Death Knells for Dalton

Sure, the Liberals haven't exactly done much to combat Ontario's ever-growing debt. But that doesn't mean Tim Hudak will, either.

Polls out this week suggest Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is in for a veritable trouncing in October's provincial election. The National Post's Kelly McParland concludes that McGuinty's weak showing so far is due to voters just getting tired of him (he's led the Grits for 15 years, eight of those as premier), as well as the fact that he “can't help himself” from spending. An auditor general's report released Tuesday shows that spending has gone up nearly seven per cent each year of McGuinty's tenure, even if he routinely says the government is getting serious about its mounting debt. “New roads, new schools, new hospitals – the Liberals have plans for more of everything,” says McParland. “Problem is, there’s no new money,” and Ontario voters have all of a sudden come to realize that.

Adam Radwanski pins both McGuinty and Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak in The Globe and Mail for their lack of fiscal know-how, as “it's obvious that all parties would prefer just to punt the deficit question to the post-election period.” For the Liberals, there are plenty of questions over how they intend to balance the budget by 2017, as they're aiming to do, given that McGuinty's broken nearly every spending promise he's ever made (on new taxes, on limiting spending increases, you name it). Hudak, on the other hand, would introduce more tax cuts, “promising that Ontarians can pay less and get more – all while eliminating the deficit.” Neither are especially great choices, but at least the NDP's Andrea Horwath is honest about her intent to raise corporate taxes to finance her platform.

The Sun chain's Micheal Den Tandt says the Grits might as well just “take the summer off,” because the odds are so thoroughly stacked against them. Hudak, whatever his failings may be (inability to do basic math being chief among them, it seems), has picked up on the same “neo-liberal, centrist Conservatism” that ushered Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford to power. According to Den Tandt, Hudak's government would “be fundamentally the same set of policies, but less irritating. There will be no more attempts by Queen's Park to tell us what we should do in our cars, or what type of foods we should eat.” Which is all well and good, but, sadly, it misses the most fundamental question of this election – can we trust Hudak with steering the budget back into the black?