Has Premier Dalton McGuinty Been "Asleep At The Wheel" for 8 Years?

In what must be the absolute worst year for Ontario Liberal Premier, Dalton McGuinty, Premier "Deadbeat" Dad is doing everything he can to try and appear -again- like he actually cares about Ontarians, and he's out there fighting the good fight on our behalf.  He's hoping that Ontarians will conveniently forget that he's done absolutely nothing to help us over his entire 8 years as our Premier, except raise our taxes, fees, and pretty much the cost of everything we need in order to survive, and he's back to his old tricks going to the press and shamefully making statements and gestures that are intended to have Ontarians believe that he is still working in our best interest.

McGuinty's latest sad attempts to show that he's looking out for Ontarians involve the Canadian Federal Election. I still remember years back when McGuinty was riding on the mantra of a "$23 Billion gap" between what Ontarians give the Feds, and what we get in return (see Ontario.ca: Remarks By Dalton McGuinty, Premier Of Ontario On Meeting With The Prime Minister)... He impassioned Ontarians with the resonating cold facts that we are a crutch for this country, and yet we get minimal support back. He said it was time to fight for Ontario and to get our fair share, and he was the leader to make it happen. Yet, here we are, years later, still no better off than when we elected and reelected him... McGuinty's latest cries to the Feds are of the same tune, just with different lyrics. Back then it was the "$23 Billion gap", this year it's "40% of the Federal Government's money comes from Ontario" (see: Toronto Star: McGuinty demands energy fairness for Ontario from Ottawa). Again, same tune, just different lyrics...

So to me, I question what he's done to narrow this gap over his 8 years in office?  It's one thing to question it and raise it as an election issue, but it's another thing to actually follow through on your promises and do something about it.  Unfortunately with Dalton McGuinty, this is a common theme.  He barks about something that is unfair during the Election, but once he's in office, he does nothing about it.  Then here we are, years later at the next Election, and guess what, that topic comes right up yet again from McGuinty...

Today, McGuinty came out and said that Ontario should have more control over which Immigrants come into this province (see Toronto Sun: Province seeks say on immigrants).  He questions why Ontario gets only 16% of economic class immigrants, while the provincial average is 25%. I don't disagree with his question, but my question for Dalton McGuinty is, why are you asking about this now? Where has this question been for the past 8 years that you've been Ontario's leader?  Why, all of a sudden, is this now an issue? 

A week back, Dalton released a statement to Ontario hospitals stating that they shouldn't destroy their internal documents in attempts to hide eHealth and OLG type scandals (see Toronto Star: Don’t shred documents, McGuinty tells hospitals). My question for Premier McGuinty is, how is this not an official policy, and why is this something that you have to "request" of the hospitals? And again, why is this something that you are finally addressing only now after 8 years that you've been in office? What have you been doing for 8 years?

A week and a half ago, Dalton urged Ontario Hospitals to reign in bloated pay packages for Hospital Executives (see Ottawa Citizen: Curb generous pay for top execs, McGuinty urges hospitals), something Ontarians have been screaming about for years, yet, here we are, 8 years after Premier McGuinty took office, and only now is he looking to curb the generous pay packages of these under-worked and overpaid, golf-paying, consultant-hiring, expense policy-exploiting, Hospital Execs?

A couple of weeks ago, Dalton was caught up yet again in another expenses scandal, this time where he was the culprit, hiding his own expenses under other staffers' names (see: Premier Dalton McGuinty Plays Ontarians For Fools With Expense Trickery). He later responded to this finding by saying that going forward, he would declare his own expenses under his own name. Now, one would assume that that would be a basic principle that an ethical person in power would follow, but I guess that's not the case with our Premier. And yet again, I ask the question of Premier McGuinty, why after 8 years in office do you suddenly now decide that you're going to be ethical with your expenses and their declaration to the public?

A few weeks back, Dalton suddenly decided to take up the fight for energy funding support from the Feds, highlighting the proposed Lower Churchill hydro project for Newfoundland and Labrador, and asking where's the funding for Ontario (see: Toronto Star: McGuinty demands energy fairness for Ontario from Ottawa). With the skyrocketing energy rates in Ontario caused primarily by McGuinty's lax energy policies and failed green energy experiments, one would think that he would have been fighting for energy funding for Ontario for years, yet only now, 8 years after being in office, is he suddenly looking out for Ontario?

I could literally go on and on with countless examples, but over and over the same thing rings true, why has it taken Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty 8 years to realize that these are legitimate concerns and issues that needed to be addressed? Why haven't these issues been resolved yet? Why is he only looking into this now?  He's had 8 years!!

The only answer Ontarians can come up with for why he's done nothing about these issues after all of this time, is simply that Dalton McGuinty has been asleep at the wheel for the past 8 years.  And unfortunately for Ontarians, we're the ones who've been paying the price for it, both figuratively, and literally...

Ontario is desperately in need of a change... We need someone who makes things happen now. Someone who doesn't appear to come around after a decade of uselessness and inaction. We need someone who is a proactive leader, not a passive one. We need a strong leader, not a weak one.  We need an ethical leader, not a corrupt one.

In October, Ontarians, it's time to show Premier "Deadbeat" Dad, the door, and take back our Ontario.

--jackandcokewithalime

PS: The one thing that I can say that Dalton McGuinty has been on top of over the past 8 years, is taxes and fees!


(Image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/npetten/3610810337/sizes/o/in/photostream/ by NPetten on flickr
)