ANDREA BAILLIE (CP)
The morning after his Liberals won a historic landslide victory in Ontario,
premier-designate Dalton McGuinty wasted no time getting down to business,
promising Friday to hold an inquiry into the police shooting of an
aboriginal protester, scrap private hospital deals and leave school boards
to manage their own finances.
As he arrived at the Ontario legislature following victory celebrations in
his hometown of Ottawa, McGuinty, 48, was given a rock star's welcome by
about 100 supporters, candidates and staff. He spent several minutes posing
for pictures on the steps of the legislature and signing autographs for
children who turned out to see the man who defeated the province's
cost-cutting Tories.
"I am tired and exhilarated. I am humbled and emboldened by the strength and
clarity of the mandate," said a triumphant McGuinty.
"I've been given some very clear marching orders. People want us to improve
their schools, they want us to improve their health care, they want us to
strengthen their communities and they want us to live within our means."
Ontario's political landscape was suddenly transformed Thursday evening as
the Liberals nabbed 72 of the province's legislative 103 seats, compared to
24 for the Tories and just seven for the New Democrats.
When the election was called a month ago, the Tories held 56 seats, the
Liberals 36 and the NDP nine. There was one Independent seat and another was
vacant.
The election results were a humiliating blow for the Conservatives, and
speculation immediately swirled about whether Ernie Eves would stay on as
leader.
The future of NDP Leader Howard Hampton was also in doubt.
And McGuinty faced renewed questions about how he will pay for a platform
that contains a costly laundry list of promises, given estimates by several
economists that the Conservatives were running a deficit of between $2
billion and $4.5 billion.
The Liberals have said they plan to cap class sizes in the early grades,
hire more doctors and nurses, impose a tuition freeze and increase the
minimum wage.
McGuinty has acknowledged he will slow down the roll-out of his platform if
necessary, but hasn't been specific about what might be postponed.
"We've got to get beyond the speculation and the guessing game," he said
Friday, adding that he would take a "good hard look at the fiscal situation"
as soon as possible.
McGuinty said the legislature will resume before the new year so the
Liberals can deliver on their commitment to rolling back corporate tax cuts.
The party's transition team is expected to get its first look at Ontario's
books over the weekend. McGuinty met with Eves on Friday to discuss the
transition of power.
But even before the new premier knows exactly what he's dealing with, he
said Friday he would forge ahead "as soon as possible" on several fronts.
The Liberal government, he said, will go ahead with an independent inquiry
into the Ipperwash scandal that plagued the Tories throughout their years in
power after an unarmed native protester was killed by provincial police in
1995.
In addition, the premier-designate said he will begin the process of calling
off Tory deals allowing private consortiums to build and expand publicly run
hospitals.
"My commitment is to move any . . . private hospitals into the public system
as soon as we possibly can," said McGuinty.
It's not clear, however, what it would cost the Liberal government to get
out of any existing contracts.
A $100-million expansion of the Royal Ottawa Hospital was to be conducted by
the Healthcare Consortium of Ontario. Other private-public partnerships were
planned for Brampton and Markham.
McGuinty also said his to-do list includes removing supervisors appointed by
the Tories to oversee school boards in Hamilton, Toronto and Ottawa that
refused to balance their budgets.
"We're going to move as quickly as we can to re-establish local democracy
when it comes to public education in Ontario," McGuinty said.
While the Liberals have promised to roll back various tax cuts implemented
by the Tories, Bay Street showed no reaction Friday morning to the change in
government.
Few financiers appeared to mourn the defeat of Eves's Conservatives, with
their much-challenged claim to a balanced budget and their lack of rigour on
such policies as electricity privatization and deregulation.
Although his electoral win was overwhelming, McGuinty said voter turnout,
among the lowest in the country, was a disappointment. Only about 55.3 per
cent of Ontarians marked ballots, down from 58.3 per cent in 1999.
"I'm disappointed in that. That's a non-partisan issue," he said.
When asked whether he would change the rules to grant the NDP official party
status, McGuinty suggested the third-placed party was out of luck.
"We'll respect that rule," he said, referring to a requirement that
political parties secure a minimum of eight seats in order to obtain
research funding and privileges in the legislature.
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