Dalton McGuinty ("Father Goosee") wins leadership review...?!!

"OTTAWA—He won 85.8 per cent support from his party in a leadership review vote, but getting the public on side isn’t as easy these days, Premier Dalton McGuinty acknowledged Saturday.

“It just takes a bit of time,” he said, reminding 1,000 delegates at the Liberal annual meeting that his government was twice re-elected after furors over the 2004 health premium of up to $900 per person, and 13 per cent HST two years ago.

“We’ve been through tough times before. This is one more.”

As his minority administration struggles in the polls over fallout from the $230 million cost to taxpayers of cancelling two power plants, and union anger over public sector wage freezes, McGuinty beat the marks won by his two main rivals in their leadership reviews earlier this year." The Toronto Star

What did they put in the water?

It literally boggles my mind that, with a record like his (i.e. ORNGE, e-health, a $230M political tax payer payout merely to be re-elected), Dalton McGuinty could be considered nearly perfect. In my opinion the 17% public rating is far more accurate. So maybe the above cartoon has the answer.

*Political cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist,  http://www.mackaycartoons.net/2007/huh2007-08-17.html.

Ontario environmental watchdog Gord Miller says ministries hiding from public scrutiny

Poll puts McGuinty at 22% popularity

According to a poll commissioned by Broadview Strategy Group, NDP support has soared since the Sept. 6 byelections in Kitchener-Waterloo and Vaughan, and they are now in a virtual tie with the PCs -- NDP 36% and the PCs 35%. Liberals are in third place at 22%.

See the full story: http://www.torontosun.com/2012/09/17/ndp-support-soars-while-liberals-plummets-poll

Ontario Energy Minister Chris Bentley found in breach of parliamentary privilege

Here we go again!

Once again the nefarious shenanigans of the McGuinty government has come oozing to the surface. The issue is, as most everyone knows, the 2010 cancellation of a power plant in Oakville and later Mississauga (in the middle of four Liberal ridings) just before an election. Moreover, one of the cancellations cost Ontario taxpayers $190-million dollars.

The opposition made a request before a standing committee of the legislature that the papers relating to these cancellations be released last May. Since then the Energy Minister (Bentley) has been stalling, arguing that:

[R]eleasing full documentation on the Oakville plant cancellation in the fall of 2010 and the Mississauga cancellation with two weeks to go until last October’s whisker-close provincial election would violate solicitor-client privilege and make public commercially sensitive information.

A breach of Parliamentary Privilege is a fairly serious matter, but the Liberal Speaker (David Levac, MPP for Brantford) has held off until September 24th to take action, A move that opposition parties argue is giving the McGuinty Liberals time to weasel out of it.

McGuinty's clown show goes on and on, so when will the people (outside of Vaughan) say enough is enough?

Team-building with Lego? Property tax agency MPAC slammed for ‘extravagant’ meeting, blocks included

To the people of Vaughan who gave the McGuinty Liberals a mandate.

Have you heard the latest? The Ontario agency in charge of property tax assessments (MPAC) for homeowners is under fire for holding an “extravagant” Toronto convention for hundreds of employees — with Lego in their rooms for team-building exercises. It is the latest the latest Liberal spending scandal to cost taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars as the province fights a $14.8 billion deficit.

Finance minister Dwight Duncan, in a typical grasp on the obvious, said: “It’s a boneheaded thing to do,” and then used the usual excuse.

“We have no authority over it,” he added, calling the convention “an inappropriate use of municipal tax dollars” and urging local officials throughout the province to express their displeasure to MPAC.

The Conservatives weren’t about to let Duncan off the hook on that, pointing out that he as finance minister appoints the 15-member board of directors of the agency that was the subject of a scathing report several years ago by Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin.

“You don’t have a Lego to stand on,” Tory MPP John Yakabuski (Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke) shot at Duncan, prompting politicians of all stripes to break into laughter.

You get what you vote for!!

McGuinty ... Decisions, decisions ...

How much more of Dalton McGuinty's reckless spending can we take!

Have you read the Toronto Sun's assessment of all-day kindergarten's cost? [See: The real cost of all-day kindergarten by Moira McDonald]. This was one of "Goosee McGuinty's" pet, $1.5B projects in 2010 which was billed (in McGuinty fashion) as a long-term investment that would give kids an academic boost. Moreover, in last year’s provincial election, the Liberals told parents the program would save them $6,500 a year in childcare costs! And that's the point ... It's a thinly disguised, $1.5 billion dollar DAYCARE program!

But the $1.5B is just the start. Read on:

Retrofitting and construction has been needed to keep up with the expansion, after two years of squeezing the larger, extra kindergarten-friendly classrooms the program requires into existing space. The provincial government has so far allocated $1.4 billion to cover capital costs.

Now, according to my calculations that $2.9 billion dollars--So far. But the insult to injury doesn't stop there. Last week this vote-sniffing premier pointed out difficult trade-offs must be made.

“We can’t invest in teacher pay hikes and roll out full-day kindergarten,” McGuinty told reporters. “We can’t afford that.”

Well, Mr. Premier, we can't afford you and all the other financial boondoggles you've steered us into. So, for God's sake man, do the honourable thing and step down.