard working people of the province are being hit by the increased taxes that McGuinty said he would not introduce. although Hampton can go pretty far out in left field, he has one thing that the McPremier does not now nor will ever have — credibility. and as a result of Dalton’s panic, we are in the middle of a federal election campaign and being inundated with provincial ads. Like everything else McGuinty does, his radio ads will probably backfire as well. Just hearing his voice is enough to make the casual Liberal voter run to another party on June 28.
and by the way, about Dalton’s comments that every penny of the new tax will be going into health care -that’s a lie too.
Ontario residents were last required to pay health insurance premiums in the 1980s. as Moira MacDonald pointed out in her Toronto Sun column, unions that represent workers of the Toronto District School Board had clauses put into their collective agreements that required the employer to be responsible for the payment of their health premiums. Seems no one ever got around to taking that clause out. MacDonald also wrote that the union that represents Toronto’s Catholic District School Board has a memorandum of understanding from the 1980s that says that should health premiums ever be charged again in the future, the employer will pick up the tab. The "employer" in these cases are the beleaguered taxpayers.
Of course all Ontario public sector unions will want the employer to pay for their health premiums, especially if the school board employees receive it and those payments will become an issue during future collective bargaining. The government will end up pouring millions of Dalton’s beloved pennies into paying for health care premiums for its workers. and every penny that goes to the public sector unions will be a penny that will not be spent on health care. another Fiberal lie.
The Martin/McGuinty Liberals want you to vote for them because they are the only ones who can administer health care. Support us, or you’ll die!!! These same Liberals think that by portraying themselves as the guardians of people’s health, they can lie, break promises and pay off their friends. It’s time that people let them know that we’re mad as hell and we won’t take it any more.
Dalton McGuinty — he just keeps getting worse and worse.