Fairness is in eye of the beholder
Premier Dalton McGuinty says he wants to use the national election to influence politicians of all parties to treat Ontario more fairly in the distribution of federal dollars. But from the party leaders' response yesterday, it will be an uphill struggle for McGuinty and the province.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismissed Ontario's concerns and said the "fiscal imbalance" issue had already been dealt with by his government through increases in federal transfers to all the provinces. "Premier McGuinty didn't get everything he wanted," said Harper. "But as I recall at the time, he was pretty positive about the improvements we made in fiscal relations with Ontario."
Harper took particular issue with McGuinty's complaints about the federal Employment Insurance program, under which the average unemployed worker in Ontario is receiving $4,630 less in benefits than in the rest of the country. The Prime Minister suggested that this is due to the seasonal nature of work or the higher unemployment rates in the other provinces.
Well, Ontario has seasonal workers, too (in construction, tourism, forestry). And its unemployment rate is much higher than in the four Western provinces. Nonetheless, unemployed workers in those provinces all receive more benefits, on average, than in Ontario.
Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion appeared more open to Ontario's pitch. He congratulated McGuinty for his "courageous" campaign for fairness for the province and suggested elements of the Liberal platform will directly address his concerns. We shall see.
As for NDP Leader Jack Layton, he, too, said McGuinty's concerns would be addressed in the party platform. "These are all ideas that we've been talking about for a long time," said Layton.
But provincial NDP Leader Howard Hampton sounded a different note, dismissing McGuinty's fairness campaign as "phony." Hampton also suggested the Liberal premier's motives were partisan, even though McGuinty has said repeatedly that the discrimination against Ontario dates back well before the Harper government to Liberal regimes led by Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. McGuinty has also noted that past provincial governments of all stripes have raised the issue before, including the NDP government in which Hampton served in the early 1990s.
Now is the time for Ontarians to stick together and say to candidates of all parties: "You better be prepared to stand up for Ontario," as McGuinty declared yesterday. He's right.
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