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June 20 - June 27, 2004 |
The Slap to the Wrong Face
Is it fair that Paul Martin gets the blame for Dalton McGuinty's provincial budget?
By Angelo Persichilli
Originally Published: 2004-06-06
I was at an arena watching a soccer game, many years ago, when a friend of mine was hit by a tomato. He turned around and slapped a guy sitting right behind him. The guy reacted by pointing out that he was not the one who had pitched the tomato (which was somewhat overripe), but my friend adamantly replied, "That doesn't matter, someone behind me tossed the tomato and I had to get even."
A few years later the real offender came forward, reminded my friend of the old story, and they had a good laugh: friends as ever.
This story came back to mind when I saw the polls taken following the presentation of the Provincial budget by the McGuinty cabinet.
The voters resemble that friend of mine who got hit by the tomato, while Paul Martin looks like the blameless spectator who got slapped. McGuinty hopes that, in four years, everything will be forgotten and everybody will remain friends: voters, much like my friend, have short memories.
I already wrote about Greg Sorbara's Provincial budget, and I thought long and hard about its contents. The question is, was the government wrong to raise taxes to save health care, or are voters angry because Liberals lied to them?
If the answer is the former, then rage against the Provincial Liberals is justified. If, on the other hand, voters blame the Liberals for lying, I have a couple of remarks to make.
The first concerns the McGuinty cabinet: what was the new Provincial government supposed to do, destroy health care to keep a promise? But didn't voters punish former Premier Mike Harris for doing exactly what he had promised to, i.e. cutting taxes at all costs? Granted, there are many ways to look at this, but the fact is that Harris had said in his programme that his political platform would revolve around cutting taxes. He fought to the very end for it.
What's more, even admitting for a moment that Provincial Liberals had done everything wrong, is it right to slap the first Liberal we come across, in this case Paul Martin?
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