A Brief Comment from Doug Draper, publisher, Niagara At Large
One of our regular readers sent a link to one of Rex Murphy’s most recent columns on the depravity of Dalton McGuinty and what is left of his Ontario Liberal government mess.
Save for Mike Harris, this has got to be the worst prick Ontario has had for a premier in half a century.
A few days back, following the release of a report from the office the Auditor-General of Ontario, concluding that the Liberal McGuinty government’s crass political move to pull the plug on plans to construct gas-powered energy plant in two Liberal ridings in Mississauga and Oakville could cost the province’s taxpayers more than a billion dollars, this publisher posted a commentary on this pornography.
I also made it clear, just as Rex Murphy has since, that I am so jaded on politics in this province that I question whether the provincial Conservatives and NDP, as much as they are piling on over this scandal, would have done anything much different had they been in power. Such is the cynicism I am sorry to say most of my fellow citizens seem to express about polticians and politics in general these days.
As for Kathleen Wynne, the current Ontario premier of what she so desperately wants to represent as a ‘new Liberal government’, I wanted to wish the best to her. I met and interviewed her a few times when she was a cabinet minster under McGuinty, and she seemed like such a breath of humility and honesty compared to that prick. But she made the mistake, when she won the leadership of the Ontario Liberals early this 2013, of doing the usual thing and ‘honouring’ McGuinty as the last premier and leader of her party.
This kind of saying thanks to the outgoing leader is a political ritual but Wynne made the mistake of overdoing it in this prick’s case. She should have said goodbye to him and left it like that. But the impression she gave was that she honoured this arrogant jerk. And it is hard to believe that she did not know, as a senior cabinet minister at the time, that he suddenly resigned because he new that this gas-plant business was going to turn into a scandal.
Given all that, I don’t think Wynne has a hope hell of winning a government in the next Ontario election, however well intentioned she may be.
Now here is a lead up and link to the Rex Murphy column.
Rex Murphy, October 11th, 2013, The National Post, an intro to his column
The Auditor-General of Ontario has released her report on the provincial Liberal government’s brazenly political decision to cancel two gas-fired power plants. Her estimate of the ultimate cost: about $1.1-billion, potentially reaching $1.5-billion. This obscenity of mismanagement and prevarication came out of Duplicitous Dalton, Inc., a.k.a. the McGuinty government, an administration we now know was, politically, so venal as to toss perhaps as much as a billion and a half taxpayer dollars into the devouring — but politically favourable — wind.
Click on the following link for the rest of the Post column on The National Post, then return here, if you care to, to share your views with our Niagara At Large readers. Meantime, here is the Post link – http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/10/12/rex-murphy-duplicitous-dalton-inc/ .
(Niagara At Large invites all those who dare to share their real first and last name to also share their views below.)
Niagara At Large 
As usual you and the superb Rex Murphy have called this prick by the only name that fits (Duplicitous Dalton Inc.). Though, unlike Thumping and Huffing Hudak, I don’t believe an inquiry is necessary. Perhaps criminal charges could be laid!?!?!?
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I too have become cynical about politicians of all stripes.
After working career spent around politicians – 23 years as a broadcast journalist and then 23 years as a PR guy for government – I used to joke that I treated all politicians, at whatever level, equally – with utter contempt.
That is no longer a joke.
I am fed up with all of them!
Personally, I lean somewhat to the right of centre – perhaps a Red Tory.
But I also agree with some of the basic tenets of the NDP, so I do lean a little to the left on some issues.
I got fed up with the Liberal party years and years go, at least at the federal level.
I was never big on the Social Credit party, which is what I consider the current federal “conservatives” to be. I truly think Harper means well, but because he is such a control freak, he has turned off too many Canadians.
Mulcair, as far as I am concerned, showed a great deal of promise at first, but “the bloom has gone off the rose.”
On the provincial level, at least in Ontario, I too had a small degree of hope for Kathleen Wynne, but she has blown that away already.
As I have said here many times, Tim Hudak scares the living crap out of me! He is so far to the right he makes Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Sarah Palin look like card-carrying communists.
Andrew Horwath of the NDP is a nice person and quite intelligent. But she has the same problem that Bob Rae had when he took over as premier – no brains in the rest of the caucus. There are still too many of us around who remember the fiasco/disaster that Rae created.
So, in a nutshell, we will continue to be sodomized by the current crop of politicians in this province and this country.
What if they had an election and nobody came?
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We’re only a month from Remembrance Day – don’t even joke that ‘nobody came to vote’! Those veterans fought for our right to change kings (Prime Minister) every 5 years.
If you don’t like the current crop of politicians, the Least you do is to honour 1000 years of battle between rulers and ruled … by Refusing your ballot (an Ontario privilege), or Spoiling it.
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It takes more than electing a lesbian to the big seat to change the spots on this provincial party leopard!
I knew coming out of the gates she would be no different and for the same reason you cited Doug! She should not have honored McSquinty but rather just said goodbye and then the big cane yank off the stage. The fact she didn’t spoke volumes.
The whole Liberal executive needs to be charged and face jail time!
With respect to the other parties, they will say and do whatever is necessary to get elected and do an about face once in power. That is why we need a system in place whereby parties develop a platform, they campaign on it, once elected they execute it, once executed a new election is called. Not the way it is now…. you would think they were kids in a candy store!!!!
We the people have the right to pull the plug on any government that gets off track on what they promised.
We also increase the profile of the Auditor General such that they work in a watch dog fashion, but on an ongoing basis. Not issue a report every year that gets disregarded by every politician. The provincial auditing department should be fixture in provincial operations so the costs and operation of things like ORNGE, ALLDAY KINDERCARE, CANCELLED GAS PLANTS, UNFEASIBLE GREEN ENERGY STRATEGY……… don’t happen in the future.
It amazes me the disdain politicians must have for the tax payer these days when you consider the sacrifice in quality of life we make to pay taxes. Considering that over half our income goes to one government or another is something that quite frankly blows my mind. Much of it going to waste, frivolity and inefficiencies. You wonder why people try to avoid paying taxes??
Sadly on a beautiful Thanksgiving Monday morning……. just sayin…..
A Brief response to Greg’s comments from NAL publisher Doug Draper – I simply wish to say here that I do not believe Kathleen Wynne’s sexual orientation has anything to do with what we are discussing here. In fact, Wynne never made an issue of her sex or sexual orientation when she was running for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party. It was the media that could not stop repeating that she was Ontario’s first woman premier and Canada’s first openly gay premier.
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In my opinion most Ontario people know that Wynne and her so called political cronies were re-elected because it came down to a protest vote against the platform of the former leader of the Conservative Party aided and abetted by the lackluster performance and lack of productive platform put forth by the Provincial NDP under the leadership of Horwath
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