Politics

You’ve been seeing the attack ads on TV for months now. “Ontario can’t afford four more years of McGuinty”. The rhetoric throughout our social circles is the same. Two years ago in the midst of a great recession our Premier introduced a new tax, a notion that regardless of the outcome was bound to cripple the career of any politician.

But this article isn’t about how the new harmonized sales tax (HST) is projected to save Ontario businesses $500 million in administrative costs per year. It’s not about the 16.5% tax cut to the lowest income Ontarians’ that was introduced when this law took effect. It’s not about the fact that only 17% of goods and services were affected by this change or that, using B.C. as an example, the total cost per household should only be around $350 per year while the net increase to the GDP as a result of the introduction of HST is projected to be $830 per household.

This is an article about how Ontario can’t afford four more years of cuts.

Remember Mike Harris? Mike Harris was all about cuts and privatization. In the first couple of years that Mike was in office he cut 30% to income taxes which he subsidized with privatization and major cuts to health care, education and social assistance programs. In fact, during his time as a Parliamentary Assistant to the Harris government, Tim Hudak played a key role in closing 28 hospitals in Ontario and axing almost $1 billion in health care funding. Yes, this is the same Tim Hudak that is now promising to pump billions into health care in Ontario to reduce the long line-ups that he created. This plan ultimately eliminated 6,200 nursing jobs, 10,000 hospital beds and meant that 10% of Ontarians would be left without a family doctor.

The Harris government reform policies also cut $4.3 billion to educational funding which resulted in the closing of 192 schools and post-secondary tuition increases of 800%. Social assistance programs in Ontario were slashed by 22%.

When you go to the polls on Thursday remember our future. Think about a province that you want to live in in twenty years and ask yourself if a small tax break today is worth sacrificing our economy, our health and our children.

I’ll leave you with this: the amount of debt that Ontario has as a percentage of the GDP is about the same today as it was in 1999 when the Harris conservative government was enjoying one of the healthiest economies of our time. Don’t give up on our future Ontario!