Fuschi’s Canadian Forum

What if Dalton McGuinty has no intention of controlling Ontario’s slide into fiscal deficit? What if he has every intention of allowing it to happen, and is willing to aid and abet Ontario’s descent? What if he has all his excuses ready, and intends to use this as a lever to; (1) force more money out of the federal government, and (2) blame them for all his problems, while (3) endearing himself to his core supporters?

The mounting evidence seems to point clearly in this direction. In spite of the fact that minister Duncan admitted to a projected shortfall of half a billion dollars, additional announcements and the unspoken stuff between the lines, indicates that these two have not the least care in the world. We know that the teaching cartel is quickly stampeding toward a double-digit wage offer made by McGuinty’s gang. Wouldn’t you? With the financial world in turmoil and corporate giants teetering on the brink, who in this hell is expecting any kind of increase? Who would not be happy with a manageable decrease, instead? Teachers, that’s who, and McGuinty is not the least bothered by the billions that this heaps on his already enfeebled bottom line. Not only does he butter the bread of his symbiotic co-dependents, in this way, but he sets the federal government up for another dose of fiscal imbalance ranting.

This strategy does not end there. After re-ensuring the loyalty of teachers, McGuinty has also cemented the loyalty of chronically Liberal Toronto by bailing them out to the tune of a projected $500 million. This was done through a bizarrely timed commitment to municipalities to assume some off-loading. The commitment was rich in anti-Conservative-Harris imagery about the evils of downloading, and the needs of the poor communities.

In this case, communities will in fact be needy. But, this is being done now, specifically to head off any belt-tightening on their part. Why? First, there is Toronto, the biggest benefactor, which is incapable of belt restricting because of the ideology of its administration. This act effectively catches them in a safety net before they crash to the ground. It also spreads largesse to all municipalities with the intention of eventually forcing the federal government to pay for it. No effort or declared plan to finance this expense has been announced, because none exists.

If it seems that McGuinty and company are on the way to debtor’s hell, beware that this is instead a clever ploy to embarrass  Harper and fleece the feds. Eventually McGuinty will declare that he has had to ensure the proper funding of our educational system, and come to the rescue of needy communities who are still suffering from the mismanagement of the Harris downloaders. It will not fiz him one iota that Ontario is projected to fall into have-not category. All the more blame to be heaped on Harper, and all the more money transfer to which the feds will have to commit. The astute observer will notice that, in the end, the same lonely taxpayer will be footing the bill for this revisit to the “Rae Days” - (“We will spend ourselves out of the recession.”)- but McGuinty knows that observers with that much astuteness are few, and practically non-existent in Toronto.

Any bets that that $500 million deficit becomes $5 billion before long?

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.