[RCO]

McGuinty attacks Tories for 'hidden agenda'
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Ontario's Premier Dalton McGuinty goes after the opposition in the first legislative session of the fall on Monday, Sept. 13, 2010.
Updated: Mon Sep. 13 2010 4:32:13 PM

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Tempers flared and partisan bickering drowned out debate as the Ontario legislature returned from its summer break Monday, with a feisty Premier Dalton McGuinty accusing the opposition of having a hidden agenda.

The Conservatives and NDP went on the attack during the first question period of the session, accusing the Liberals of making life unaffordable with energy polices that drive up hydro bills and an HST that added eight per cent to gasoline and home heating bills.

McGuinty, who usually shrugs off such criticism, reminded voters that the previous Conservative government of Mike Harris closed hospitals and fired nurses -- and that current Tory Leader Tim Hudak was in the Harris cabinet.

"So when this gentleman gets up and talks about health care, Ontario families better ask themselves what's their secret agenda when it comes to health care," McGuinty said in the legislature.

"What's going to happen to their hospitals, their nurses and their doctors?"

Recent polls suggest more voters actually think it's McGuinty who has a hidden agenda, rather than Hudak, which could be one of the reasons behind the premier's blunt attack on the Tory leader.

Outside the legislature, McGuinty said he wants voters to see the clear difference between his Liberals and Hudak's Tories.

"They see the Ontario family as being exclusively concerned with income, revenues and expenses, and those are real issues for Ontario families," said McGuinty.

"(But) we're also concerned about the quality of education and health care. We will not take our eye off the other concerns families have."

McGuinty also lashed out at the New Democrats after the third party leader accused him of driving up the cost of living for Ontario families and ignoring their concerns.

Speaker Steve Peters had to force McGuinty to retract his words when the premier suggested NDP Leader Andrea Horwath was not being completely truthful in her attacks on Liberal policies.

Outside the legislature, the opposition leaders said they weren't surprised to see McGuinty being so defensive.

"If anybody is trying to hide things from the public it's Dalton McGuinty, when he brought forward that change in the laws around the G20 summit, tried to sneak in that eco-tax grab behind the HST," said Hudak.

"Sadly, this government in its last year in office has become increasingly sneaky in the way they deal with the public."

The New Democrats said McGuinty and the Liberals have become increasingly out of touch with the economic realities of ordinary people in Ontario.

"I think the premier was feeling a little bit pinched by some of the comments we made," said Horwath.

"The bottom line is he has to account for the decisions he's made over the summer and he has to face up to the reality that people are hurting in this province."

With an election just over a year away, McGuinty's tactics have changed from simply explaining what the Liberals are doing to heavily criticizing the opposition parties, although Finance Minister Dwight Duncan denied it was a new strategy from the government.

"We're just going to start letting people know what they don't know about Hudak, and that he doesn't get families, remind them they closed 28 hospitals, remind them about Ipperwash, remind them about Walkerton," said Duncan.

"As I said on Facebook this morning, bring it on."

There was one indication Monday that some Liberal backbenchers might not be happy about being passed over in a recent cabinet shuffle, when McGuinty promoted two relatively new members who won byelections.

A full one-quarter of the Liberal caucus, 18 members, failed to show for the first day of the fall session, something McGuinty brushed off.

"All I noticed there today was there was no shortage of enthusiasm and commitment and energy and I think we had to be restrained a few times -- myself included -- by the Speaker."


http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/.....ub=Toronto

[Edmund Onward James]

Following quote makes me think of Dalton... actually most Liberals.

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

[cosmostein]

Its not that Hudak's agenda is hidden,
He just doesn't seem to have one.

[Edmund Onward James]

Hudak doesn't have a hidden agenda or is his platform not clear?

[cosmostein]

[Edmund Onward James]

Visions and visionaries are often overrated. Capable mangement of the taxpayers money in a decent environment along with welcoming the entrepreneuirial spirit is more desirous. However, I must admit I am not paying much attention to Hudak and provincial politics this moment. I am more excited about Toronto... and that Ford may be assisting in opening doors for provincial and federal conservatives. Perhaps.

Then there's the federal saga and reality show of the oppositions and the long gun registry, new prisons, fighter jets and who will dare to call an election.

[cosmostein]

[Edmund Onward James]

A Toronto Star columnist called Ford the "big oink" in a crappy suit. But when one of the left is made fun of... the sky is falling.

Squinty McGuinty established a legacy for himself and the provincial liberals, at one time a kumquat could have run in Toronto, as long as it was liberal, the vegetable would have won. Now Hudak just has to counter and let the public become more aware of the outrageous expenditures during economically difficult times.

[RCO]

( i think mcguinty loses it more each day , now he is trying to claim the opposition is disrespectful to families of all things , what a bizare attack line , and they also came out with a video on walkerton . if this is all they got there is going to be alot less liberal mpp's come 2011 )


Tories 'disrespectful to families,' McGuinty says
By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, Queen's Park Bureau Chief

Last Updated: October 16, 2010 6:11pm

Premier Dalton McGuinty reached out to steady his troops this weekend by assuring them that Ontarians care about more than just their pocketbooks.

“The bottom line is that families are about more than just the bottom line,” McGuinty said in a keynote speech to party faithful Saturday. “So when the Conservatives peddle their short-term schemes, and when they spend so much time and energy on negative attacks ... they are being fundamentally disrespectful to Ontario families.”

Almost 1,400 Liberals registered for the party’s annual general meeting at a hotel in downtown Toronto — a city that loved them so much in the last two elections that they sent all Tories into exile.

However, the political ground has shifted since they last faced voters.

The Liberal’s former deputy premier, George Smitherman, is in an uphill battle in the Toronto mayoral race against penny-watching Rob Ford, the son of a former Mike Harris MPP, who is leading in the polls.

And the most recent polling shows that Ontarians are unhappy with the general direction of the Liberal government.

The harmonized sales tax, the expansion of eco fees and rising hydro bills — in combination with significant job losses and a sputtering economy — have refocused people’s attention on the dollar and cents issues that Conservatives traditionally own.

McGuinty said his government has brought in tax breaks and energy tax credits, but is also focused on the long-term economic goals of the province through competitive-enhancing measures such as the HST and education.

In the lead up to the October 2011 provincial election, McGuinty said he wants to contrast the Liberal record of investing in public services with the Tory record of cuts.

“It’s one thing to worry about keeping your job but if the teachers are on strike because government has mismanaged public education, that’s a real challenge to me and my family. If there’s a dramatic reduction in the number of nurses in our hospitals, and you know my mum’s got to go in the hospital, that’s a real challenge for me and my family.”

A new video shown to party members during the meeting portrays PC Leader Tim Hudak as a sort of mini-Mike Harris.

It highlights the Liberal view of the Tory record — deadly water in Walkerton, teacher strikes and hospital closures, and contrasts that with happy nurses and teachers, and new schools and hospitals under a McGuinty regime.

But the Liberal attempts to run against Harris again are bound to fail, Tory MPP Jim Wilson said.

”I don’t think people are interested in talking about the past any more,” Wilson said. “People are very worried about their pocketbook issues right now.”

When the Conservatives release their election platform in the spring, they’ll make it clear where savings can be found and where they’ll be reinvested, he said.

There will also be a tax break for hard-pressed families, Wilson said.

The NDP didn’t rate a mention in McGuinty’s keynote speech, other than “(Liberals) don’t turn right or left or backwards,” but MPP Rosario Marchese said the Grits are concerned about NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“He’s profoundly worried about the NDP,” Marchese said. “We know that he is (scared).”

People are hurting and McGuinty’s attempt to sell the HST as an economic cure isn’t working, he said.

McGuinty acknowledged that his party’s record in office isn’t flawless, but said no government can achieve that goal.

In his speech, he urged Liberals to keep humble.

“After seven years in government, where have we come up short?” he asked. “Sure we’ve made progress but we’re not perfect.”

http://www.torontosun.com/news.....16711.html

[machiavelli]

Comrade McGuinty has been transforming this once proud and fiscally strong province into the Socialist Republic of Ontario with massive, and at lest to some extent, excessive deficit spending. Now he wants to waste billions more on energy renewable projects that, if economically practicable, would be instigated by private investors.

His last budget, that included a $56.8 billion, 7 year structural deficit, also included another busted promise by our disingenuous premier who once again couldn’t defy his intrinsic urges, and thus increased sales taxes including the gas tax, home heating, utilities, and even haircuts.

Its obvious that this far-left, big time tax and spend government doesn’t take its massive overspending or overtaxing critically. Its regretful that so much of the so called “stimulus spending” is simply new, left of centre structural program spending that liberals have long wished for, and that will not be eradicated after the recovery. This type of spending represents McGuinty’s intrinsic and duplicitous far-left philosophy that will require continuous, substantial future tax increases.

This massive long-lasting increase to our debt is nothing less than generational theft since our grandchildren and their grandchildren will spend their life paying off this ridiculous spending spree. Obviously, our grandchildren will not have a standard of living nearly as high as ours has been before this premier decided to destroy it.

The premier is determined to redistribute wealth from wealth creators to the welfare wealth consumers; this is what McGuinty-style of socialism is designed to achieve.

[machiavelli]

Here is what our tax, spend and redistribute wealth premier has done as he continues to create the Socialist Republic of Ontario after promising no new taxes. He has caved into the unions, especially the teachers’ union’s every demand, and has amplified the size of government immensely. His “big government” has interfered with the market place and intruded on our private lives.

He has inflicted us with the $3 billion annually HST even though most Ontarians are against it;

He introduced the health care premium;

He has increased the hydro by 10% in April of 2010.

He increased all the licensing fees from your car to your boat including fishing and hunting;

He doubled the price of most lottery tickets (a tax);

He has put a disposal tax on all electronics;

He has put the disposal tax back on tires;

And now we will have our S.M.A.R.T. meters that we will have to pay rent on;

He has taken the richest most prosperous province in Canada to one of the poorest and has created a massive deficit which means future tax increases and lower standards of living.






________________________________________

[Edmund Onward James]

I enjoy fine cigars, but avoid buying Cubans from a broke communist country. Who knows what's inside those Cohibas. When I get a free one I spit after each puff: Take that Fidel.

Today, I drove to Toronto because one of my favourite cigar shoppes carries many decent brands from other countries. But when I paid the bill and the exorbitant HST I almost returned them and thought about driving to the nearest reservation.

McGuinty said that all these tax increases and new taxes are for the future, the children. I suppose he thinks he will still be in power for them to vote for him.

[cosmostein]

Can someone answer me why Hudak is running from the Harris comparisons?

If anything he should be embracing them.
Harris took a destroyed economy after five years of Bob Rae and had it singing within his first term, while Dalton hasn't quite done the same level of damage he has lost a good portion of the jobs that Harris created.