Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty resigns

LashL

Goddess of Legaltainment™
LashL
Joined
Aug 12, 2006
Messages
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I really wasn't expecting this. No details yet, but preliminary report here.
 
Yeah, I just heard this on the radio a little while back. A bit of a surprise to me as well—why bother going through another election campaign just to quit not long afterwards? Doesn't seem all that helpful to the party.

Now I just wish Hudak would step down as leader of the Conservatives. That guy is just awful. As long as he's head of the party the Conservatives have zero chance of getting my vote in a provincial election.
 
I didn't have strong feelings about Dalton McGuinty but I know that there are some around here who seethed with hatred toward him. The basis for the hatred never seemed to be articulated.
 
Brown said:
I didn't have strong feelings about Dalton McGuinty but I know that there are some around here who seethed with hatred toward him. The basis for the hatred never seemed to be articulated.
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I can think of a few reasons:

- His raising of taxes in his first term, despite a well publicized election pledge saying he wouldn't. And trying to claim they were "health care fees" rather than "taxes" probably didn't help. (And before someone claims he had no choice because of the "hidden deficit left by the tories", the Liberals had claimed long before the election that there was a deficit.)

- His harmonization of the PST with the GST. While supposedly "revenue neutral", the province was given money to help the harmonization process. This ended up being given directly to taxpayers (everyone in the province got checks). However, at best that was a short term benefit, and it made it look like his party was trying to "bribe" taxpayers.

- The province is massively in debt, and now its considered a "have not" province. And unlike the federal government, it doesn't look like there's much in the way of plans to fix the problem.

- For people outside of the Toronto area, there's a feeling that Toronto seems to get all the goodies while the other areas of the province get neglected. (e.g. transit subsidies)
 
Corsair 115 said:
Yeah, I just heard this on the radio a little while back. A bit of a surprise to me as well—why bother going through another election campaign just to quit not long afterwards? Doesn't seem all that helpful to the party.
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There have been a lot of problems with the Ontario provincial government... various scandals (air ambulance, gas generators, etc.), a perception that its been "too friendly" with the unions, large deficits, tax increases.

And a recent ruling by the WTO over Ontario's green energy policies probably won't help either.

So, he's probably leaving in order to "fall on his sword", to make it look as if there's been a change in the Government before the next election... Kind of like Harris did when he left (in order to look as if he were taking the blame for Walkerton).
 
LashL said:
I left out the misspelling in his post on purpose. ;)
So, any response to the question, then?
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For me it's a bit more personal. I'm a bit of a horse racing fan and I thought his government really through the industry under the bus in the last year. Not like I would be opposed to changes or holding the industry more accountable.... but I thought the way he did it was particularly bad.
 
Caper said:
For me it's a bit more personal. I'm a bit of a horse racing fan and I thought his government really through the industry under the bus in the last year. Not like I would be opposed to changes or holding the industry more accountable.... but I thought the way he did it was particularly bad.
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So, your post saying, "I hate him" is all about horse racing? Really?
 
LashL said:
So, your post saying, "I hate him" is all about horse racing? Really?
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I didn't like him before this. I know a lot of people in the industry. When he first announced his policy change, he made it sound as if he was ending a subsidy to the rich.... the people I know are not rich. I know many people who will lose their livelihood. I thought he was extremely dishonest about the whole thing..... and the speed at which he did it, crippled many people financially. The racing industry has issues and is certainly not blameless, but it was the way he did it that was particularly bad. One year claiming the program as a huge success providing 50,000 jobs and the next year claiming it was a subsidy to the rich that needed to be stopped.
 
LashL said:
For me it's a bit more personal. I'm a bit of a horse racing fan and I thought his government really through the industry under the bus in the last year.
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So, your post saying, "I hate him" is all about horse racing? Really?
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Hey, some people cast their vote based on their own self-interest, rather than on what might be "best for the people".
 
Caper said:
I didn't like him before this. I know a lot of people in the industry. When he first announced his policy change, he made it sound as if he was ending a subsidy to the rich.... the people I know are not rich. I know many people who will lose their livelihood. I thought he was extremely dishonest about the whole thing..... and the speed at which he did it, crippled many people financially. The racing industry has issues and is certainly not blameless, but it was the way he did it that was particularly bad. One year claiming the program as a huge success providing 50,000 jobs and the next year claiming it was a subsidy to the rich that needed to be stopped.
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I see. Thanks for the explanation. Much appreciated.

Segnosaur said:
Hey, some people cast their vote based on their own self-interest, rather than on what might be "best for the people".
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Oh, certainly. I was just surprised at what sounded like vehemence. Hate is a pretty strong word, that's all.
 
Segnosaur said:
I can think of a few reasons:
- The province is massively in debt, and now its considered a "have not" province. And unlike the federal government, it doesn't look like there's much in the way of plans to fix the problem.
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McGuinty had little to do with the recession. Manufacturing was hit hard all over north america and Ontario is pretty manufacturing intensive.
 
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