By William Doyle-Marshall
Elections are gone and the Liberals are in government again. It is a minority situation but certainly not the first minority Liberal Government in the history of Ontario. The last one was in 1985 when David Peterson's Liberals co-opted the support of Bob Rae's New Democratic Party.
For Premier Dalton McGuinty it means a loss of 19 members from his previous tally so this government has to be very careful how it attempts to administer the province's affairs. Also the opposition parties – Andrea Horwath's New Democratic Party and Tim Hudak's Conservatives have to be on their best behaviour. This is not the time for bullying tactics and mis-truths. The people of Ontario expect and deserve the best possible representation from their parliamentarians at Queen's Park.
During the campaign the New Democratic Party stuck to its message and avoided mudslinging. Ontarians recognize that strong and commendable quality. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the Conservatives. However now that the House is about to be recalled undoubtedly Ontarians are watching. The results of this election prove that people are prepared to vote with their feet and make changes where necessary.
For too long Canadian politicians have behaved as though they were not accountable to anyone. It seems as though Ontario voters have finally come around to the reality that they are the ones who write the pay cheques for these individuals who occupy the benches at Queen's Park.
If no one else got the message Bas Balkissoon the re-elected MPP for Scarborough Rouge River has.
"If you are a leader you look at things from a broad perspective but the average person has a special perspective and they may clash," he said in a post-election interview.
As a result Balkissoon admitted that people tend to be disgruntled and the opposition (parties) could capitalize on that though they (oppositions) are not offering anything better. But they know the sentiments of the public is to agree with them. Perhaps this could have accounted for the Liberals' loss of its majority.
"When you want to do major changes to existing policies you have to be very careful of the public's sentiments as their interests may not be yours," he concluded.
It was very refreshing to hear a politician talk about putting people first and complaining assiduously about jobs leaving the province. Now that the people have voted and made a decisive decision they now await action.
Premier McGuinty has been preaching about making Ontario the leading location for job creation. He has also been talking about his intention to make this province the place for investors who would create well needed jobs. With Horwath's plan to put people first and McGuinty's intention to make Ontario investment-friendly that should result in numerous job opportunities. Then it should be safe to expect the Liberals and New Democratic Party to work together in the interest of the people.
Real, hard thinking must go into the NDP's plan at least during the campaign to create a large pool of available jobs for young people as well. Horwath used her 18 year old son's experience of not being able to find a summer job as she identified jobs as the biggest issue facing young people.
"Whether it's jobs in between school year, like in the summer or whether it's jobs once they graduate with their certificate or their degree or diploma; or whether it's even trying to get a job during the school year to pay for your books and to keep you afloat," Horwath reflected.
Horwath believes too many jobs have been shipped from Ontario to other parts of the world. She believes the McGuinty Liberals and the Stephen Harper Conservatives have taken the wrong path in their across the boards tax cuts. Horwath is bothered that after reducing the corporate tax rates for profitable corporations they can do anything they want with that tax reduction.
"They could create jobs but they don't have to; they could increase the pay packet of their CEO; they could shovel away that money in cash reserves which is what most of them are doing with those tax cuts. But none of it is targeted to job creation," she explains.
The NDP Chief wants to work a more targeted way with the business community.
"I will give you a tax break if you create a job. I'll give you a tax break if you start training your workers in the workplace. I'll give you a tax break if you actually investing in your capital equipment, in your plant, your machinery because these are things that strengthen obviously the companies but also strengthen our people and put people as part of the equation."
Clearly the new Liberal Government has to now honour its promises to better service Ontarians. This means following through on all those wonderful programmes announced in the months leading up to October 6 election.
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