By Doug Draper – A Brief Commentary from Queen’s Park
It looks like the life or death of Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal minority government is now up to Ontario’s NDP leader Andrea Horwath.
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has a few very heavy days ahead of her
One of a number of New Democrats and Liberals out of the chambers and missing Hudak’s speech and the applause it drew from his Conservative caucus was Horwath, who was reportedly already preparing to spend the next few days attempting to wring some concessions from McGuinty on a budget her party says doesn’t do enough to improve the lives of “everyday people.”
In and around Queen’s Park there was already all kinds of speculation on what kind of concessions it would take to make Horwath and her party want to vote in favour of the budget, and whether the NDP has any real desire or money to fight a second election in a space of six months. Most people I talked to in and around Queen’s Park this March 28 are betting that, whatever the outcome of talks between the NDP and Liberals in the next few days, Ontario won’t be facing another election this spring.
One way other the other, it will be interesting to see what concessions the NDP may win from the Liberals.
The plan in the budget to freeze welfare payments should be an easy one to get the government to back down on since even Liberal supporters are upset with that idea. How about a more solid commitment from McGuinty not to lower corporate taxes any further?
Why not get the McGuinty government to agree to the original recommendations from early learning experts to have early childhood educators play the key role in kindergarten classes for four year olds rather than regular teachers, who cost far more money? Or would the NDP be worried about drawing the wrath of teachers’ unions?
Why not convince the government to do what some other provinces have already done and amalgamate the public and Catholic school boards as a cost-saving measure? How about joining Hudak’s party in pressing the government to do something about an arbitration process set up by the province that fails to take into account the ability of taxpayers in various regions of the province to pay when settling on wage and benefit increases for police and other public workers?
Whatever the outcome of the talks, Horwath and her party run the risk of possibly upsetting NDP supporters who seem to dislike the McGuinty government at least as much as Conservative supporters do should they decide to vote in favour of the budget and allow the government to stand.
It also opens the door to Hudak and his Conservatives to take advantage of every opportunity when the people of Ontario get angry at the McGuinty government over one issue or another to remind people that they, at least, tried to pull the plug on the government.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on the Ontario budget with other NAL readers below. Remember that we only post views by individuals who also share their first and last names.)
Niagara At Large 
It’s not going to be about the issues that matter to the people – it’s going to be about party money and feeding time at the trough – The system must be changed so that MPP’s are responsible and accountable to the voters and not the party masters !!!!!!!!!!
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My one hope is that she will hold their feet to the fire about Public Service executives/CEO’s (managers, if you will) who are ‘Exempt employees’ — which means, non-unionized employees and their effing Huge Salaries, while the rest of force (hospitals, universities, libraries, you name them) work for pittance. Check the Sunshine list and tell me why these deadheads should escape any salary ‘increments’ or merit praise at all. Please explain.
Having worked in the field for 30 years, I can and will attest that the lower-paid of us did all the grunt work, while the Managers have endless, pointless meetings about ‘Vision’ and Strategey’, ‘Performance Enhancement’ “Webinars” and just endless crap, all of which comes to nothing, while the rest of the underpaid make the place work. Whatever or wherever that place may be.
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I agree with your comments. Let us not forget that the patrician class is always the last to suffer, Ms. Benjafield, before the collapse of society. Sipping champagne and nibbling on crudites at the next black tie gala is their right, according to them even up to the fall. And why wouldn’t being exempted from any plans for wage austerity be the case also?
“The entitlement state has driven us into insolvency.”
Joe Miller
“…words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.”
V
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Here were are again in another “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situations. I must agree with the previous posters (Mr Snyder and Ms Benafield) in that they both make comments that are right on point.
The problem is that although I certainly want McGuinty et al gone, I am no fan of Hudak Incorporated or for that matter of the NDP. I don’t have a problem with Horwath, but like Bob Rae when he was elected premier, he didn’t have much brain power to choose from in setting up his cabinet. And then he owed too much to too many specific interest groups. We need major changes in our political system. It is broken … no, it is absolutely flawed from the get-go! Individual MPs and MPPs are too much under the thumb of the leader — and do not respond to the wants and needs of their constituents. I am not a fan of the American system, but I do like the idea of being able to hold a politician’s feet to the fire with the threat of a recall vote. We must find a way to make politicians responsible to the people who elected them, not to their political party or leader. We went through a process a few years ago where some changes were proposed to the system. But the changes did nothing to restore democracy – they entrenched the political parties even more. That is why they were defeated. I think we need to revisit the idea of electoral reform, but from the point of view of the taxpayer – NOT from the point of view of the politician. Let’s start by a two or three terms and out requirement to avoid the professional politicians like McGuinty, Hudak, Bradley etc. Let’s put an extra line on the ballot that says “none of the above.” If that line gets the most votes, a by-election must be held within 30 days … and NONE of the previous candidates can run again. And we can go on from there. I am open to suggestions. But not from current (or past) politicians. To get back to the original thought …. I don’t want Horwath working any kind of deal with the Liberals. I would much rather go to the polls!
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Mr. MacKenzie…the people must demand a recall vote from their elected representatives. I suggest that the party that has the courage to put this at the top of its platform has a remarkable head start with the electorate.
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Mr Petrowski … Yes, I agree. The problem is that those provinces that have brought in this type of legislation have made it far too difficult to use, BC is the main example I can think of offhand. No politician that I know of has the true intestinal fortitude to put it on the ballot. Nor do I know of one that would go along with my “none of the above” idea, especially if it means none of the rejected candidates can run again. But until we have true electoral reform, we are going to continue to see the type of “professional” politicians we have now – bellying up to the pork barrel along with their cronies and bleeding the rest of us dry!
Unfortunately, I don’t think enough Canadians really give a damn.
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