Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Another McGuinty Government - A Disaster...

A government that inherited a balanced budget and turned it into $6B deficit in its first year (in spite of all the tax hikes they brought to "address" it). A government that inherited a thriving economy, but turned Ontario into a "have-not" province. A government that started by eliminating tax relief for parents that opted out of the public school system - and is aiming at destroying Catholic education altogether; making it Catholic in name only and setting the stage for the inevitable merger of the school boards:
TORONTO, Ontario, October 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After Premier Dalton McGuinty forced Ontario’s Catholic schools to introduce homosexual clubs this summer, Campaign Life Catholics is warning in advance of the October 6th election that another McGuinty government would be a disaster for all people of faith.

“It appears that Dalton McGuinty has an agenda that is not friendly to Catholic education. In fact, he seems determined to thwart genuine Catholic teaching,” said Suresh Dominic of Campaign Life Catholics.

In July, McGuinty said homosexual clubs are “not a matter of choice” for the Catholic schools, while his Ministry of Education has insisted that these clubs cannot help homosexual students “reform their sexuality.”

Behind the scenes, the Liberal government has pushed the Catholic schools to implement gay-straight alliances specifically, even issuing what some have called a veiled threat that the schools’ public funding could be in jeopardy.
Blazing Cat Fur has a few thoughts on why Tim Hudak is likely to lose the election. (In fact - he talks about that in the past tense - as things are unlikely to change.) It's hard to disagree with what he says. And, to make things worse, there will be many "Red Tories" claiming that it's Hudak's "far right" views that have alienated the voters...

2 comments:

PhotographyX said...

Hello
I found your blog in a Google search.

- The McGuinty government actually inherited a $5billion deficit from the Mike Harris government which was hidden by the Harris conservatives until after the election. This is what turned Ontario into a have-not province.

- The Catholic school system is protected in Canadian law by treaties dating back to the founding of the country. The provincial government does not have the power to merge it with the public system or shut it down.

Leonard said...

There was no "hidden deficit" prior to McGuinty. Both Mike Harris and later Ernie Eves kept the budgets balanced. That, in the eyes of the Liberals, these budgets didn't allocate enough funds for their spending priorities, doesn't make it a "hidden deficit".
It was McGuinty government that authorized more spending than what had been originally budgeted and it was none other than McGunity in charge when a balanced budget turned into a $2.2B deficit, which then swell to as much as $5.6B - over the course of mere months, in spite of all of his tax hikes.

As for the Catholic schools - for now, McGuinty has successfully robbed them of their Catholic identity. That's a first step that sets the stage for abolishing the system altogether. And don't let the constitutional protections fool you, because on matters like this, the Section 43 amending formula (consent of the Parliament and the Legislature of the province in question) is enough.
Sure, it's still premature for McGuinty to act now, but, as I said, he's setting the stage. In a few years, when most parents realize that there's no real difference between an ordinary Ontario school and an Ontario school that has "Catholic" in its name, it will be a matter of just convincing the Federal Parliament to agree to make consequential amendments to the Constitution Acts - same way as it was done in Quebec and Newfoundland in late 1990s.