Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak Promises To Restore Province’s Economic Predominance

In his first address to an annual meeting as leader of Ontario’s Conservative Party Leader,  Tim Hudak – a Fort Erie native and Niagara area MPP – vowed to “modernize” his party, “once again lead as the province with the strongest economy, best hospitals, best schools and best jobs in Canada,” and “leave behind the failed policies of the McGuinty Liberal government.”

Ontario Conservative leader and Niagara area MPP Tim Hudak delivers keynote address at party's annual meeting in Ottawa this March.

In a continued spirit of publishing, for the record, statements by significant others on matters of importance to the residents of our

 region, Niagara At Large is providing Tim Hudak’s first address, as Conservative leader, to the party’s annual meeting below.

Please feel free, at the end of the text for this speech, to join the discussion and debate where we as a binational region of this province should be going by sharing your views in the comment boxes below.

We encourage your views and believe they are as vital to the process of building healthier communities as those of anyone holding an elected or non-elected office in government today. We also welcome the opportunity to review for publicaltion addresses on matters of interest and conern from other residents and community leaders in our region.

Remarks by Tim Hudak, MPP Leader of the Ontario PC Party Leader’s Speech, Ottawa, Ontario, March 6, 2010

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I’m here to report to you today on the state of our party and our province. Thanks to you and your hard work, our party is strong and growing stronger.

Two nights ago, it showed.

We won convincingly in Leeds-Grenville, with Steve Clark beating the Liberals by an incredible 46 points. And — even though many had counted us out, we almost pulled off a huge upset in Ottawa-West Nepean – closing a 19 point gap in the last election down to 4.

There are more than a few worried Liberals this weekend. They didn’t expect us to be so close. And they don’t like the direction things are headed. Coming out of the Leadership, our Party grew in all regions of the province: leaping from under 9,000 members to 44,000 PC members strong. But our province: now that’s a very different story. It’s a story to break your heart. It’s a story that should make you angry. It’s a story that must inspire us to work – to fight – and to win the next election.

Not very long ago, this province offered opportunity for all – and security for all. A strong education system – abundant resources – reliable roads, ports, and energy – free-trade access to the huge market of the United States – sensible laws, fairly enforced – whether you lived in downtown Toronto, industrial Oshawa, fruitbelt Niagara, or the wild beauty of the north ….……you had your chance.

And you also knew that if you got sick or injured, the taxes you paid would provide high-quality care until you could contribute again. it was our PC leadership that built this Ontario fair deal in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. It was our party that rescued the deal in the 1990s, when previous reckless governments plunged Ontario into uncertainty, debt, and fear.

Now this province needs us again to clean up after another reckless failed government: the Dalton McGuinty Liberals. None of us in this room blame Dalton McGuinty for the global financial crisis. The crisis was not born in Canada. It was not born in Ontario. But the crisis has hit Canada, and it has hit Ontario, and our leaders are measured by how they respond. Under Dalton McGuinty, this province has fallen into have-not status.

Our unemployment rate is higher than the rest of Canada. Our taxes have climbed higher than the rest of Canada. Our services have deteriorated below the rest of Canada. Today, Dalton McGuinty is actually on course to double Ontario’s debt. It took 23 Premiers 136 years to accumulate Ontario’s first $148 billion in debt. Dalton McGuinty will single-handedly double that number in just eight years. It took 23 Premiers 136 years to accumulate Ontario’s first $148 billion in debt.

Dalton McGuinty will single-handedly double that number in just eight years. And along the way, he broke his key covenant with voters.Not to raise taxes on ordinary families.

A previous Liberal premier, David Peterson, boasted of banning “extra billing” by doctors. Under Dalton McGuinty, extra billing has returned, as under-resourced doctors charge Ontario families to write them notes to excuse their kids from school. A previous Conservative government reformed welfare. I was part of that government, and let me tell you – it was a tough thing to do. We reduced payments to able-bodied workers because we believed that a job is the best social program – and because we knew we’d create the jobs to replace welfare.

Now Dalton McGuinty has brought welfare back. But instead of the money going to Ontario families down on their luck – it is flowing to consultants and big corporations with cozy relationships with this government and its ministers. I’m not saying that Dalton McGuinty has accomplished nothing positive. Our economy may have fallen apart – but our lawns are perfectly pesticide free. Our factories may be closing – but Ontario is protected from the menace of the plastic grocery bag. And nobody can say Dalton McGuinty has created ZERO jobs. Why in just six years, he’s managed to employ five different heads of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. Over those same six years there have been back-to-back-to-back scandals in every corner of this government.

Here again, you have to give Dalton McGuinty credit. He has invented a whole new approach to scandal management: you distract attention from one scandal – with an even bigger scandal. Dalton McGuinty does not seem to understand the difference between governing a province – and bothering a province. He seems to think that a lot of little failures can add up to one big success. Dalton McGuinty’s supporters say he’s a well-meaning man. He does his best. He comes to work every day.

But I am the son of two teachers. And I learned from them: “A” does not stand for “Attendance.” The premier Ontario elects in 2011 will inherit some very grim realities. The next premier will have to do more than just show up. We need leadership that can make tough decisions – and has the compassion to feel the impact of those decisions on all Ontario families… Pensioners and students… Laid-off workers and entrepreneurs struggling to save their businesses… People with high-school diplomas as well as those with professional degrees… My neighbors in Fort Erie just as much as Dalton McGuinty’s friends in Yorkville and Rosedale.

We need leadership with a vision for the province’s economic future – and the realism that comes from everyday life and practical experience. Friends, I could tell you that I’m that leader. But I’m going to do something better: I’m going to prove it to you. Every single day between now and the next election, I’m going to listen to the families in this province. I’m going to talk about the urgent concerns of our people and I’m going to offer answers and solutions to the problems they face. I’m going to campaign the same way I would govern: optimistically, realistically, inclusively, and based on the values of work, respect, and achievement. I see future PC voters everywhere.

 I see a PC voter in the New Canadian operating a small shop – worried about what the McGuinty sales tax grab will mean for her business. I see a PC voter in the guy earning half his old pay at a temporary job. He’s not complaining, he’s proud to provide for his family in these hard times, but he wants to know: isn’t there a better way to attract jobs to Ontario than with handouts to favored corporations?

I see a PC voter in the single mother who knows that a solid education is her kid’s way up – and who fears that an Ontario diploma doesn’t impress employers the way it did 20 years ago. I see a PC voter in the crime victim who has heard that we’ve made it hard for a duck hunter to get a gun – and who wonders why criminals find it so easy.

I see a PC voter in the nurse who sees everyday better ways to spend the billion dollars wasted on McGuinty’s e-health boondoggle. And here’s what I will say to these voters and to all those Ontario families who pay the most and get the least. If you trust us with your vote in 2011, we will rebuild the economy of Ontario.

Instead of higher taxes on your paycheques and on everything you buy, we will cut taxes and create jobs. Instead of uncontrolled spending, we will invest in healthcare first. Instead of the culture of entitlement that has enriched so many friends and supporters of this government, we will restore integrity and accountability.

Our plan begins with the reform of government – but it does not end there. The stakes are high. Ontario is not just another place, another jurisdiction, another province.

For Debbie, our young daughter Miller and I, and those of us here in this room, it’s home. It’s the province that I love. My friends, it’s our job to set things right. Ontario can lead again. We must restore Ontario as the best place in North America to create and attract business, bar none.

We will subject every obstacle and burden on job creation to the most exacting test. If it cannot justify itself – it goes. Instead of chasing jobs out of the province, I will invite businesses in – and I will create an environment that nurtures the business born here. My friends, Ontario can lead again. This province was built on cheap and reliable hydro-electricity.

We will meet our environmental responsibilities – and we will build an energy marketplace that delivers power to our people at prices they can pay. No more picking favorites at Queen’s Park. And we will hold Dalton McGuinty to account on his record of making and breaking reckless energy promises: because a premier’s credibility is a non-renewable resource. My friends, Ontario can lead again.

We’ll offer business a population with a strong work ethic and advanced skills. We’ll explore new ways to link work and study. And we will educate the next generation of Ontarians to even higher standards – not only in college and university, but in our high schools as well. My friends, Ontario can lead again. No place on earth has done a better job than Canada and Ontario of integrating people from every country into one united community.

People sometimes ask me: “What kind of a name is Hudak?” Well… it’s a Canadian name. If elected, I’ll be the first premier of Ontario with family who directly immigrated to Canada from outside the British Isles. That “first” will attest to the amazing opportunities Ontario offered to the immigrants who arrived here in the years before World War II.

My parents and grandparents got their fair chance. Now a new generation of leadership is called to sustain and renew the promise of Ontario – so that other young Ontarians will have the same fair chance. I hear from so many across the province: they’re frightened of the future. Some are beginning to lose their faith in this magnificent province. When I hear that, it makes me sad. And then it makes me mad. Dalton McGuinty and his promise-breaking, loose-spending, tax-hiking,giveaway-dispensing, croney-favoring, showing-up-is-good-enough Liberals have failed this province too long. Ontario deserves better – and you and I and everybody in this room will work like we’ve never worked before to deliver better.

We will raise money, mobilize activists, and recruit the best field of candidates Ontario has ever seen. We will take our message to every door, including doors that have not seen a PC candidate in a long, long time. Ladies and Gentlemen, Ontario can lead again. We have a province to save, an election to win and THE LAST MILE STARTS NOW.

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