When broken promises become the norm.

Looking at the McGuinty record is depressing. It is too bad that voters are so wedded to the two party system. The NDP deserves to do better. I guess there is still a bit of a voter hangover from the Rae govt. but at least as a strong opposition or in a minority government the NDP could be helpful.
I hope the MMP passes, since that would change the character of Ontario politics considerably and give more power to smaller parties that have a significant vote.
This is from the straight goods.

When broken promises become the norm

Tory's faith-based gambit and flip-flop allow McGuinty to switch subject.

Dateline: Tuesday, October 02, 2007

by Ish Theilheimer

If polls are to believed, Ontario may be on the verge of re-electing a premier who broke, depending on whom you ask, up to fifty key election promises made in 2003.

Some are well-known. He raised taxes after saying he wouldn't. After he won, he announced he had been confronted with a deficit — about which he claimed ignorance but which was foreseen by most political observers.

Other broken promises are less obvious but probably more damaging. These include de-listing health services, permitting Oak Ridges Moraine development, stinting on children's autism treatment, compromises with the auto insurance industry, and going ahead with P3 hospitals he said he opposed. Nor were 20,000 units of affordable housing built, nor were the legions of nurses, teachers and other public servants hired, etc., etc.

Fixed election dates may have worked in the incumbent government's favour.



The weird thing about this election is that voters have sort of shrugged and said "Yeah?" Despite disappointment about the McGuintyites, polls indicate many voters seem content that they're not Conservatives — and chary about moving left to the NDP.

McGuinty's impending victory could be a matter of clever election timing. The new-fangled fixed election date made the campaign less dramatic. There was no real reason for the election other than the date. Voting day itself comes two days after Thanksgiving (with a media blackout the day before) and six weeks after Labour Day. In any case, it hasn't drawn a lot of public interest and probably was intended that way.

This week's policy flip-flop by Conservative leader John Tory was a sorry spectacle in more ways than one. Tory, it appears, gave Dalton McGuinty a precious gift in this election, with his proposal of public funding for faith-based schools. This was a godsend for McGuinty, who calls himself the "education Premier," enabling him to campaign as public education's saviour.

After the turmoil of the Harris years, McGuinty did achieve labour peace in the schools, largely by giving school boards the money to pay teachers better. Tory's gambit diverted attention away, however, from the glaring fact the Liberals did not change the Conservative-designed funding formula that took money out of public schools. McGuinty's broken promises became less the story than his defence of all things public.

If handing Dalton McGuinty a tailor-made re-election issue wasn't dumb enough, now John Tory has recanted and says that if elected — something no one now thinks can happen — he will allow a free vote on the issue. Riding polls show he may not even win a legislative seat, having chosen to run against popular Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.

Unfortunately, Howard Hampton and the NDP could get sideswiped by the course of political events. Current campaigns only increase the temptation to vote for the "education Premier" and forget all about the broken premises, or maybe just accept them as the norm. Look at John Tory.