Grits look different after they get your vote
By BOB MACDONALD -- Toronto Sun
That was then; this is now.
There was the Liberal campaign before Thursday's Ontario provincial
election. And there was the day after Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals were
handed a whomping 72-seat majority government by the voters.
Before the election, McGuinty and his Grits gained large amounts of support
by blasting the Conservative government for not spending enough on health
care. The Liberal leader and his team, including health critic Sandra
Pupatello, promised to hire 8,000 new nurses along with other major boosts
in health-care spending.
The day after the election, the same Pupatello, who could be McGuinty's new
health minister, had the audacity to say that such hiring decisions would
have to wait until the SARS Commission makes its recommendation -- which
will be at least a year from now. Oh, and she even added:
"I can't say bringing staffing levels up will be the first order of
business."
Ah yes, it sure didn't take long -- mere hours -- for the Liberals, holding
unchallengeable majority government power for the next four years, to sound
very different from when they were wooing Ontarians' votes.
And the people who might be most disillusioned would have to be the
overworked and understaffed nurses and other health workers who campaigned
strongly to get McGuinty and his Grits elected.
"This is surprising," was the way Brenda Hallihan, first vice-president of
the Ontario Nurses Association, described the Liberals' new, post-election
stand.
Ah well, live and learn. The trouble is that it seems most Canadians,
especially Ontarians, never seem to learn from the con jobs that the
Liberals have been so successful in suckering them with when it comes to
elections.
In the days of Pierre Trudeau, he won an election against the Tories by
scaring Canadians with PC leader Bob Stanfield's campaign "threat" to impose
wage-and-price controls.
After being re-elected, who imposed wage-and-price controls on Canadians?
You guessed it -- Trudeau and his Liberals.
In 1993, one of the biggest vote getters for Jean Chretien and his Grits was
a promise to kill the hated GST sales tax. Once safely elected with a
majority government, Chretien promptly double-crossed the voters and kept
the GST.
His punishment from irate Canadian voters? Why he was re-elected twice
more -- with majority government victories each time, including winning 101
of Ontario's 103 seats.
Perhaps that's why Ottawa-based McGuinty organized a campaign team for this
fall's election relying heavily on key people from Chretien's office, plus
other federal Grits.
The leader's campaign tour was directed by Charlie Angelakos, from
Chretien's office, while Derek Kent, a veteran press secretary and former
Chretien organizer, travelled on McGuinty's bus to help handle what proved
to be a very compliant media. And the campaign headquarters "war room" was
headed by Warren Kinsella, probably best remembered as an all-out defender
of Chretien against all criticisms.
Oh, and apparently the McGuinty Liberals had managed to infiltrate even the
top echelons of Premier Ernie Eves' Tory strategy team. According to
reports, a Grit spy in the Tory camp alerted McGuinty's crew immediately
after Eves announced internally that he was calling the election. This
allowed the Grits to sign up prime times on TV for campaign ads, hours hours
before the Tories.
How high did they go?
Which makes one wonder just how high in the Tory organization were Liberal
spies and double-agents able to operate? Perhaps that helps explain some of
the messed-up organization and stupid moves -- dumb attack ads and nutsy
press releases -- that the Tories used in the campaign.
At any rate, it all proved successful for the McGuinty Liberals. Just like
their federal cousins, McGuinty and crew have unchallengeable majority power
for at least the next four years. And campaign promises -- more spending on
health services, teachers, environment, etc., can be dropped or changed at
any time. For instance, take what's happening with the promise to hire more
nurses. And election vows to clean up the environment? Why, one of Liberal
Premier-elect McGuinty's first orders of business was to turn in his van for
a gas-guzzling SUV. That was then; this is now, suckers.
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