“We’ve been through tough times before. This is one more.”
At his leadership review yesterday, that was Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's rather understated response to his recent string of political misfires, misfires that include his costly efforts to win seats in the last election by shutting down two gas-fired power plants at great expense to the taxpayer, his failed attempt to bribe his way to a majority government in the Kitchener-Waterloo byelection, and his hamfisted and unnecessary strategy for reducing the provincial deficit by stripping teachers of their collective bargaining rights, despite the fact that teachers had offered a two-year wage freeze.
Apparently, Canada's answer to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker remains upbeat about future prospects, even though the teacher bill and the proposed broader public-sector wage freeze could prove very costly through court challenges to their constitutionality.
Indeed, it would seem that McGuinty's groundless optimism is infectious. As reported by Martin Regg Cohn,
Happily for the premier, a solid majority of party delegates (85.8 per cent) backed him in a mandatory leadership review — even as public opinion polls show he has the approval of less than a third of all Ontarians.
Perhaps the Premier's political instincts are failing him; at the leadership review, he seemed to think that a few platitudes about teachers would undo the political fallout of his folly as he reflected on “working with the best teachers anywhere — Ontario teachers.”
With his party now sitting at 20% in the polls, I suspect he is going to have to do a lot more than that to mend some seriously-damaged fences.
A blast from the past:
ReplyDelete"George Haythorne, has explained why the attempt at an incomes policy was made at that time: "From 1957 to 1963 the share of Canada's national income going to profits and capital had risen steadily. The situation was reversed in 1964 when labour's share began to rise, a trend which continued until 1970. Given these conditions ... action to stabilise the economy was clearly required." ("Prices and Incomes Policy: the Canadian Experience 1969-72"; International Labour Review, Vol. 108, No. 6, Dec. 1973)"
http://www.connexions.org/RedMenace/Docs/RM1-Wage&Price.htm
I've often thought of the 80s as the benchmark for the start of the erosion of social programs and labour rights but it seems evident that it predates the Thatcher-Reagan-Mulroney era. With this new century, we are just steam rolling ahead in undoing any gains made post-WWII.
Thank you for the link, Beijing, which provides a good historical context for us. It seems that no matter what era we live in, working people are always easiest to target when government exerts its power, supposedly in the name of the 'collective good.'
ReplyDeleteThe Liberal govt has already figured out that their legislation will not meet the "charter challenge" and are now suggesting that their regulation will not overule Ontario Labour Law, and thus will permit strikes.
ReplyDeleteOnce education workers "strike" they will enact "back to work" legislation - JUST LIKE HARPER.
How anyone can suggest that Liberals are progressive is beyond surreal.
McGuinty's tactics remind me that someone once described him as 'Mike Harris lite,' which, it seems, has turned out to be an underestimation of the amount of blue blood running through his veins.
ReplyDelete