Previous
The premier cops out
There is an old adage that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. What does that say about Premier Dalton McGuinty? That he got his tenses mixed up in that, the going got tough so he got gone. Here is a Premier who has been playing the game, who all of a sudden decides to pick up his metaphorical ball and go home. But not before taking the unprecedented step of proroguing the Ontario Legislature indefinitely.
Proroguing is a word that entered our collective vernacular when Prime Minister Stephen Harper shut down the Federal parliament. However, the PM set a finite limit of eight weeks to the closure. McGuinty has put no limit on the closure and has left it up to the next leader of the Liberal party to restart the legislature – a process that could take up to six months. Recall that MP Bev Oda vacated her Durham riding seat early this summer and we have yet to see a by-election called. So what happens now? The MPPs head to their constituencies to listen, learn, plot, and plan until April, when no doubt the new leader will open the legislature up for a couple of weeks before closing it for summer break.
Nothing moves quickly in government and the nature of democracy means that you don’t always get your way. Teachers, doctors and other public sector employees benefitted by McGuinty’s hand over fist attempts to appease their requests over the early part of his three term reign. Perhaps McGuinty expected to be ousted in the last provincial election and leave the issue of out-of-control public sector spending to another political party to sort out - another case of the best laid plans gone awry.
In his resignation speech , McGuinty said that prior to his success the Ontario Liberals “couldn’t do anything to help families because they couldn’t win an election.” Well he won this election, so why bail on helping families? A government, even one with its hands tied by a minority, can find some common ground on which to effect change. Struggle on with the big picture issues but remain in office, do the job you were elected to do, follow through where, when and how you can.
McGuinty also said when it comes to Ontario schools, health care, the environment, and the economy, his government “has made huge progress.” We now have “the best schools in the English-speaking world, and have progressed from “Canada’s longest health-care wait times, to the shortest.” McGuinty’s Liberals have given clean air where there once was dirty air and instituted “the toughest drinking water standards, anywhere.” The Liberals have “made our workforce the strongest and our taxes very competitive.” Jobs are being created and the infrastructure is being renewed. Ontario is positioned “for decades of success.”
Perhaps we have misinterpreted Mr. McGuinty’s decision to step down and prorogue the legislature. Given the long list of accomplishments he and his team apparently have under their collective belts, he may feel his work here is done.
However, that thought begs this question. If his assertion that “when it comes to the big things that families count on us to get right – schools, health care, the environment and the economy - we’ve gotten it right every time,” why is this “the right time for Ontario’s next Liberal premier and [the party’s] next set of ideas to guide our province forward.” ?
Either way Premier McGuinty’s decision will have a lasting, ill effect on the province. Whether you focus on the deep fiscal woes, and ongoing impasse in negotiation with teachers, doctors and other public sector workers or on the Liberals’ success checklist, Dalton McGuinty’s departure has left the province rudderless and by proroguing parliament he has effectively set us adrift.
July 14, 2011
