WhatFinger


Everything Wynne does is about votes and power. Nothing she ever does is “well-intentioned.”

Critics of Ontario premier erroneously assume she’s trying to do the right thing



Not only is Kathleen Wynne unpopular in the province she governs but she has the lowest approval ratings of any premier in Canada. In a poll late last month, while 70 percent of Ontarians disapprove of her performance, almost half of all Canadians (48 percent) disapprove of her job performance. Back in March, an Angus Reid poll gave her a record low; only 12 percent of Ontarians polled approved of Wynne’s performance. As the late Finance Minister Jim Flaherty might have put it, she reached Elvis territory; the percentage of people who like the job she is doing is about the same as those who think the singer is still alive. Watching her majority government headed for what could be third party status after the next election scheduled for June next year, Wynne took action. In May, Wynne announced the province’s minimum wage, now at $11.40 an hour, will increase to $15 by 2019. As of Jan.1 next year, the minimum wage will be increased to $14 an hour. Under the premier’s plan, the minimum wage will increase by a whopping 32 percent in less than two years. Other measures announced such as workers being paid for three hours if their shifts are cancelled and workers being entitled to 10 days of personal leave (two of them paid leave) have been announced.
In addition to increasing the minimum wage, the Liberals also gave public sector workers a 7.5 percent increase over four years. And Wynne recently reduced the cost of hydro to consumers by about 25 percent. Due to the premier’s desire to save the world from climate change, the province had the highest rates in North America. A lot of people had to make a choice between heating and eating. All this reduction did was pass the amount of the reduction to future generations who will live in what used to be Canada’s most prosperous province. Wynne is an expert when it comes to bribing taxpayers, especially those in her favoured groups such as public servants with their own money. And she has come under a lot of criticism from media sources such as the Sun newspaper chain. Lorrie Goldstein and other writers has been prolific in their criticism of Wynne and her Liberal government. But these critics make an assumption for which there is absolutely no basis in fact. Last week, Ben Eisen of the Fraser Institute’s Open Prosperity Initiative penned a column published in the Toronto Sun. Eisen criticized Wynne and Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown about their stand on the $15 minimum wage (Brown is in favour of the wage hike although critical of how quickly Wynne plans to get to $15 an hour). In writing about how the increase in the minimum wage will kill jobs, Eisen specifically sets out the assumption for which there is no basis in fact. He wrote:
“Clearly, this well-intentioned policy is backfiring badly.” [Emphasis added]

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This is the erroneous assumption the critics make. These critics assume everything Wynne does is well-intentioned; she is really trying to do what she thinks is best for Ontarians. The poor dear is just getting it wrong. Balderdash. She knows exactly what she’s doing. To begin with, despite their similar progressive beliefs no one should ever confuse Kathleen Wynne with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. She’s not stupid. She has never made any comments only an idiot could make such as the budget will balance itself and we need to reconsider basic elements such as time and space. Unlike Trudeau, whose puppet strings are being pulled by Gerald Butts, George Soros and countless others, Wynne knows exactly what she is doing. Progressives have been screaming for an increase in the minimum wage to the magical $15 for years. Yet Wynne only decided to help these low wage workers after her poll numbers tanked. Unlike her federal counterpart, no one can say she is just too dumb to comprehend when expenses such as the cost of employees rises, there will be slower service, layoffs and closures. Companies will be forced to raise their prices, which will result in less demand for products and services. This is simple Economics 101 and although it would be a stretch to believe Trudeau is capable of understanding this, Wynne knows. For a while, there were horror stories about some Ontarians living in the dark because they could not pay their hydro bills. There was at least one death as a result of Wynne’s ever increasing hydro rates; an aboriginal man just outside of Peterborough died after his gas generator exploded. He obtained the generator because his hydro was cut off. Wynne knew all of these things but only waited until she dropped in the polls and faced the distinct possibility of losing power. And the drop in her poll numbers means her popularity with her beloved government employees is dropping. That’s the reason for her government’s generous increase in their remuneration.

There is also no hard evidence Wynne cares about climate change. Her government invests heavily in green energy so companies that receive Wynne’s largesse can kick back some of those funds to the Liberal Party to keep them in power. In George Orwell’s 1984, the protagonist Winston Smith is being re-educated to believe in Big Brother and believe everything the government says true regardless of the fact Smith knows it is false. Smith is tied down to a bed and hooked up to a contraption his interrogator, O’Brien, can use to administer painful shocks to help the re-education effort along. O’Brien asks Smith why the Party wants to remain in power. Smith answers essentially people are too stupid to govern themselves. O’Brien zaps him. He says to Smith, “That was stupid, Winston, stupid! You should know better than to say a thing like that.” O’Brien goes on to tell him the Party seeks to remain in power only for the sake of power. It doesn’t care about the welfare of others. Kathleen Wynne’s only objective is to remain in power; to bribe those who may be falling out of favour with her government. Those such as Eisen and other critics of the Ontario Liberal Party who believe the premier is trying to help Ontarians but just can’t get it right need to face the cold hard truth. Contrary to what Eisen wrote, the government’s increasing the minimum wage was not “well-intentioned.” The reality is there are more workers who stand to at least believe they will do better with a higher minimum wage than there are business people who will be forced to pay it. Everything Wynne does is about votes and power. Nothing she ever does is “well-intentioned.”


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Arthur Weinreb -- Bio and Archives

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. Arthur’s latest book, Ford Nation: Why hundreds of thousands of Torontonians supported their conservative crack-smoking mayor is available at Amazon. Racism and the Death of Trayvon Martin is also available at Smashwords. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com,  Drudge Report, Foxnews.com.

Older articles (2007) by Arthur Weinreb


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