“Mr. Drummond has been briefing party leaders on his findings recently, and perhaps that’s when Mr. McGuinty first realized the bright future he’d been promising might be just a bit misleading. It must have been the first he’d heard of it, because if he’d known earlier, his campaign pledges would have been at best misleading, and at worst, dishonest. And the premier wouldn’t have made all those promises if he knew it was just hot air, would he?”
- Kelly McParland, The National Post (November 24, 2011)

QUEEN’S PARK – Dalton McGuinty refuses to be forthright about the severity of Ontario’s jobs and spending crises, Ontario PC Education Critic Lisa MacLeod said today.

“When Don Drummond releases his report on the state of Ontario’s economy, he will simultaneously hand down a verdict on Dalton McGuinty’s lack of accountability, truthfulness and integrity,” MacLeod added.

“We all know that Ontario is in worse shape than what Mr. McGuinty will admit to. Close to 600,000 men and women are out of work. Servicing the debt is now the third largest government expenditure. And the government has failed to bring forward one new idea.”

“But we shouldn’t be surprised. We’ve seen this before. During the election Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said the deficit was a billion dollars lower than the budget forecast. After the election he revised it back up by a billion.”

“I know Premier McGuinty likes to say that we’re in this together. But he hasn’t done his part. He hasn’t been straight with the Ontario people.”

“Mr. McGuinty would rather blame the United States and the Eurozone for our debt crisis. But we know Ontario’s economic troubles are home grown.”

“His actions are in complete contrast with the leadership taken by Tim Hudak and the Ontario PC Caucus.”

“We’ve honestly acknowledged the province’s current economic troubles. For these reasons, we put forward responsible and realistic ideas to turn the province’s economy around and get Ontarians working.”

Key elements of the Ontario PC plan include:

• a mandatory public sector wage freeze;
• reforming Ontario’s broken arbitration system responsible for delivering outrageous public sector salaries contracts – with no accountability;
• competition for government services;
• guaranteeing job creating tax relief;

“Every dollar spent servicing Dalton McGuinty’s debt, is a dollar being taken away from priorities programs – like education and investing in our students.”

“Mr. McGuinty claims to be the education premier, and it appears to me that someone needs to teach him a lesson in honesty,” MacLeod concluded.