Premier Hudak, I presume - Editorial

Jeff Green | Oct 18, 2012

Editorial by Jeff Green

I have a theory that there is an eight-year "best before" date on governments in Canada. It comes from the fact that, quite apart from all of the machinations about independence and right/left splits that took place while I was growing up in Quebec, the provincial governments always lasted eight years or two trips to the polls.

It was a regular pattern. We threw the bums out, then four years later, just as the warts were starting to show in the formerly fresh-faced government, we reluctantly gave them a second chance. Four years later we threw the bums out again and often elected the first set of bums all over again.

Ontario politics haven’t followed exactly the same pattern. Until the mid-’80s the conservatives were in power forever. Then the Liberals had a run that might have lasted longer, but for a miscalculation by then Premier David Peterson that limited his tenure to five years. Bob Rae and the NDP then had a single term, followed by eight years of the Harris Conservatives.

When the McGuinty Liberals took power, there were a lot of broken links in the political system in Ontario that needed to be fixed. Municipal amalgamation and ham-fisted downloading, as well as a broken relationship with teachers and school boards, were the legacies of the Harris years that the Liberals went about repairing. Buoyed by a strong economy, the Liberals had a lot of success, and were re-elected rather easily four years later.

Then the cracks began to show, both in the provincial economy and in the way the Liberals operated. Not only was authority centralized in the premier’s office, information also became tightly controlled and there have been a number of creeping scandals, including e-health and ORNGE (the air ambulance system)

Still, last year, the Liberals won a third mandate, although just barely, ending up one seat shy of a majority. This opened up the inevitable questions about how long this third mandate would last and how long McGuinty would remain on the job. In retrospect, it might have been cleaner for all concerned had the Liberals narrowly lost the election instead of narrowly winning it.

At this point all we have to go on is speculation, but whatever the real reasons are for McGuinty’s sudden departure and his rather vague talk about “party renewal”, it must be said that the whole thing is unseemly.

After spending months talking about the need to cut government spending in order to maintain the two key programs the Liberals have championed, education and healthcare, the premier has not only resigned leaving the budget deficit intact, but he has also shut down the legislature indefinitely until a new premier is chosen.

McGuinty served for seven years as leader of the opposition and nine years as premier, but his legacy will be forever tainted by this decision.

Dalton McGuinty used the now infamous tool of prorogation to shut down the elected parliament of the day, which throws all ongoing legislative business out the window.

This, McGuinty’s last act as premier, will be remembered for what it is - a cold, calculating, and ultimately self-serving act of desperation.

Quite a come-down from his “Premier Dad” persona.

The idea is that a new leader will be elected in February, and instead of recalling the legislature, will go right to an election, so the vote will take place before the house comes back into session.

It will not work.

The Liberals will not recover from all of this with a new leader and a snap election, and unless there is a huge swing to the NDP in Ottawa and suburban Toronto, Tim Hudak will become Premier of Ontario by next summer.