Dalton McGuinty gets ready for battle

Provincial Liberals gear up for Premier Ernie Eves' "surprise" election this fall

Tandem recently met Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty at his Queen's Park office, shortly before Ontario's legislature was recalled from its summer recess to deal with Toronto's garbage crisis caused by striking municipal outside workers. There was a constant coming and going of assistants, advisors and MPPs, shifting from a meeting to the next.
As leader of the opposition party that desperately wants to return to power, McGuinty is preparing to face the attack of the right, led by new Conservative Premier Ernie Eves, which apparently wants to occupy a central political position. McGuinty is reconsidering the return of the left and may abandon the "strategic voting" concept of 1999. That concept helped the Liberals grow and brought NDP to the brink of destruction, but did not stop former Premier Mike Harris from confirming his cabinet.
This time, McGuinty wants to play his cards right.
Mr. McGuinty, despite the summer recess of Parliament, I notice the frantic activity of your party. Will this go on all summer?
"I am preparing for the next campaign, talking about a lot of ideas that we have put out there and listening to the concerns of Ontarians. For example, they are concerned about the increase of the rates for seniors in long term facilities. It is 15 per cent, $220 a month. That's unacceptable."
New premier, new policies?
"I've never seen a politician running so fast away from his own record. Eves wants to convince us that he was never part of the Mike Harris government. The fact is that he was Mike Harris' right hand man. He was Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance. Furthermore he personally delivered six budgets. And the cuts delivered with those budgets have caused the pains that Ontarians are experiencing when it comes to public education and quality health care."
What's wrong with changing position and recognizing that maybe he was wrong before?
"The electorate is smart and informed. They have access to 15 million websites, all kinds of newspapers and a variety of media, and they know the difference between the real McCoy and a cheap imitation. I have always stood for better schools, more doctors and hospital beds and clean water through my entire leadership. I stood for those things also when they were not popular. In contrast Ernie Eves is experiencing some kind of epiphany. People know whether it is a matter of principles or political convenience. People know what to choose."
Are you really convinced that this is true? According to recent surveys, some would seem to believe him.
"People know, but we will also remind them. We will also tell people that we led the way during the last session forcing the government to take some decisions."
Like what?
"We forced Ernie Eves to return his severance [package]. We forced him not to pay for Harris' legal bills. We forced him to require Chris Stockwell to pay for his bar tabs. We forced him to act on the Hydro board of directors and the salary issue. At the same time, we are disappointed because he did not cancel the corporate tax cut and the private school tax credit, but only delayed them. And, we are very disappointed that he has not cancelled the sale of Hydro One. He has decided to sell half of it, while we are against the sale of any part of Hydro One."
Good opposition gives good government. Don't you think that the voters could like your ability to carry out a good opposition?
"People will say that the Liberals are providing the leadership and the Liberals should lead."
There are rumours of an early election, perhaps this fall. Do you believe them?
"Eves is trying hard to run away from his original record and create the impression that he is running towards the Liberal ground. The good news for us in all of this is that he recognizes that he can't go on the way they have been going on because the people will nor re-elect that kind of government any more. I believe that he would like to call an election during the next 12 months."
You've said something about a New Deal. Can you elaborate?
"The City of Toronto has reached a certain level of maturity. It means that it needs more funding from both the Federal and the provincial governments. Even Ottawa has to realize that the world has changed. The Americans have done that for quite some time: you can have transfers to cities; of course you are going to have some strings attached. I believe it is time that the Federal government considers transferring funds to cities. They do not like to admit this, but the way it works today is that if Toronto is working, if the cities are working, then the province is working, the country is working. It is not the other way around."
What about other elements that cities could better exploit?
"This is the multicultural diversity of the cities. We have not exploited that properly. There are resources that go to waste."
For example?
"We have people here that deliver pizza when they should be delivering babies. That says it all on wasted opportunities."
What can you tell us about the Federal controversy among Liberals?
"I told our MPPs to stay out of Federal politics. Our responsibility is to win the next provincial election. We have to stay focused on our responsibility, concentrate on our work."
So you are not going to side with either Prime Minister Jean Chretien or former Finance Minister Paul Martin?
"What is going on on the Hill, right now, is a distraction and destructive. It is not in the interest of our broader party and it is not in the interest of our country. I would like to hear more news coming from our federal Liberal government dealing with public policies and less news dealing with the horse race. I think the people of Canada want to know what we want to do in respect to modernizing health care, access for new Canadians to trade and the professions in short order. Why we don't move up on Kyoto and defending the environment? Those are the kind of things people would like to hear more, not this kind of horse race."

Publication Date: 2002-07-21
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=1598