Union Members Are Taxpayers Also

But thanks to McGinty and Miller public sector union members can easily afford the ever increasing cost of living so it is not surprising they are front and center on the McGinty campaign trail........

McGuinty dons labour mantle

Health care a key issue: Conservative leader

CanWest News Service

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory tore into the Liberals over health care yesterday, as Premier Dalton McGuinty surrounded himself with some of the beneficiaries of his largesse in the public sector - nurses, firefighters and teachers.

"(Conservatives) have never understood how important it is for families to rely on good public services," McGuinty said in Toronto. "I'm talking about the overwhelming majority for whom daily life is a struggle just to make ends meet, and care for your parents when they get sick ... and pay your taxes."

As he draped himself in public-service-union support, firefighters went the extra yard, rushing outside before a campaign event to cordon off a path that allowed McGuinty to avoid a potentially embarrassing photo with a Pinocchio-like mascot nicknamed "Fibber." It's designed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation to remind him about a broken tax pledge.

Firefighters, who fared well in contract talks over the past four years, have become fixtures at McGuinty campaign events. For example, members of Toronto Professional Fire Fighters' Association Local 3888, among those protecting McGuinty yesterday, signed a deal worth 9.75 per cent over three years in June.

By comparison, private-sector-union wage increases averaged 1.7 per cent in 2006, jumping to 2.9 per cent so far in 2007.

McGuinty is clearly directing his message at left-leaning voters who might back the NDP, which promised yesterday to introduce a health-tax rebate for working families while increasing the general corporate tax rate if elected.

But it was Tory who attacked McGuinty over health care, citing Ontario Medical Association figures that suggest one million adults and 130,000 children still do not have family physicians.

Speaking at Western Ontario's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Tory said he would invest $400 million in a doctor and nurse recruitment strategy if elected, focused on persuading Canadians now practising in the United States to return home. He said he would also defer student debt repayment for medical residents who stay in the province.

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007