She has been a terrible premiere. In my opinion. Others will disagree. But here Ontario sits with almost as bad a situation as Greece
I wasn’t actually referring to Trudeau and the trade/ trump issues. Though I disagree with how he has managed it. He could have and should have looked for common ground and tried to meet common goals. He didn’t
BUt I was mainly talking about all his sunny ways. All the wonderful changes he was going to make. Yeah. Sure
Things have not improved. He just smiles better. A good looking man who can’t speak well. A nice smile and what else exactly
I don't totally disagree with your assessment of Trudeau. To be blunt, I'd still choose him over Scheer. But there have certainly been several disappointments. But "He could have and should have looked for common ground and tried to meet common goals." Seriously? He spent 18 months trying to cozy up to Trump, not get the Great Leader angry, playing to his ego, negotiating in good faith. Then he holds one press conference (which he had to hold because he was the host of the G7 Summit) and in answer to a question restates the Canadian position which has been stated many, many times before without making any waves at all and Trump and his minions suddenly go off on childish temper tantrums? Are you serious? If I've heard criticism of Trudeau on the trade/US relations front it's that he hasn't been tough enough with the Americans. Personally, I think he's handled Trump and trade as well as anyone could have.
As for Wynne - Ontario is nowhere near being in a situation as bad as Greece. That's sheer ignorance. Greece's problems have far more to do with the failures of the European Union and the euro, along with endemic corruption, citizens who routinely refuse to pay taxes and a bureaucracy that doesn't bother to enforce its tax laws and an economy that's extremely weaker than Ontario's. The only problem Ontario's deficit/debt really causes is the percentage of the budget that has to go to cover interest payments, thus limiting the government's fiscal and program flexibility. But Ontario's in no danger of going broke or defaulting on any loans. Comparisons to Greece are utterly nonsensical. Even the Fraser Institute - as right wing a think tank as there is in this country - while noting some areas of similarity said "Given Ontarios higher per capita GDP, it is a stretch to argue that Ontario is akin to Greece in terms of its fiscal problems." They simply noted that there are lessons to be learned from the Greek meltdown.
Wynne's biggest failure was the sale of Hydro One. That's when her approval ratings started to crash. It was a cynical ploy to pump some fast cash into the government coffers to artificially hide the deficit. There was also her equally cynical pre-election "goodies" budget, which disgusted many people, including me. "Corruption" has been overstated. Most of the examples of "corruption" date back to the McGuinty years. People say "but she was in the Cabinet." Yes - but she was Education Minister, and I don't recall any scandals or corruption in that portfolio. The "worst" example of "corruption" that can be directly laid on Wynne's lap is probably the attempted buy off of a candidate for a Liberal nomination of a by-election in Sault Ste. Marie with a government job to make way for a "star" candidate. Wow. A party offers a government job to someone to open up a seat for someone else. Like that's never happened before. That wasn't even on my radar in deciding how to vote. The only thing that made me shake my head about that was that the guy who was offered the government job was stupid enough not to take it. That stupidity alone should disqualify him from either public office or a government job.
Wynne's loss was basically because the Liberals were tired and out of ideas other than throwing money around and people were tired of them. It was a "vote for change" election - as evidence by the fact that Ontario voted for a change that wasn't even really spelled out in any coherent or consistent way. The PCs could have been led by a broken down dishwasher and they'd have won a majority. Tax cuts and increased spending - with little suggestion of how that will be paid for, except for finding these undefined "efficiencies."
I'd suggest that those of us who own homes start to get ready for much higher property taxes as the province downloads programs on to municipalities, whose only source of income to pay is property taxes. As a parent I'm also preparing for the return of the wars with teachers that were commonplace under the Harris government - because the $6000 tax credit for private day care and private schools that was promised will almost surely (if implemented) come out of the Education budget, meaning less money for public school boards, program cuts in public schools and renewed attacks on teachers by people who wouldn't even want to imagine standing in front of a classroom of 30 kids. (And it will benefit only those with money because who has enough cash to fork out up front for private school tuition even if you get a tax credit for it at the end of the year?) My daughter starts high school in September. Her years in high school will coincide with the Ford government's term of office. To be honest, I'm worried about that.
