With all the drama of Alberta’s surprise non-rebellion hogging the stage, Ontario’s government hasn’t been getting its usual share of attention. And it’s a shame, because the McGuinty government, one of the great practitioners of flim-flam politics, has been putting on a show worthy of notice.
This is the government that avoided making any consequential budget decisions by farming out responsibility to an independent economist for a year, then, when the results came in, said “Gee thanks, but we’ll make up our own mind,” and then retired to stew for a month or so over what to do. When the budget was eventully revealed, many of the proposals had been ignored in favour of the more simple expedient of freezing wages on a host of employees. One thing the government would not do, Premier Dalton McGuinty promised, was to introduce new taxes. He was firm on that. He’d made the same promise once before, and promptly broke it. Actually, he broke it lots of times during his first two terms. Like, many, many times. So it was a bit brazen of him to make the same promise all over again, and people thought: “Gee, he wouldn’t be shameless enough the break it a second time would he? Like, wouldn’t he feel a bit foolish?”
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Kelly McParland: Ontario’s new soak-the-rich, reduce the deficit, blame-it-on-the-NDP tax | Full Comment | National Post
This is the government that avoided making any consequential budget decisions by farming out responsibility to an independent economist for a year, then, when the results came in, said “Gee thanks, but we’ll make up our own mind,” and then retired to stew for a month or so over what to do. When the budget was eventully revealed, many of the proposals had been ignored in favour of the more simple expedient of freezing wages on a host of employees. One thing the government would not do, Premier Dalton McGuinty promised, was to introduce new taxes. He was firm on that. He’d made the same promise once before, and promptly broke it. Actually, he broke it lots of times during his first two terms. Like, many, many times. So it was a bit brazen of him to make the same promise all over again, and people thought: “Gee, he wouldn’t be shameless enough the break it a second time would he? Like, wouldn’t he feel a bit foolish?”
more
Kelly McParland: Ontario’s new soak-the-rich, reduce the deficit, blame-it-on-the-NDP tax | Full Comment | National Post