Christina Blows Away Some Of The Smoke

and reminds us of broken promises........

November 17, 2006
Grits' reckless promises
By CHRISTINA BLIZZARD

Okay, it's one thing for a politician to break three solemn election promises in a row. It's quite another to break the same election promise three times.

But Premier Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals reached some kind of a high (or low, depending on how you look at it) watermark this week, when their 2003 pledge to close the province's coal-fired electricity generating plants was moved back -- again. Last year, you will recall, they said they wouldn't be able to close the giant Nanticoke plant until 2009 -- conveniently two years after the next election. This week, the Ontario Power Authority released a report that said the plant can't be shut until 2014.

It's not good enough for McGuinty and his Energy Minister Dwight Duncan to go the shocked, "who knew?" route. And fair enough, the odd bobblehead did the cheerleading routine during the election about shutting the plants. But most thoughtful people with the ability to read and write figured out that you can't take 25% of your electricity off-line at a time when you have an energy shortage without (a) causing blackouts and (b) causing the cost of hydro to skyrocket.

In Question Period last week, NDP leader Howard Hampton reminded McGuinty of his words three years ago.

"Under my plan, Ontario's dirty coal-burning power plants will be shut down by 2007," McGuinty said in 2003.

"The (Conservative) government says it would like to shut down those plants by 2015. We (Liberals) say that 2015 is too late, that it's eight years too late. By 2007, we're going to have cleaner air in this province, come hell or high water." Well, say one thing for the Tories. At least they told you the bald truth during the election. McGuinty is now blaming unnamed "advisers," for leading him astray. The fact is, though, that an all-party committee of the Legislature had established by then that the plants couldn't close until at least 2015. But it made a good, vote-getting pledge. So why not? Perhaps voters won't notice.

It wasn't the only cynical promise the Liberals made.

What about the one to roll back tolls on Hwy. 407? Yes, the deal the Tories made when they sold the highway to the private sector was appalling. It was dumb. But the Liberals were asked time and again how they would break a contract with a private company without a costly lawsuit? Oh, that's right. There was a costly lawsuit. The government lost.

The fact is, the Liberals made reckless promises with no hope of delivering them. They said they'd balance the books "every year." Then in 2004, they said they'd balance the budget by 2007. Then in 2005, it was 2009. They said they would deliver all their costly promises without hiking taxes. In the 2004 budget, Finance Minister Greg Sorbara introduced the biggest tax hike in the history of the province -- the $2.4 billion so-called "health levy," heist.

Hand in hand with their promise to close the coal-fired plants, the Liberals also vowed to keep the Tory cap on the price of electricity. That didn't make any sense either. You cap the price of a commodity that is not in plentiful supply at an artificially low level and what's going to happen? Right, all those energy hogs in our midst are going to fire up their pool filters and crank up the air conditioning. Plus, who do you think paid for that cap? Why, you did of course. What you saved in your hydro bill, you paid in taxes as the electrical debt just kept piling up. The legislation to lift the price cap was one of the first things the Libs did when they came to power. They had to. It was a foolish, costly policy.

Again, though, it was a pledge they should never have made. Again, it was a feel good, 'let's be all things to all people' kind of pledge that voters wanted to believe they would deliver.

Perhaps the most cynical pledge was the one to extend treatment for autistic children past the age of six. Anyone who has talked to the parents of an autistic child has seen in their eyes the pain that was caused by that betrayal of the most helpless, most vulnerable children in our midst.

All of which makes you wonder just what the McGuinty Liberals will run on in the next election. Their record?

Please, stop blowing smoke. Or is it hot air?