When Ontarians head to the polls on October 6, they will have to decide which of the parties they believe will do the best job of tackling one primary issue: job creation.
In that vein, McGuinty’s Liberals are standing on their record. They aren’t ashamed of the job they’ve done — as any strategist will tell you, confidence is key. On green jobs, their website proudly states that in eight years they’ve built over 890 wind turbines that power 400,000 Ontario homes. Those turbines provide energy to roughly 1.4 million people in a province of 13.2 million. With an average of 111 turbines going up every year, we only need to keep electing McGuinty for 67 more years and every Ontario family will have 100 per cent their power supplied by green energy.
On jobs, under the Liberals’ watch, Ontario is now the top auto manufacturer in North America. Be careful not to mention that the Big Three automakers went bankrupt in the U.S., or else those statistics might seem inflated.
But enough about the completely adequate and not at all disappointing job Mr. McGuinty has been doing. Instead, let us turn to the plans of his opponents, and see how they might deal with these problems.
The leader of the Progressive Conservatives — and McGuinty’s primary challenger — is Tim Hudak. His sunken eyes and the tucked-in corners of his mouth tell you that he’s someone you can trust. But how will Hudak succeed where McGuinty has failed? It’s a little thing called tax cuts. A Hudak government will reduce the corporate tax rate, from 11.5 per cent all the way down to a revolutionary 10 per cent, by 2013, and, as any entrepreneur will tell you, it was that 1.5 per cent that was really standing in the way of corporations creating more jobs. Ok, well they’ll also reduce red tape by 30 per cent. How can they be so specific with regards to a complex thing like regulations, each of which is specific to a certain sector and problem, you might ask? Well, shut up.
Andrea Horwath’s NDP are fighting hard against the evil power of corporations. Her jobs plan proudly states that her tenure will bring an end to the reign of terror that is “no-strings-attached” corporate tax cuts. She’ll be the first to tell you that study after study has shown that tax cuts alone do not create jobs. So what is Ms. Horwath’s surely tax-cut-free jobs plan? A 10% tax credit for companies who invest in manufacturing in Ontario, a tax credit to retrain employees, and a reduction in the small business tax rate by 4 per cent. The era of no-strings-attached tax cuts is dead, long live the era of strings-attached tax cuts! So, take that, evil corporations, there will be no giveaways to you, unless, of course, you happen to employ a particularly small number of people.
Now it’s time for the Green Party. On their jobs platform, the Greens out-liberal the Liberals, and out-conservative the Progressive Conservatives. You think 890 new wind turbines is something? Try eliminating the regulatory barriers that prevent entrepreneurs from creating the renewable energies of the future; expanding tax credits to retrofit your home; supporting community-specific renewable energy sources; increasing hydro generation in Ontario; and capturing waste-heat from chimneys to turn it into electrical power. Think that sounds a lot like tax cuts and reducing red tape? Anyone can cut business taxes, but how do you like the sound of a general reduction in the income tax? That’s right, the Greens will shift to a revenue-neutral tax on waste, pollution and carbon emissions. The other parties didn’t even mention those things, but that’s why they aren’t members of the Green Party.
So this October 6, vote for whoever you want, for whatever reason you want. Because, when it comes to the issue leading this election (jobs) among the major parties, there’s no real difference.
-David Woolley
In less than a month, Ontario heads to the polls. While it has not yet begun in earnest, the campaign has been profoundly uninspiring. The party leaders, particularly Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak, have been generating all of the usual sound and fury, but their rhetoric feels unnervingly empty. Rather than explaining to Ontarians how they will shrink the deficit without reducing essential services, the leaders so far have been content with calling each other names. Whether “the tax man” (Mr. McGuinty), a “socialist” (Ms. Horwath) or a “Harris government alumnus” (Mr. Hudak) ends up running Ontario after October 6th, what matters most is what the leader will do, not whether they can come up with a good attack ad.
Unfortunately, none of the three major parties have come close to proving that they are fit to run the province. The Liberals, who have been in power for eight years, released a steady as she goes platform that echoes the one which helped deliver a majority for the Conservative Party of Canada in last May’s federal election. Unlike the federal Conservatives, the Liberals offer little insight into how they plan to address the deficit, particularly if they continue to allow health care costs to skyrocket. The one area where the Liberals have made a serious proposal is in post-secondary education, where they have pledged to create a grant for most Ontario families that would reduce college and university tuition fees by one third.
The Progressive Conservatives have issued a platform that shows them to be enamoured of the idea of change (the platform is entitled changebook), but lack the intention to make any changes. Aside from a handful of headline-grabbing policies, such as forcing inmates in provincial prisons to work without pay, and reducing the tax rate on utility bills, Mr. Hudak offers little to differentiate himself from the Liberals. Indeed, he promises to match the Liberal pledge for annual increases in education and health spending, along with tax cuts. Unless they really are capable of the kind of fiscal wizardry that they claim to be, the Progressive Conservatives are not a real alternative to the Liberals.
While the New Democrats are eager to capitalize on the so-called “Orange Crush” which vaulted their federal cousins into the official opposition, they have done little to show that they can be a credible alternative to the other parties. While Ms. Horwath has suggested several sensible policies, such as getting rid of ambulance fees and capping the salaries of public sector CEOs, her platform likewise adds up to little more than a promise for change, rather than a plan to make it happen.
This leaves voters with an unpleasant choice between a government that does not seem to want to do much governing, and two opposition parties which seem to want to talk change, without trying to make any. No party has offered a serious plan to deal with the deficit, which would likely mean some spending cuts and tax increases. Likewise, no party has suggested measures to improve the way that health and social services are delivered in Ontario, aside from continuing to pour increasingly unsustainable sums of money into the system, without much thought as to where the funds will come from.
Provincial politics should be a space for passionate and substantive debates. The services administered by the Ontario government, including education and health, are those which have the greatest impact on our everyday lives. Deciding what to do about these issues is hard, and controversy is inevitable, but this does not mean that Ontarians should be content to give up and let their political leaders do the same. Instead of getting the debate that they deserve, Ontarians are set to see a campaign where attack ads, rather than real ideas, are the common currency.
It is time that we demand better from our political leaders. There is still time for them to change their ways before the election. There is still time for all three of the major parties to propose real, workable solutions to Ontario’s problems. If they cannot rise to the occasion, then they do not deserve to run this province. If we cannot deign to ask, then we should be very worried for our future.
-Patrick Baud
