It’s no accident that the provincial election feels like a race between Dalton McGuinty, Mike Harris and Bob Rae. Almost two weeks into what pundits are calling the closest race in a generation, all three major parties are coming with serious baggage, and want you to remember their rivals’ predecessors.
![Wayne Wright, Liberal candidate [Submitted]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/post_news_candidate.jpg)
Can voters trust the 11-year-old Liberal government to learn from the gas plant, eHealth and ORNGE spending scandals that dogged McGuinty’s waning days? Kitchener-Conestoga Liberal candidate Wayne Wright says yes.
“We learned from our mistakes, and the only way we learn is by making mistakes,” said Wright. “The next government, no problem with it comes to trust.”
He continued, “I kind of like to say, ‘You’ll never see where you’re going if you spend all your time looking in the rearview mirror.’ We’ve openly admitted that there have been mistakes made, and legislation, rules and policy have been put into place to make sure that those mistakes never happen again.”
Incumbent Conservative MPP Michael Harris doesn’t think sorry is good enough, but with PC leader Tim Hudak promising heavy cuts to public services, can voters expect a return to the maligned Mike Harris era?
“We’re clearly in different times – this is 2014, it’s not 1995,” responded Harris. “However, Ontario’s fiscal position is bleak – a $12.5 billion deficit, half a million people out of work, $10 billion in interest payments annually. We can’t sustain that.
“We’ve driven jobs out of the province through a variety of things: high hydro, regulatory burden, red tape getting in the way of the job creators, taxation for businesses – these are all aspects that companies, our investors, look at jurisdictions like Ontario if they’re going to bring jobs here. I talked to a guy the other day who said, ‘I can move south and pay a third of what I pay per kilowatt in Ontario.’”
Hudak’s pledges to eliminate 100,000 public sector jobs and cut corporate tax by 30 per cent have somewhat overshadow his promise to create one million private sector jobs, Wright argues.
“The first role of government is not to cause harm to people. You lay off 100,000 people and target teachers first, you’re intentionally hurting people. You’re essentially saying, ‘One in six of you is going to be without a job.’
“We do have a deficit, and that deficit needs to be reduced, and we put forth a very ambitious plan in a budget, and we showed exactly how we were going to reduce that deficit and balance everything by 2014 by investing in people, not hurting people. One hundred thousand layoffs – that hurts people.”
Harris has a different take.
“We’ve lost 300,000 good manufacturing jobs over the last 10 years while at the same time we’ve grown the public sector by 300,000 people. That’s not sustainable. We’re saying we’re going to bring staffing levels in the public services back to 2009 levels.
“When we’ve got half a million people out of work now, and agencies, boards and commissions like the board of trades running around the province on the taxpayer’s dime that don’t bring value to people or businesses, we’re going to eliminate those.”
Still, the cuts that have dominated Hudak’s campaign could be why the Liberals have remained neck-and-neck with the Conservatives in the polls, despite the scandals. Harris dismisses these results. “Does anybody believe polls anymore? Look at polling over the last two or three provincial campaigns – B.C., Alberta, Quebec… have any of them got it right? You’ve heard us before, but the only poll that matters is election day.”
Wright counters that his party’s respectable standing in the polls has to do with the Liberals’ economic plan.
“I believe very strongly in investing in people – this whole Liberal movement we’re making right now is about investing in people through healthcare, education and infrastructure. We can reduce our deficit in a positive way, as opposed to hacking and slashing and harming people.”
The Kitchener-Conestoga NDP nominated James Villeneuve as its official candidate on Monday evening. Villeneuve could not be reached for an interview at press time.
Ontario heads to the polls on June 12.
